Travelling the UK supporting hotels through audit processes is something I’ve been doing for the best part of 28 years. Even after leaving the AA, and even whilst working as a GM I continued to visit hotels and restaurants to assess quality and performance. Keeping tabs on best practice is also vitally important.
Below I’ve listed just a few situations in hotels that seem to be trending this year. Supporting operations with this feedback has been really useful. Some of these points are minor I grant you; some may make or break your business. It might be embarrassing to you that I’ve fed back these points, but I don’t write reviews online and it’s better me than a ‘real’ guest. Additionally, I go beyond the guides, so when your time comes you’ll definitely be ready.
1. 5 Star Hotel. Room to car luggage didn’t happen despite being assured that it had. Arrived at my next destination 200 miles away to discover my boot empty!
2. 5 Star Hotel. 7 attempts to make a direct booking with zero sales or engagement within the call.
3. Room checking generally. Appreciate staffing my be under pressure but some of the belongings I’m finding from previous guests had been poor, especially in 4 and 5 Star hotels.
4. F&B product knowledge. There seems to be an alarming trend for F&B staff knowing very little about what they’re serving. At the highest levels the team need to know what they’re serving. Better still, they need to know the story of what they serve so they can sell it. How effective are your training programs? I’m seeing too much ‘train and forget’ behaviours with learning not being fully evaluated on the floor. Bar staff need to be more than just experts at mixing different coloured liquids. How are the products made? Where do they come from?
5. Valet Parkers – if the car doesn’t have memory seats, best practice is to have a tailors tape measure so you can return the seat to exactly the position it was in when you found it.
6. Evening turn downs at 5pm. I sometimes checkin at 5pm. Way to early. I’ve actually checked in after 6pm to find my room turned down.
7. In many four star hotels, restaurant teams still haven’t cracked the basic technique of never having to ask a guest who’s having what dish, even at a table for 2! There’s a really simple solution to this that have hoteliers kicking themselves when I share it.
8. In restaurants with unclothed tables, a lack of etiquette leads to industrial hand held detergent dispensers being wielded with garish abandonment. Dampen your cloth back of house and clear to a side plate, or wrap the dispenser in a napkin.
9. Add a touch of elegance when clearing restaurant tables. Load up your tray and cover it with a napkin when heading back of house. No one wants to see the carnage of another persons meal.
10. 4 Star Hotels. Hot buffets are fine and mostly enjoyable. Not looking after food quality isn’t acceptable. I’ve seen far too much leathery bacon and green scrambled eggs. I’m sure everyone takes more care when the boss is about.
11. 4 and 5 Star uniforms need to be pristine with managers at this level operating in slick business attire. It makes a huge difference. Suits need to be sharp, shirts need to be pressed and shoes polished. Why this doesn’t seem important these days is a reflection on leadership.
12. If you’re playing music in public areas make it count. Within too many hotels operators need to be creating an immersive multi sensory experience – what you see, touch, taste as well as what you hear! Take some professional advice there’s some great companies out there that can provide a really effective music experience.
13. One area of hotels often forgotten is the hotel lift. Don’t just settle for the big standard grey box. Look at getting your lift wrapped with beautiful designs, get an LCD panel fitted, and whatever you do, ensure the lift carpet is on the public area cleaners list so that it gets vacuumed frequently.
14. Hotel TV’s. Given that the job of hotel high quality hotels is to exceed the domestic standard, investment in this area is key. Far too many hotels haven’t introduced HD quality to the bedroom, leading to a less than optimal analogue, pixelated experience. No good having a swish TV if your cable infrastructure hasn’t been upgraded too.
15. Toiletries. This is contentious one. Many hotels have moved to wall mounted dispensers with a message to the guest that this is environmentally friendly when mostly, of course, this is a cost saving to the hotel. I’m fine with this if they’re kept clean with antibacterial and antiviral cleaning products. I inspect these with a UV light and generally 9 out of 10 are filthy. If only your guests could see! This is why I travel with my own toiletries these days. Thankfully, many 5 Star hotels continue to deliver individual products, usually of an exceptional branded standard. Use UV lights when room checking.
16. In top establishments it breaks my heart to see waiters taking orders with a 20p BIC pen! Why?
17. Name badges. Another contentious subject. Do you or don’t you? If you opt not to, staff should be encouraged to introduce themselves to guests which provides a good first impression – ‘Hi, I’m John and I’m going to be looking after you this afternoon. Are you having a good day’? This breaks the ice, puts most guests at ease and begins to increase your chances on increased sales.
18. Enthusiasm for the guest and not the process. How do you train this? Too frequently staff are lost in the task. How boring can it be to not talk to any guests for 8 hours other than to ask ‘is everything ok’?, or ‘can I get you a drink’? Gen Z staff generally hate this. Top hotels use mood boards back of house to harvest and recycle guest info to ensure that the guest feels truly cosseted. This empowers and engages your team to get friendly. I often check out of hotels with the team having never engaged me whilst knowing nothing about me. Zero hospitality. How do you make me become a regular?
19. As an MD or CEO there can be a irresistible acceptance that if budgets are met, then any underlying inconsistencies in your team are acceptable. Let me tell you that it’s not. Cutting manning and edging back service will catch up with you financially in the long run. It might make good reading at the next few finance meetings, and be such a slow burn that you eek out 5 years in position, but it’s the stuff of decline. Inconsistency isn’t acceptable for your guests. It’s a slippery slope.
20. When I visit quality hotels I put on my guest hat. I’m paying a lot of money and I want to be deeply immersed in your A game. In fact I have an audit policy of, if you sell it with knowledge and authenticity I’ll buy it every time. Sadly, the lack of on-property sales from department to department is incredibly poor in most of the hotels I visit. It seems to be an area that is left to its own devices and organically there is a HUGE amount of cash being left on the table. If you take one message from this post, look at your on-property sales strategy. In two hotels I visited recently where coaching followed the audit, one property can expect to drive an additional £300k in sales whilst another £500k. It’s free money, at a time of incredible pressure.
Thanks for reading and swing back soon for more updates. If I can support your business in any way get in touch 🙏
