Hospitality Paradigm

Quality, Recency and Quantity of reviews are the three key factors that interact to determine a property’s popularity ranking on TripAdvisor. So what does one do to seek for prime positioning on TripAdvisor? Here are some suggestions to do it the honest way…

1. Provide remarkable service
2. Be true to your brand
3. Be honest
4. Mobilize your team in creating a guest-centric culture at your hotel
5. Offer great value to your guests
6. Do it with passion every day
7. Empower your staff
8. Reduce negative reviews by service recovery during the guest’s stay
9. Listen to your guests in order to enhance the experience and overall satisfaction.
10. Encourage guests to leave a review

Sometimes, we all need to be reminded of just how much we’re throwing away by leaning too heavily on OTAs as a primary source of online bookings. Everyone knows that OTA bookings cost more, but very little is ever made of the fact that OTA bookings are usually much lower in total value than direct bookings.

The picture of an OTA customer is clear. They don’t care about your hotel brand (or any other property’s brand for that matter), what makes your experience unique, or any of your updates and renovations. You are a commodity to them. They’re looking solely at price and where they feel they’ll receive more bang for their buck.
OTAs are not only your least valuable booking sources, they are also your costliest. To make matters worse, many hotels attempt to out-do their competition on OTA channels by offering even lower rates than what is listed on their own hotel website (via opaque offers). It’s the hotel industry’s version of hara-kiri. Not only is this short-sighted, it unnecessarily undercuts and cheapens any other efforts you make to drive profitability at your property. Lowering already-discounted room rates will ultimately leave potential guests no reason to book direct.

Let’s take a look around our workplace and really understand our key wealth creation prospect ~ our team. Let’s face it, it is very rare that we are able to recruit “polished jewels”… rather we are forced to look for the mud-encrusted ones which are available in the marketplace. Which of us would not like to begin with a team filled with Jewels? But is this really viable? The truth is that a perfect recruit is as elusive as the will-o’-the-wisp (a person or thing that is difficult or impossible to reach or catch) and as utopian a concept as can be.

Oft times, logic advises us to select for experience, intelligence, or determination. Talent, if mentioned at all, is an afterthought.

Conventional wisdom says that either Experience, Brainpower or Willpower makes the difference.

Some managers place a special emphasis on experience, paying close attention to a candidate’s work history and brands worked for. They see his past as a window to his future.

Other managers put their faith in raw intelligence. They say that as long as you are smart, most roles can be ‘figured out’.

Yet other managers believe in the ‘Success is 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration’ school of thought. Managers from this school believe that the technical part of most roles can be taught, whereas the desire to achieve, to persist in the face of obstacles, cannot. When selecting people, they look for past evidence of grit.

No doubt experience can teach valuable lessons; intelligence is a boon; and willpower – which great managers actually label a talent – is almost impossible to teach. However we fail to take into account that there are so many other kinds of talents and that the right talent, more than experience, more than brainpower, and more than willpower alone, are the pre-requisites for excellence in all roles – talents such as a restaurant steward’s ability to form opinions, empathy in order-takers, assertiveness in salespeople, or, in managers, the ability to individualize. Conventional wisdom assumes either that these behaviours can be trained after the person has been hired or that these characteristics are relatively unimportant to performance on the job. Both assumptions are erroneous. You cannot teach talent. You cannot teach someone to form strong opinions, to feel the emotions of others, to revel in confrontation, or to pick up on the subtle differences in how best to manage each person. You have to select for talents like these. Talents like these prove to be the driving force behind an individual’s job performance. It’s not that experience, brainpower, and willpower are unimportant. It’s just that an employee’s full complement of talents – what drives him/her, how he/she thinks, how he/she builds relationships – is more important.

The next time you recruit, try looking for talent in an individual and then offer him/her a enhancing & nurturing environment. Then sit back and enjoy the show…

So what’s it with words and the finer nuances they proclaim? Try these…

• I need my order at the earliest! ~ vs. ~ When is the earliest you can supply my order?
• This pricing is not proper ~ vs. ~ We are looking at a better pricing
• We cannot pay you earlier than 30 days ~ vs. ~ We will be pleased to make payment at the end of 30 days.
• I will reject the order supplied if it does not meet our specification ~ vs. ~ Do ensure that the order supplied meets with our agreed specifications, so as to avoid returns.
• Your proposal was unacceptable ~ vs. ~ Regrettably, we were unable to select your proposal

It’s a no-brainer that the statements on the right are the more polite ones and many of us would like to say that we are active proponents of such communication. For those who have been on both sides of the supply chain, the learnings come quicker.

Some organisations believe in calling their Vendors as their Business Partners, but in reality how often do we really consider our suppliers as one of our valuable resources?

Most hotels in Goa contract serenaders, one man bands, duos etc. and this has always been a flourishing business for musicians particularly in this state. During my tenure at Goa’s finest and leading luxury resort, I would audition them myself, plan their performances to match the weekly events and finalise their contracts after negotiating the best rates amongst five star hotels in Goa. Having done so, I would now ensure their comfort in ensuring they had their meals at the coffee shop buffet in comfort after the performance; their roadies were looked after in the staff cafeteria; their payments were made promptly by the 15th of every month as promised in the contract; their issues, if any were brought to my notice and I would attend to them personally. I would also check on their performances many of an evening and even give them feedback on the same. All this startled them as they never had this kind of personalised treatment at the other hotels.

The result? Every six months at the signing of the new contracts, my Musician & Jewish blood would ensure the change in rates be maintained within levels suited to my profitability parameters. The beauty of this was that these musicians & performers (and there were 5 sets of these) never wanted to leave my hotel as they knew that they were appreciated by the management!

Now think back to those Business Partners (Vendors) who stayed with you even when you move to a smaller organisation. You will probably find that the reason they did so was the respect you showed them in your dealings with them earlier. The Ritz Carlton motto – “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen” which we all heartily agree to may now be applied in this context also… what say?

For most roles, conventional wisdom advises managers to select for experience, for intelligence, or for determination. Talent, if mentioned at all, is an afterthought. Conventional wisdom says:

• “Experience makes the difference.” Managers who place a special emphasis on experience pay closest attention to a candidate’s work history. They pore over each person’s resume, rating the companies who employed him and the kind of work he performed. They see his past as a window to his future.
• “Brainpower makes the difference.” These managers put their faith in raw intelligence. They say that as long as you are smart, most roles can be “figured out.” Smart people simply “figure it out” better than the rest. When selecting people, they tend to favor articulate applicants blessed with high-powered academic records.
• “Willpower makes the difference.” This is the “Success is 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration” school of thought. Managers from this school believe that the technical part of most roles can be taught, whereas the desire to achieve, to persist in the face of obstacles, cannot. When selecting people, they look for past evidence of grit.

As far as it goes, great managers would agree with all of this advice – experience can teach valuable lessons; intelligence is a boon; and willpower – which great manages actually label a talent – is almost impossible to teach. But conventional wisdom stops there. It fails to take into account that there are so many other kinds of talents and that the right talents, more than experience, more than brainpower, and more than willpower alone, are the pre-requisites for excellence in all roles – talents such as a waiter’s ability to form opinions, empathy in nurses, assertiveness in salespeople, or, in managers, the ability to individualize. Conventional wisdom assumes either that these behaviours can be trained after the person has been hired or that these characteristics are relatively unimportant to performance on the job.

Both assumptions are false. First, you cannot teach talent. You cannot teach someone to form strong opinions, to feel the emotions of others, to revel in confrontation, or to pick up on the subtle differences in how best to manage each person. You have to select for talents like these.

Second, talents like these prove to be the driving force behind an individual’s job performance. It’s not that experience, brainpower, and willpower are unimportant. It’s just that an employee’s full complement of talents – what drives her, how she thinks, how she builds relationships – is more important.

Airbnb is teaching people how to shop for lodging and what services to expect in a democratized environment that creates comfort with a very uncomfortable concept (sleeping in a stranger’s home).  Adding traditional hotel inventory into this process will be simple and is a logical extension of their service offering just as Amazon was able to extend their offering to more and more adjacent categories in rapid fashion over their 20 year history.

It is no longer a question of whether hotel rooms will be sold on this new channel – it is a question of who will be first.  Independent hotels, seeking more affordable sources of demand and alternatives to high-cost, low-margin OTAs, will begin testing the channel within the next few months.  Smaller chains should follow soon after.  It is predicted that within 18 months, one of the major chains will announce a partnership that includes listing significant inventory for sale on the site. While this will not drive any new long-term share gains for hotels, the first movers will be able to capitalize on travelers who are intrigued by what they’ve heard about the core Airbnb service but simply can’t pull the trigger – fleeing to the safety of the tried and true bed-bath-TV combo of a traditional hotel room.

The four keys of talent management

• Select for Talent
• Define the right Outcomes
• Focus on strengths
• Find the right fit

 Conventional wisdom encourages you to

• Select a person … based on his experience, intelligence, and determination.
• Set expectations … by defining the right steps.
• Motivate the person … by helping him identify and overcome his weaknesses.
• Develop the person … by helping him learn and get promoted.

 However, the revolutionary insight common to great managers is

• When selecting someone, they select for talent … not simply experience, intelligence, or determination.
• When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes … not the right steps.
• When motivating someone, they focus on strengths … not on weaknesses
• When developing someone, they help him find the right fit … not simply the next rung on the ladder.

Organisational, peer or social pressure dulls our sensibilities as individuals. Cultivation of senses is necessary to refine aesthetic experiences which act as filters through which individuals can be stimulated. If these filters are opaque, they would block out a lot of sensations that could otherwise have triggered a creative process in our minds.

The JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in California has launched “Your Spring Selfie” package, which includes overnight accommodations for two, a hand-held selfie stick, a guide to the resort’s most photogenic locations. Guests are also encouraged to share their selfie stick photos with hashtags such as #SpringSelfie, #DesertSprings, #DesertPlayground, #HaveItAll, and #experiencejwm. Each month, the resort will select a winning Instagram post for a complimentary room upgrade for the winner’s return visit.

“Instead of guests choosing between the mountains, the palm trees, or their smiling face, we saw the selfie stick as an ideal solution for taking those quintessential shots, and still being a part of the picture,” says the general manager of JW Marriott Desert Springs.

With the advent of Alitrip in the Chinese lodging market; Amazon planning to come into the hotel booking space; the potential end-to-end travel experience Google is capable of offering; or TripAdvisor’s Instant Booking feature, the future of the travel industry could be driven by these retail and tech giants and not necessarily the traditional OTAs like Expedia, etc.

More competition means better pricing. But in the longer term, if these retail and tech giants are transacting room inventory at a magnitude larger than traditional OTAs and on their terms, the bargaining leverage of brands, and worse, independent hotels, will be even less than in the OTA world we now live. These giants need consumer engagement and hotel inventory. They already have the first part, and it may be only a matter of time before they can get the second.

Hotels may have to work with these giants to collaborate so they don’t become expensive discount channels. If the industry doesn’t engage them, they’ll find rates and inventory from other places – like Expedia – and become just another source for room nights.