Welcome to Paradise! Now Go Home
Welcome to Paradise! Now Go Home
What do find when you get there? Housekeeping getting ready for a new guest, and to your horror, all of your bags and EVERYTHING in your room… GONE!
Did someone steal them? Are they with the porter? Did your credit card bounce? None of the above. Actually the hotel decided to pack your bags, remove them from your room and send them to a place you AREN’T going. Hey it’s an honest mistake! Try to be understanding. It happens. What’s worse however is that you are standing with just a wet bathing suit in a foreign country, with your family’s passports, flight confirmations, all of your clothes, money, checks, credit cards, even your toothbrush in your bags. And who knows where they are. Add to this, the fact that your flight leaves in a little more than two hours. What do you do?
No problem. You’re staying in a world class, six star resort. It is a member of the prestigious, “Leading Hotels of the World.” One call and they will spring into action recovering your bags and deliver them to your room like magic. After all that’s how your stay has been up until now: the entire staff was friendly anticipating your needs, every amenity at your fingertips, sumptuous meals, perfectly planned excursions, lush tropical environment, wonderful entertainment, fabulous pool and beach activities. But things are about to change.
You ask the staff at the front desk where the bags are stored. No idea. Who retrieved them from your room? No idea. How do we find out? Have a seat, we’re working on it. After 20 minutes of waiting, they still want you to sit and now you’re fit to be tied! Time was running out. You speak to several of the staff who tell you that it‘s normal course for the luggage to be packed and removed from rooms in order to get them ready for the next guest. Please don’t be offended. What?!
Obviously as you can guess by now, this circumstance happened to me. What was most distressing was not that they packed and removed our bags from the room but the way everyone acted like it was no big deal. It seemed like the staff was more upset than the managers. Yet no one was willing to take responsibility for being overly aggressive about clearing rooms for new guests. I expected this from the employees but not management. All the General Manager told me was that he would find out who did this and heads would roll.
Yet I do not blame the porters, housekeepers, and supervisor who made the decision. I blame management! And I told him so. Of course he didn’t like this very much.
I suppose he was too embarrassed to confess that this was an occasional result of clearing rooms too fast. Yet if you think about this from a management standpoint it does make sense. It costs lots of money to keep an army of housekeepers ready to clean a room at a moment’s notice. Let’s face it, this is a cost control issue. We all have them. But isn’t this cost control gone awry?
We are living in competitive times; every industry is facing price erosion and increased employee turnover. Customers just aren’t as loyal as they once were. When we place pressure on our staff to control costs, increase sales or create more output regardless of the consequences, this is the result we create.
I later found out that management, over the last few weeks has been harping on the staff to clear guest rooms faster. This particular resort, and believe me it is a remarkably beautiful and exquisite place, has recently been purchased and is under new management. Management that is clearly being compensated and evaluated based upon occupancy percentages.
What’s most ironic about this story is that as one of the most exclusive resorts in the world they have escaped the barriers that plague the competition: price erosion, lack of loyalty and escalating employee turnover yet they are still acting like a commodity-driven business! By changing their business model in favor of a commodity-based or volume concentric philosophy, they are investing more in advertising, turning over more guests yet running headlong into the classical problems: loyalty, turnover and eventual erosion. It’s like running from the oasis into the desert to find more water!
In the end, everything turned-out alright. Our bags were found at the airport on the mainland. They were sent by helicopter back to us on our private little island (which must have cost the hotel a pretty penny. I’d bet a lot more than they would pay to an extra housekeeper for the day.) Apologies were made and accepted and we made our flight on time (just barely).
The lesson here is that as managers we sometimes can push our people very hard to accomplish specific goals. This is certainly acceptable but not without consequences. Employees tend to want to please their managers and they might take license or go a bit overboard with unfortunate results.
Organizations that have installed a culture of empowerment among their staff tend to have far better results. Rather than blindly driving hard to meet that sales goal, or profitability percentile, or production number we should encourage, support and inspire team members to think for themselves. Operating with this kind of trust creates an environment where profitability can coexist with higher performance and superior customer service. It is the difference between leadership and merely management.
Welcome to Paradise Now Go Home - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Deo's Website.
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Imagine you are in a beautiful sun-drenched corner of the globe, thousands of miles from the rush of your home in Los Angeles. You’re blood pressure has dropped, your respiration is lower and you are downright RELAXED. This is paradise. You are spending your last few hours on a deserted beach enjoying the sun and tropical breezes. But your wonderful getaway is coming to an end. You head back with plenty of time to finish packing and vacate the room WELL before the check-out time.
What do find when you get there? Housekeeping getting ready for a new guest, and to your horror, all of your bags and EVERYTHING in your room… GONE!
Did someone steal them? Are they with the porter? Did your credit card bounce? None of the above. Actually the hotel decided to pack your bags, remove them from your room and send them to a place you AREN’T going. Hey it’s an honest mistake! Try to be understanding. It happens. What’s worse however is that you are standing with just a wet bathing suit in a foreign country, with your family’s passports, flight confirmations, all of your clothes, money, checks, credit cards, even your toothbrush in your bags. And who knows where they are. Add to this, the fact that your flight leaves in a little more than two hours. What do you do?
No problem. You’re staying in a world class, six star resort. It is a member of the prestigious, “Leading Hotels of the World.” One call and they will spring into action recovering your bags and deliver them to your room like magic. After all that’s how your stay has been up until now: the entire staff was friendly anticipating your needs, every amenity at your fingertips, sumptuous meals, perfectly planned excursions, lush tropical environment, wonderful entertainment, fabulous pool and beach activities. But things are about to change.
You ask the staff at the front desk where the bags are stored. No idea. Who retrieved them from your room? No idea. How do we find out? Have a seat, we’re working on it. After 20 minutes of waiting, they still want you to sit and now you’re fit to be tied! Time was running out. You speak to several of the staff who tell you that it‘s normal course for the luggage to be packed and removed from rooms in order to get them ready for the next guest. Please don’t be offended. What?!
Obviously as you can guess by now, this circumstance happened to me. What was most distressing was not that they packed and removed our bags from the room but the way everyone acted like it was no big deal. It seemed like the staff was more upset than the managers. Yet no one was willing to take responsibility for being overly aggressive about clearing rooms for new guests. I expected this from the employees but not management. All the General Manager told me was that he would find out who did this and heads would roll.
Yet I do not blame the porters, housekeepers, and supervisor who made the decision. I blame management! And I told him so. Of course he didn’t like this very much.
I suppose he was too embarrassed to confess that this was an occasional result of clearing rooms too fast. Yet if you think about this from a management standpoint it does make sense. It costs lots of money to keep an army of housekeepers ready to clean a room at a moment’s notice. Let’s face it, this is a cost control issue. We all have them. But isn’t this cost control gone awry?
We are living in competitive times; every industry is facing price erosion and increased employee turnover. Customers just aren’t as loyal as they once were. When we place pressure on our staff to control costs, increase sales or create more output regardless of the consequences, this is the result we create.
I later found out that management, over the last few weeks has been harping on the staff to clear guest rooms faster. This particular resort, and believe me it is a remarkably beautiful and exquisite place, has recently been purchased and is under new management. Management that is clearly being compensated and evaluated based upon occupancy percentages.
What’s most ironic about this story is that as one of the most exclusive resorts in the world they have escaped the barriers that plague the competition: price erosion, lack of loyalty and escalating employee turnover yet they are still acting like a commodity-driven business! By changing their business model in favor of a commodity-based or volume concentric philosophy, they are investing more in advertising, turning over more guests yet running headlong into the classical problems: loyalty, turnover and eventual erosion. It’s like running from the oasis into the desert to find more water!
In the end, everything turned-out alright. Our bags were found at the airport on the mainland. They were sent by helicopter back to us on our private little island (which must have cost the hotel a pretty penny. I’d bet a lot more than they would pay to an extra housekeeper for the day.) Apologies were made and accepted and we made our flight on time (just barely).
The lesson here is that as managers we sometimes can push our people very hard to accomplish specific goals. This is certainly acceptable but not without consequences. Employees tend to want to please their managers and they might take license or go a bit overboard with unfortunate results.
Organizations that have installed a culture of empowerment among their staff tend to have far better results. Rather than blindly driving hard to meet that sales goal, or profitability percentile, or production number we should encourage, support and inspire team members to think for themselves. Operating with this kind of trust creates an environment where profitability can coexist with higher performance and superior customer service. It is the difference between leadership and merely management.
Welcome to Paradise Now Go Home - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Deo's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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