Not So Unorthodox After All
By Staff -- Hotels, 12/1/2007
G reatness is not easily achieved, nor does it come without paying a price. Severino Gomez has worked in hotels for 30 years in 14 countries, and all too often, he says, he saw management styles and operating techniques that didn’t work and, therefore, disappointing results. So when he came to run the 56-suite Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for Auberge Resorts, he did so with the understanding he could do things his way, which by most standards would be considered unorthodox. But with a goal of delivering the best hotel service in the world to a very discerning clientele, his approach is really very natural—he takes care of his 485 team members like no other. “If we want to be the best in the world, everyone has to buy into this idea,” says the native of Cali, Colombia, who now has been regional vice president at Esperanza for almost eight years. “We have to be a team and take care of everyone’s needs.”Based on what Gomez has done for his team and accomplished for his hotel, this is not lip service. The bottom line: turnover is less than 1% as Gomez will do everything he can to save even the most troubled workers. What Esperanza has provided in revenues in five years, Gomez says it took sister property Auberge de Soliel in Napa Valley, California, 25 years to achieve. The hotel recently changed ownership, selling for more than US$1 million per key; developers sold the adjoining 60 fractional residences inside three years; and the hotel is now doing US$32 million a year in revenue with 82% occupancy and a US$719 average rate.
There are so many real life examples of what Gomez does for his team and they are not always happy and fuzzy, but very necessary. For example, he has social workers to help single mothers—some of them battered mothers. In exchange for business to look after sick guests, Gomez made a deal with a local hospital to send a doctor to the hotel twice a week to attend to any staff medical issues. “Once your staff knows they can trust you, they will do anything for you,” Gomez says. “And if we can help them, they can be better professionals and advance their own careers.”
What makes his staff even better prepared to serve guests and become promotable within the hotel are solid English language skills. So Gomez started a primary school with three full-time teachers who provide 4,500 hours a year of training at an estimated cost of US$80,000. “It might be the biggest English school in Mexico,” Gomez jests. But there is no jesting about spending US$15,000 on textbooks and three levels of classes which not only teach English, but loyalty, honesty and respect. The end result: 80% of his team has progressed past the basic English program; about one-third have gone through the entire program; and there were 96 staff promotions last year.
Gomez also likes to pass those values down to his team’s family members. April 30 is Children’s Day in Mexico, and Gomez throws a party for his staff and their children. Last year the theme was “Esperanza and My Family” and the children painted pictures of beds and food, expressing that because their fathers or mothers worked at Esperanza they now had a bed to sleep on. Gomez also found out where most of his staff’s children go to school and raised money to buy school supplies and desks. He also helped a school that only had one bathroom for 100-plus students build more bathrooms.
Further putting his money where his mouth is, Gomez bought two Mercedes buses (US$180,000 a piece) to transport staff each day from the resort back to the town centers. He says he spends another US$160,000 on annual operations training.
It probably doesn’t hurt that Esperanza pays well, too. In addition to full medical benefits and competitive wages, the 15% service fee charged to guests is fully distributed to all staff. “We will take care of those who need extra help, too, such as a higher-paying job for an expectant mother,” Gomez says. “It’s about being a close team.”
Yes, Gomez set the bar high when he came to Esperanza, but now he says, “I tell my staff I have been to great hotels that spend millions on the property, but they are not better than us. We have met our goal of providing the best service.”
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