Halekulani About Staff, Not Stuff

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 11/1/2006

To enhance the famed Halekulani’s service culture, Chief Operating Officer Peter Shaindlin realized when he was hired three-plus years ago that the staff would benefit if they understood what he calls the “architecture of service” at this Honolulu hotel. They defined it with two words: soul and culture. While this might sound cliché, the Halekulani team continually focuses on this mantra and management backs it up with the necessary investment because, if their service strategy was merely treated as lip service, eventually the bottom line would suffer.

In fact, Shaindlin says he is lucky the owners feel honored to have this hotel and that their primary concern is not as much about profitability as it is the legacy of the Halekulani. “When I interviewed for the job, I told them I could increase gross operating profit four percentage points,” Shaindlin says. “They asked me how much higher can you bring it before you risk the reputation and quality of the product. I told them two points. They said bring it up one point and keep the healthy balance between quality and return.”

That being said, Shaindlin says the hotel has still seen its greatest financial success over the past three years when the team intensified the heart and soul of its service strategy. Between 2003 and 2006 annualized occupancy is up 8%, ADR is up 19%, net income has increased 161%, gross revenues are up 31%, and dollars spent per employee in training has increased from US$13 to US$224.

SOUL MUST SEE

The mantra the Halekulani uses with staff is “the soul must see, not the eye.” Shaindlin says the mission is to fuse the personality and character of the staff members with the unique character and soul of the Hawaiian service culture and the Halekulani, avoiding the over-the-top visual approach trendy hotels take today and focusing more on a unique experience. The staff is constantly reminded to feel and anticipate guests’ needs and exceed expectations. Perhaps even more importantly, Shaindlin rewards staff with sincere thank yous—a powerful message that spreads around the back of the house like wildfire.

The other key word Shaindlin refers to when recruiting and training his team is “empathy,” as he wants staffers to “feel the soul” of the guest upon arrival. “Our staff tries to sense and feel the person coming in the door, not just identify their demographic,” Shaindlin says.

For example, Shaindlin tells the story about a stressed-out executive who always stays in the Royal Suite. Treating that guest as though he was in his own home, a staff member brought him a home-grown mango to welcome him. The next time the executive returned, he was angry again, but this time for a very different reason: He wanted to know where the young man with the mango was because it made such an impression. “That is the soul and culture of our service,” Shaindlin says. “It is not scripted or over systematized. If we take a Pavlovian approach to training, you dumb down the staff and take away the emotion of service.”

NATURAL STRENGTHS

When considering the training process of the Halekulani team, Shaindlin looked at the culture of the people, their strengths and natural gifts. “It’s about the warmth of the Hawaiian home,” he says. “Let’s bring them in.” That is exactly the way the team role-plays during training, walking guests into the hotel and walking them out when they leave, staying with them until they are out of sight.

The hotel took this process a step further this year by creating a challenge for staff based on “great greetings.” When someone is recognized for doing something extraordinary with a guest, he/she is acknowledged and honored. To take the process a step further, these staff members also are used as trainers, sharing what otherwise might have been their obscure experiences with fellow staffers. Staff members also are brought forward to talk to the media about their service experiences. Led by General Manager Janis Clapoff, a list of employees who embody inspired hospitality is gathered and management tries to promote them with the media. “This is powerful because it is experiential. That acknowledgement is very powerful for the staff,” Shaindlin says.

The one other member of the Halekulani family that Shaindlin works with to promote service excellence on a daily basis is Patricia Tam, formerly the hotel’s general manager and now a vice president focusing on brand and operational standards. “Patty is the torch bearer of the brand. In fact, she is the flame in the torch,” says Shaindlin, who talks about how Tam visits the Halekulani every day to talk with staff as part of the hotel’s family approach to management. “She listens until it hurts, and because she is a great listener it leads to great moments of service,” he says. One such moment occurred recently during a charity dinner where the chair of a regular guest and diner at the hotel was empty. It turns out this VIP guest was ailing, and the hotel sent a coconut cake and flowers as a get-well gesture. It turns out Tam knew about this situation only because of a previous day’s conversation with the café’s hostess. A perfect example of inspired, soulful hospitality—hardly devised or scripted.