HOTELS

Bob Puccini

Cost Of Missed Opportunities
September 18, 2008

Recently I arrived at my 5-star hotel after a long flight, arriving at 10 p.m. I was starving, tired and ready for a glass of wine and a good meal.

I immediately felt at ease when I walked through the hotel's inviting doors. I asked if I could get dinner at the bar and they said, “I’m sorry the restaurant has just closed, but there is an IHOP down the street.” Well the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to go to an IHOP, but given the change in time zones I wasn’t quite ready for bed either. Disheartened, I ordered a hamburger from roomservice and went to bed.

I was told that the only meals available were from their 24-hour roomservice. I felt like I was back in a Jack Nicholson movie: If you have 24-hour roomservice then why can’t I eat at the bar? That’s right, I forgot the bar was closed, too. Had I the option I would have ordered a glass or two of wine at the bar and a full meal.

I imagine my experience is very similar to other weary travelers that just want a glass of wine or two and perhaps a social experience before they head to their quiet room and go to bed. Or what about the guest who comes back to the hotel after a dinner out and wants a night cap? I wonder how much revenue hotels miss out on by not servicing these late night guests or during the in-between periods in the day?

The reality is, staff wise, you only need a bartender and one cook to serve this limited group/limited menu so the upside is tremendous to staying open all day to accommodate all guests. In a perfect world, excellent hospitality would have ‘no rules’ as far as the guest is concerned and for the staff to anticipate guests' needs before they become needs. Operators should be flexible enough to provide personalized, customizable service throughout the day whether they are a mid-scale or an upper-upscale hotel. This sort of service would be a modern luxury in our world that is so accustomed to immediate gratification.

The next morning I was sitting in the lounge looking around for someone to ask for a cup of coffee while I worked on my laptop. Several employees saw me but didn’t stop to ask if I needed something as the lounge was technically ‘closed.’ Finally, I got a hold of someone and I asked for a cup of coffee. I was told, “I am sorry, but breakfast is over (it was 10:30 a.m.) and the bar isn’t open until 11:00 a.m.” I thought, "really?!" Servers from breakfast were still circulating, the coffee was French press and they had all of the tools to make it happen. Unfortunately, their strict operational structure prevented them from meeting my very simple need.

In addition, there were several other people sitting in the lounge having meetings and working on their laptops who would have ordered a cup of coffee at the minimum if they were asked. As I did the math in my head I thought if they could sell 10 coffees at $12 per French press plus a few late breakfasts or a snacks, that could at least be $500 extra per day just in this half hour period between 10:30a.m. and 11 a.m. That is an extra $182,500 over the course of a year and the staff is already there!

Then I really got thinking: What about the period in between lunch and dinner and the after dinner period? This lead me to think that the old model of traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner periods are no longer serving hoteliers in terms of potential profits, and they are no longer serving guests with ever-increasing demands and expectations. Providing excellent service in the traditional way--set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner--is becoming a paradigm of the past that no longer has relevance to guests. Excellent service these days is about getting what you want, when you want it, where you want it and empowering employees enough so that they never have to tell a guest “no” or “I  am sorry you have to wait until 11 a.m. for coffee.”

In our extremely fast paced society, guests have limited time to ‘unwind,’ and in the hospitality and restaurant business we have the opportunity and the privilege to go above and beyond for our guests to aid them in their enjoyment of life, friends, food and comfort. It is a pretty big job in a society where people have maxed out their bandwidth and they want nothing more than to get what they want, when they want it and feel comfortable.

Guests of 2009 don’t want to hear about your policies, procedures or rules; they just simply want to be taken care of, comforted and engaged – now! If you can meet this challenge you will not only have loyal guests, but you will have the profits to prove it.

Posted by Bob Puccini on September 18, 2008 | Comments (4)