We have not checked in with our favorite financial blog, Calculated Risk, in a while. We are pleased to see the incredible progress hotels have made in both occupancy and ADR. Occupancy has now recovered to the median after falling off a cliff in 2008. REVPAR is now about 3 percent below the median. Check out the full details by clicking on the graph.
Source: Calculated Risk
One of the biggest areas of struggle during our Service Experience Audits is the use of the guest name. The use of the guest name is one of the most important tools you have to build loyalty with your guests. Rather than providing your associates with general instructions such as ‘use the guest’s name during every interaction’, focus on the key areas of when the name should be used. Our method is simple but very effective.
Use the guest’s name once to open the conversation and once to close the conversation.
By doing this, it will become second nature to your associates. They won’t even have to think about using the guest’s name. They will just do it.
Here are some examples for a few departments on how to use the guest name:
Phone Calls: As soon as the phone rings, the PBX operator should pull up the guest’s information on the computer and get ready to use the name. The PBX operator should immediately greet the guest by name. After handling the call, the operator should end the call by using the guest name.
Check In & Check Out: As soon as the guest gives the name or room number, the GSA should immediately use the name once. The GSA should close the conversation with “have a great stay, Mr. Smith.”
In Room Dining: The server should double check the name just prior to knocking on the door. Once the analyst opens the door and invites them in, the server should greet the guest by name. Then once the guest signs the check, the server should thank the analyst by name on their way out of the room.
Housekeeping & Engineering: The associates should double check the name just prior to knocking on the door. Once the analyst opens the door and invites them in, the server should greet the guest by name. To close the conversation, the associate should say something like “enjoy the rest of your stay, Mr. Smith.”
The real key to the successful use of the guest name is repetition. If you require all associates to use the name once during the greeting and once during the closing it is very easy to monitor and it won’t be long until everyone on your team is using guest names.
Spike TV has a new reality TV show called Bar Rescue. Bar Consultant Jon Taffer and his team take over bars on the verge of bankruptcy and turn them around. In addition to remodeling the bar, he gets the management and staff on the right track to running a successful bar. He covers everything such as managing your pour cost, menu engineering, up-selling, even why proper uniforms are important. Of course, like any good reality TV show, Bar Rescue is built around the drama that comes from running a bar.
Check out this clip below. John talks about the perfect one-ounce pour, the power of suggestion, bar menu engineering, and why selling fruit drinks helps promote food sales.
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Bar Rescue airs on Spike on Sunday but they rerun episodes often. Also, many clips and some full episodes are available on Spike’s website. Check out this clip and meet John Taffer, the star of Bar Rescue.
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Dear TrueGuest,
At my hotel, we have a very busy breakfast buffet (especially on the weekends). Our hosts do a good job of seating guests in a timely manner but don’t add too much to our overall guest service. What can you recommend?
Good question. We often see hosts do a poor job on guest service. Often they just stand behind the desk and wait for guests to approach them and then walk them to a table. Then they go back to checking their text messages on their iPhone.
1. First, be sure to check out our Breakfast Buffet Training Guide. There is a great video on basic service steps
2. The first goal of every host should be to greet every arriving guest with a warm smile and a ‘Good Morning’. Also, they should make sure to greet every departing guest with a warm smile and a sincere thank you.
3. Hosts must know how to greet multiple guests at the same time. Often when two parties arrive in the restaurant at the same time, the host will greet the first party and escort them to the table without saying a word to the second party. The host must let the second party know that he/she will be back in a minute to seat them.
4. When escorting guests to a table, the host should make sure to point out the buffet. The goal is to get the guest excited about the breakfast they are about to have. Make sure to be excited about the buffet and mention some of the great things such as the omelet chef.
5. When the guest arrives at the table, the host must hand each guest a menu after they are seated. Do not just place the menu on the table and walk away!
6. Have the host introduce the server with a phrase such as ‘John will be taking care of you this morning and will be right over to offer you coffee and juice’.
7. Finally, make sure the host closes the conversation. We often just see hosts walk away from the table without saying anything. Have the host at least say ‘have a great breakfast!’
Have any tips of your own? Post them below! Have a question that you would like answered? Post it below or send it to us via the contact page.
The latest ACSI (The American Customer Satisfaction Index) results are in. Overall, hotels are really pleasing guests with a 2.7 percent jump from the prior year. This year’s score was 77, the highest score since the index started back in 1994. Hilton is on top for the fourth straight year with a score of 80. Starwood increased 2.6 percent to leapfrog Marriott with a score of 79. Marriott dropped 1.3 percent and is now in third place. Here are the complete results:
1. Hilton, score of 80, no change from last year
2. Starwood, score of 79, up 2.6
3. Marriott, score of 79, down 1.3
4. Hyatt, score of 77, down 2.5
5. All Others, score of 77, up 4.1
6. InterContinental, score of 76, down 2.6
7. Best Western, score of 76, no change
8. Choice, score of 74, no change
9. Wyndham, score of 73, up 4.3
Training Video Goal: Successful implementation of perpetual beverage inventory by providing instructions and necessary tools
Training Video Length: Approximately 10 Minutes, Video can be paused and replayed at the viewer’s chosen speed
Training Video Audience: All Food and Beverage Managers implementing a perpetual beverage inventory system
This video takes approximately 1 minute to load and will automatically play once loaded. For your convenience, all templates and instructions that are mentioned in the video are available free for download on this page below the video.
To download the Perpetual Beverage Inventory Template in Excel Format, click here.
To download the Perpetual Beverage Inventory Template instructions in PDF format, click here.
To read an article on Perpetual Beverage Inventory, click here.
To download the free Banquet Bar Requisition Template in Excel format, click here
To download the Banquet Bar Requisition Template instructions in PDF format, click here
We have not seen much press on this California proposal for Hotel Housekeeping Safety. The Huffington Post published an article the other day telling the story of a 69-year-old room attendant who recently testified in Sacramento in favor of a bill that would force hotels to get rid of flatbed sheets in favor of fitted sheets. The bill will also require hotels to supply long-handled tools for cleaning the bathrooms. You can check out the bill here. Some details from the Huffington Post article:
“When she isn’t sidelined by an injury, Nenita Ibe cleans 16 rooms a day at the Santa Clara hotel where she’s worked for 10 years. Since some rooms have two beds, that adds up to 25 mattresses per day, each of which needs to be lifted up on each side so that the 69-year-old Filipino immigrant can set the bedsheet properly. Luxury hotel mattresses can weigh more than 150 pounds these days. Ibe weighs a waiflike 125. The beds have taken a toll.”
“Eleazar Dumuk, who, like Ibe, works for Hyatt and is from the Philippines, testified that she and her colleagues used to have long-handled mops — but one day, they suddenly disappeared. “It’s probably just cheaper for the company to have my coworkers and me get on our knees,” she testified. “I came to this country not to work on my knees but to make a just, humane living.” A spokesperson for Hyatt did not respond to requests for comment.”
The article says it will cost California hotels about $15 million to switch from flat sheets to fitted sheets. Fitted sheets are also harder to clean, store, and transport. The article is definitely worth a read. Also, be sure to check out the comments section. There is a pretty lively discussion happening.
Really interesting article in the Los Angeles Times about a hotel in Koreatown that owed the city of Los Angeles about $3.5 million for unpaid occupancy taxes. The hotel did not pay so the city had the Sheriff’s Department sit in the hotel lobby around the clock and seize all of the cash that flowed into the hotel. From the article:
“Since Tuesday, several plainclothes sheriff’s contract employees have been stationed at the hotel round the clock. Their orders: seize the cash that flows into hotel coffers. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department has already collected $40,000, which will be handed over to the city. An employee at the hotel, who would speak only if not identified because she fears retribution from her bosses, said the keepers are “nice guys” who sit around the hotel lobby all day and night. At the end of each of her shifts, she hands them a record of how much money she has collected and puts it into a vault, from which the keepers later collect it. Some money is left so the hotel can pay its staff. The employee said guests have been less happy about the arrangement. As part of the debt collection, she noted, the staff at the front desk, bar, restaurant and coffee shop have been instructed to take cash only.”
Wow. What a mess. Don’t get behind on your occupancy taxes!
AAA just released their 2011 list of Five Diamond Hotels. For 2011, AAA added 15 new hotels to bring their total Five Diamond properties to 124. This elite group comprises of just .3 percent of the more than 59,000 AAA Approved and Diamond rated properties.
Here is the full list (by state, international hotels at the end):
Check out these videos of the new ASSA ABLOY mobile key. It allows guests to check into their hotel via cellphone and then use the cellphone to open the key in the guest room, completely skipping our friendly Guest Service Agents. They are testing the keys at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm.
Here is ASSA ABLOY’s video of the keys in use in Stockholm:
ASSA ABLOY also has plans to make all of our locks accessible by cellphone. Check out this video: