Bill Marriott's 12 Rules For Great Leadership

Bill Marriott - The greatest hotelier that I have ever had the pleasure to work for and spend a little personal time with, crafted these 12 rules back in 1964.  It is fair to say that they served him well, very well!

As a General Manager with Marriott Hotels, I had these rules on my office wall in every hotel that I ran and gave a copy of them to every new manager that we promoted,

These rules for leadership are just as relevant today as they were when they were written and as we head into a new year - they are a great place to start when thinking about what kind of impact you are going to have on your team and your business in 2017.


1. Challenge your team to do better and do it often.
2. Take good care of your team, and they'll take good care of your guests, and they'll come back.
3. Celebrate your peoples' success, not your own.
4. Know what you're good at and keep improving.
5. Do it and do it now. 
6. Communicate by listening to your customers, team and competitors.
7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk the talk, make yourself visible and accessible.
8. Success is always in the details.
9. It's more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
11. Always hire people who are smarter than you are.
12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.

Happy New Year!!!   It's yours for the taking.


Andrew

The Journey From Service To Hospitality

As a career long hotelier and a hospitality lifer, this has really been niggling me and it is happening right across our industry, as we chase margins and try to be as efficient as we can be for the good of for our shareholders and the bottom line.   It's time to take stock and remember the reality of our business...... The Hospitality business.  New team members joining our industry must be taught that whilst process and policy are critical, our guests will come back time and time again when they get genuine engagement and guess what, our team will engine their work all the more for it.

As operations professionals, it is really important that we can determine the key touch-points along our guest's journey in our hotels – Each of those moments where we; 

a) Have the opportunity to confirm and reassure our guests that in choosing our brand, they have chosen a great place to stay and in doing so, help to put them in a positive mindset.

b) Can take the opportunity to engage with them to better understand their needs, in order to and make relevant recommendations and gestures of service or goodwill that will enhance their experience, increasing the likelihood of them wanting to book again with us and recommend us to their friends.

In our desire to follow process and brand standards, it is really easy to become “transactional” in the way that we engage with our guests.  This may be efficient, but it will never connect with them emotionally.  I am calling it out - We need to bring about a shift from Service to Hospitality.

Transactional Style

What is service? Although there are many definitions of the word, I believe that it is the “process of doing something for someone." Service is the act of handling a task. It is the intangible product that certain industries provide, including the hotel industry. Hotels service guests, providing them with shelter and accommodation. Basic service is level one: the fast food of the hotel business – those competitors of ours where employees have little interaction with their guests. As people spend more money on their experience, they expect more and as we increasingly raise their expectations with our brilliant product improvement like the latest bedroom evolution in my business, Premier Inn.  Guests are not only expecting better tangible accommodation, they are expecting the intangible experience to be equally memorable— with service also taken to that evolved level.  This is hospitality. This is where a hotel’s value comes from.

Hospitality exhibits itself in interaction. It could be checking in a guest, cleaning their guest room, taking a meal order in the restaurant, taking a drinks order at the bar or any of the other opportunities that arise to assist a guest during their stay.

Consider checking a guest into your hotel. What tasks do your reception team members perform when handling the service aspect at this critical touch point in any guest’s stay?   Are we processing them transactionally, or are we seizing this "one off" opportunity to create a great sense of arrival – setting the scene for the rest of their stay?

·        A guest enters the front door of your hotel.

·        The guest proceeds to the front desk where a team member, now aware of the guest stood in front of them asks –“Can I help you?”

·        The guest responds–“I have a reservation”.  

·        The team member responds–“Can I take your name?”

The entire process from stepping through the entrance to receiving their key card may take 2-3 minutes. The team member has provided a service —they have checked a guest in and super efficient it may have been, but did they show any form of hospitality?

Did the team member take a minute or two to engage the guest?   Was there any true hospitality - enhancing the interaction and moving it from just service, to a memorable moment?

In today’s world, many things feel the same: chain hotels largely look the same, despite the use of strong use of colour to differentiate them; they largely feel the same and generally are the same from one city to the next. Brand to brand, for the most part, these same similarities exist. Yet, every smile is different. Guests are not going to be greeted with the same genuine welcome at every hotel they check into, no matter what brand or how cookie-cutter the front-desk team have been trained.

Do guests remember and feel special about service and their check-in experience?  My experience tells me that what guests really remember about a hotel is not service (the task that is expected) but the genuine hospitality that they receive. They remember the smile and the care; the moments that make them feel like they belong.

Sincere hospitality is great eye contact and a genuine smile and effort to make the guest feel welcome!  An effort at exchanging a few words! A guest wants to be recognised, respected, validated and appreciated.

Guests value hearing their name, it personalises the experience and in doing so, helps us to move from “service to hospitality.”   What better way to show that they are unique and that you are truly serving them at that moment; not just performing tasks. A better scenario of a guest check in includes name recognition and care for the guest:

·        Great eye contact from the moment they pass through the door, even if we are already busy with another guest - It tells the guest we have seen them and they matter.

·        A warm welcome to the hotel once they are within 2 meters of you or the reception desk and having ascertained their name: 

·        Mr. XX or Ms. XX, where have you travelled from?

·        How was your journey today?

·        Mr. XX or Ms. XX, have you stayed at our hotel / visited our city before?

·        Do you have plans for dinner, can I provide some suggestions on where you might eat?

Clearly, these questions should not be forced. If the guest seems rushed, do not waste their time. Pay attention and stay in the moment. Listen to what they are saying and and observe their specific situation:  are they alone, a couple or travelling with children?  You will pick up the small comments and cues that help you to understand the guest better and what is important to them, allowing you to make relevant recommendations and create a better and more relevant experience for them.

Are we really providing service to our guests, when we think we are providing hospitality?

Will guests come back for service alone, or will it take something more for them to remember your hotel?

The winners enclosure

I was delighted to spend some time with the team at our Wrexham Town Centre hotel this week, to recognise them as worthy winners of  "Racing the year in," our regional incentive for food and beverage sales and restaurant guest engagement.

Despite some really strong competition from some credible stables, the team have shown great form from the start line and hit final furlong with the same kind of gusto that they started the race.

Worthy winners indeed, of a team trip to The Grand National in a few weeks time.