The 15 / 5 rule

True hospitality; Warm, personal and engaging guest service, can only be achieved when the guest believes that we have made a "connection" with them.

Have you ever walked into a restaurant or hotel and been completely ignored by the staff?.... A waiter walks past you, a barman or even a manager doesn't acknowledge you - almost like you are not there..... or worse, like you are not important?

As a hotel General Manager, I found the 15/5 Rule to be the single best practice to ensure that my team and I demonstrate true hospitality to every guests at every opportunity.  I also found it lacking at every hotel that I arrived at as a new posting.  In each instance, these (for the most part) really well run hotels were missing this basic behavior and that proved a quick win for me.

It’s quite simple and easy for anyone in the team to adopt as a habit, and crucially, it is equally easy for anyone in the team to spot when their colleagues miss the opportunity.  

Simply:  When we are 15 feet from a guest - we smile and make direct eye contact. Holding that smile and eye contact as the guest approaches, we then, at 5 feet - verbally greet or acknowledge the guest, with  something appropriate for the occasion or time of day. 

The key to success is bringing this culture to life by regularly talking about it, always leading by example and coaching when you see a colleague miss the opportunity.

There is nothing worse than being ignored when you expect attention and there is nothing more powerful than being truly engaged when you were not expecting it: 

• The 15/5 rule will help you to nail "sense of arrival" every time, when accompanied by a truly warm and personalised welcome.  
• Great eye contact and a friendly "good morning" from a housekeeper in the corridor who might otherwise have walked past a guest with their head down, will at the very least raise a smile.  It might even have set them up for the day - to smile at everyone they meet.

Check your own behaviour throughout today:  Have you taken every chance to engage with your guests?     

Beware though:  15 / 5 gets in your head and you will develop a radar for it.  You will get great enjoyment when you see it executed well and naturally  However you will start to notice people missing great opportunities snd this will really frustrate you....  But that is your chance to coach.

15 / 5 is a game changer!

Recognising the Rock Stars of our business

International House Keeping Appreciation Week

I challenge anyone who has worked in our industry for a significant amount of time not to share the same level of respect for House Keeping team members that I do.  They are literally the backbone of our business, they own a critical part of the guest journey and play the most significant role in supporting our brand integrity.

As a General Manager in full-service hotels, I never once missed the chance to ensure that International House Keeping Appreciation Week was firmly in our hotel calendar, with every department playing a role in recognising the House Keeping team for everything that they do.  An entire week of daily events and activities that inject some extra fun into the work place, whilst most importantly letting the team know just how much we value them

So, after hosting some regional activity last year, I was delighted that we were able to introduce IHKAW to the entire estate of Premier Inn this year and I think we made it a pretty awesome debut.  Up and down the country our leadership teams got behind the week in earnest, we even had Whitbread board member and Group Finance Director, Nicholas Cadbury travel all the way up to Glasgow to help recognise and say "thank you" to the teams.

So a big thank you to everyone who got involved in IHKAW and a huge thank you to House Keepers across our industry for everything that you do.

Roll on IHKAW 2018 and Rock-On our House Keepers!