Hospitality work is highly challenging and has various issues of its own. Learn Business From the Hotel Industry.
Learn From the Hotel Industry
Moreover, working in a hotel, motel, hostel, and so on have its own novel problems; you might not face working anywhere else. The hospitality industry is different, but it has valuable lessons for various other businesses.
We have created this article to cover the crucial hotel-related lessons entrepreneurs can learn from and assist in keeping their businesses running.
The list we have created can apply to any industry, business, or enterprise, whether retail, construction or anything else.
7. Business Lessons Hotel Industry Provide
Once you understand these seven lessons we provide, we recommend you explore the hotel industry further and get other business tactics from it to apply to your own business.
Lesson 1. Hire the Right People
Hiring people sounds simpler than it is. If you wish to ensure your business succeeds, you need to hire the right people suited for the job. Again, it sounds easy, in fact simple, but it is complicated. You would want to hire the best possible expert people you can find, is it not you?
You can employ the best professional, the one with the best academic background or employment history. However, before you hire anyone, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the person in front of you have a genuine passion for what they do?
- Will the person give 100% to the job just because they love the job they are doing?
WETCO Approach
To learn further about how one can assess an applicant on their suitability for a role, we will review back to the article Micah Solomon, the customer service expert, wrote in 2014. The approach he called it was the WETCO approach. He claimed it to be the best approach for hiring the best hotel industry people.
The acronym WETCO stands for:
- Warmth: Someone who is simple and shows old-fashioned kindness to customers.
- Empathy: Someone who senses what others feel, whether it’s positive or negative.
- Teamwork: Someone who is self-explanatory.
- Conscientiousness: Someone who can follow through with an order or promise made to a customer.
- Optimism: Someone who can shake off any bad experience they face and bounce back refresh.
Every point mentioned works in an amazing way within the industry. However, you can apply it anywhere you want to. You can consider WETCO as an extension to soft skills with adaptability, communication, and leadership.
Lesson 2. Safety First
A business has to be safe in order to operate. Hotels, no matter whether it ranks on number 2 or below have to follow the right hotel security procedures. Why? Because they have to ensure their guests feel safe. Guests spending the night would want to ensure the hotel will keep them and their valuables safe; if not, the hotel can suffer in many ways.
The best-rated hotels spend a lot of money in getting top-quality security systems. In addition to that, they ensure every guest is comfortable and protected in their room. It is a good idea to ensure your business and customers (their data, valuable, and so on) are secure.
Lesson 3. Think Both Globally and Locally
Have you heard of the word Glocalization? Yes, the word sounds too corporate and fake. However, it is the main part of many businesses.
Example
For example, you might want to give your guest an international feel with their room and catering choices and their amenities within your hotel. Your guest from Canada might not feel as at home as the guest from Cambodia might.
Therefore, to attract more international guests, you should globalize your brand by following the most modern trends.
Remember: Never forget your local trends, customs, or customers.
Your enterprise will get maintained by the local economy daily. Ensure you give your business a local touch, no matter how much you globalize it.
Lesson 4. Communication is Key
Imagine the effect a running hotel might have if it was to have a poor communication system among the staff and management.
A business can thrive or break according to whether it has great communications or not. The fact is an entrepreneur can develop and expand their business by ensuring your business has the best communication skills and system possible.
Business owners have to ensure they keep communication maintained and have the right amount of information going through the following department:
- Management and Employees
- Management and Customers
- Employees and Employees
- Employees and Customers
Lesson 5. Stay Observant
Let us say there are two hotels, both providing their guests with a massage parlor and a spa. The hotel with beautiful real flowers and potted plants will get more attraction by guests than the hotel using fake, plastic ones. The small details matter the most in how successful you become.
Business owners who keep in mind and observe everything, even the smallest things, can help their businesses and get the extra effort to help them thrive. It does not mean only materialistic things.
Many small gestures like ensuring you remember the name or nickname of your customer will let them know how you paid attention to them and invested in them to provide them the best possible service. It’s a small thing like this that gets the better out of guests for the next lesson.
Lesson 6. User Reviews
Never get scared when it comes to reading online or printed reviews about your business. A negative review by a customer might hurt you, but you will get valuable information about what you can change or better within our business.
Moreover, you can respond to any negative review in a positive way by first thanking that customer and letting them know you understood what they have said and will better or change what they can to further better their business. This approach shows customers you care about them and do not mind taking advice or change from them.
Hotel owners use this approach a lot, and the best businesses get very few negative reviews.
Innovate
A guest normally expects the following typical services from a hotel, like food, Wi-Fi, lodging, etc.
Nonetheless, hotel owners will look for innovative ways to keep their guests coming and not get left behind in the industry with their rivals. That is the reason why many hotels now have spas, gyms, restaurants, theaters, and many more innovative services.
Moreover, many establishments keep deals with other businesses to keep their guests updated with various events happening, like movies playing, concerts, carnivals, and hotels will also provide transportation to these events.
Not all businesses have similar innovations. But, if you take time, you are bound to give customers something innovative that no other business might provide.
Final Thoughts
Many people think that maybe the hotel industry has stayed the same for the last few centuries. Nonetheless, it’s not the truth.
Like many other businesses, the hotel industry also keeps changing and evolving. The more it innovates, the better it becomes. Other businesses should learn from the hotel industry and develop their business within the global marketplace and how they keep themselves in the lead from the tough competition they have to face.
Read Also: Keep Your Customers Happy: A Guide to Quality Service