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Would You like Your Service Today Live or Programmed, Madam?

Would You like Your Service Today Live or Programmed, Madam?

During the 1990’s, I interviewed several futurists for various issues of Government Technologies magazine: amongst other predictions, they anticipated the omnipresence of robots in the workforce. In 2001 (unrelated to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey), I spoke at a butler convention about a convergence of “hominids” (humans) and robots: the robots becoming more human and the humans becoming more robotic—and warned that this did not augur (signal) well for humans who preferred superior service. Hospitality, basic definition is friendly, which comes from an Indo-European root word meaning love. Met any friendly robots recently who expressed their heartfelt love? Or for that matter, from staff who lack passion for service? The one is as tortuous as the other to anyone seeking meaningful discourse, fulfilling relationships, or genuinely solicitous service.

Hospitality executives are busy handling guest needs and issues, budgets, increasing market share, etc., so may not be looking sufficiently circumspectly at this fast-encroaching, robotic trend. Hence this article examining whence robots came, how far they have advanced into the workplace, and their future in hospitality. As we hominids are part of the equation, we can control where the trend goes: a talking head on TV saying that robots will take over by 2040 only means they will if we all act like robots and do and say whatever we are “programmed” to do and say.

Therein lies the key—as in an early, futuristic silent movie that showed a food conveyor belt in a canteen grinding to a halt after a new worker failed to take his soup bowl off the belt—because he didn’t like soup—and the mechanical breakdowns cascading until the whole, interconnected, automated society ground to a halt. Freedom of choice, a vital component in life, goes against the whole ethos of robotics and automation, which are designed to control according to fixed programs input by others in some distant time and location and according to the dogmas of the time.

The Ghost of Robots Past

Man has envisioned robots performing chores for decades, if not centuries: 2,400 years ago, Philo of Byzantium built a robot wannabe that poured wine when a cup was placed in its hand. A Czech dramatist, Karel Capek, coined the word robota in his 1920 play R.U.R. to describe the artificial creatures featured in the play. Robota means “work” in various Slavic languages, providing a clear indication of the role man envisions for his robots. The character, Harry Domin, declares (unadvisedly) in the play, “Work humiliates, anyone who’s forced to do it, is made small.”

In the 1940’s, they were still just dreaming about robots: a TV program showed a robot butler that would, at the press of a button, perform household chores so that mum did not have to work. An actor was dressed as the robot in the show, because robot technology was still as non-existent as in Philo’s time. As a side note, they called it a robot butler—perhaps based on the role Philo conceived for his robot, the butler profession being founded on wine service—and the moniker has stuck ever since: almost every robot created is marketed as a “robot butler.”

The incessant messaging over the decades from Madison Avenue selling “Don’t work, happiness comes from consumption and relaxation” kept alive the fantasy of a robotic servant—Rosie the Robot in the 1960’s Jetson’s cartoons, for instance, but a change occurred that moved the whole concept beyond the fanciful: robot technology was finally coming into being—General Motors introduced the first robot, Unimate, in an industrial setting—the definition of “robot” being “any machine that is smart enough to make autonomous decisions.”

While we have been exposed to continued fantasy (robot superiority with the faceless and faulty Hal in the 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey, and C-3PO’s human face in the 1977 launch of Star Wars—and in the last couple of years, it seems every other movie involves superhuman robots), always pushing the envelope, science and reality have been not too far behind, pursuing two apparent goals: a) to make us all into docile consumers who are freed from the demands of work; b) to harness human ingenuity and intelligence and make the gods who create the robots, subservient to them in capability—to improve on nature in other words, whether for commercial or militaristic ends.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

Just a quarter of a century after R2D2, a Dutch supermarket chain employed Schrobbie, a robot that carefully navigated around obstacles and, if those happened to be hominids, saying, “Excuse me, I’d like to clean here.” Of course, a real maid would know not to disturb customers—but this is a restriction that robots no doubt would find most illogical. When Schrobbie wasn’t scrubbing and vacuuming, it was distributing mail, conducting inspection rounds, and transporting passengers and goods. All work done previously by low-wage and poorly educated hominids.

Why replace hominids with robots?

After an upfront cost and with minimal maintenance, robots work all hours and days of the year, never taking off time for sickness, holidays, vacations, maternity leave; never joining unions nor going on strike nor asking for raises; never refusing work because it is outside its job description (simply requiring re-programming); never having personal problems, vendettas, nor talking back; never faking injuries for long-term disability nor threatening to sue; and requiring not a cent in payroll and payroll taxes.

On the downside, they do break down or malfunction (Hal) occasionally, and infuriate (and lose the trust/patience of) customers because of their inability to think or act outside their programming. After their initial gimmick value, they are an impediment in the same way that a long series of automated phone-tree choices are when a caller just wants to talk to a real person that can think for himself and answer a simple question. Granted, some hominids specialize in stopping, rather than servicing; but for every one of these, there are ten who will listen and help. Not so a poorly programmed phone answering-system/robot—for it certainly is hard to program every eventuality into an automated system/robot.

Moore’s Law Applies 

If you think change has been rapid, better not blink during the next few years.

“If current trends of computer development and human replacement continue, the traditional labor market will be a thing of the past as a consequence of machine intelligence.” Moshe Vardi, Rice University computer science professor

Robotics still faces many barriers, but scientists are overcoming them. Project teams such as CloPeMa and University of California Berkeley’s PR2 are working on developing robots that can fold clothing (it is humbling, perhaps, to designers that such simple actions for hominids are extremely complex and challenging for robots to be programmed to do). The focus with Carnegie Mellon University’s Herb is to increase the robot’s ability to sense, evaluate, and handle objects. Right now, he can’t unload a dishwasher, but advances are being made: Waseda University’s Wendy could crack open an egg in 1998; by 2007 its successor, Twendy, could butter toast.

Eight years later, and we have Fraunhofer Institute’s Care-O-bot 4 for homes, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and other industries: able to deliver food and drinks, and assist with cooking and cleaning.

The state of the art sees robots with cutsie names, whether in the home, hospitality, or other service environments, fast acquiring skills and taking over hominid jobs. Nao handles customer-relations in The Bank of Tokyo; Nestlé has robots selling coffee makers in stores; a restaurant in China has robot chefs, and waiters who take food to (the vicinity of) the diners; Henn-na hotel in Japan is the world’s first hotel run mostly (90% ultimately) by robots—which, incidentally, only respond to Japanese, fail to reply to any human emotion or social communications, and only activate at 3pm check-in time. The owner’s goal being to create the most efficient hotel in the world by reducing manpower—a goal that will probably not resonate with hominid guests, but will appear very attractive to robot guests. 

More modest in scope is Botlr, Aloft Hotels’ robot-bellman, delivering small items to guests. The tech-savvy market associates technology with convenience, so such guests are happy to do without live interaction (up to a point, one suspects). Management’s idea is Botlr frees up hominid staff-time to interact with guests—a reason that does not add up, given that face time is an important issue for hominid staff, yet the Botlr is the one with the face time, while the hominid’s role is only to load deliverable items into Botlr.

RoboEarth is another important development in the robot world that promises to increase robotic prowess exponentially: an open-source World Wide Web for robots to learn from each other: once a robot uploads a new skill, the robots connected to the network learn it, too—in effect, creating a common brain for multiple units—much like a colony of ants.

Google’s cars have been driven hundreds of thousands of miles by robots with only one reported minor accident—one easily correctable with a software patch.

Until now, most robotic creations have displaced some blue-collar workers performing routine tasks requiring physical skills, while computer programs have displaced some white-collar workers managing cerebral-oriented tasks. These forces are coming together in the form of robots with much accelerated Artificial Intelligence (AI) which pose a direct threat to multiple skilled laborers and service providers, whether FO staff, butlers and personal assistants à la R2D2, entertainers, designers, teachers, house or baby sitters, elderly care, writers, paralegals, taxi drivers (Robot Taxi Inc. launches in Japan in 2016), et al.

Some scientists have a vision—Hominid Mark II—a convergence of human and robot—more reliable and productive, and most important, easily controlled. Some envision the creation, ultimately by the robots themselves, of hominid-like robots with self-awareness, able to determine their own goals and exhibit emotional behavior and complex language skills. One could say it is modern day eugenics; playing god; playing with fire; or just a natural impulse to create and improve what is there. I see it as a bunch of immature hominids whose understanding of the sciences is as superior as their understanding of themselves and the humanities is inferior.

The Future is Us: The Convergence of AI Robots & Hominids into “Humanized Robots” 

While AI Robots are advancing at breakneck pace—just 54 years since the first basic robot was put into production—another trend is taking place, the robotification of hominids, starting with the fusion of hominids and semi-intelligent machines in the form of implants, whether retina, pacemakers, or hearing aids, as well as chip implants—which tens of thousands of people already have; and all against the backdrop of organs grown in laboratories, genetic surgery, and designer babies.

As a side note, it is predictable that implants will be mandated in the same way that vaccinations are being mandated (for the “good of society” and for the individual’s “health and safety”) for health workers, school children, and if the Obama HHS National Vaccine Advisory Committee’s meeting in February 2015 has its way, all American adults—and this despite study after study that show vaccines do not prevent flu, pandemics, measles or whatever; and being full of toxins such as aluminum, mercury, and live viruses, cause death and horrible side effects.

Then add the trend toward augmented reality applications and wearable computing, whether Google glass or smart gloves that have sensors, computing capability, and wireless communication chips.

The next stages are already well in progress: the ability to control brain function via computers, and reversely, the transmission of human thoughts to computers that control machines (such as a skateboard—you decide where you want to go, and the computerized, motorized skateboard takes you there). Once human brains are chipped/linked to computers, thoughts will be sent (and received) over the Internet: Arizona State University’s Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation project is funded by DARPA with the purpose of stopping individuals from thinking certain thoughts and making them think approved thoughts through the use of electromagnetic fields that stimulate the temporal lobe of the brain. Don’t believe me? Look it up!

Or the University of California, Berkeley’s breakthrough in creating neural dust that is so small, it can be implanted into the front of the brain without the knowledge of the individual and run forever, collecting information and controlling people’s thoughts and emotions (and presumably, ultimately, their actions).

Pentagon program Silent Talk aims to implant soldiers with chips that read electrical signals of brain activity and transmit these via the Internet so that armies can communicate without radios. As with all ill-conceived endeavours, this opens up a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences and complexities—the possibility of viruses being introduced that prompt the soldiers to start sunbathing just before an artillery barrage on their positions!

Currently, The US Brian Initiative and the European Human Brian Project are decoding the human brain in order to develop full brain-computer-interface technology. We already have manufactured DNA being combined with graphene (sheets of bonded carbon one atom thick) to create living transistors with huge computing power. 

The Human Body Version 2.0 project’s goal is to rewire the hominid brain using nanobots by 2020—they already having successfully targeted hominid DNA “for drug therapy or destruction.” Our robotification pathway includes nanobot computers being inserted into hominid brains and connecting them to Cloud computing, and thereafter, even replacing organs. The goal by 2030, with the expected completion of the reverse-engineering of the brain, will be the merging of biological and non-biological intelligence, as well as biological and non-biological body parts, all connected by computers—the control processors being smaller than a human nerve cell and requiring very little energy to run.

Meanwhile, the next step for Avatars (human-like robots) is to program them with feelings and emotions. In one of these videos, a robot says “Bye-bye, I am going to miss you.”

Some programmers, recognizing that robots lack emotion and that emotions are needed in interacting with hominids, have painstakingly programmed a robot, Pepper, to recognize body language and key words to assess the emotion of a hominid and then to respond with what the programmers think is an appropriate statement or action. If the person is upset, Pepper might dance or tell a joke to cheer them up—some consultant psychologist’s idea of how to interact with people with predictably Titanic results: If a lady is upset at her husband cheating, her response to a robot butler, whether in home or resort, telling a joke is likely to be memorable. 

Flawed Logic and Intelligence, Missing Emotional Engagement—The Scientist at Work

No amount of programmed facial expressions or even, perchance in the future, crocodile tears, or dancing dummies, will ever make up for the lack of…what is it? One could say sincerity, but the actual missing element is the one element that these gods of the aspiring religion of science, have neither awareness nor understanding: spirit!

The simple definition of man for millennia has been, “Body, mind, and spirit.” But that is not how such scientists describe man, because the humanities went astray in 1879 when Marxist Professor, WilhelmWundt, of Leipzig University in Germany, declared that the mind was simply the brain (based on the observation that most nerves were in the brain and all nerve channels went to the brain). He taught that man was a stimulus-response animal and had neither spirit nor self-determinism. Psychology and then psychiatry based their entire works on these erroneous opinions, and so we have mind as brain, software as hardware. Suddenly everything mental is physical, which is why psychiatry has a pantheon of just three “therapies,” all physical: lobotomy and its variations (making people into vegetables by severing the front of the brain); ECT (electric shock) and its variations; and drugging. None of these work (if by work we mean to correctly diagnose and alleviate a condition to the benefit/increased abilities of the patient) because the brain is not the mind. These cruel treatments fix things as effectively as smashing the headlights when the oil needs changing.

And then we come to the spiritual—psychiatrists and such scientists think they are bodies. They have persuaded many people to believe the same thing by onerous repetition from a self-proclaimed point of authority with unlimited funds to forward that message. So for them, there is no mind and spirit in man, it is all just “body.”

So, of course, from their perspective, rebuilding bodies into better bodies is a key goal, requiring only fiddling with neurons, DNA, atoms, and bits and bytes. It is not an incorrect goal in their mind, to go beyond a benign augmenting of physically failing parts with the wonders of implants and such in order to improve the quality of life; and to push instead for a complete robotization of humans and supra control of them mentally and physically through the Cloud. A wet dream for control freaks, this vector is definitely in play when we talk about the future of mankind, driven by materialistic scientists, control-happy central governments, bottom-line-happy corporations, and obviously, a natural urge to play a game.

Some people in the scientific community are sounding the alarm, though, such as Stephan Hawkins and Elon Musk. A similar alarm was sounded to President Roosevelt and the world, after Einstein had suggested the atomic bomb to Roosevelt, and Roosevelt had it built. Then, after the horse had bolted, Einstein, Oppenheimer and others tried to close the door. And here we are, two atomic bombs exploded over cities and one Fukushima-polluted planet later, and one button-push away from Armageddon.

Going back to the video link above, one robot wonders when he will attain consciousness. “When will I be a real person?” His programmer is using the robot as a proxy, it seems, simply because the programmer’s definition and understanding of mankind is incomplete, and he does not know how to program life force into an object—for the simple reason that one cannot. Life forces take over objects, whether hominid or robot. They are not part of the physical universe, they are no more the object than a truck driver is his truck. Life force (you) plays a game of controlling objects. So no amount of bits and bytes, computers, atoms and cells will ever create a life force—they only modify whatever object the life force is controlling.

This life force is the source of the ideas and thoughts that drive the objects in the game of life, the source of the emotions, the entity that is alive. And this is what we sense when dealing with other people, compared with when dealing with objects or confronted by a dead body. If in doubt, watch Tom Hanks in Castaway again: as good a face as he drew on the basketball and talked to it, imagined it talking back, it was not the real deal—and why he eventually had to escape the island and find real people, real life force, to interact with.

Rather than trying to create life force, how about taking the 7.3 billion that already exist on this planet, and freeing them from the impediments they face in life, so they can improve that way? Why advertise a failure to understand and direct sensibly fellow humans by dismissing them as inferior and seeking to create machines they can control and to replace those inferior hominids? All it takes is understanding what makes people tick—but that is hard when one is missing 2/3rds of the picture of man.

There is nothing wrong with robot bodies, they have many pluses, but in the absence of an understanding of life, they will be created in the image of the maker, and when that image is 2/3rds off-the-mark, we are not heading towards a viable future, but disaster.

The purpose of this article is not a Luddite (English workers two centuries ago who destroyed machinery they believed correctly threatened their existing jobs) rejection of technological advance, but a rapid injection of the humanities into the development, so that the urge to control and replace is sublimated into the urge to use technology to help manage dangerous or boring tasks, to replace failing organic systems, to explore new frontiers, and to open up other purposeful activities (the definition of work) for mankind. Work does not have to be a 9-5 grind to secure a paycheck so as to maintain the 9-5 grind.

Contrary to popular opinion, leisure is a grind, because a very good definition of leisure is “activity without a purpose,” and as any wealthy do-nothing person knows, that is death, despite all the glitz and glamour associated with it by Madison Avenue. Climbing a mountain to take photographs or just to do it as a challenge, has a purpose and could be considered work. If robots are handling 50% of the chores, then we have more time to climb mountains and civilization is that much more advanced that it can afford to support activities of peoples’ choosing without those people being tied to the fields to put food in their stomach so they can continue to tend the fields.

Ray Kurzweil predicts in his book, Age of Spiritual Machines (an oxymoron, if ever there were one), that computers will be implanted in human brains so they can access the Internet with their brains (he thinks their minds) by 2019.

As computer chips have been doubling their speed every 18 months, computers will be powerful enough by 2029 to replicate electronically a person’s brain onto a machine, and either eliminate the hominid or have the hominid cloned in robot form—depending on the scientist talking—and with The Matrix in mind, both linked with, and controlled through, the Smart Grid/Internet.

The convergence of man with AI robots is anticipated to become a reality between 2029 and 2045. Individuals refusing to become part of the Singularity, as it is termed, will be relegated to a “human underclass,” according to Kurzweil. Which gives us one or two generations to insert some humanities into this “Brave New World.”

These visions come from myopic scientists, or their fevered bosses, pursuing the “robots are ideal, humans are superfluous” motif. They lack understanding of the humanities and personally, lack life/aliveness; and so naturally, have an affinity for robots.

If we temper their visions with the voice of reason and a modicum of understanding of how humans work and what great service is, we see that robots have their uses and so do humans; the real challenge in developing mankind is abandoning the pernicious and fixed ideas promoted by psychology and psychiatry that have turned mankind into a programmed animal, and bringing forward a real understanding of man and the humanities; and the real challenges in developing AI are bringing about creativity; ethical and correct decision-making; intuition; close observation of, and response to, the myriad nuances that turn one situation into something completely different; and instilling the civilizing influence that raises us above the tooth and claw concept of the materialist. Right now, the robot is hopeless at all these elements, because he is being made in the image of his maker and the majority of humans who should be standing up and saying something in debate, remain mostly unaware and quiet.

Just one example: When asked by a human what was immoral, one AI robot replied, “The fact that you have a child.” To be sure, in an AI-dominated world, the perpetuation of the human species is neither logical nor necessary; and there is many a population-reduction proponent in the ranks of robot makers and their bosses.

Humans Need Not Apply

Some hominids seem as hopeless as robots at the finer points of life or service. We think of them as the colleagues, friends, or family members who just can’t seem to learn or be sensitive to guest service needs. They act like robots—no responsibility, no awareness, no finesse, no life—constantly having to be pushed around and stopping whenever we cease to push them. They are exhausting to have in the workplace and a drag on production. They fill seats but add nothing to the drive and bottom line.

The perennial and quixotic drive to build metal versions of the same personality is flawed, from the perspective of the true service-professional. The pipe dream of programming robots or people to handle every single situation that can arise, so they can be left to do their job unsupervised, will never be achieved. There is no substitute for alive and intelligent management of situations by alive and intelligent, self-determined staff, whether made of flesh or metal. It is simply a question of knowing how to fix what is broken with humans, so they can achieve this standard, and this should be a sufficiently challenging game to warrant immersing oneself in as a hospitality professional.

And so we have a challenge to increase the life and intelligence of humans as the best antidote to the encroachment of metal versions, which will merely give us more of the same.

In 1910, it took 6 people to produce what 4 people could in 1940, 2 people in 1970, and so on. Job markets shift, and automation/robots have been and are part of that picture. Since 2009, corporate spending on equipment and software has increased by 26%, while payrolls have remained unchanged (i.e. negative, given inflation). This says something about the future.

This is a lesson that the likes of Starwood would do well to grasp: it plans to introduce robot butlers to tend to guests in 100 hotels.

A report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia predicts 40% of Australian jobs could disappear by 2030 years as a result of technological advances—not just call centers, but even some nursing and surgical jobs.

NPR created a calculator based on Oxford University research to determine which of 702 jobs are most likely to be automated based on anticipated robotic skills. Accountants and telemarketing roles are most at risk, while people who do more creative jobs are less likely to be put out of work by machines. How so? Some aspects of a job are easier to automate than others. It all depends on the tasks. A job that requires helping others, negotiating, or being creative is less likely to be automated.

Check out the video, Humans Need not Apply.

Where a service professional rotely performs his/her duties without passion, he/she is in danger of being superseded by robots programmed to perform the same duties with the same level of engagement. Trying to out-robot a robot will not meet with much success; we are much better focused on demonstrating the one thing that no programmer can ever imbue into their creations: life itself. It is the life and understanding of live beings that people look for in relationships. Granted, there are some guests who have become so swamped in materialism that they do not seek life, and prefer to deal with robots as the ideal servant; but as the movie The Cast Away showed, most people crave real, live people, with all their idiosyncrasies, all their demands and problems, over simply talking to matter devoid of emotions, self-determinism, and life.

Entering the Debate, Returning Balance to the Progress

Change is one certainty in life, and evolving job markets with the advance of technology, whether of fire, wheel, horse, steam, mass production, computer or robotics, will always have winners and losers; overall, these advances tend in the direction of improved standards of living. This may still hold true with the great AI/robotics breakthroughs, however.

Mankind will find a way to combine man with AI/robots in order to make great things possible for many—if given the chance. But not if the change is forced on him swiftly by materialistic men who reject the humanities and see all life as a matter of the material, of profit and control; and who in the process unleash a Frankenstein that overwhelms, and renders redundant, mankind.

Work is not drudgery, but a vital component of life, giving meaning and purpose. If we can organize for robots to take on the repetitive or dangerous or onerous tasks, we can redefine what is considered work: just as we have done with athletes who are paid handsomely for playing, and actors for acting. Every activity is creative and when encouraged as such, can become a pleasure. Take housekeeping: maybe a robot purchased to vacuum will free the housekeeper to hit all those spots that she usually does not have time for, and so can take pride in delivering a shining suite for the guests.

Somehow we have to seize the initiative on the debate, and find a role for humans, and a humanity for the robot makers, so that we transition smoothly to the future.

Although this article was published by and for the hospitality industry, it applies to all professions and indeed walks of life, including private service butlers and house/estate(s) managers. 

Originally published by Hotel Executive Review in two parts in November and December of 2015, and reprinted by Hotel Online, Hotel News Resource, Business Media Guide, Hospitality Trends, Hospitality Net, as well as 

http://all-hotels.ru/tournews/index.en.html?msg=173129
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The World of Hospitality
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Theory of Life. com
NanoTechnology  News Today
University of Berge
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Love and The New Age of Service

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Much attention has been placed by training departments of luxury hotels and resorts on bringing new hires up to the required standard of superior service. This is no small challenge in some areas, given the lack of familiarity of the new hires with high-end lifestyles, the expectations of those who live them, and the general state of education and society in general.

This article delves a bit deeper into one fundamental in such service: staffs who really are full of joy and passion for their work, which is partly a matter of motivation and partly a matter of EQ skills.

We have always taught that there are four levels of motivation: money motivation and then personal gain at the lower end, neither of which are acceptable because these people are just interested in me-me-me, “What is in it for me?” whenever they are asked to do anything—while the interests and needs of team mates and guests are inexplicably nowhere to be found on the radar. These kinds of individuals need to be weeded out during the hiring process, because they drag down the morale of the good staff if allowed to join the team.

Above these two bottom feeders of motivation lie personal conviction—being passionate about the work and doing it for the love of it— and above that, duty: being passionate, for sure, but beyond that, willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the guest or team mates because they are counting on the person to team member to deliver, come rain or snow.

But above these four levels could be said to be a level of service motivation that is World Class—resulting in moments so memorable that they become legendary.

Take a recent example at Per Aquum’s Niyama resort in the Maldives. One of the new hires realized during training how many opportunities he had to create special moments for his guests, and the importance of doing so. Soon after, he serviced one family so well that they wanted to show their appreciation. The butler declined a tip, so the guests had him take them in a speedboat to his local island, where they donated just under US$150,000 to the school and hospital, and pledged a further $150,000 for 2015.

It is easy to train those who are passionate about service: all one has to do is show them the path to follow. This is not simply a matter of teaching mechanical actions and procedures, however, but expanding their understanding of their spiritual nature and how to interact with guests, and colleagues, from this perspective. One might say teaching them to love their guests (and colleagues), because this fundamental of fundamentals is perforce the next advance in luxury hospitality standards—trends toward robotics notwithstanding.

Spiritual nature in our hard-boiled, mechanistic world? Love? Sounds like some airy fairy, LOL piece of new-age hippiness. But hospitality is all about being hospitable, not hard-nosed, programmed robots. The difference between being alive and being mechanistic is the element of life that is in each of us: ourselves. Anyone who has seen a dead body knows that there is something missing. What is it? The individual himself, the spirit, the life force, élan vital, whatever we call it; the person himself—that which animates and motivates, emanates emotions and communications…all things that humans do, and robots or robot-by-nature individuals cannot or do not.

The individual is our main resource, because it is the individual who displays intelligence and passion in dealing with guests and colleagues. In such interactions, either they can smile because it is required in company policy, or because they really feel there is something to smile about—and continue to do so come rain or shine. And there is the rub.

So how does one bring about such a mindset shift, a deep-seated happiness that radiates out and touches those around?

While training butlers on a large project in the Bahamas recently, one student lent the author a dog-eared and well-used book entitled The Secret by Rhonda Byrne for the simple reason that the classes he was attending paralleled the book, which considers as a given, and reinforces, the spiritual side of living life.

People in the luxury hospitality industry as a whole are among the more able and upbeat individuals in society, and it seems many of them have gravitated towards this book in an effort to improve their performance at work and in life in general.

Ms. Byrne has accomplished an incredible feat in identifying the understandings and abilities of those through the centuries who have lived charmed and successful lives; and in doing so, helped reinforce the spiritual dynamic of life at a time when the proponents of materialism loudly proclaim that life is a collection of chemicals, might is right, and Machiavellian or amoral role models permeate every sphere, public and private. The book contains much truth, but also, unfortunately, sufficient curveballs to present a problem for anyone trying to apply the information as written. How come so few people can re-assert themselves into a winning frame of mind and have life follow suit? How come those who have this skill are also liable to lose it over time, to start to feel negative emotions or hostile feelings, not be able all the time to radiate happiness and joy?

Unfortunately, the word limit for this article precludes pointing out the strengths and the weaknesses of The Secret, but there is one fundamental barrier to applying this wisdom of the ages: we cannot continue to assert greater ability without finding the cause for having lost it in the first place. Just as we can lift ourselves up by our bootstraps in an emergency and rise above our limitations, so too, inevitably, will those same limitations suck us back down again when the emergency is over, no matter how much we may repudiate these limitations by “royal decree.”

What to do?

That’ll have to be the subject of the next article if sufficient interest is expressed.

First published in the December 2015 issue of the International Luxury Hotel Association, and reprinted since in a variety of publications, including Hotel Online, Hospitality Net, Hotel News Resource, Hospitality Trends, and a Russian hospitality magazine

 

 

 

 

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Creativity & Passion, Keys to Wowing and Returning Guests

Training at five-star resorts around the world offers a window seat into the more-refined sector of creativity and the achievements of those who are constantly striving to enthrall guests—guests with ever-rising expectations driven largely by access to an ever-expanding field promising and delivering equally exceptional experiences—and so move beyond merely satisfied guests into the heady domain of delighted guests who return again and again, friends in tow. The following anecdotal observations of effective initiatives being undertaken at the sumptuous end of hospitality are just that: neither official and sanctioned statements nor measured analyses with scientific conclusions; they do, however, have the advantage of a cross-chain perspective filtered through the prism of a butler’s luxury service mindset—with the same basic stresses and initiatives being relevant, equally, to three- and four-star environments.

Life Loves Life

Few GMs will argue whether friendly and professional service holds as much, if not more, sway in guest satisfaction as a splendid location and a wide array of quality facilities. As much as robot manufacturers strive for the ultimate robot that will make butlers and other service professionals obsolete, the warm and fuzzy truth is that people are people and like to be treated not just with mechanical efficiency, but also intelligence and empathy—by other life forms, in other words. Herein lies a key challenge for hotels and resorts: making live and friendly guest interaction the norm, as opposed to throwaway communications that betray a lack of real interest and engagement. Smarter GMs have recognized this hidden guest turn-off and engaged in training to remedy it.

Pursuing the same goal of increased “life quotient” amongst employees, some GMs have turned to the butling profession—not necessarily because they are more alive, but because, as life units, their mere presence provides life: Until the advent of butlers in hotels a couple of decades ago, the opportunities for face time/guest interaction and developing a special rapport/relationship were limited to brief guest experiences spread out over specific outlets and activities.

Exceptional individuals do transcend this brief opportunity to shine and create a loyal following (the author still remembers fondly being serviced a decade ago by a fine-dining waiter named Terry at the Lautrec restaurant in Pennsylvania, for his passion, even rapture, and the live rather-than-canned communication this generated).

Butlers servicing guests properly in suites open up a tremendous amount of extra services and thus face time and life. The convenience of having someone manage all the logistics of staying in a hotel or resort and most importantly, seeing to any problems; someone who knows and follows guest likes and dislikes—these all add a tremendous amount of value to the guest experience, as well as the opportunity to form a bond that is a strong pull for repeat visits, whether on the initiative of the guest or the suggestion of a butler who is valued and respected.

A side benefit of the butler acting as the single contact point for the guest, is avoiding multiple interactions that do not hold much value for the guest. Case in point: the fourteen different employees who knocked on the suite door seventeen times total in a 24-hour period, all of which had to be fielded by the guest. The benefit of interacting with other life forms is lost when those communications are either conducted at the wrong emotional level, or they do not forward the guest’s goals/interests.

The key to taking advantage of this (relatively) new resource for creating guest interaction, service, and thus loyalty, is having butlers who are alive, who know how to interact with and bring people to life, let alone guests, and how to provide a full range of hotel/resort butler services. Where hotels elect to take the shortcut of a butler in name but not deed, the results will be more burdensome budgets without the anticipated increase in guest loyalty.

The same poor result follows having too many guests for the butler to service, thereby losing that personal touch and relationship. One butler per suite/villa is optimum, but 1-to-4 would work. If the guests spend most of the time away from the suite, then a ratio of 1-to-8 would also work.

It is estimated that four hundred hotels around the world have understood the value of butlers, while the number that understand the need for alive and skilled butler service is smaller, but growing incrementally.

Data, Data Everywhere

Data is like air: we do not seem to be able to do without it for too long—even when on vacation far from the maddening crowds. Luckily, in most cases, the data is liberating and not something we need to avoid. This is certainly the case in hospitality, and some very good solutions have been implemented to keep guests informed.

For three- and four-star hotels and resorts, a large touch screen, such as Monscierge’s, in a hotel lobby providing all possible information from flight details to restaurant and theater information and booking capability is a boon for guests; Monscierge even provides the opportunity for instant guest feedback on TripAdvisor while the guests still have their experience fresh in mind and the time to input feedback—helping GMs put in perspective on the Web those who are determined to write up their complaints when they return home, and are persistent enough to do so!

Appearing now in five-star hotels and resorts, at least, is the iPAD in the suite/villa to do everything from room management (HVAC, curtains, & lights) to the items usually included in the hotel compendium, including menu photographs, wine list, booking, locale facilities, etc. There is no limit to how this little chap may be used—Anantara Kihava Villas (AKV) in the Maldives and others show videos on iPADs as part of their luxury bath package. Louis Vuitton’s newly launched Maison Cheval Blanc Randheli (MCBR), also in the Maldives, has provided a tremendous amount of functionality and information for their guests through the iPAD, and the majordome (French for “butler”) makes sure they know how to use it when needed.

Another opportunity for information relay is when a guest arrives at a hotel or resort for the first time—and needs to know their way around their villa/suite, as well as the resort—particularly where more than the usual basic facilities and amenities are offered.

Sometimes bellmen provide this “rooming” service, but butlers have guest orientation as one of their key duties. Where well trained, butlers stick to pointing out the less-obvious features and refrain from explaining, “… and this is the toilet (pointing to the bowl)” (actual occurrence). More so, they will be sensitive to guest attention span and tiredness/disinterest (something robot manufacturers will have trouble inculcating into their creations) and not push the guests beyond their interest level.

As touched on above, it may seem that the concierge could be made redundant by the iPAD and iRobot (no doubt to come), as guests become increasingly independent. In response, consider how much time one spends booking flights and trips today (beyond a simple, domestic round trip), with how much more pleasant an experience it was leaning on a travel agent to apply their expertise and present the best solution(s).

Naturally, a butler lacking the required skills will have no clear advantage over a metal/plastic robot namesake, hence the importance of proper training and standards to capitalize on the life that is already in them, and which their namesakes will never, ever have.

Features that Bring a Smile

There are so many different deliverables offered by hotels and resorts, all of them desirable and well executed, but it is the quirky offerings that stand out for their attention to detail and anticipation of needs. Take the baths at Peter Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands—twice as wide as normal, with the two contoured backs facing opposite directions so romantic couples can sit together without one of them leaning into the taps, or the couple having to squeeze in, one behind the other.

Contrast this with one hotel where the spout was hidden in the ceiling and resulted in a wet guest (in the case of the author when he leant over to turn on the water before undressing!). Such is definitely innovative, but what benefit is there to a spout in the ceiling and taps in the usual place—with no accommodation made for more than one bather? And when the Jacuzzi feature would not turn on unless the bath were made to overflow (counter-intuitive), then it should serve to illustrate that innovation has to be anchored by benefits to the needs and perspective of the guest in order to bring about a wowed guest.

Falling Rock in Pennsylvania was built following the architectural designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, so the hotel capitalizes on this theme by taking guests on a tour of nearby Frank Lloyd Wright buildings—in a Bentley (a one-of-two special edition)—followed by a butler-presented English Afternoon tea.

While many resorts offer world-class golf courses, some, such as Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa in Pennsylvania, and MCBR, and no doubt others, offer computerized swing analysis and correction—taking the golf concept one step further in a direction that all golfers want to go—meaning they will likely be back for more, with their friends.

Needless to say, many hotels offer in situ or nearby, many luxury brand shops and facilities—The Regent Taipei, for instance, but Marina Bay Sands (MBS) in Singapore probably takes the cake in terms of the sheer number of luxury brands represented, quite in addition to the theaters, convention center, museum, and of course, casino, etc.—all designed to keep 2,600 rooms filled year round with guests who value such offerings.

Facilities for children are vital to keeping families happy: one trend that seems to be taking root is giving children the opportunity to explore the real world that lies beyond the virtual universe of electronic games, widgets, and canned entertainment that generally define their lives today. One might say an innate need to socialize and move beyond the space one foot in front of their eyeballs and eardrums is being embraced eagerly. Whether it is developing creativity and imagination in the form of arts and crafts, or exploration of the stars above, fauna and flora around about, or treasure hunts, or the thrill of playing action-packed or cerebral games, it is clear that what enthralls and engages is participation, rather than being receipt point of the creations of others.

Top of the list in any deliverable is the accommodation itself, obviously: Original artwork and furnishings from Louis XIV give certain guests a good reason to regard a hotel or resort as their home away from home, as does the scope of the offering and view: 29,000 sq. ft of luxury in a private beachside villa (Anantara Kihava Villas), 27,500 sq. ft. of mountain-top villa (Peter Island Resort), or penthouses overlooking a cityscape (4,500 sq. ft. at The Plaza, NY, 10,000 sq. ft. at The Setai, Miami). These are not options or even desirable for all hotels, given their markets, but they speak of the continued need to attract with creativity in ambiance and décor that appeals to a specific market.

Butlers have a maxim that holds good service to be the starting point, always pushing beyond it if one want to service employers and guests properly. In the same way, décor and ambiance can be the usual, tired offerings, or they can reflect great attention (life and interest) paid to lots of little elements that would appeal to the clientele and bring them, in turn, to life.

In AKV, for instance, while transitioning currently to iPADs, they provide colorful cards highlighting each resource/facility/service available on the island, and provide everything from humidors crowded with Cubans to a variety of mosquito repellents, including natural ones, sarongs for the ladies and straw hats for the gentlemen, snorkeling gear, incense sticks, chess table and pieces for those who like, and a library of informational books and novels to read on the swing/rocking chair/pool/bath—everything a guest would reach/ask for in that environment—and all in addition to the usual trappings.

Beauty in the Eyes, Ears, and Nose of the Beholder

Which brings us to the subject of aesthetics.

There are baths and there are baths, and then there are baths as can be found in AKV, where the bathroom—the size of a very respectable suite, enclosed by tall white walls but open to the air. The large bathtub looks like a four-poster bed with walkways connecting it to the rest of the bathroom because it sits in the middle of a pond. When decked out by the butlers with fine wines and delectables, flowers, music, bath salts, scented candles that mix with the fresh forest smells coming from beyond the walls after a rain—and when the guests are alone to enjoy themselves, the balmy temperatures contrasted with the piping hot bath, the taste of the wine, delicacies, and Cuban cigar; the chorus of birds at sunset and the crash of waves on the beach filtering through the music—we have a slice of slow life that is hard to beat—but the principles can be repeated.

The attention to detail and creativity in the interior design elements all add up to an ambiance that moves beyond the norm to something special. MCBR, for instance, draws on world-class designers, often from its own portfolio of luxury houses such as Guerlain and Dior, to create a unique environment that is at once local Maldivian and haute couture French. Not one thing is out of theme in terms of packaging, whether it be the custom-made scents, colors, artwork, and little details like a wooden model of a dhoni (indigenous sailboat) containing sand into which are impressed one-word messages each day for the guest, or the little “love box” of tasteful goodies placed discretely in the bedside table drawer for romantically inclined couples.

One does not need seventy or so luxury houses in one’s portfolio in order to be creative—just a culture of creativity.

Keeping Guests out of the Backlines

What do guests do, or have to do, while at a hotel or resort?

To the degree that any required guest action is mundane, catering to the back-lines administrative needs of the resort or hotel, it is a negative in terms of enticing the guest to return. The whole benefit of butler service is that apart from a necessary signature on a credit card at the beginning and end of a stay, the guest has zero requirements other than focusing on enjoying all the activities and resources. MCBR really understands this point, as they offer their guests (who, one-for-one, have no attention on the mechanics or finances concomitant with enjoying themselves), the option of only reviewing and signing their bill at the end of their stay, rather than after each event during their stay. While this approach may not work with cost-conscious guests, it does represent the ultimate in discretion, leaving guests free to focus on the benefit and joys of their stay.

Other butler-service hotels generally do away with any check-in, for instance, simply whisking guests from the jetty/porte cochère to their villa/suite and fêting them there, during which they also simply present the credit card slip for signing and, if not already done during any private plane, speedboat, or limousine ride to the resort, ask guests for any missing registration details and enter them.

Contrast this procedure with a thirty-minute wait at a front desk in a sometimes noisy and dispersed environment, and a five-to-ten-minute registration process.

Environment as Playground

Location is not everything: a good proportion, when it comes to success, is comprised of what one does with it. In the Maldives, One & Only Reethi Rah acquired an island that was too small to be viable, so they simply added crescent-shaped beaches (by pumping sand from the surrounding sea bed) and locally sourced palm trees, beginning a trend that adapts the environment (in a sustainable way) to man, rather than the other way around. Many other resorts turned disadvantage in their favor by building water villas on stilts. Soneva Gili (now Gili Lankenfushi) even created private “swimming pools” under each villa so guests could swim with the fish.

The Soneva chain even makes “environment” the theme, thereby appealing to the environmentally conscious market that has limited choices available in the luxury or other markets. Initiatives include organic gardens, packing out one’s recyclables, bottling the resorts’ own purified water and reusing the glass bottles (common to much of the Maldives and increasing numbers of restaurants around the world), no newspapers (for the bad news/stress they trumpet as much as the waste stream generated), solar power, natural mosquito repellants, the use of sustainably grown building materials, and a culture embodied in their acronym, SLOW LIFE (Sustainable-Local-Organic-Wellness Learning-Inspiring-Fun-Experiences).

Looking down, underwater restaurants (Red Sea Star, Eilat, Israel [1995], Guinness Deep Sea Bar, a submarine in the Baltic Sea near Stockholm [2009] and even hotels (Jules’ Underwater Lodge in Key Largo, Florida [1986] and Utter Inn on Lake Mälaren, Sweden, a one-bedroom inn) are no longer novel in concept, but Conrad’s Rangali Island Ithaa restaurant in the Maldives [2005] and AKV’s Sea Restaurant and extensive wine cellar merge the experience with five-star service. Burj al Arab’s Al Mahara (1991) is in a tank rather than the ocean, but offers an equally impressive five-star dining experience.

Promising to move to the next level is Poseidon Undersea Resorts, a luxury undersea complex in a 5,000-acre coral lagoon in Fiji, offering a restaurant, lounge, and twenty-two 550-square-foot suites priced at $30,000 per couple per week. The fact that it was meant to have opened six years ago leaves one guessing and may indicate that something quite this ambitious in scope may be overly challenging—let’s hope not.

Then there are those resorts that move underground in search of that extra-special experience: take Gili Lankenfushi, where the chocolate bar and wine-tasting room are in a cellar dug into the small island, to keep the bottles at temperature and the chocolate from melting in an otherwise equatorial environment.

And there are resorts that reach upwards, such as Soneva Kiri in Thailand, which offers a treetop-level pod for four to which diners are winched and where dinner is delivered on a zip line.

Needless to say, many hotels and resorts find simple ways of thinking outside the box and leveraging the local environment to jazz up guest dining experiences: picnics on the beach or remote islands, on all manner of waterborne craft, in the countryside, and iconic city destinations such as Hyde Park, London.

Not every hotel or resort can attract a clientele that keeps the tables filled at $1,500 per diner (wine not included), as MCBR 1947  does, but the real lesson in keeping all tables filled is great attention to detail and pride in quality, quite in addition to being creative and innovative in cuisine, ambiance, and setting.

Several resorts offer huge-screen outdoor movies complete with all the trimmings, whether on small private islands, in forests, over the water, and no doubt, other places, too. While the Soneva chain offers such, following the owner’s own interests, it also offers a large telescope and even an astronomer to guide guests across the copious canopy above the equator where a complete lack of light pollution leaves the firmament wonderfully clear—a universe to explore that is a rare treat for most of us, focused as we are on the dramas offered on terra firma.

All of which is to say, whatever the location, budget, resources, and market, the hotels and resorts that seem to be succeeding in guest happiness and retention are those that encourage a creative approach to, and passion for, making every possible artifact and service-occasion extra special and “life-giving” for their guests.

First published in Hotel Executive, then by Hospitality Net, Hotel Online, Hotel News Resource,  JLC Travel and Tourism, and 4Hotelier.

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Mr. Bicycle and Other Challenges

“What do you suggest?” asked the GM of a luxury resort over lunch, recently. “A guest is insisting we track down the guest who ‘stole’ his bicycle and have him apologize in person.” The resort gives bicycles without charge to all guests and one had perhaps inadvertently, in the dark, taken the wrong one back to their villa. The butler had found the bicycle almost immediately and returned it to the indignant guest while the GM arranged for a visiting friend to impersonate the “thieving” guest and offer an apology. Unfortunately, the irate guest’s bicycle went missing again soon thereafter, and the guest went ballistic, this time insisting the police be called. In the end, several comps later (but not the anticipated comp for the whole stay), the guest left, the situation finessed by a GM who was no stranger to handling the occasional “guest from hell”—for it was not entirely clear that the guest had not himself simply re-routed the bicycle.

Thereafter, during the training of the butlers, “Mr. Bicycle” was held up as an example of an irate guest and the subject of role-playing on how to handle them through communication alone, without comping.

After a decade crisscrossing the globe in luxury resorts and hotels, plenty of perplexed and even frustrated GMs, DORs, FOMs and butlers have shared such examples.

As reportedly 5-7% of hospitality profits (2006 figures) disappear down the black hole of comping, instead of being used for the benefit of operations, owners, and shareholders, a solution would be a welcome idea, perhaps. Not that all comping is inappropriate, as sometimes the hospitality provider is at fault and needs to make restitution; but the majority of comping, by anecdotal accounts, seems to be for opportunistic and even criminally inclined guests in a world beset by declining moral standards.

It helps to define a problem accurately if a workable solution is sought, and in this case, there appear to be two issues, not one:
The first and easiest to resolve is the propensity to comp at the first sign of trouble in order to avoid further public displays. For instance, the Front Desk Clerk at one hotel in Manhattan offered to reduce a guest’s bill from $1,500 to $1,200 the instant he quietly answered her question about the suite (to protect the next guest, not to obtain a discount) including a faulty light that had come on at three in the morning. When he retorted that any deduction was really not necessary, she replied, “Well, how about $900?” The guest quit while he was still ahead, in case any further discussion of the subject might result in further reductions. Even if the guest were angry, and even if the hotel were at fault, this lady could have handled the situation without comping, because there is nothing easier than handling an angry guest, unless it is handling one, with communication skills alone, who is not angry.

However, when a guest is a professional “comp scavenger,” their hidden agenda makes it hard to handle with communication alone.
Take the example of the hotel opening in Georgia a few years back. Everyone from the owner’s family and even the outside trainers had been up all night before the opening to prepare. The high hopes and morale took a beating when the guest who booked the presidential suite and two adjoining ones, created a scene on checkout and was comp’d the entire weekend. They had set up the hotel to fail, taking meticulous notes of problems, more imagined and in some cases orchestrated by him than real. A cross check afterwards found he had been blacklisted by at least two other chains.
A False Start
Incensed, the author wrote an article in 2007 (on what he termed the guest from hell) that was widely published in the industry and received so much feedback (such as “Thank you for telling the truth—such a rare thing now—and addressing a topic near and dear to many service people’s heart”) that two more equally well-received articles followed in relatively quick succession (“Your articles have given us strength to carry on”). The gist of this trio was the need for an industry wide database of such guests, so they could not wreak havoc in one chain before being found out and blacklisted, and then simply hopping over to another chain, like a flea in pursuit of fresh blood.
Fortunately, the editor of the (initially publishing) magazine agreed and assigned one of his managers to establish such an organization. After providing much legal, ethical, and marketing input pro bono, the author was non-pulsed to receive a rather vicious letter threatening overwhelming legal action if he entertained any notion of moving forward with the project, as he obviously had nothing to do with it, according to the project manager’s overly assertive and twisted logical threads. Oh dear, the editor responded to the author’s perplexed email with the news that the erstwhile manager had left the magazine’s employ contentiously and was running with the guest-from-hell database idea as his very own business opportunity—the organization that was designed to neutralize guests from hell was itself in the grip of the corporate equivalent…and predictably would create chaos before imploding.

One of the reasons trouble was in the offing was this individual had expanded the definition of guests from hell from those who are criminally inclined—trying to obtain something for nothing (one particularly useful definition of criminality, whether bopping one on the head and running off with one’s wallet; “making” vast fortunes through manipulations of virtual money at the expense of the actual, physical economy; or hopping from one hotel to another without exchanging the valuables required to pay the wages and bills)—to include those who merely misbehaved. In so doing, he was perhaps following the lead of the NSA, turning the vast majority of well-behaved and considerate, law-abiding guests into valid targets for police state/thought police surveillance and control.
So when the story of Mr. Bicycle came up, offering the GM the above, caveat included, raised his hopes and piqued the author’s interest about the current state of affairs, over six years on. The database organization had something like 14,000 hotels signing up on launch, but the author had neither heard of (nor checked into) it since.

Internet research found no evidence of the original company beyond 2008, it now being defunct. There is one in the UK for small hotels and B&Bs, etc. Unfortunately, they have gone down the same road of policing and reporting misbehaving guests, as well as destructive or criminal ones, and so, while filling a demand, are also running afoul of such as the human rights watchdog, Privacy International.
Maybe the focus on clamping down on misbehaving is simply a reflection of the laws appearing on the books in the UK of late that are designed to monitor and criminalize misbehavior—a sad trend no doubt in misguided response to hooliganism: suppressing the symptom rather than eradicating the cause(s) and so inevitably generating further problems. But it is interesting that both initiatives widened the scope from fighting back against fraud (a valid target) to monitoring guest behavior, which focus conflicts with the ethos embodied in being a host and hospitality.

Turning Challenge to Opportunity

So as it stands, there is still no resource or association offering an industry wide database for luxury hotels and resorts and other higher-end service providers, in which those “guests” who engage in fraudulent and destructive actions (as opposed to unacceptable behavior) are listed. The idea being not to prevent such guests from coming to a hotel again, thereby potentially laying the hotel open to a charge of discriminating against them, but to refuse any attempts at engineering free service/products after they arrive, and also to have information on hand in the case of any subsequent attempt at Black PR on the Internet (by those who might have attempted to be comped and been rebuffed) after they have left.

How would it work? When a comp-merchant displayed his/her true colors, the database would be accessed to see if this were a pattern, and if so, the guest quietly confronted with the pattern and any notes made by employees during the current stay, and encouraged to pay unless they wanted to escalate the matter with the authorities. In this way, one also avoids inspection before the fact: assuming all are potential violators and so creating a climate of suspicion that tends to provoke what it purports to prevent, instead of simply dealing with those who need to be dealt with by their clearly demonstrated actions.

The above would be the administrative set-up and easy to institute, given software programs, Internet, and PayPal.

As one reader offered by way of possible organizations to spearhead such a database and its management: “Hospitality and sensibility only go so far when someone has ransacked the relationship. Typically, the guests from hell you are referencing receive free meals, rooms, cocktails, etc, and sometimes they even bring suit—all a nuisance and expense. Perhaps [we should] consider working with and being sponsored by insurance companies that cover hotels for such suits (presented on the expense side, it would fall under their umbrella, and insurance companies probably already have this info somewhere, as all businesses are subject to ruse), as well as the larger hotel chains and hotel associations. Good lord, credit card companies have protection built in, too, for any charge, which may be the seamless protector needed and offered as a service or specialty to their market.”

Whatever form it takes, in the end, well-earned profits and service given in good faith would be protected and reinforced, rather than being degraded by the few guests who act in bad faith. Such is a worthy goal, and hopefully some other enterprising individual or organization will pick up the gauntlet on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of earnest individuals who are working hard to create the wonderful experience that is luxury service.

Putting the Employee in the Driver’s Seat

It is only when one cannot fight back against something evil that morale and motivation suffer. The inescapable truth is that such guests are completely incapable of telling the truth. The angry, noisy type will at best twist the truth to make their point more egregious, or at worst, blatantly lie in a manner that is most destructive to the target of their ire. Those guests who feel the same way but are too timid to be angry, sometimes known as “passive aggressive” or “covertly hostile,” will be most ingenious in their complete perversions of the truth, covering their tracks with great finesse. Both types put hospitality professionals at a disadvantage.

Who hasn’t had a run-in with a guest from hell and, following the dictum, “The Guest is Always Right (even when they are acting criminally),” have taken it on the chin, turned the other cheek, and dare I say it, bent over—and in so doing, also exposed their sense of what is right and just to a good drubbing. After which, invariably, there is the giving away of the farm to appease the guest; angst about possible repercussions from head office, the media, and whatever other sources of retribution the guest promised to inform of one’s misguided efforts at service; and a lessening of one’s liking for the job, eventually and potentially to the point of quitting the profession. It is essential that the hospitality industry preserve the “hospitality” in its approach to guests; guests from hell undermine the openness and good humor upon which such hospitality depends.

Dynamic Knowledge is Power

Part of the solution, therefore, has to be educating employees on this kind of personality and then letting them have fun spotting them and predicting what they will do or say next. By empowering employees, one dis-empowers the criminally inclined guests, for the only power these actually have is that generated by the employee in responding to the unjust and unkind remarks or actions.

An individual in a lunatic asylum thinking he is god has no followers outside the asylum. He has no power. But if people outside the asylum give weight to his words and form a cult, then he would have power. It’s the same with the guest from hell: Recognize his or her ravings as those of a lunatic who has yet to be labeled as one (and may never be, because in real life such people can sound very convincing and may even have numerous letters after their name, titles in front of it, and great wealth), and he will have no power. React or give credence to his claims, and one empowers him.

Empowered employees will no longer think “mea culpa” and “mea lose my job” when assailed by such guests. A short, illustrated book has been published to help understand such troubling and troubled guests; the link provides more information. If interested, you can email this author for a complimentary electronic copy—there are no strings attached to this offer and email addresses will neither be harvested nor shared.

Published initially by Luxury Hoteliers and then by Hotel Online, 4Hotelier, Hospitality Net,  and Hotel News Resource 

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The Politically Incorrect Guide to Keeping (and Attracting) Your Better Employees

 Here are some fresh ideas and politically incorrect suggestions on the biggest expense (and loss) for hoteliers: personnel and their penchant for quitting every 18 months or so. Perceptions and expectations have changed over the last couple of decades: loyalty and longevity used to be a given virtue and now, fabulously enough, have become signs of a “loser.” Resumes of inveterate job hoppers, once frowned upon, now signal a person with “ambition and drive,” someone to have on the team. Thus looking after #1 has become a virtue and the company is somehow expected to flourish when peopled by a preponderance of team members who aren’t. The other side of the coin, of course, is what on earth have corporations been doing to so alienate their best resource? Two thousand years ago, slaves could rightly complain of many things, but job insecurity was not one of them—that’s reserved for today’s lonely employee.

One candidate for corporate shortcoming is the common misconception that there is little upward mobility in the hospitality industry, making it a stepping-stone to something else. Politics and other factors that add up to bad management play a part, too, from hotel to hotel. Yet the strong correlation between staff retention and guest satisfaction calls for better strategies for giving existing staff what they want and making the work environment desirable. No doubt, some hotels and chains exist with much better retention rates. When we hire for the private estate sector, it is with the intention of permanent placement by finding the right fit for both parties, and we come close to that goal. To move the trend in that direction in the hospitality sector, something needs to change.

Hoteliers spend 45%-50% of their operating expenses and 35% of their revenue on personnel and are rewarded with a 30-31% turnover annually at a cost of 150% average of that departing person’s annual salary: half from loss of productivity and half in placement and training costs—all while guests are less well served for the year the replacement takes to be found and come up to speed: in essence, hotel staffs are operating at about 80% of their service quality potential because of turnover.

In addition, we have a drain of talent as Baby Boomers, a generation with a visceral respect for the value of excellent service, are replaced by Gen X who numerically constitute 3/7’s the size; and Gen Y with a culture of entitlement (thanks, it seems, to advertisements that tell them they deserve the best just because; school teachers passing them willy nilly; and laissez faire/indulgent Baby Boomer parents—yes, all politically incorrect to mention, but as with any generalized overview, enough exceptions exist to prove the contention).

Here are five basic steps offered to revert the trend:

Step 1: Get the hiring process right

Beyond all the mechanical actions to bring in new staff (employee referral programs, job fairs, reaching passive job seekers, etc.), there are two key strategies that impact retention:

Hire upbeat, can-do individuals because a person’s attitude determines everything else about them, from service level to consideration for others, including their teammates and the company. Red Carnation Hotel Collection recently had four hotels in TripAdvisor’s top six in London: guest comments consistently mentioned the friendly and enthusiastic staff, which, not surprisingly, describes the kind of person they hire (and then train keenly, another plus that is made possible by the staff loving the company and sticking around).

Hire from within where possible, to encourage upward mobility and loyalty, and because loyalty and product knowledge have already been proven. One gets what one pushes.

Hospitality colleges could support their clients by moving away from training graduates who want to make large salaries managing hotels from Day One and then move onto something else; and back to bringing about hands-on doers, enthusiastic and creative hospitality professionals who understand the satisfaction of providing service to another in the fast-paced world of hospitality to be an important element of the remuneration.

Step 2: Ease out of the back door those who are holding back the team and business

The best way to improve efficiency, and the working climate, is to let go anyone failing a couple of very simple tests that take a couple of minutes to administer.

Simply ask a question about their job that they should know the answer to and see how long it takes for the answer to be forthcoming. Burblings, ums and ahs, questioning, reluctance, accusations, upset, silences, wrong answers…the longer any of these continue, the worse off the individual is as a team player and the less one wants him or her on board.

The second test is to talk to them enthusiastically about a subject and see if they respond in kind. If not, try expressing something on a different topic in a cheerful tone of voice. Still nothing more than a blank look or minimal response? Try a different topic and express strong interest in it. If they still do not come to life and start talking, make a conservative statement in a conservative tone of voice. If still nothing, then one is looking at someone who does not belong on the front lines of hospitality, to be sure, and nowhere else in an organization that wants to run efficiently. A simple cross check of their area, with their co-workers, any personnel files, references, etc., will find they are busy laying goose eggs all over the place, upsetting guests, or having projects go wrong around them. The time would be ripe for applying the usual process to let them go if they do not improve their performance during the process.

Then we have people who are gossips, always being involved in arguments and fights, or busy criticizing their fellow team players, management, vendors, and guests. They can be fixed, but can one really afford to turn the hotel into a clinic?

The biggest miscalculation by managers and HR at this point is they agree with reasons offered to justify poor performance while letting it continue. These disaffected people add up to unwilling service and a discouraged team, and that is something a manager’s gut instincts rebel against; so maybe we should have the guts to follow our guts and leave political correctness to those who promote it. It’s best for everyone in the long run, even the sourpuss.

Step 3: Give the employees what they care about

As axiomatic as it sounds and therefore perhaps trite, one needs to find out what the employees care about by asking them. As an increasing proportion of the employees are Gen X (born 1965-85) and Y (1986-2006)—and by 2017, Gen X&Y guests are anticipated to be the biggest constituency among guests, too—then it is necessary to understand what interests and motivates them. They differ from Baby Boomers in their expectations and even Gen X and Y are not driving down the same road. The following is a rough map of these divergent roads, but each individual has his own needs and wants, which only a searching survey or interview will unearth.

Gen Xers are generally focused on balancing their work and private lives, which rules out workaholism and constricts scheduling. They value diversity, inclusion, and tolerant workplaces. Other strengths include being technologically savvy, creative and innovative in solving problems, and pragmatic. They are the reason ties are rarely seen these days in the business world, and they may appear to disrespect their boss and be irritated at being micromanaged (who doesn’t), but they prefer to work independently and be self-reliant. Which means they can be given projects to work on that challenge them, and then rewarded for their output. Their people skills are not so sharp generally, so training and role-playing are called for. And their understandable cynicism about life can be ameliorated to everyone’s advantage by an upbeat management approach.

Gen Yers, perhaps with the optimism of youth, are socially conscious, so make good candidates for social and environmental initiatives. They tend to have unrealistic expectations (the entitlement culture) that need to be brought down to earth and harnessed on a career path they can relate to: including doing the technological functions they thrive on: i.e. putting them in charge of tweeting, monitoring the web, writing blogs for the hotel, or teaching old fogies how to handle their email.

Half of Gen Yers expect to be famous—perhaps because the Web has the potential for making anyone famous overnight—so let them save the day from time to time and bruit it about on the blog, newsletter, etc.

They have short attention spans that can benefit (not from multitasking, which is actually inefficient, but) from being rotated through projects and positions. If Gen Xers have difficulties with their people skills, Gen Yers are hopelessly enamored with the virtual world and find real people hard to confront and deal with—requiring training and role-playing with an exclamation point to bring them up to the standards required of hospitable people.

Note, however, with 85% of job success connected to people skills and the U.S. Department of Labor reporting over 50% turnover for customer service positions, one can only conclude there to be something seriously flawed in the people-skill training that is being offered broadly.

Gen Yer’s casual approach to service can be sublimated by lightly laying over them the expectation they can be stars, and more often than not, if one believes in them, they will rise to the occasion; and where they do not, an insistence they do, and the creation of a framework that steers them in that direction and validates them when they excel, will pick up most of them and prevent standards from dropping throughout a facility or chain.

Lastly, see Step 5 for creating the right corporate culture.

Step 4: Throw out the existing techniques for staff retention and start using effective techniques, because at 30% turnover per annum, something is seriously wrong with HR as it is currently being done. High-offers and bribing-talent-to-stay strategies appeal to money-motivated individuals who leave when a higher offer presents itself and who infect others with their wrong-headed motivation.

Certainly, many actions being taken are effective, such as providing mentors and even role models for new hires, and matching postings to interest and skills so as to mollycoddle new hires through the critical six weeks where they often chuck in the towel. A management style that encourages two-way communication, invites and validates participation and contributions that improve conditions or solve problems, will have employees going the extra mile and a team built rather nicely.

A focus on training (one third of hotels provide none) that forwards a career path can only do good; and that should include staff experiencing the hotel’s services to understand the guest point of view; and quality control based on feedback from managers and guests. Where jobs are made interesting and fun, a culture of appreciation and even admiration is encouraged, and a generally pleasant work environment is created.

Where worker burnout is preempted (40% of staff spending more time at work, 14% doing 10+ hours per day as a result of heavier workloads during the downsizing downturn) by simply listening to, acknowledging, and resolving their upsets and stresses, arranging flexible work arrangements, or lessening hours where possible, then things do improve. Better still, however, is to take a walk and get some space. Or assign them to do the opposite type work—managers being put on cleaning, for instance, for a change of pace and environment (cross-jobbing, not job sharing). These two approaches resolve the underlying exhaustion that sets in when one becomes too concentrated on a particular environment and activity.

Competitive remuneration, including benefit programs such as rooms, and caring for the welfare of the employee in terms of health, housing, schooling, etc. all help keep distractions to a minimum and can help with retention.

But where are we falling short?

In a way that all industries and professions are falling short: ethics is an unknown and unused subject, lost somewhere in the halls of philosophy. It does not exist as a technology with usable formulas and actions to take. Morals and ethics are used interchangeably in the dictionary, whereas they are different subjects with a similar goal—so no wonder hotels are struggling if ethics is a word that puts people to sleep. Similarly, “ethics panels” exist which are not ethics panels but justice boards designed to punish wrong-doing or determine innocence.

Simply put, ethics is the decision and skill to do the right thing (for all those impacted by any decision and its concomitant actions) because one wants to, not because one is bullied into doing so by following a set of rules one cannot always agree to—which is how one could define morals and laws. Without an understanding and use of ethics by each individual in a group, how can any business, political or other group, or civilization for that matter, run smoothly? The answer to that question is evident in the blather of bad news in newspapers the world over.

Ethics is basically the tool an individual uses to do well in life, for himself and those around him (because the one cannot happen without the other, long term). Its application in an organization includes identifying and neutralizing malicious staff (and “guests from hell”) so decent people can get on with their jobs and lives. It means no more soul-deadening internal politics. It means ensuring fair play through transparency in assessments; rewarding good works (keeping metrics on performance and rewarding and promoting [or demoting] based on those metrics, not opinions or nepotism); and penalizing bad [or no] works without people yelping about victimization. People value their jobs more than anything else, really, and if work becomes something bad in a culture, that culture is about to go the way of the corn-and-games Roman and all other empires that only exist now as crumbling ruins and stories in history books—a far worse victimization, surely, than rapping a n’er-do-well’s wrists.

There is more to ethics: Leigh Branham and the Saratoga Institute identified The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave. They isolated apparent reasons, all of which have merit, but they do not find the really hidden reason people feel compelled to leave. It has nothing to do with how deficient the organization is, as they invariably claim. Nobody is going to say, “I am leaving this hotel because I have been turning up late every day; I used the company car for a jaunt to the Florida keys; oh, and by the way, it was me that forgot to make the reservation that resulted in Mr. Gottbucks missing his connection, etc., etc.” No, as unpalatable as it is, and no doubt beyond the ken of most people, it is the basic, hidden reason; and of course, it is quite easily resolved. But if it isn’t resolved, we will keep seeing people leaving group after group.

Lastly, the power of the word, when misunderstood, has yet to be appreciated by HR and trainers. When a Turkish waiter took an order for green peppers in an omelet and the breakfast guest choked on the Serrano peppers presented in the omelet, it is amusing in retrospect. But these misunderstandings and miscommunications add up to 80% of the trouble any business experiences, and these in turn add up to much wasted effort and lost profits. They also add up to employees leaving because they “can’t seem to get it right.” There are many ways to ferret out and slay these wrongly or partially understood words during the training process and on the job; but if not done, turnover will continue to plague the industry.

Step 5: Work out the corporate identity and philosophy that Gen X and Y can live with (and the guests, obviously) and make sure it is reflected in the actual work environment as well as the virtual world of the social media.

Many people occupy the virtual universe of cell phones, Internet tweets and blogs in preference to the real world, as anyone knows who has observed drivers on cell phones, joggers on iPods, walkers tweeting, siblings texting each other in the same room, and fellow passengers who say not a word during a 15-hour flight. The wonders of technology offer us the ability to videoconference for free around the world from a cell phone in a car to a computer on the beach where there is a wireless signal—but the price we pay is living amongst virtual humans, cut off to varying degrees from the immediacy of everything the real world has to offer. As with all things, a balance is needed, the best of both worlds must be captured. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back as Gen Z moves beyond Gen Y’s shadow.

This fifth step is large enough for a separate article, and as this one is already overlong, it ends here. Hopefully, a few concepts have rung true and for improving retention rates.

 

Originally published by Hotel Executive Review in 2011 

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Slaying Oxymoronos Maximus, the Great Dragon of Cheap Imitation in the Luxury Market

When it comes to luxury, nobody is under the misapprehension that a Ford, as good as it is in its context, can be passed off as a car that would cost $100,000 because it is built of the finest materials and is designed with a host of features that would warrant such a price tag.

The same goes for a hotel: as good as Hiltons are, for instance, few if any of them are rated as five stars/diamonds for the simple reason that their furnishings and appointments are not so designed: Their 5-star offerings are the Waldorf Astorias and Conrads.

So while the obvious features visible to the naked eye are clearly evident and determinable as to their quality, the less visible but no less palpable features of service levels receive less scrutiny when it comes to assigning quality. In one luxury resort that had all the trappings of a five-star (and was even rated so), I was forced to recommend to corporate that they close the place down because 90% of the employees were totally focused on tips as opposed to service, which emphasis was not lost on guests. Not surprisingly, corporate paid no heed (and never asked me back). But, I was encouraged to hear that another luxury chain in the same region, had done just that a few years later, shortly after opening at great expense, because they found they could not maintain their standards and did not want their brand to suffer. Kudos to them.

When it comes to service levels, butlers are really designed for hotels and resorts that are Five Star, or Four Star heading toward a Five. Why? For two simple reasons:

  • Butlers demand a premium in terms of rack rate for the host of added services they make available to guests, which added expense would be tolerable to guests not traveling with an eye to economy as the primary driver;
  • Butlers (should) provide a style of service characterized by discretion, panache and attention to detail, etc., which are more likely to be the expected and appreciated service levels for those moving in luxury circles.

This not to say that a hotel of any rating, or even no rating, cannot provide those same services, or some of them, at least, to their guests, in an effort to improve service levels—nor even having other department staff delivering those services because there is no budget for butlers. This is not to say, also, that any hotel of any rating cannot train its personnel in the same levels of sophisticated service—all power to such efforts to improve service—but the likelihood that their guests will appreciate such niceties and refinements may well lessen, as will the difficulty increase in providing such services on restricted budgets available to hotels and resorts with lower rack rates.

So what point is being made here?

Two actually: the first that two and three star/diamond-level hotels are advertizing butler service as such, while offering substantially inferior levels of service than is expected of butlers; and the second, that four and five-star/diamond hotels and resorts are doing the same! It is one thing to offer genuine butler service, and quite another to hang onto the tails of the butler profession in name only, while not delivering on the promise such offers to guests.

The latter is the equivalent of fake Gucci bags, or lacing milk with melamine, a derivative of coal, in the effort to boost its apparent protein content (melamine having a signature almost identical chemically to protein). The result in hospitality won’t be sickened and dead babies or sickened adults, as was the case with melamine-laced milk powder in baby formula and chocolates, etc., but it will be disappointed guests who do not return—something that benefits neither guests nor hotels. Melamine, for those who may not know, was one of the examples of cheap and even dangerous imitations coming out of China.

While China is probably also the most egregious in cheap imitations of butlers, the intent is not to scapegoat them: They have had bad examples set by the British, for instance in areas close to the hearts of the Chinese, (in this case, tea) as butlers are to the British. To amplify: a couple of centuries ago, the British developed a prodigious thirst for the tea drink that the Chinese had been cultivating for five thousand years. Demand was so strong and prices so high due to the low-production volume, given the slower methods of quality production practiced by the Chinese, that the British decided to grow their own in other colonies, specifically at that time, India and Ceylon.

The problem was they did not know how and the Chinese were not inclined to tell them (the British actually thought green and black teas came from separate tea bushes, and that they were harvested by monkies, such was the state of confusion on the subject); so the British East India Company (the largest corporation in history) sent industrial spies to China, who obtained the needed information, as well as smuggling out several hundred tea plants. The British then developed mass-production methods that boosted volume while lowering quality: creating small tea leaves and dust that when bagged, could be used to create poor-tasting beverages (when compared with the whole- or large-leaved Chinese teas that actually taste of something). How ironic.

But back to butling and standards of butling: having been asked numerous times by Chinese hotels and potential JV partners to, at the most extreme end, train hundreds of butlers at a time for three hours total and then give them a certificate, and in each case refusing to quote on such RFPs, it has become clear that someone else did step up to the plate, and that, consequently, China is awash in hotels with butler figureheads offering little or no substance.

This is not to say that all hotels in China are so afflicted, but the exception no doubt will prove the rule. And this is not to say that it is only in China that such standards are expected: many hotels elsewhere have requested similar treatments—one luxury hotel in the Middle East rejected a one-month program with three trainers for its 170-plus butlers, and instead, awarded the contract to a single trainer who spent a total of three days on site, so the hotel could claim it had butler service.

A famous luxury chain worked with us initially, long enough to receive our suggestions and acquire our materials, and then decided to do it all in-house. A couple of years later, a third-party asked for our assistance in bringing the butler service up to some sort of standard, having conducted an audit in a US location of this chain and finding it rather too deficient. Corporate refused, and they remain, to this day, offering inferior butler service.

What does one take away from all of this?

That there are some hotels and resorts that recognize the value of butlers in providing extra and superior service to their guests, and who make a serious effort to understand and implement those services and service styles—and their efforts are being undermined by the greater number of hotels that see something desirable, yet try to implement it with short cuts—usually to minimize outlay.

The result is an oxymoron—a contradiction—cheap luxury. Imagine Rolls Royce using plastic burled wood or leather seats; or inferior metals in the engine that sheer after one or two uses (as the author has found to be the case in trying to use construction tools that are almost invariably available only from Chinese manufacturing plants).

Providing guests with amenities such as fake Gucci bags is the same order of thing as butlers who don’t deliver on the range of butler services, or who don’t know how to. A hotel would not do the former, so why do they do the latter? Just as guests might look askance at Gucci bags until they had inspected them carefully, so they do at hotels that claim they offer butler service. The result is that butlers no longer become the selling point they should be, because of past experiences that did not live up to guest expectations.

It’s time we slew this dragon as a profession and as an industry, and started to insist on quality delivery. One possible resource is to implement and promote more broadly the industry rating system created seven years ago for hotel butler service—available for free at https://www.modernbutlers.com/standards/rating-system-for-hotel-butlers/.

This article is not directed only to hotel managers and owners who feel cutting corners on luxury to be appropriate, but to the hotel managers and owners who do the right thing—because their investments are being tarnished by the former. It is an industry wide issue and we can do something about it, even if just speaking discreetly over a drink or dinner to any colleagues who feel that cutting corners is appropriate when providing luxury, that cheap luxury is possible to present to a discerning clientele.

by Steven Ferry

Published May 2013 by Hotel Business Review, Hospitality Net, and Hotel Online.

 

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Butlers are Indispensable to the Pampered Lifestyle

Whatever luxury hotel guests, and individuals and families in upscale private residences, are looking for, pampering and having fun are two common goals that butlers are relied upon increasingly to provide.

And what do they provide? The way we teach them, it is anything requested that is legal. And when the butler is doing it correctly, whatever they anticipate the guest or employer wants before they even ask for it. That is part of the magic of having a butler—where things appear as if by magic.

Some luxury resorts and hotels strive to create magical moments for their guests. This is right on track with their mission, and why butler service is being offered increasingly in hotel settings, instead of just in private estates, as used to be the case just thirty years ago (before the hospitality industry realized the extra dimension of service guests could experience in their suites and villas).

For families who have not inherited and grown up with great wealth and who may not be used to the idea of butlers as the superior service-providers usually reserved for aristocracy and royalty, there is much to be gained by turning over the grind of running their estates and staff to a trained and experienced butler, leaving themselves free to enjoy the freedoms their great wealth brings.

Over the years, we have had the pleasure of working around the world with private families (who obviously must remain nameless), as well as top hotel chains and private villas, where the managers and staff have been more than eager to learn just what it is that makes butlers the superior-service professionals that they are.

And that does not mean tails, white gloves, and hushed tones everywhere: in London and New York, yes, The Savoy, St. Regis, and Mandarin Oriental; but not in the natural world of the Six Senses or One & Only chains, where white beaches and flashing white-teeth smiles are more in order, and the butlers bare-footed.

If one thing is certain, whatever the venue, those who can afford it will always be better off with a modern or traditional butler in the wings, seeing to their every need.

 

 

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Creative Strategies for Maintaining Training Quality without Busting the Budget

Since the publication early last year of The Butler is here to Stay, but will the Guests be Happy Driving Fords?, a noticeable trend has been observable in the hospitality industry toward the serious training of butlers and the establishment or improvement of butler programs or imparting superior butler service levels in guest-facing positions.

In the wake of mass affluents pulling back on their vacations and businesses also restricting budgets to deal with increased costs of business travel, the tourist industry has had to be even more creative in providing perceived value for money to attract guests in an environment where facilities and pricing do not differ materially within any one category—all while staying within their own restricted budgets.

With trainers similarly concerned with providing what the industry needs, hotels and even cruise lines have found a way to meet in the middle where all can win, from owner to investor, guest to management, butler to training company. It is this spirit of cooperation, rather than each party being totally intent on securing an advantage, that underlies or characterizes the smartness being applied.

Shared Training

Assuming a full and proper curriculum is offered, inclusive of provision of SOPs and classroom and en-suite hands-on training and apprenticeship, and the establishment where needed of an efficiently run department, then trainers have to be brought in who actually have worked as butlers in private estates and preferably also hotels, and know how to pass on their wisdom and skills effectively to trainees from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

This then involves travel costs, because no butler training operations have an office in every country or state. These travel costs are reduced by the training company and/or hotel reaching out to hotels and resorts in nearby cities, states, or countries (or even the same city) to share in the travel costs by scheduling training sequentially. Resorts and hotels tend to be more comfortable knowing that the partners are in a neighboring country rather than the hotel next door, but this has not prevented competitors from collaborating to their mutual advantage in our experience.
The main difficulties are a) simply pushing through the various administrative details needed to obtain approvals and funding in a timely fashion from different hotels and their hierarchies, and b) then coordinating scheduling. The former just requires someone excited about the project and staying on top of requests for a rapid confirmation. The latter is not so difficult, as regions tend to have the same low seasons when training would be arranged normally.
Where budgets are really tight, we have had some hotels share in the same classroom segment of the training at one of the partnering hotels, and the trainer then traveling to each hotel in rotation to do the hands-on segment of the training in their specific environment and with their tools.

This shared classroom training has the effect of reducing training costs by a third approximately, or alternatively, of allowing more days to be allocated to training for more in-depth coverage of data and more classroom drilling to be done for a greater likelihood of retention and actual change in skill-sets, particularly the soft-skill training that needs to be done and which is so critical to effective butling.

Generally, the host hotel receives a discount for helping organize the training with other hotels and for the use of their conference room, and also has fewer costs because their staff do not have potential room and board to be covered, as do any participating hotels for training in a different city/locale.

Establishing Long-term Relationships

While the Institute has been the trainer of record for several chains, this often merely means that hotels will come to us first, but won’t necessarily use our services (usually because we tend to have higher rates than competitors). Other butler trainers similarly have established relationships with, and are recommended by, the corporate level of other chains. This, however, is not what is meant here by establishing long-term relationships. More particularly, a chain will partner with a specific butler-training provider to see to their entire butler program, certifying it. Several such chains have established relationships with the Institute, one of them because their main competitor was already in a relationship with another butler training company.

Norwegian Cruise Lines is perhaps not one that one would associate with butlers, catering more to mass tourism, but first looks are often deceiving: Norwegian has had butlers for over a decade (with strong retention records when compared with the rest of the industry or any hospitality venue) and it has a strong innovative drive that has seen it implement multiple firsts in the cruise industry, with competitors generally following suit. They have the largest ship-borne suites in the world, which lend themselves particularly well to butler service.

Recognizing the value of butlers to guests who would like and have plenty of opportunity to be pampered, they have either retrofitted several vessels by adding butler-service suites, or built newer vessels with butler service in mind. Moving beyond the four bulkheads to those providing the butler service, a top-down directive brought in an outside trainer, in this case, the Institute, to standardize and raise their butler service to the next level. This was not just conceived as a quick in-and-out training session so certificates could be displayed proudly by butlers and marketing alike, but as a long-term rollout of improvements.

The first thing to resolve was how to make the budget fit the Institute’s fees and the logistics of training on a dozen or so vessels where training times are generally doubled in order to allow half the butlers continue to service their customary 100% occupancy figures. This is where creativity won out by a simple stratagem.

The first action was a mystery guest visit on one representative vessel to determine current levels of service and training, so it could be determined where “here” was and how to then reach the “there” of the goal: offering the best and most extensive butler service in the cruise line industry—including the likes of the venerable QM2. This consultation included proposing what new services could be delivered and working out SOPs for new or improved existing services.

The Institute then trained the butlers, who had never had external butler training before, on the narrow focus of what is a butler and proprietary materials to bring about the required mindset and soft skills. This was done (still ongoing) on each vessel.

The next stage was to bring in the top butlers from each vessel to train them on one vessel, all at the same time, on the hard skills and SOPs, which were fine-tuned during the training. These butlers have now been armed with the approved SOPs and let loose to train their fellow butlers repeatedly and continually on the SOPs until they are all confident and competent.

With the necessary props and materials being organized by corporate, the new services will then be rolled out one at a time. The process continues thereafter, with regular quality control and recertification by the Institute, refining old and adding new services. Total time frame for roll out less than two years, but all accomplished within budget and without lowering standards by abbreviating training.

Contrast this thoroughness with the issues highlighted in The Butler is here to Stay, but will the Guests be Happy Driving Fords? and we can see clearly the difference between an organization that is serious about delivering (and taking full advantage of) what a butler adds to service offerings; and a resort that, in order to reduce costs, brings in a trainer at cost for three days to train 150 butlers and then believes its butlers are trained—but the guests don’t experience any significant improvement.

In the luxury market is the rarified uber-luxury LVMH, Louis Vitton Moet Hennessey, which is working on establishing their second property, Maison Cheval Blanc Randelhi, in the Maldives—and what promises to be one of the most exclusive destinations in the world. They are by no means the only hotel wanting to establish their butler department properly, and they have certainly moved heaven and earth to bring in all the needed partners to realize their goal over a time line that is adequate to the occasion. By taking a team approach and bringing in best-in-field trainers, with such as Thailand-based 365playground and Tailored Values to coordinate the rollout of everything from consultations and provision of SOPs to extensive on-site training, soft-opening coaching, and hard opening, LVMH is creating efficiencies while ensuring the highest quality standards are met.

Another example of collaborations directed at bringing about quality training is the coalescing of three butler schools (the International Institute of Modern Butlers, The British Butler School, and the Australian Butler School) and their syllabuses into a high-powered amalgam, and partnering with colleges around the world to raise service standards for the people in their region. Likewise, partnering with colleges individually so as to bring butler training and standards online in the hospitality industry training line-up.

These are just a few examples of a trend toward ensuring that what is purported to be quality actually is, while still recognizing that budgets are what they are—the two connecting based on the old adage: where there is a will, there is way. There is certainly plenty of will these days, as well as forward progress in the drive to maintain standards without busting the budget.

First published by Hotel Business Review

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IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND

Our roving correspondent, Ms. G. J. DePillis, went on a trip to London, England recently and sent this report with some of her impressions of the Great Empire and, of course, some observations and interesting tidbits about the British Royal Family – surely one of the most closely watched Royal Families on planet earth today.

On my recent visit to London, I decided to take a guided tour of the City. This way, one can catch a myriad of city highlights including some places one might ordinarily miss, simply because one doesn’t know where to go.

My tour started at a canal in a part of London called “Little Venice.” When I was first dropped off, what immediately impressed me were the festive longboats that were “parked” there.

I quickly learned that every year, these boats come to London’s Little Venice from all over the country to compete in various categories.  Apparently it is a tradition to have paintings of flowers on the boats — to substitute for the genuine garden that the occupants could never have.  Indeed, a number of the boats we saw were bedecked with flags and flower boxes and such.

In this day and age, those who choose to live on a long boat can pay slip fees (called “mooring fees”) to get electricity for their 70 foot long by 7 foot wide boats.

The canal was originally built to serve as an alternate trade route to the river Thames, to move heavy goods that would only need to go a short distance – coal, cement and bricks, for example.  The canal project took eight years to build (1812 to 1820) and cost about 600,000 British pounds at that time.  During construction, there was a toll fee levied for each tunnel and bridge that a longboat had to pass through.  As a result of the collection of these toll fees, the project was entirely debt free by the time of completion. Between 1820 and the 1840’s, about half a ton of goods were moved through this canal every year – since the toll fees were continuing to be levied, this was pure profit.  By the 1880’s, they averaged one million tons a year.

The narrow long boats were all built to the same dimensions, so that tunnels and small bridges could accommodate two passing boats without wasting building material.  Sometimes, a family might have a horse, which would walk along the bank near the canal and tug the boat along. When the boat approached a tunnel, usually the youngest of the family would disembark and walk the horse on the bank, while the rest of the family would lay on top of the boat on their backs and “walk” the boat through the tunnel by placing their feet along the sides and ceiling of the tunnel and pushing the boat along until they came out on the other side.  Some tunnels were 600 feet long, so you can imagine the time and energy it would take to pass through those.

One tunnel, called Maida Hill, was named after a nearby pub opened by a soldier who returned victoriously from a battle on that hill in 1806. When he decided to open up a pub, he named it “The Battle of Maida”.

Why will the Olympics take place in London in 2012?

England came in with the lowest bid of 9.3 billion pounds. By contrast, Beijing, China’s bid in 2008 was about 38 billion pounds, which is about $45 billion US dollars.  Not only did London present the lowest bid, but their Olympic Committee promised to make things green and re-useable.  For example, after the Games, the architecture used to create some the buildings will allow for those buildings to be taken down, and the building materials to be re-used in other building projects.  England was happy to have its bid accepted and decided to locate the Olympic Village in the absolute poorest Borough in all of England: Newham, located on the east side of London.

Continue reading “IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND”
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What is Behind the Gyrations of the World Economy and Where is It Going?

by Nick Ares

Do yourself a favor and skip this article if you prefer to think the ship is simply rolling heavily in the calm seas. The captain of the Good Ship Earth, I am afraid, has a very definite agenda that is taking it off the course everyone thinks it is on as they go about their lives: sitting down to dinner, sleeping peacefully. Nobody thinks the ship can sink, as big, beautiful, and safe as it is, but the truth is rocks tear holes in metal hulls and they turn turtle. So it is with our world economy: sail close enough, long enough to enough rocks, and the ship goes down, no matter how many people are opining on the matter with complex or oversimplified theories.

Being asked to state accurately the condition of the world’s economy during calm times is difficult enough; predicting where it might go next is pushing the envelope of possibilities. But trying to state and predict the condition of today’s and tomorrow’s straining yacht in the thirty foot swells of today’s economy is as adventurous as navigating the real thing. At the risk of turning turtle in the explaining—if someone stands up to say something and is not willing to make a fool of himself, he is probably too timid to be standing there in the first place—I offer the below, simply because in any activity, if one cannot see ahead, one is sailing blind and liable to hit the rocks.

After my last article on the economy, Don’t Just Sit There, many hoteliers around the world commented on the apparent inadequacies of fixing the global financial system by issuing more credit to failed institutions while withholding it from the real economy. The continued contagion of the real economy by financial sector excesses has continued to result in wobbliness for the productive side of the economies in the US and Europe, and by extension, the rest of the world.

So where is the economy heading: onto the rocks and whirlpools or across a vast ocean at breakneck speed, the wind filling the sails? And what can we expect in the service industries in particular, for owners, operators, and employees of hospitality venues, for guests, both the wealthy and economy-minded, and closer to home, for those in my profession of butlers, and their employers who need the wherewithal to support their lifestyles?

Certainly, some 2012 predictions for hospitality offer grounds for cautious optimism—a PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows 2011 to have been a good year for occupancy in the US, up at 60.1%, RevPAR increasing by 8.2, and ADR growing by 3.7%. Based on a predicted increase in business travel and group bookings, 2012 looks to be another good year, with occupancy predicted at 60.9%, ADR growth at 5.1% and RevPAR growth at 6.5%.

The World Economic Forum weighed in recently with the findings of a Marriott International survey showing that, in the opinions of opinion leaders, international travel stimulates the economy and we should do more of it. In concrete terms, international arrivals have doubled in the past decade and the UN World Tourism Organization predicts it will increase to one billion this year. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) predicts an extra 69-million net jobs in the industry by 2021, 80% of which will be in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. In the US, one job is created for every 35 international visitors. WTTC also estimates worldwide GDP increases for the industry will rise by 4.2% annually to $9.226 trillion by 2021.

Certainly in the butler-training field, a small niche I have some familiarity with, there is much demand in the Far East and some in the West to support the general notion that things are improving.

Deloitte surveyed 1,000 business travelers in September 2011, 85% of who said they expected to travel in 2012 as much as, or more than, in 2011—Gen X and Y being the main drivers. The Global Business Travel Association recently predicted 2012 business travel will increase 4.6% over 2011, reaching $263 billion dollars—but then revealed that the increase was due to rising costs, not more travelers, and that the 2.1% increase in number of travelers during 2011 would decrease 0.8% in 2012.

To be sure, there are other rumblings of difficulties in our client bases. We can, perhaps, ignore the Chinese New Year astrology predictions for the Year of the Water Dragon being not so good for tourism and hospitality; but then the Chinese market is coming to the rescue of quite a few properties as they flood out of the region in mind-boggling numbers not seen since the forces of Ghengis Khan. If the Chinese were to take this prediction seriously, they might just bring it about.

According to Peter Yesawich, a growing number of mass affluent consumers (with household incomes of $125,000-$300,000) in the US has cut back on travel plans for various reasons boiling down to higher prices and their greater indebtedness/the economic realities. As the numbers quoted are between 51% and 68%, and 41% don’t have enough time to travel, limiting themselves to local weekend trips, we are talking about a significant market segment moving in the wrong direction from the hospitality perspective; as could be said of the number of millionaire households in the $1-9 million net-worth range, which has diminished by three million since 2010, having been inflated by home prices and stock market investments. A November 2011 Harris poll found 30% of the more-affluent Americans saying they will take a vacation for more than a week in the next six months, a 20% drop from the prior six months, because of uncertainty about the economy.

While there will always be those who travel intensively because their wealth permits it, a snapshot of the bulk of US consumers is not encouraging: they have lost $20 trillion in wealth since 2007, their homes having lost an average 30% in value, and twelve million homeowners are underwater; the actual unemployment rate of 22.5% reflects nine million jobs lost, with 48 million having no work at all in 2010, and 5.5 million filing for personal bankruptcy (2008 through 2011). Those with work are mostly struggling, as incomes have dropped 10% since the crash (a median of $504 a week), measured against a background of incomes increasing only by 1% since 1987, while the official cost of living increased 103% in that time, and is running currently at 10-12% per annum. Retirees and investors are feeling the pinch with interest rates almost zero. 77% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, up from 43% in 2007, while Americans carry $798 billion in outstanding credit card balances at an average rate of 14%. 56 million Americans (18.5%) live at or below the poverty line in 2010, with a record 44.7 million on food stamps.

OK, enough already!

So what now, is the economy able to support the expansion anticipated? Well, it is easy to become introverted on US and European troubles—the rest of the world is enjoying growth rates averaging 7%, so they may be impacted by a drop in US and European guests, but these are not the only pebbles (guests) on the beach.

From the discordant voices pitching different ideas, it is not clear which way the economy will go, so more late nights of investigation lead to un-chartered territory and finally, to cut a long story short, falling precipitously down a large black hole, like Alice in Wonderland, into a place the author did not want to be—the kind of situation where a butler finds his boss in flagrante delicto with the maid, at the same time as the Mrs. is discovered elsewhere doing the same with the tennis coach. Too much information, but once known, it cannot be unknown. It can be kept to oneself, in true butler fashion, but anyone who has read the classic book or seen the movie, Remains of the Day, with Stevens, the butler (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the movie), strictly focusing on his work while his boss backs the wrong horse in the bigger picture results in ruination for both butler and boss. Philandering bosses is one thing, but something on the order of a spiraling economy is another, as it impacts so many people’s lives.

As Sir Winston Churchill once said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” And so, for better or worse, here it is—the cascading torrent of unwelcome revelations that kept me up late at night: make of it what you will.

Just as magicians rely on confusing their audience in order to make them see what they want them to see, so can a subject be made so confusing that nobody can understand it, not even the experts: such obfuscation has occurred with the subjects of economics and money. Do you really understand them? Indulge me while I lay out the basics which then make the departure from the fundamentals crystal clear:

Money is a means of moving beyond simple barter, which is impractical beyond a simple village environment; money is simply the assurance that coin, paper, digital entries or whatever other symbol is in use, will be accepted by those wanting to sell and buy to and from each other. The authority issuing the currency (or credit) has one key responsibility: to always keep the supply of money in balance with the amount of goods and services in circulation, so that there will always be enough money to produce and consume, but not so much that the money inflates (raising prices) or so little that it deflates (prevents production and purchase by its absence). What is the key here? Money simply represents produced services and goods already in existence or about to be brought into existence—allowing for their exchange, which is really what economics consists of.

The difficulties in communicating these fundamentals are a) that the minds of readers crammed with complex and incorrect information will freeze and they will be unable to think with these fundamentals; b) the eyes of those who cannot understand the subject at all may glaze over as they space out; and c) experts will decry how over-simplistic are these ideas. I sympathize. The best I can suggest is that the reader, if he finds himself so embarrassed, go over and over the above paragraph and see how it could be true.

If I haven’t lost you yet, then hang on, because the slide down the black hole becomes steeper at this point: if we believe President Franklin Roosevelt when he said: “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way,” then we cannot simply accept that the sub-prime, predatory lending loans, the trillions (and perhaps quadrillions of dollars) in unsecured derivatives, the collapse of the economies of whole countries, could just be a case of bad judgment, untrammeled greed, poor planning, unpredictable market forces, nor bad luck.

And indeed they weren’t. Not to name any names, but brokerage houses mainly centered on Wall Street, have placed their men in the White House and US administrations for quite some time now, and they worked together with the privately owned central bank of the US (not naming names) to strip away any possibility of government oversight of their actions: they passed at least 14 key laws between 1989 and 2006 that gave them free rein in the financial sector, the results of which we see today in the US and Europe. If it were not for the fact that the privately held central bank for all major central banks then made an accounting rule change that forced all banks to reevaluate their portfolios drastically downwards,* sending them into instant insolvency and precipitating the crisis of 2008, and then insisted on keeping that rule in place so banks went under or were bailed out, the crash would not have happened.

* The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, for instance, projected a quarterly loss of $44,000, but per the new accounting rule, ended up writing down the value of its mortgage-backed securities by $87.4 million and $98.7 million in the following quarter.

And at this point, we are in the twilight zone that Alice discovered in Wonderland, because further investigation shows, as William Pitt the Elder (Prime Minister of England during the 18th Century) said: “There is something behind the throne greater than the King himself.” He also said: “The little I know of it has not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the ‘Monied Interest;’ I mean, that blood-sucker, that muckworm,* that calls itself ‘the friend of government.’” He was referring to a relatively small group of individuals who, in his time, ruled England behind the scenes, and has since come to rule most of the world. This group handily pulls the strings behind our elected officials, and believes itself superior enough in intellect to determine our futures. If it were not for the fact that they scrambled their way to their current positions of power by at least twenty dishonest strategies that I have counted, and if their actions did not lay waste to countries at a time and their bewildered and suffering populaces, I would say “all power to them.”

* Muckworm: worm-shaped insect larva found in manure.

But that is not the way it is, their superior intelligence notwithstanding.

Just as it was not the place for Stevens the butler to tell Lord Darlington that he was making a mistake in supporting the Nazis—something he was to find out for himself after it was too late—it may not be my place to point this out, either. Certainly, a messenger’s lot is often unenviable, especially when the people of which he speaks bankrolled the Nazis in real life—but there comes a point where standing by while well-meaning individuals and groups, trying to determine their fate, are looking everywhere but the ceiling (where, to borrow from investigative report Matt Taibbi, there is a giant vampire squid controlling things unseen), would show a lack of moral fiber that cannot be countenanced in a butler.

For while the majority are working and hoping for good forward progress, the few who steer the boat actually have the ship heading straight for the rocks, and no matter how much you stoke the fires, keep the brass shining, and ensure your guests are comfortable, the ship will keep heading for the rocks unless someone pulls the wheel hard-a-port, and in a timely fashion. And there it is, just as Churchill said.

Conclusion: Do nothing and watch it all unfold, including the collapse in the value of the US dollar and perhaps Euro in the next year or two (lots of ramifications there for the hospitality industry) and the concomitant loss of business volume. Or become active in returning the US and other economies to a sound, production-oriented footing, with government issuing money and credit, and usurious personal and national debt to bankers a thing of the past.

The above is necessarily short and generalized: an easy-to-understand, thorough (and complimentary) ninety-page analysis is available—what it took eventually to write this article—including specific outcomes and action points.

Published initially by Hotel Executive magazine, March, 2012 

Also http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article62341.html

Also http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2012_2nd/Apr12_WorldEconomy.html

www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4055516.html