The Best Hospitality Case Studies You Can Learn From
In our digital age, it’s so easy to see what other guests thought of their stay at your property, and hopefully your Google and Facebook reviews are top notch.
You’ll find that the overall guest experience is vital to your success in the hospitality arena. It’s up to you and your staff to make your guests as comfortable as possible and treat them like they were in their own home.
We find it’s often good to learn from others and those who are doing it right or turned things around. Let’s take a look at the best hospitality case studies you can learn from.
The Taj Mumbai
According to the Harvard Business Review, the Taj Mumbai is one of the world’s top hotels. Not only is it known for its beauty, but it is known for having the most well-trained employees who are always willing to go the extra mile.
They even note that many of them have worked at the hotel for decades. There is never any question about the job to be done and how to meet the needs of the guests.
While the Taj Mumbai is known for their excellent customer service, they took it to a new level during several terrorist attacks a decade ago.
The employees never left their posts and made it their duty to protect their guests. They were quick thinking and thought of the safety of the guests before their own. Many of them even lost their lives.
So, you can see that the Taj Mumbai has created a customer-centered culture. Their employees know the customers come first, and they seem to enjoy this culture of service.
Experts tend to agree that the recruiting system employed by the hotel has helped them find the most ideal candidates to provide this extraordinary culture of service.
The Hiring System of the Taj Mumbai
Instead of looking to the metropolitan areas for new hires, they head out to the smaller towns. This is because they find employees with more traditional, old-school values. These include a respect for teachers and their elders, a humble spirit, discipline, honesty, and an empathetic nature.
This also helps them find loyal staff members who truly care about the hotel’s many guests.
Often recruiting younger people, the hotel sends new team members to a certification center where they live room and board free for 18 months to learn how to be the best employees they can be.
They also look to schools for their management teams and again spend a great deal of time (18 months is the norm even for management staff) and money training them.
The prospective employees are also trained in a very different manner. They are not told to look out for the hotel’s interests, but they are told to put the guest’s first. They should always put the guest’s needs before those of the hotel.
This not only empowers employees to take the right action at the right time, but it engenders loyalty in both the employee and the customer.
Finally, the hotel instituted a special rewards and recognition program that relies on compliments from guests, compliments from colleagues, and the employee’s very own suggestions.
Every day thank yous are encouraged, and the employees strive to be better every day.
The Wit Hotel
Located in Chicago, the Wit Hotel knew it needed to provide more options for its health-conscious travelers. They wanted to appeal to more appeal, including their loyal clientele, by providing more nutritious food options.
The brought in SPE Certified to help this 300-room Doubletree by Hilton, with one of the best rooftop lounges in the world, meet travelers’ growing demands.
They wanted to up their hospitality level by offering the tastiest, most nutritious food, both catering to their current guests and working to attract new guests from an even younger demographic.
With the help of their consultants, and in collaboration with the hotel’s chefs, they identified existing menu items to enhance. They worked on a number of items and now offer many SPE certified dishes.
These are menu items that are certified and show the hotel’s commitment to sustainability and nutrition and most importantly, to their customers’ health and well-being.
Their changes have had great results and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Arenas Del Mar
Located in Costa Rica, the Arenas Del Mar is committed to new avenues in the hospitality industry.
They are committed to providing their guests with just what they want.
For example, they invest in green technology and only source products that meet their green philosophy. Their goal is not only be sustainable but efficient.
At their resort, they rely on solar energy because they are dedicated to keeping their carbon emissions low. They do this by using solar energy to heat water for their guests’ rooms as well as their staff rooms.
They even take it a step further on cloudy days by using their energy-saving auxiliary water heaters as a backup. Their guests never have to worry, though, as their hot tubs and shower are always as hot as they want.
When it comes to their food service, they have their very own gardens that they irrigate with wastewater. They also work with local suppliers and only source organic food and hormone-free and grass feed meat.
In addition, because the resort is right in the middle of 11 acres of nature preserve, they only use natural cleaning products.
They went 100% organic so as not to leach toxic products into the nature reserve because they want to preserve the fragile ecosystem.
Final Thoughts
You can see from these three different case studies how important it is to put the needs of the customer front and center.
In this highly competitive arena, it is absolutely vital to provide proper customer service training.
Strive to be a customer-centric property. Put the needs of your guests first and allow your employees the leeway to provide the best service to your guests. Don’t tie their hands by making them jump through hoops. (tweet this)
Your goal is happy employees first. Finally, when your team is happy in the workplace, then everything falls into place. Your customer culture is set, and your customers are incredibly satisfied as a result.
Looking to showcase your hotel? At Hotel Propeller, we build functional, beautiful websites that highlight your hotel to help you stand out in the crowd. You’ll find everything you need to attract guests to your website and compel visitors to make a reservation. Take a look at our showcase and contact us today.
Images: Andrew Neel and chuttersnap on Unsplash
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