- Breakfast at Tiffany’s Syndrome
By this I mean that the food at the place must be such that people travel from far and wide just to experience the culinary marvel that the Hotel can proudly boast of.
Is the food at your place so great that it becomes a sight that guests must visit to see and an experience that they wish to make that special trip for? Think Tea at the Ritz, Brunch at the floating Jumbo restaurant in Hong Kong, a once in a lifetime meal at the now closed elBulli by Ferran Adrià!
Food is, indeed, the other pivot on which your success story can rest. If you do great food then there is a lot you can get by. Guests will happily dine at your restaurants, will entertain proudly at one of your crown jewels, chat with your chefs, get enamoured by the little stories you weave around your ingredients, how they are sourced, how they blend into your majestic presentations, the appeal of your culinary craftsmen and the superlative taste most of the items on your menu promise to leave on the discerning palate.
Great set of restaurants, strong focus on food quality, plating par excellence and taste including an above-par Room Service will help in entrapping even the toughest of guests and bind them into your fold.
Rokeby Manor is proud of its food forte. It is supremely confident of both its software and hardware and happily showcases the two in its open kitchens and glass walls that spell a story of high quality equipment and produce, strong hygiene standards, excellent workmanship and most of all a bunch of happy faces laboring in a sense of bonhomie over your pizza, paella, pilaf or pastry. The promoters are quality conscious and will only source the freshest and finest available. The staff will test, try and then tempt the guests with their offerings. They will cheerfully do repeats of what you like, make enthusiastic suggestions on what they think you must try, accept a mistake and rectify with a smile and a substitute, listen acutely to guest advice and be ever eager to ensure that you enjoyed the fare and their hospitality.
Rokeby is so comfortably confident about its food & beverage that not only does it parallely-run the Clock Tower Cafe in the heart of the hill town, it also, behind its show walls, puts on grandstand its master craftsmen who work ergonomically and interestedly in a meticulously clean kitchen. If you know hotels then you know well enough that only the very courageous and secure in their good reputation can pull this through.
Sanjay Narang, the owner tells me, “Open area and glass wall to the kitchen serves as an attraction to the guests. They can merrily see what they are eating and how it is prepared. It also helps put pressure on kitchen boys to keep their turf clean.”
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Lesson – The good food crafted by trained hands and delivered by guest-oriented staff is a great strategy for winning and keeping guests. Rustle up food lores from the historical annals of the culinary fare you serve, create your irrepressible food scents around your specialities popping out of your specialized boulangerie, patisserie, delicatessen, let the guests eat out of the hands of your rocking F&B star team members, proudly present a wine list that is the talk of the town, get a mixologist to train your barmen to become blending masters. The opportunities are endless and serve to work as a sensory binding of the guest loyalty for your brand. [/message][su_spacer]
- The Serving Star
Could you win any combat just on the basis of a great war strategy (think Brand positioning here) and a very able General (think top leadership) if your henchmen and foot soldiers failed to toe the line with their loyalty, commitment, passion, hard work and astuteness?
Ask any well-bred hotelier and they will tell you about the million battles they must meet head-on, all in a day’s work. A hotel job is inundated with gazillion crises that must be fought and smoothened in little time. This would not be possible without enlisting the moral, physical and cerebral support of a committed and trained work force.
The winning factor of Rokeby Manor is easily it’s pleasant, guest oriented staff that is trained well to be professional at all times. They smile their shiniest and sail over if the guest makes a faux pas. They smile even brighter and get into correction mode when they commit a mistake, immediately attempting to right the wrong with humble flair. “If there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear,” Narang tries to instill this maxim in his team.
In fact, all staff, whether it is the Reservations Clerk, the Housekeeping Attendant, the Manager lording over the F&B services, the General Manager, heck even the owner are naturally tuned towards making it a memorable and pleasant stay for the guest, with their immaculate service, pleasant demeanour, ears and eyes sharpened for guest likes and dislikes and a fervor that helps them go beyond the brief.
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Excellent insight into running a successful operation Its all about the right people in right places and well motivated by creating an enabling environment and success will be guaranteed.
Ah, Aruna, you make it sound so easy. Hire good people that are each better at something than you, train them well and constantly. Learn from them. Know your guests and their deepest desires and motivate the team to fulfill those. Maintain a clean and well kept property where everything works all the time. Handle the dozens of crisis that crop up daily without the guests being aware of them. Offer only the finest food and drink expertly presented and served with a smile. Out think, out plan, out perform all competitors all the time.
Simple. After 40 odd years I came to realize that a hotelier must be a jack of all trades while being a master on none. A calling that one never masters.
What a wonderful surmising of all aspects! Great suggestions as always Ken! You are a Star.