After actively participating for 18 hotel openings as a manager
and hotel consultant, I am somehow surprised about
the fact that most independent hotel investors unintentionally – but also
intentionally – make exactly the same mistakes over and over again which always
turn out to be very costly!

 

I am writing down these “top 10”
mistakes in a hope that this list might help some developers and owners.  

 

As we are hotel consultants, we
sincerely believe that a consultant must be the most honest, transparent,
straight-forward and therefore most trustworthy person close to the owners and
investors.

A consultant’s intention should
NEVER be to keep hotel owners and investors ‘in the dark’!  A true consultant must educate advice and
provide samples of good and bad practices.  A hotel consultant must also be a good teacher
– not a lecturer!  We must guide and use
all channels of communication to pass on knowledge to others.  We choose to write articles in a hope that it
helps and inspires others. 

 

Mistake No
1 – Vision and Mission.

 

Honestly, it is hard to
understand that so many hotels and resorts open their doors without a proper written
vision and mission statement.  OR, the
vision and mission is most of the times not clear at all, or only clear in the
mind of the owners.  On top of that, nobody
communicates the vision and mission to managers and employees.  How the employees will know what is expected
and understand the ‘big picture’?  As
mentioned in one of our earlier articles, this silly mistake ensures that the
business ends up following the habits of senior managers and owners and not the
organizational vision and mission.

 

Mistake No 2 – Sales
and Marketing? – No need now!

 

“I have many friends and they
are well connected.  I and my relatives
are well known people who are VIP.  We
will all ensure that we will have many guests using the hotel and our
facilities!”

 

Yes, don’t be shocked! – The
above sayings are what I did hear from several hotel owners.  Those VIP hotel guests did come, yes, but they
never paid their bills as they almost always expected to be invited since they
are good friend of the owners.  The result
of non-existing Sales and Marketing is very costly.

 

Mistake No
3 – Hiring of Departmental Managers.

 

Surprisingly, some new hotels
and resorts do hire their Hotel Manager and Department Head Team just weeks
before the opening and strongly believe that this will be fine.  After all, they are manager, expensive and
should be able to get it right in a few days…… some owners think!

 

To my knowledge and from my
experience, this is mostly done to save some hotel pre-opening costs as the needed
money has been already lost during the construction process because of bad
planning and ongoing adjustments to drawings and the building.

 

At one occasion I have seen
that the whole management team for a 150 room hotel here in Thailand to be hired
just 2 weeks before the opening.  The
owner kindly fired the team after 2 months as in his opinion, the team
was not able to implement proper systems and service standards fast enough.  Some of the best
employees did resign as well, as the pressure working without a proper
pre-opening was too much.  I say it
again, if you don’t work professionally, your most capable employees will leave
you first!

 

Mistake No
4 – Purchasing.

 

The purchasing process for
equipment, utensils and amenities is all done by the owner without any hotel manager
and departmental manager comments, input and specifications.  Once the manager and departmental leaders
joined the hotel for the opening, there was no budget left for any additional
purchases, as most of what owners choose are to serve their own preference and
style, but not functional or practical to the workers and guest use.  So, the hotel or resort did end up with
equipment and utensils which are not always usable, have wrong specifications, over-specs
or under-specs.

Again, the owners or senior
managers never stopped wondering why professional people left the company and
why the quality of products and service are not up to any standard!

 

Mistake No 5 – Employee
Restaurant and Facilities

 

Strangely, employees, employee facilities and welfare
seem to be the least and least important thing on owners and developers minds.
I know one hotel where the owner had even meetings with the employees, right after
the opening, lecturing them how good the hotel will be, explaining how
professional and generous the owners are as they did buy only the best
qualities and products for the guests.

 

He said he is not stingy and use only the best and most
comfortable furniture, amenities, cars, etc.  The owner also asked staff to work harder and
be more committed to have a good hotel forgetting that all employees worked 2
months without a day off!   The employees listen and wondered what he is
talking about while sitting on a dusty concrete floor inside a badly ventilated
and non-air conditioned concrete shell of room, eating from a Styrofoam food
box with plastic cutlery and without any proper uniforms and only one rest-room
for 100 employees.  I am sure I don’t have
to write down here what those employees did think and even say to each other
about this owner after the meeting was over.

 

Mistake No 6 – Training

 

So far I found only 3 independent hotel owners and
investors who actually provided proper facilities and time to have proper staff
orientations and training for employees before opening the business.

Although EVERY single hotel developer said in the
beginning that they fully agree and fully understand that training is very important
and that they fully understand that people need to be trained before opening
the hotel, the fact is that only the true professional
owners did what they say. 

 

Most of the time, employees did not go through any
orientation program or basic training. And then, on the first day of operation
the managers and owners complain the staff directly that they know nothing
about the hotel, that they don’t follow hotel systems, that they don’t provide
good service etc.

 

Mistake No 7 – Human
Resource

 

In my humble opinion, any hotel
that opening / running their property without a proper HR person, HR manual and
HR systems are operationally committing suicide!!!   

 

I have seen businesses where the majority of staff has
been hired without having a written employee benefit list, written rules and
regulations, written basic systems etc.  Employees
have been verbally promised different benefits by different managers etc. The
result was simply a disaster!

And then, once the management
started to implement some standardized benefits for each level of employees and
some standard rules and regulations, the Human Resource nightmares become did
become reality as many employees complained that they only joined this
particular hotel because of benefits verbally promised by managers. Not
everyone promised the same…..

 

 

Mistake No 8 – Back of
the House Design

 

Seldom is this area given good attention.  In most cases, back-of –house areas have been
assigned based on vacant areas. I wonder so much why proper storage, proper
offices with strategic locations, proper restrooms,
proper walkways etc. are almost never important to developers and owners.   It is
hard, and sometimes almost impossible to explain how the hospitality industry could
make money from providing a good and smooth service and for this, within a
rough back-of-house workflow.   It is not only the waiter and the front office
staff who provide a service!  EVERYONE in
the hotel provides a service and ALL Departments and employees work somehow
inter-connected.

 

Mistake No
9 – Back of the House areas

 

·        
Why some people believe that that staff
dormitories not need proper restrooms, showers and a common room?

·        
Why some people believe that employees don’t
need proper food and variety of food?

·        
Why some people believe that employees will not
have cars and bikes which need to be parked somewhere?

·        
Why some people believe that a proper Training
Room is a waste of space?

·        
Why some people believe that employees don’t
need comfort?

 

 

Mistake No 10 – Good
managers and staff are easy to find!!!!!

 

Those are some nice actual
sentences from owners and developers to think about:

·        
Spa Therapist not need training, just hire some
sexy girls and let them massage the guests.

·        
My gardener at my home can make up Bed’s; please
consider him as Housekeeping Manager.

·        
Don’t worry about Accouting and Purchasing; I
have someone who works for me since 10 years and he is very good with figures.
Right now he controls all my drivers in the transportation company.

·        
I found a good Human Resource Manager for our
5-star hotel.  She is the wife of the
local police Chief. Nobody will dare to complain.

·        
My Son will be the General Manager; he just
graduated and is very knowledgeable! 

·        
Just go to the local market, there are 100 of
local people who would be happy to work at our hotel even below minimum wage!

 

Mistake No 11 – Hotel
Opening Support from owners or developers other companies.

 

Yes, many business owners
forgot to focus on some if not all of the above mentioned points and now they
are very nervous and scared about the operation of the hotel.   So, they ask some family members and employees
from other owned businesses which are most of the time not from the hospitality
and service industry, to come and help to do the following:

·        
Sales and Marketing,

·        
Purchasing,

·        
Finance Department,

·        
Human Resources,

 

“I, my family and staff from
the factory only like to help! You should not complaint, be happy about it!”

 

I am sure you noticed that I
did end up with a “TOP 11” and not “TOP 10” list! Who cares! J

As a matter of fact, it should
be a “TOP 100” list as there are so many areas and
subjects to discuss about.

 

 

 

Are you an expert? Many coaches don’t believe they are. If you’re not bought in, neither will your prospects be. Claim yourself as the expert you are. Then the people who are looking for an expert for their particular challenge will be beating down your door.

“Expert? I’m no expert. Yes I’ve had training and have been doing this for a while, but I’m not an expert.”

Stop right there!

Many coaches have complete confidence in their coaching abilities, yet they still are unable to see themselves as experts. They say “there are others who have been doing this longer and are probably better than I am.” And they are baffled with the fact that they talk to a lot of people, giving lots of one-on-ones and still struggle to get people to sign up.

Carrying doubt and not claiming your expertise shows up in how you present yourself to your clients. If you’re not bought in, they won’t buy in either.

According the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of an expert is: having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.

You ARE an expert. Right now, as you read this article, you are already an expert.

Your training, reading, doing, as well as your own experience, makes you an expert. You know what your clients are facing and have a way for them to overcome those challenges that they perhaps never will without your help.

By claiming yourself as an expert, you are setting yourself apart. You will display more confidence in yourself and your process. As you believe it, so will others. They will start seeing you as THE expert to come to when facing the particular challenges you offer solutions for.

As this happens, you will naturally create a higher visibility and attract those high paying clients looking for a solution they believe in.

You’re bought in. They’re bought in.