COUNTY PROFILES Hospitality Star Joyce Mwinzi Hotel Supervision 10 Tips
BY PATRICK KIMANZI, Editor
Managing a hotel requires you to pay attention to many things at once. You need to start with a well-trained staff and oversee their work. You need to address the needs of your customers, to keep them satisfied and coming back to the hotel. As a manager, you should always be looking to the future, planning ahead for emergencies and finding ways to improve and grow. Finally, part of managing a successful hotel today requires you to manage your online presence and use technology to increase advertising.
Managing the Staff
Hire good people. As a hotel manager, you rely on good staff members. This includes everyone from the desk clerk to the maids to the custodians. You want your guests to see efficient and helpful staff members who enjoy and are proud of their work. You need to be able to rely on your staff to do their jobs as expected, without excessive oversight.
You should find out from the hotel owners or managers over you whether you have authority to fire and hire new staff members, if necessary.
Communicate regularly with staff. Maintain regular dialogue with your staff members. They need feedback about the quality of their work, both good and bad. You also need to communicate regularly with hotel staff about any changes or special events that may be coming up. Surprises are nice for guests, but not for employees.
Remember that good communication goes both ways. Encourage staff members to speak to you, and listen to what they say. Staff should report any concerns they have or problems that they see throughout the hotel. This will help you correct things before the guests notice them.
Delegate and encourage independence. Realize that you cannot do everything by yourself. Decide which duties you can delegate to appropriate staff members and encourage them to work independently. Find the effective level between your personal involvement and over-supervision.
For example, if your hotel includes a restaurant, you may not personally need to assign the work schedule for waitstaff. Delegate that task to a “head waiter” or allow the waitstaff to work as a team to develop a functioning schedule. You may still need to provide some oversight, but delegation is the key to higher productivity.
Encourage positive morale. Your hotel guests will expect a positive experience when they visit, and that comes from the staff working around them. As the manager, you need to foster enjoyment among your staff. Go beyond just keeping your staff well paid. Find ways to encourage positivity throughout your hotel. Some ideas might include:
Institute an incentive program for staff members with solutions to problems.
Provide positive feedback whenever you can.
Recognize staff members publicly for good work.
Host occasional social events for your staff.
Provide continued training for staff. If you want your hotel to improve overall, your staff should be encouraged to improve individually. Provide job-appropriate training opportunities. These might be workshops on improving customer relations or cooking classes for your restaurant staff. Talk with your staff to learn their needs. You can also research industry publications for additional ideas.
You should always provide adequate mentorship and training for new staff members.
Providing opportunities for staff to learn and move up within the hotel promotes overall morale and helps you develop well-rounded employees.
Providing the Best for Your Guests
Make a positive first impression. Consider your guests’ first contact with your hotel and do what you can to make that as positive as possible. If you have parking attendants, they should greet guests warmly and treat the cars with respect. If you can afford a doorman, guests should be welcomed and guided in to the hotel lobby. Your desk clerks should always be attentive and friendly. As the manager, you need to impress the importance of the first impression on all your staff.
Provide an attractive setting. You always need to look at your hotel with the eyes of your guests. Ask yourself if it looks attractive, and find ways to improve it. You may need to hire a groundskeeper or landscaper. You should have a cleaning staff, and supervise their work so they meet your standards. Ensure that all fixtures are working and up to current expectations.
You may be limited by your location, but you can always do something to make your hotel attractive. If you are in the middle of a large city, you obviously cannot provide an attractive front lawn. Even so, you can bring potted plants and indoor decorative trees to your lobby to provide a fresh appearance.
Small touches, like providing artwork for the guestrooms and public areas, can greatly improve the appearance of any hotel.
Look for ways to be helpful. Guests will remember people who go out of their way to be friendly and helpful.
[9] This may include opening a door, holding an elevator, or carrying luggage into the room. As the manager, you can hire the appropriate staff to provide services. If the hotel budget does not include such staff as bellhops and doormen, you can still encourage your staff to be as helpful as possible.
Stress staff courtesy. Your staff need to treat all customers with courtesy and respect. Managing a hotel is a service industry, and you and your employees need to realize that you are there to serve the guests. Even when a guest is rude, inappropriate or demanding, the staff needs to be respectful.
Encourage staff to listen to what a guest says rather than how the guest says it. A rude or demanding attitude is generally the guest’s way of expressing that something is wrong. Find the source of the problem and correct it.
Remember that an apology goes a long way.
Provide clean, comfortable rooms. Customers will expect the rooms they stay in to be clean and well arranged. Work with your cleaning staff regularly to make sure that rooms are kept up to your standards. Work with the owners or higher management to make any overall changes to the structure or style of the rooms.
Consider what extra amenities you can provide in the rooms. For example, guests commonly expect color television. But you may be able to expand their cable or satellite access.
Some hotels provide coffee makers or even microwave ovens and small refrigerators in the rooms. These can add to your guests' comfort.
Follow up on guest satisfaction. Hotel guests appreciate attention and knowing that they are being looked after. You may want to institute a formal system for feedback, such as a questionnaire card for guests to complete in their rooms. [12] You should also informally just greet your guests and ask, “How is everything going? Is there anything else we can do for you?” Simple attention like that goes a long way toward customer satisfaction.
MPESA TO WIN
Managing a hotel requires you to pay attention to many things at once. You need to start with a well-trained staff and oversee their work. You need to address the needs of your customers, to keep them satisfied and coming back to the hotel. As a manager, you should always be looking to the future, planning ahead for emergencies and finding ways to improve and grow. Finally, part of managing a successful hotel today requires you to manage your online presence and use technology to increase advertising.
Managing the Staff
Hire good people. As a hotel manager, you rely on good staff members. This includes everyone from the desk clerk to the maids to the custodians. You want your guests to see efficient and helpful staff members who enjoy and are proud of their work. You need to be able to rely on your staff to do their jobs as expected, without excessive oversight.
You should find out from the hotel owners or managers over you whether you have authority to fire and hire new staff members, if necessary.
Communicate regularly with staff. Maintain regular dialogue with your staff members. They need feedback about the quality of their work, both good and bad. You also need to communicate regularly with hotel staff about any changes or special events that may be coming up. Surprises are nice for guests, but not for employees.
Remember that good communication goes both ways. Encourage staff members to speak to you, and listen to what they say. Staff should report any concerns they have or problems that they see throughout the hotel. This will help you correct things before the guests notice them.
Delegate and encourage independence. Realize that you cannot do everything by yourself. Decide which duties you can delegate to appropriate staff members and encourage them to work independently. Find the effective level between your personal involvement and over-supervision.
For example, if your hotel includes a restaurant, you may not personally need to assign the work schedule for waitstaff. Delegate that task to a “head waiter” or allow the waitstaff to work as a team to develop a functioning schedule. You may still need to provide some oversight, but delegation is the key to higher productivity.
Encourage positive morale. Your hotel guests will expect a positive experience when they visit, and that comes from the staff working around them. As the manager, you need to foster enjoyment among your staff. Go beyond just keeping your staff well paid. Find ways to encourage positivity throughout your hotel. Some ideas might include:
Institute an incentive program for staff members with solutions to problems.
Provide positive feedback whenever you can.
Recognize staff members publicly for good work.
Host occasional social events for your staff.
Provide continued training for staff. If you want your hotel to improve overall, your staff should be encouraged to improve individually. Provide job-appropriate training opportunities. These might be workshops on improving customer relations or cooking classes for your restaurant staff. Talk with your staff to learn their needs. You can also research industry publications for additional ideas.
You should always provide adequate mentorship and training for new staff members.
Providing opportunities for staff to learn and move up within the hotel promotes overall morale and helps you develop well-rounded employees.
Providing the Best for Your Guests
Make a positive first impression. Consider your guests’ first contact with your hotel and do what you can to make that as positive as possible. If you have parking attendants, they should greet guests warmly and treat the cars with respect. If you can afford a doorman, guests should be welcomed and guided in to the hotel lobby. Your desk clerks should always be attentive and friendly. As the manager, you need to impress the importance of the first impression on all your staff.
Provide an attractive setting. You always need to look at your hotel with the eyes of your guests. Ask yourself if it looks attractive, and find ways to improve it. You may need to hire a groundskeeper or landscaper. You should have a cleaning staff, and supervise their work so they meet your standards. Ensure that all fixtures are working and up to current expectations.
You may be limited by your location, but you can always do something to make your hotel attractive. If you are in the middle of a large city, you obviously cannot provide an attractive front lawn. Even so, you can bring potted plants and indoor decorative trees to your lobby to provide a fresh appearance.
Small touches, like providing artwork for the guestrooms and public areas, can greatly improve the appearance of any hotel.
Look for ways to be helpful. Guests will remember people who go out of their way to be friendly and helpful.
[9] This may include opening a door, holding an elevator, or carrying luggage into the room. As the manager, you can hire the appropriate staff to provide services. If the hotel budget does not include such staff as bellhops and doormen, you can still encourage your staff to be as helpful as possible.
Stress staff courtesy. Your staff need to treat all customers with courtesy and respect. Managing a hotel is a service industry, and you and your employees need to realize that you are there to serve the guests. Even when a guest is rude, inappropriate or demanding, the staff needs to be respectful.
Encourage staff to listen to what a guest says rather than how the guest says it. A rude or demanding attitude is generally the guest’s way of expressing that something is wrong. Find the source of the problem and correct it.
Remember that an apology goes a long way.
Provide clean, comfortable rooms. Customers will expect the rooms they stay in to be clean and well arranged. Work with your cleaning staff regularly to make sure that rooms are kept up to your standards. Work with the owners or higher management to make any overall changes to the structure or style of the rooms.
Consider what extra amenities you can provide in the rooms. For example, guests commonly expect color television. But you may be able to expand their cable or satellite access.
Some hotels provide coffee makers or even microwave ovens and small refrigerators in the rooms. These can add to your guests' comfort.
Follow up on guest satisfaction. Hotel guests appreciate attention and knowing that they are being looked after. You may want to institute a formal system for feedback, such as a questionnaire card for guests to complete in their rooms. [12] You should also informally just greet your guests and ask, “How is everything going? Is there anything else we can do for you?” Simple attention like that goes a long way toward customer satisfaction.
MPESA TO WIN
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