Guests’ experiences of hotels are heavily influenced by what they see, hear, feel, smell and taste when on the premises. Each and every detail impacts their stay — for better or for worse. When evaluating our properties on behalf of our guests, we need our own senses to be effective. This may require eliminating hurdles to using our senses that have developed over time.Two major hurdles to avoid are complacency and being desensitized. Complacency is “a feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better”. Being desensitized is “to cause someone or something to react less to or be less affected by something.”

How does one overcome these hurdles? Here are a few ideas:

We recently implemented “Quality Pólice» a playoff of Fashion police – a group of operations staff via Whatsapp shoots photos of things that affect quality –detail– a piece of furniture not in good shape, a broken piece of this or that –we are all the eyes and ears of the hotel– and it is working !

Start with setting the tone for your property by exhibiting energy and a positive attitude. Lead by example!

Demonstrate pride in your establishment with frequent walk-throughs that result in improved housekeeping, better maintenance and a fresh look and feel to things.

Encourage everyone on property to perform “sensory audits” throughout the front and back of the house — including their own workplace — that result in recommendations for improvement.