Being a True Host - Far More Important than a Big Marketing Strategy

BY JOSE PINTO*

If you’re a hotel struggler and have hotel operations going in your “veins”, as I am, I’m sure you’ll agree that nothing is more exciting than arriving at your lobby or breakfast room and wonder what will be waiting for you on the day, what interesting people you will be meeting, how will be your employee’s happiness among many other factors that you and me aspire daily. How great is to start a happy day with great “real smiles”!

But there is also a negative side to it: the unhappy guest, the unmotivated employee or even an unexpected operative problem. Such is life within our real “World”, the Hotels.

Why would a guest arrive in his elegant room or suite and instantly complain about the lack of ocean view?

Or why would another guest, who has a beautifully laid out state-of-the-art gym at his disposal only pay

attention to the fact that the gym’s TV program does not include his favorite station and so he demands to see the General Manager or Managing Director?

Today we know that one large part of the consumers is literally trained “or are assessed “to find any fault during their stay to get a refund or to have any kind or compensation including a free stay, this what many travelers know and call “value for money”.

What could be the reason that we hoteliers still don’t understand, what are the guests, travelers really looking for? Perhaps we have to start looking inside and revise or detect if they are not exaggerating in the creation of fantasies, false expectances in order to attract them with our Marketing strategies.

We think we are in the business of selling accommodations only, but our guests, customers and travelers are looking for anything that make them feel out of their World. They are always looking to have different experiences and expect the unexpected during their stay.

Guest expectations are high and any little thing that goes wrong damages their dream and causes great disappointment.

If you’ve ever stood in a hotel lobby, you know very well what I am talking about. You see groups of tired people arriving with dark circles under their eyes and stressed faces but determined to make one or two upcoming weeks the best days of their lives.

The stay is their opportunity to recover from non-stop work at home during the tiring pandemic times and many other unsuccessful business trips among thousands of reasons, therefore they just want to have fun, or get closer to their relationship and solve their issues or a romantic getaway out of home venue or even plan their next business move. They aren’t booking for luxury rooms or suites; they are looking for a piece of happiness and a memorable experience. But is a hotel the perfect venue to provide that? What do you think?

I’m an Hotelier that had great “teachers” and as I recall, I was told since “DAY ONE” that either you love what you do to “be a great host” or you fail as an hotelier.

Most of the times, all it needed is a little attention. I mean a great eye contact, a smile or a little anticipation of anything, that most times they don’t tell you verbally, but you as an expert in dealing with people can detect via their faces or moves or even listening to their talk among their friends or in parties.

As always said, small gestures make wonderful memories in our minds forever.

we do most times?

Finally how can we express that in our marketing without creating fantasies or wrong expectations?

In our daily hotel work, we have a tendency to focus so much in how to create Marketing on logistics, statistics, strategies and feedback scores, percentages of this and that and we are losing the meaning of being Hotelier, I mean a truly one , a Host.

If Hotel marketing is according

to the “gurus”, an umbrella term, which refers to the various marketing strategies and techniques that hotels use, in order to promote their business and make a positive impression on customers. Essentially, it is about making a hotel as appealing as possible, in order to attract as many guests as possible. Then I suggest that the Hotel Marketers must also create and transmit that the Brand also provides a human to human relations too, not only a great service, a stunning building with great rooms and suites with luxurious decoration, Egyptian cotton, silk pillows cases and a superb location.

What makes you stand out from anything and any competitor is the intangible un-noticed touches in service, human kindness then the other tangible services.

Guests and travelers are human beings and what they want and look for is that you

we hoteliers act as a host and make them matter.

So, the question to ask ourselves is this: How do we

become true hosts and show our guests that we really care with true meaning as

But the subject does not finish there, if you really want to succeed; your Marketing team must be responsible to transmit their Marketing STRATEGY “without any fantasy to the employees.”

In hotels which marketing is shown to be distant from the rest of the team and does not transmit to human resource management their strategy is a candidate to failure. Marketing Team and Hotel operations MUST BE HAND IN HAND , I mean “we all should speak the same language “ My recommendation is that Human Resource Management and Training be joined by presentations of the Marketing Team. They should transmit “strategies and achievements “, praise and motivation. This action will give rise in its broader sense and make happier employees by giving them “a sense to belonging” and finally that will make the guests and travelers happier.

These focus points will then inform how you plan the rest of your hotel marketing strategies, and both are linked to each other. The brand message you run with will ultimately impact employees and the kind of guests you attract.

But if you don’t know what voice to speak with, or who you don’t want to hear it, business is unlikely to boom.

* FOUNDER OF JPHOSPITALITY.EU & TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE