Do you know the five standard rules in the hospitality? All properties over the world should follow these rules
Most of the employees working in the hospitality are meeting guests every day, even those who are working behind the scenes. For this reason, they need to know how to behave and how to talk to customers.
Every property has own rules, that are different because based on standards and cultures. Hence, there are five rules which should be followed by hospitality`s staff all over the world.
Here below there are listed the five international standard rules for employees:
– Never talk about religion
– Never talk about politics
– Keep your life private
– Be respectful and polite
– Care about privacy
Religion and politics are personal topics, which can easily influence the opinion of a customer. As the voice of any single employee reflects the hotel`s philosophy, a wrong sentence about a preference concerning a politician or a religious worship might have a very negative impact on the entire guest`s journey. In connection with big hotel chains, it might even affect the entire international reputation. If the guest starts to talk about religion or politics, can be helpful don`t take any sides and try to answer in a neutral way.
Going forward to the third rule: talking about private life sounds very unprofessional. The small talk must focus on general information regarding the own property, country, city, culture and professional life. Information concerning personal life are not appropriate to the context, in fact as the employee in that case is representing the name of the hotel, could be not suitable to condescend to give answers which are not conformity with the hotel business.
Fourth rule: always be respectful to guests, colleagues and to the hotel. Sometimes can happen that guests are furious regarding problems and it might happen that scurrilous words are offending. Even in the worst scenario there is a professional way to argue and to calm things down. Another point concerns the colleagues, sure enough happens that co-workers or other departments have made mistakes. In that case the employee should never provide too much information and place the blame to someone, instead should provide the best available solution. Further, is not suitable to talk negative about the company working with, as it is against to the professional ethic.
Fifth and last rule: is important to respect privacy. Privacy intended not only for customers, but for colleagues and company too. Indeed, the employer should never provide information regarding guests to external people, face to face or by the phone. Same concept is valid for colleagues. Lastly, there are some conditions regarding the hotel which cannot be shared, otherwise can have a negative impact on the hotel business.
To conclude: words have a weight for customers and especially for unhappy customers.
Written By
Knowess International
Knowess International helps business owners and department heads working in the hospitality and restaurant industries to develop the necessary skills with targeted consulting.