Indian Hospitality Industry 1

Hotel Management in Default Settings

Today I have completed more than 35 years in the Indian Hospitality Industry. It was a humble beginning as Junior Executive Trainee in Akbar hotel on a stipend of Rs. 600 - I had just returned from Beirut, Lebanon. Gradually then, as a young lad, I was exposed to the Indian System of hotel environment, management, cuisines. I am very grateful that I grew up in the setting when great hoteliers’ like M. S. Oberoi, Ajit Kerkar and S.N. Gadhoke were trying to set standards in the hospitality Industry. Every time we served them breakfast, lunch or dinner we were trained to be precise on the timing, product contents, accompaniments, sauces and so on. Every time we served them, it was like a classroom lecture on Hospitality Standards, Environment, and Ambience and to learn how to hone the already known skills. Like our bosses, we were equally passionate about what we cooked, what we served and how we served.

Since then lot of water has flown under the bridge our peers have taken a sabbatical from the industry, leaders have changed. Large numbers of International Brands are in India. The influence of Casual American Style of management is now quite visible all over. Though we construct better hotels with superior technology we ignore the finer nuances of this delicate industry thereby choking its growth and development, in terms of quality and excellence.

Contrary to what anyone may say, our service standards have gone down without doubt. The human touch has been conveniently replaced by efficiency- whatever it means to the managements, Guest Satisfaction is secondary and only provided on complaint or demand.

Indian culture once the mainstay of courtesy and hospitality has taken a flight into oblivion. New targets of the hotels are healthy bottom line, and guest satisfaction is not really a part of agenda. Over the last few years having conducted over mystery customer operation audits, I am quite in a position to comment on the issues and areas of deterioration, but before I do, I would like to inform my readers that this is not true for South East Asia.  Service or guest experience, quality of food, authenticity of cuisine in these countries is reaching new heights we can only write or talk. Today not only India but the entire modern world is desperately trying to emulate the service standards of hotels like Regent, Shangri-la, Aman, Four Season, Mandarin Oriental, The Peninsula & Lebua Hotels and Resorts. These are also hotels who have rewritten service standards for the world to follow and yet have achieved   financial targets we can only dream.

My observation is based on  the premise that a hotel to be successful, requires good architectural design, well appointed rooms, latest software’s and good facilities, but more than anything else it requires a human touch, because Hospitality Business is all about people - weary people who come for a respite. They deserve the best and even more.

My points of observation are placed below:

1.      Periphery entrance to the hotel is one of the essential and impressionable but in the name of security we have turned this as it were an entry to barricaded army area. Instead of guest getting a feel of services and security he experiences a show of arrogance and discourtesy. Mostly the staff deployed is not properly trained to be well-mannered besides majority of them are not aware of what they are looking for when checking cars. This scene remind you of the mile long queue on main roads due to road blocks, but when you reach the block you notice the police men are standing on the side and not even looking at you.

(Our mystery customer report and our study indicate that 65% of client do not believe that Hotels take security of premises and guest very seriously and feel it’s a waste of time.)

2.    System of appointing a doorman was started to provide a grand welcome to every guest. Unfortunately in most of the hotels this service is only working for guest with luxury cars and expensive life style. My experience in visiting the same hotel was different with three different cars - while a BMW got me stiff army style salute and an extra dose of service, courtesy with a smile, a Honda city gave me the feeling as though  I was entering a corporate office and finally it was Maruti Swift which got me that special cold look reserved for a  petty customer who just hangs around in the lobby or has come for  a meet-up with the esteemed rich guest already staying of the hotel.

Most of these hotels make you realize or define your social class and economic status. This at times is made obvious by the Durbaan who makes the guest conscious. This treatment is more pronounced in North India as compared to the western or southern parts of India.  I recall the first time when I came back from abroad after 10 years, my flight was diverted to Mumbai (Bombay) and all passengers were given transit accommodation at TAJ. I clearly remember trying to carry my own baggage, as all bell boys were busy taking out the luggage from the buses before I could enter the hotel,  I was attended by lobby manager who insisted that I hand over my hand baggage to him as he welcomed me  with a very genuine  smile. Today when you visit a hotel, nine out of ten times you have to ask for someone to carry your luggage.You feel you are on your own , as if you are in some kind of an urban sarai ( Our study indicate nearly every second guest has this issue and feels this should  be improved)

3.   Our Reception Service has become much Americanized. I remember I had to wait 20 minutes in Lexington Hotel in New York just to get the keys to my room. Technology has reduced the work load of the front office to less than half of what they were doing earlier. Still I find it quite amusing that receptionists do not bother to exchange pleasantries or to even welcome you with a smile. As a guest - you have to introduce yourself, you have to request for everything. There is no display of courtesy either verbal or in the body language,  no warm smiles, in most of the cases it reminds you of visiting Udhyog Bhawan PRO office and queuing up to  get an entry pass to visit government office. What has happened to our basic values? Why have we forgotten the poor sucker standing across the counter is going to make or break the hotel? (8 corporate guests out of 10 feel that technology has not improved in the service).

4.     I was taught while growing up in the industry that Housekeeping and Room Service is the backbone of any successful hotel venture. It is surprising  that the house keeping standards of a  well managed 3,4 or 5 star hotel are nearly the same including the  facilities in the room, barring  the size of the room which may vary with number of Stars. However to me what matters is how thoughtfully the room is maintained in the hotel. There is a standard practice of cleaning the room once a day and then there is a turn down service in the evening. But if a guest checks-in early and has used the room and bathroom, before going out, the housekeeping never clean or services the room and in the evening you  return to a dirty room. In most cases the evening service depends on the availability of staff and their whims & fancies. For me perfect housekeeping would mean each time I return to my room, I must find it tidy and all touched up, Paper, books, clothes all properly stored with sparkling toilets, freshly laundered towels and linen etc. all in a spick & span condition and yes not forgetting that little flower to greet you and to make you feel good while you prepare to call it a day. But I guess in today’s scenario while picking up good things from West, we have given up good things of East for which West came to us, our service with a soul and smile.

5. In Corporate Hotels and Resorts Room Service can play a major role to generate from Food & Beverage revenue. Room Service menu is priced at least 15 to 20 % more than the restaurant or coffee shop rates so to provide additional service. This is the most disappointing service in today’s scenario, as the guest is treated as a captive who is solely dependent on them, it is an opportunity for the hotel to get creative, do what they want and how they want. I vividly recall my stay at the Clark Oberoi, Shimla back in 1976, every time I ordered room service it was a celebration. Room service staff would lay a proper table cloth and napkins   and even serve the meals, unless of course we didn’t want them to.

Many years later when I opened Regent Mumbai I tried to repeat  the same thing with modern equipment. There was this trolley which would roll in the room and then get converted into a table with laid out covers which is followed by piping hot food and the waiter used to wait on us to start the meal. I harbor a strong belief that with such large number of manpower we hire in India to run a  hotel, this service is easily possible and to say the least it needs to be experienced and it will have its own rewards . Frequent visitors to the hotels will agree with me that in most cases the room service is all lop sided. In a typical scenario, first it is difficult to order and when your order is finally noted over the phone most of the time they bring wrong items – sauces and accompaniments are matter of luck. Then finally the removal & clearance of trolley which is a matter of sheer luck or lottery, I am sure most of my readers will confirm spending nights with dirty tray or trolley. (90% of the guest staying and using room service feel then when they order from room service they are compromising with their meals. They are forced to order room service not because they like to, but because of convenience).

6. There is a major misunderstanding about upgrading of Communication Systems in the hotels that is the telephone Technology for internal communication. We keep on upgrading this technology so to improve service to the guest. But our management team thinks this is to reduce manpower. Little do they realize that telephone operator is the only vital link which the esteemed guest has with the management team of the hotel. On top of that in 80s’ and 90s’, this was a major revenue earner .

Experienced traveler will confirm how important is the Telephone Operator to the guest, but somehow we all have forgotten him  in the hope that  someday we will completely eliminate the operator  or at least we want to think  that we will. Today   with the help of new technology buttons we are making guest’s life even more miserable than comforting. Most of the operators seem to be in a tearing hurry to help the guest. The system of offering help to the guest has been totally eliminated. Consequently at times it is easier for the guest to call the hotel from his room from his mobile  than to go through the operator , because the brief given to the operator is to give priority to incoming calls from outside, than to calls from rooms. That is not all unfortunately, the worst is, if you are calling from outside and want  some information or want to get in touch with somebody in the hotel, you will have to be very lucky if you are connected in the first attempt. I have kept the record of my ordeal with hotels last year in this context - I called about 23 hotels to get some information or booking e.g. it was either about the rooms, or about a guest staying or want to be connected to  banquet/sales department or most of the times just trying to get connected to the GM of the  hotel. In the process I may have spent around Rs. 4.75 per call per hotel. (Most of the guest and their secretaries felt that it was easier to get across to hotel’s contact person on his mobile than to call him through EPABX system of the hotel).

7. As an Assistant F & B Manager of a small ITDC Qutab Hotel in Delhi, where the most popular affair used to be the Sunday Buffet,  for 3 years I worked with this hotel, and we had nearly 65% repeat clientele for this Sunday Buffet. It was not that we served amazing food or we created an exceptional ambiance , it was, just that basic and pure, guest service. We made an effort to treat every guest in a very special way. His likes and dislikes were noted and we worked on that. I remember my family restaurant in Beirut, where I had the opportunity to work with a Senior Captain, his name was John De’Souza. He was the best guest relation manager, I ever worked with. I remember an instance - It was lunch time and our restaurant was empty it was nearly 2 PM in the afternoon. A Sheikh from Kuwait walked in the restaurant and when he looked at the empty restaurant, he asked John in his broken Hindi “ Kaya huwa Koi nahi hai”( What happened-no other guest) and john answered “Hajur aap agaye to Hamme kisi ki jarurat nahi hai” (Sir, you have come-now we don’t need anyone). The Sheikh was so emotionally charged that he hugged him and gave him a tip that was more than the cost of the meal.

I want to put a question to my readers i.e.  have they ever gone through  a similar experience in -  let us say last 10 years with a  big brand hotels like The Taj , Hyatt, Sheraton, Oberoi or ITC, today we  want the guest to pay ridiculous amounts for nothing. We have little  patience to serve him, the food according to his wishes and desires, ironically enough, even after so many years and with so many new concepts floating in the market the best restaurants still are  Bukhara and Moti Mahal in Greater Kailash, New Delhi. In the effort to modernize ourselves we forget who is paying for our existence. I have visited many restaurants, cafés and lounges in Hotels, if I ask for something different than the menu, as a rule they refuse to change, and this goes for all the hotels, however there may be exceptions - and exceptions  prove the rule).”The rule is not to change”

Most of coffee shops in hotels insists on a buffet - lunch or dinner because of their convenience, and if by chance you are stubborn and  have  your way, then your meal is  delayed to prove their point. This is also the reason why more and more free standing restaurants are doing well while the F&B revenue keeps dropping in hotels.

( The people we spoke to, majority of them felt that visiting hotel for F&B is not a good option when it comes to  value for money.)

Today we are on the threshold of a major growth in hotel industry and if our service standards do not match the proverbial Indian Hospitality and continue to be the way they are, there is very little hope. We have everything what our South East Asian neighbors’ have, but the difference is, that in India, hospitality is a  social phenomenon, a concept that is based on the principle Atithi Devo Bhava, meaning "The guest is God." From this stems the Indian approach of graciousness towards guests at home and in all social situations. It is we who are perceived by the world as a seat of Culture, warmth and Divine Heritage. It is important for us to win over the world by our faith and excellence of hospitality and become example to the world. Today technology has given us ability to achieve excellence in service standards and create a reputation beyond what is best in the world. Complacency is not an option when it comes to tourism development and growth. It would be a good idea to setup a research centre so to improve the service standards of existing hotels and also create and achieve new heights in Hospitality business opportunity.

Epilogue

“I may be branded as a bitter critique for my ballistic reactions by some in the hospitality industry - my advice to them, let’s not rock our own boat”./ Ends

Written by Anil Chak & Virat Varma