Today Hotels in India are doing extremely well. The boom which started after COVID-19 still continues. What’s more, we are running short of rooms - even during the off-season. Hotels on the hill-stations have never experienced this kind of rush in the past. But, it is also true that, in the coming years we will witness a quantum leap in the inventory of hotel rooms.
My question is that are we gearing-up to meet this demand with better management practices, superior upscale service standards and introduce the superior version of F&B and Bouquets facilities to address the surge of demand which is dormant at present.
In this blog, I would like to enlighten our Industry with some ground realities. Since last few years I have been extensively involved as a ‘Mystery Auditor’, reviewing the industry status. I am glad that today the demand for hotel rooms is unprecedented, but sadly enough our service standards in last fifty years, are at the lowest ebb. It seems that we have forgotten the basic principles of hospitality. Corporate hotel managements of all chains keep inventing new service upgrades with little or no implementation at the operational level. Today all this is being conveniently overlooked because of excessive demand, but soon the life of hotels will complete its full circle soon; and then the correction or upgrade will be very cumbersome and very expensive.
At this juncture, to justify my claim, I will try to point out some very sensitive issues that cropped up during various ‘Points-of-Contact’ both with the customers/guests.
· Central Reservation System (CRS)
Despite the advancement of technology in all aspects of hotel reservation system today, the numbers of booking that are generated through the CRS are on the decline, primarily due to lack of clarity on the room rates among those handling the enquiries, which in turn leads to uneventful telephonic discussion. More often than not, the operators advise guests to check the final room rates with the Hotel directly as they are not updated by hotel in the reservation system. Moreover, the management prefers to trust the reservation sites for business generation rather than their own team. The importance of communication between revenue management and reservation systems should not be ignored - not only in the interest of business generation but also guest satisfaction, which is critical factor, for long term benefits. Today Hotels loose over 20% of possible business due to communication gap between the CRS and hotel reservation including the corporate sales. Consequently, we end up picking reservations on much lower rates and also paying higher commission to the reservation sites, because of this problem the guest remains confused between the CRS and hotel reservation system.
· Front Office Operations
For old school professionals like me, the ‘Front Office’ still remains the first and last support for clients/guests. Unfortunately, today this is slowly becoming a weakest department in the Hotel. In most of the hotels, FOM has morphed into more of an administrative unit. Their involvement in generating business is zilch; the staff under them is untrained and do not function in tandem with their colleagues’. In the last two years we have visited over thirty odd hotels across India during which, most of the time (say 90%) we were disappointed, in one way or another with the performance of Front Office. The use of telephone in the operations have been ignored simply because most of the hotel operations works on mobile phones, but the entire guest operations are carried on using the installed hotel telephone lines and that is also being presently ignored. Our experience revealed that over 75% of the hotels we surveyed require both Technology and instrument upgrade. Same is the situation with Concierge/Bell Desk operations. Somehow, we have conveniently forgotten the role they play in creating guest satisfaction. We have a perfect system and, in most cases, excellent software, but still in majority of cases the human factor has failed to comply.
· Food and Beverage Operations and Services
In India, for decades the reputation and success of any hotel was always defined by the popularity of their food outlets and banquet business. Best hotels were known by the number of famous restaurants they had. Seventy percent of the F&B revenue came from non-resident Guests, forty percent of hotel occupancy was also generated due to contacts developed through the F&B clientele. Everything has changed today, majority of city hotels are finding it difficult to fill up the ‘All Day Dining’ and bar in the hotel; today, on an average there is just 20% occupancy in their outlets and they are happy. The room service is just for name’s sake and the Banquets are at mercy of God and Auspicious Dates for various ceremonies of life. During the eighties and the Nineties on an average we saw ‘Room to F&B ratio’ to be 1:1 and in some large Hotels it was even more, while today it is down to 1:0.25 or even less. On other hand F&B menu rates have sky rocketed, as today a cup of Coffee in a five star Hotel, which cost hotel Rs.8 to 10, now sells anywhere between Rs.500 to Rs.900 and same is the situation with the other food items on the menu. Irony is, only time restaurant is full, is Breakfast, which is a complimentary offering to the resident guests.
The quality of food available in the Hotels is also sub-standard, and is sold at very high price, the same goes for hard and soft beverages. As for innovations, we checked the ‘Restaurant Menus’ of over 50 to 60 Hotel Restaurants and found seventy to eighty percent items are common. Today free standing popular independent restaurants are doing extremely well but I feel they are also slowly increasing rates. The real winners are food chains like Haldiram’s, Bikaner, Big Chill, Sagar Ratna and many more. This is one of the reasons why the profitability of hotels will register a down slide in times to come. Although post COVID - 19 booms is still going on, but let us not overlook the fact that there are many more Hotels that are being built at present, and this factor will impact the market when fresh room inventories get added to the existing pool in the next two or three years.
A new extension of the F&B department has emerged post COVID-19 which is called Banquets. Today for some unknown reason banqueting business has started generating phenomenal amount of revenue; reason for the same is unprecedented growth in banquet rates. I remember during the PRE-COVID 19 days when average rate uses to be 2000 plus, which today has gone up to 3500 plus, thus registering an unbelievable growth of 80%, unheard of specially after low economic growth of past two years due to COVID 19. With volume rates higher than any ala’carte rate of best Hotel Restaurant, it is just a matter of time when we will face major down slide.
· Service Standards
There is a major decline in the quality of services being provided in a good ‘Five Star and Five Star Deluxe Hotels. The Hotels earn their major GOP from room revenue, but at present most of the services stand diluted when compared to even the normal standards of the Hotel industry. My experience tells me that, now a days nearly 95% of the 5-star hotels do not provide evening service unless you are a VIP or ask for it; there is no daily change of Linen, whenever wherever possible, basic amenities like fruit basket, chocolates etc. are either not provided, instead some cheap unattractive down market Indian snacks are placed. Mini Bar operation is also on the decline. Information graphics provided in the rooms are slowly reducing or in some cases vanishing. Out of over twenty hotels I visited in last four months, nearly 60% didn’t have Menu to order food. Hotels insist on using bar code to read the menu. Even the laundry, which is out sourced in most of the hotels, does not follow any prescribed standards; quite naturally the results are way below the required quality and standards.
· The General Manager of the Hotel
Contribution of a General Manager in the success of any hotel is very much relevant, even today. After over fifty years of hotel industry, the magic of a competent GM remains the most important component responsible for making any Hotel from good to outstanding. My last two years of mystery audit analysis clearly points out lack GM’s involvement in day to day running/operation of the Hotel. Today GM spends over 80% of his time in his office and most of the time, when Guests want to meet he is “in meeting”.
Questions which GM needs to answer for himself are:-
1.
How many times he
is seen in public areas?
2.
Does he know
what is being served in the buffet today?
3.
How many guests
has he interacted with, today?
4.
Does the front
office cashier have enough change for the guest?
5.
When was the
last time he spent little time with Garden staff?
6.
When was the
last time he had staff cafeteria food in the Cafeteria?
7.
When was the last time he got operational feedback
from the staff, Trainees or Guests?
8. When was the last time Guest saw him in the lobby in morning checkout time and evening, when Guests are coming back?
You will be shocked to know that out of over thirty Hotels I stayed in the last two and half years, I saw only one GM mingling with the guests. And this story must be told; early this year I stayed at Hyatt Regency, Chandigarh for two days. Every morning while having breakfast, I saw GM taking round of ‘All Day Dinning’, greeting, wishing and talking with guest, examining the buffet spread - he was very approachable to one and all alike. Similarly, I saw him, in the evening doing his rounds in the lounge and other restaurants. Making sure all guests knew who he was, he made sure that everything was in order in his hotel, and in the process his presence made sure that any confusion or complaints are handled well. Always remember if GM is on the move, whole hotel is alive and kicking
Hotel Ethics
Lastly, the most damaging thing I felt was that hotels have started promising the services that either don’t exist or have been conveniently withdrawn/discontinued without informing the guests. For example, as you all know, most of the five-star hotels have created a new category few years back to enhance ARR, it is called Business/Executive class rooms with lounge service. But in reality, in most of the hotels, there is no lounge available to Guests. Surprisingly enough, the lounge is kept closed even if they had one. So, customer is tricked into paying more for regular room and in most of the cases, they don’t even provide even fruit basket. Is this ethical or just smart! Don’t they realize that by closing the lounge to save few hundred rupees, they have opted to compromise their credibility; in fact they forget the reality, that if the guest is using the lounge for a drink will always end up eating/hosting a dinner with his guests in the Hotel, in turn it helps to increase food sales. This just one example of tricking played on the guests.
…“Hospitality
is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the
guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and
entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.”…!
