The Five Senses of Hotel Management and Strategy

I have read an article by Suhaib F. Khilji that struck me for its simplicity. We all know that human beings have five senses: sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing. Some people say we have more, but that is not the point at hand. The truth is that lacking one of them makes life more difficult for a person or, at the very least, requires a period of adaptation and learning before they can overcome that limitation.

If we think of a hotel as a living organism, we can draw an interesting parallel between the five human senses and the critical areas of its operation. Without these senses being well developed and fully functional, a hotel can become blind, deaf, mute or insensitive, losing its ability to compete in a dynamic environment. Most dangerously, however, many hotels operate with sensory deficiencies without even realising it.

Let us look at how the five senses apply to hospitality and what happens when one of them fails.