Hotel Management: What Drives Efficiency and Effectiveness

We have all heard the expressions about the need to try something different if we expect different results.

Throughout my professional career, and I assume everyone else’s too, we have all seen people unexpectedly succeed for no apparent reason, while others whom we thought had every condition needed to do so have failed spectacularly.

Anthony J. D'Angelo said something along these lines:

"Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance"

In hospitality, that can be especially true, and I believe that at least part of those results is rooted in the empathetic side of our industry. While we now benefit from technology that can track and measure statistics at incredible speed, human interaction remains the core foundation of success in hotel operations and sales.

The work of a hotel manager is not easy: to succeed, we must be efficient and effective.

Efficiency often simply comes with experience; however, effectiveness can be improved through some of the points I outline below: 

• Understand each team member’s working style, as well as their capabilities, and leverage every individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Learn what motivates each person and how to manage them to get the best from them.

• Come to work with a plan in mind. Your team needs your direction to get through the shift. Often, a person needs coaching and leadership to help them get where they need to be.

• Know that results are everything. Without achieving results, even the best plans go nowhere. As a hotel manager, your job is not only to design the plan, but also to establish the measurement, follow-up and means to see it through.

• Take part in the daily operation and do not lock yourself away in your office. You need to be an active participant in day-to-day operations. If you withdraw from daily activities, you will miss the changes that need to happen to achieve better results. Hold daily team meetings.

• Be inspired and be inspiring. Set the tone and pace for your team. Your team is modelling itself and taking cues from your example. Your team is determining its level of commitment based on yours.

• Do not think you can say something once and miracles will happen. Repetition is essential for continued success. Whatever is truly important to your success should be a daily conversation. Keep priorities front of mind.

• Do not accept excuses. Hold yourself to a high standard of excellence in every aspect of the hotel to achieve long-term success. When you challenge yourself or others to deliver better results, excuses arise. Remove them from your hotel as quickly as possible (the excuses, of course).

• Do not ignore the future implications of every decision you make. Your team and the property are counting on you to make decisions that enable them to succeed. A key skill of a good hotel manager is knowing how to make sound short-term decisions with long-term impact.

• Do not retain underperformers who will not deliver results or are unable to do so. Retaining talent and addressing underperformers are equally important. Your team will neither respect you nor deliver if it sees that top performers and those who underperform receive the same treatment. Act immediately, whatever the cost of doing so.