As guests become more discerning and demanding and look beyond the discounts, clever and catchy promotions, real customer satisfaction can only be achieved by delivering high-quality service. Innovation and creativity on the part of hoteliers is needed to transform an ordinary experience of a guest to an excellent one. Adding a bit of luxury and delivering it with highly trained staff is essential for high quality hospitality, and it can achieved by simple tweaks here and there and following a disciplined approach in recruiting and training staff.

1. 1 www.arabbusinessreview.com
Hospitality & Luxury, We need to rethink!
 As guests become more discerning and demanding and look beyond
the discounts, clever and catchy promotions, real customer satisfaction can
only be achieved by delivering high-quality service.
 Innovation and creativity on the part of hoteliers is needed to transform an
ordinary experience of a guest to an excellent one.
 Adding a bit of luxury and delivering it with highly trained staff is essential
for high quality hospitality, and it can achieved by simple tweaks here and
there and following a disciplined approach in recruiting and training staff.
In the Hospitality Industry the main goal is guests’ ultimate satisfaction, their expectation to
receive it and our way of delivering it! So have we gone off track, trying to correct the situation
with discounts, clever and catchy promotions and wasting marketing money? It’s time to
reconsider what makes a memorable experience, as guests are becoming more discerning,
more experienced, more aware and no longer swayed by our claims of value, and therefore
they are becoming more demanding?

2. 2 www.arabbusinessreview.com
It requires an investment from hoteliers to be innovative and enter the realm of excellence.
Thoughtful hoteliers need to serve up their aces to their guests in such creative ways, being
inspirational providing signature class services, tingling “invitees” senses, from the time the
guests arrive to the time they bid adieu.
We have to get a step further than the expected, tried and now seemingly ordinary set of
“luxury” amenities such as bathrobes, handmade soaps, natural fabric mattresses, branded
speakers, Television or the clock and radio, 60 channels in various international languages,
complimentary newspapers from around the world, have actually become quite common for an
outstanding luxurious property,
We need to set standards for experiential excellence!!
Some ideas below:
 Develop a statement signature fragrance for your property and for its rooms &suites.
 Offer your guests crisp linen, mists and sleep balms.
 Introduce a dedicated Fragrance Butler who serves up a fragrance menu tailored for Lady
guests and for Gents.
 Appoint an inspired tea & sparkling water sommelier for your afternoon high tea service.
 Establish among with your 24 hrs in room dinning an on call in- room mixologist with a
selection of cocktails for all tastes.
 A “sleep” butler who will be well-armed to combat any situation, that the modern, hectic,
stressed way of life has “offered” us with a list of curative cocktails, sparkling and coconut
water and savory snacks – a different pillow menu : water-filled version, NASA-designed
Swedish Memory Foam version, a foot body cushion or an iPod-ready lullaby pillow,

3. 3 www.arabbusinessreview.com
aromatherapy bath products, comforting treats like warm milk, cookies and calming teas,
sleep mask, lavender linen oil etc……..
 In-room spa treatments (the hotel’s masseur/masseuse star available on call) and a
specialty anti-oxidant menu.
 Offer a personal shopper & customized concierge service.
 Better organize your private Chef services.
 And the list goes on……….
To offer outstanding service, a luxury property needs great TEAM, both management and
front/back of the house employees, with emotional intelligence. This means intuitive people
sense, empathy, and genuineness and……… of course the hospitality personality, the face of
the property, “the Maestro” this goes further than cheerfulness, what is needed is graciousness,
kindness, humor and savoir faire, a Hotelier with cosmopolitan flair and originality, both,
essential ingredients of the recipe to offer even more awe-inducing hospitality moments to
“invitees”!
Our people is our strength! we also need to rethink on how we could improve our recruiting &
training methods “train both, recruiter and trainer”! and avoid making costly hiring
mistakes. For the recruiters to learn how to read between the lines to determine real
competence Vs fluff. Identify the essential human competencies which are necessarily
requested in the extremely sensitive world of hospitality: charisma, quality, attitude, behavior,
sensibility, enthusiasm, passion.
We’ll also need a particular level of expertise, knowledge and functional skills, but before all we
need Imagination which is more important than knowledge, what will make us stand out from
everyone else is our values and characteristics that define how we operate, think and
contribute. Hotel Owners and Operators have to invest, and provide us with the necessary
“funds”, on what is missing Inventive People!

4. 4 www.arabbusinessreview.com
In conclusion we can say: “when love and skills work together then expect a masterpiece”
Exceptional service is about making difference and creating magic!!!
The article is written by Nicolas Frangos for Arab Business Review
To read more thought-leadership stuff by leaders from Arab Region, please visit Arab Business Review