Standard operating procedures are indispensable for day-to-day hotel operations and play a central role in the hotel’s success. They are essential for creating a long-term culture of profitability with sustainable growth for any type of hotel.
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What exactly does this mean?
A standard procedure establishes guidelines and specific rules that employees must follow. Tasks are clearly defined, and step-by-step instructions are provided for them.
What are the potential benefits of these standard procedures?
- A higher standard of quality for guests
- Higher guest satisfaction
- Improved service for guests
- Guests’ past expectations and experiences are met or can be improved in a controlled manner.
- Confident demeanor of the staff (through repetition)
- Staff potential is fully realized
- Operating costs are reduced
- A certain degree of predictability. Hotel management can specify and standardize work procedures going forward and remains informed about what is happening where and when in the hotel.
- Control: Results are optimally reviewed.
- Efficiency: When properly applied by employees, work procedures are improved.
How can this be achieved?
Staff training will be necessary. During these sessions, employees will be familiarized with the regulations and the correct procedures. Examples and group work will be used to demonstrate how effective these procedures can be. Since proper application plays a crucial role, the training must be conducted by experts. These experts know effective methods for motivating staff while sharing their knowledge in a professional manner. Afterward, on-the-job training can take place. Here, what was taught in the training session is put into practice directly at the hotel—and thus with the guests.
After an initial testing phase, everything will fall into place and quickly lead to improvements.
Why is it important to hire an outside firm for this?
Guiding, supporting, and advising. These are the main tasks of outside firms and management consultants, who provide independent hotels with helpful and expert guidance on the right path to take.
Reasons to work together:
- Contributing in-depth expertise and many years of experience in the field
- Staff are receptive to external expertise
- Identifying tailored solutions
- Fostering the professional growth of each individual employee. Identifying the team’s strengths and weaknesses
- Gaining new insights through external input
- Establishing guidelines for work and new internal processes
- Training based on new service models
- Identifying potential and optimizing it
What are the potential drawbacks of standardization?
- Loss of Individuality: When everything in the hotel’s daily routine follows the same pattern, a personal touch is lost. This can be countered by ensuring that, while the procedures remain the same, attention is still paid to treating each guest individually.
- Neglect of Customer Focus: Here, too, it is important to pay attention to exactly what guests want and when. The procedures learned previously should be adapted accordingly.
What concerns might there be regarding external companies?
- Lack of trust: At the beginning, doubts may arise when working with an external company. These can only be dispelled through trust and the ultimately positive experience as a team.
- Insights: Some hotels are reluctant to reveal their inner workings. However, this is precisely what is needed if a management consultant is to gain an overview of what is happening at the hotel. Only through these insights can the hotel benefit from the consultant’s diverse experience and proposed solutions.
- Reluctance due to high consulting costs. Clearly, we should consider how much can be gained by implementing these standard procedures, and weigh that against the relatively low costs of implementation.
It is important to choose the right company. Ideally, this company should have many years of experience in the hospitality industry and expert consultants who can draw on both international and domestic experience and immediately convey to hoteliers how they can be of assistance to the hotel. Clear explanations and transparent conduct ultimately ensure that standardization measures can be successfully implemented in every department. In the end, four parties benefit from the collaboration: the client—that is, the hotelier—his team, the guests, and the management consultant.
