After actively participating for 18 hotel openings as a manager and hotel consultant,
I am somehow surprised about the fact that most independent hotel investors unintentionally – but also intentionally – make exactly the same mistakes over and over again which always turn out to be very costly! hotele górskie z aquaparkiem w Polsce.
I am writing down these “top 10” mistakes in a hope that this list might help some developers and owners. As we are hotel consultants, we sincerely believe that a consultant must be the most honest, transparent, straight-forward and therefore most trustworthy person close to the owners and investors.
A consultant’s intention should NEVER be to keep hotel owners and investors ‘in the dark’! A true consultant must educate advice and provide samples of good and bad practices. A hotel consultant must also be a good teacher – not a lecturer! We must guide and use all channels of communication to pass on knowledge to others. We choose to write articles in a hope that it helps and inspires others.
Mistake No 1 – Vision and Mission.
Honestly, it is hard to understand that so many hotels and resorts open their doors without a proper written vision and mission statement. OR, the vision and mission is most of the times not clear at all, or only clear in the mind of the owners.
On top of that, nobody communicates the vision and mission to managers and employees. How the employees will know what is expected and understand the ‘big picture’? As mentioned in one of our earlier articles, this silly mistake ensures that the business ends up following the habits of senior managers and owners and not the organizational vision and mission.
Mistake No 2 – Sales and Marketing? – No need now!
Yes, don’t be shocked! – The above sayings are what I did hear from several hotel owners. Those VIP hotel guests did come, yes, but they never paid their bills as they almost always expected to be invited since they are good friend of the owners. The result of non-existing Sales and Marketing is very costly.
Mistake No 3 – Hiring of Departmental Managers.
Surprisingly, some new hotels and resorts do hire their Hotel Manager and Department Head Team just weeks before the opening and strongly believe that this will be fine. After all, they are manager, expensive and should be able to get it right in a few days…… some owners think!
To my knowledge and from my experience, this is mostly done to save some hotel pre-opening costs as the needed money has been already lost during the construction process because of bad planning and ongoing adjustments to drawings and the building.
At one occasion I have seen that the whole management team for a 150 room hotel here in Thailand to be hired just 2 weeks before the opening. The owner kindly fired the team after 2 months as in his opinion, the team was not able to implement proper systems and service standards fast enough.
Some of the best employees did resign as well, as the pressure working without a proper pre-opening was too much. I say it again, if you don’t work professionally, your most capable employees will leave you first!