For ten years, I worked as an editor in the medical equipment industry. The big service providers often talked about what it was that distinguished them from other providers. What was this, pray tell?
Service. They provided more meaningful service.
That was humbug. More than humbug, it was lazy. There was a failure of imagination in this notion that you were more service-oriented than your rivals.
Now, in the hospitality industry, I see shades of the same thing. Thus, here are five things that you, as a hotelier, should never say about your property.
1. Service distinguishes you. If you’re a major brand, and you’re trying to say that your service is better than that other major brand, your traction with consumers of this information will be nigh on non-existent.
2. The four-hand massage. Spa managers, sometimes, like to talk about this signature treatment as something utterly new. Not. Unless you manage to put all the hands of the bodhissatva on someone’s back, multiple hands are de riguer.
3. Stunning location. If there are a dozen resorts to the north of you and a dozen to the south of you, and if you start talking about stunning location, every other beach resort in the region is going to call you on the carpet. And the media may, too.
4. White sand and azure water. Most resorts that claim this have brown sand and water more blue than fancy. Is your sand like powder? D’oh.
5. A hotel restaurant that’s actually a destination restaurant. You wish.
My advice: Work harder. You may be unique. You’ve just got to work harder to figure out what it is that makes you so distinguished.
Is your hotel beautiful? Don’t just say so. Get the architect who designed the place to script an iPod tour of your property, as The Nam Hai did. Is your hotel an historic property? Write a book that tells us why and make a lot of noise about it, like the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi did. Do you have wonderfully landscaped gardens? Have the designer come in to do a gardening workshop. Find the proper angles on your property, and the magic will find you.
