Keeping our hotel looking like new, by using our gained experience
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-03-09 18:21:38 - Graham Ellis
In the hotel business, we have busier and quieter periods, and after a busy few weeks (guest wise) it looks like we're a little quieter (guest wise) over the next couple of weeks - so we're taking the opportunity to redo the breakfast room, and to put a fresh coat of paint on the bedrooms and public areas. Do they need doing? Well - they've stood up to nearly six years of customer use remarkably well, but a few little marks and scratches have inevitably appeared, and we feel it's better to refresh now rather than when our customers start to notice that it needs doing.
Normal business logic might suggest that we would get a team of painters in. But normal business logic doesn't always apply. We have an excellent team who can turn their hand to many tasks, and indeed enjoy doing so. It's far more interesting to have a varied job with different things to do than to spend day in, day out changing rooms or standing at reception - I feel for hotel staff elsewhere who find themselves in such a position, I understand how easy it must be for them to lose interest (and, worse, to let the customer see this) ... and I won't organise Well House Manor so that there's a risk of such boredom. And that means we all do all sorts of jobs. First Picture - Heather painting in the lounge
There's something else about having our own team do the painting. There's a pride in their work, a responsibility for the quality of what they do an an ongoing ownership. Sure, for the hardest parts of the maintainaince tasks that are beyond us, we'll call in the professionals in the particular field, but what "Joe Public" sometimes doesn't realise is that behind each of us in the service industry, there's a far deeper person and bigger skillset than he could ever imagine. I was only briefly on site today - I grabbed these pictures and I'm delighted to see - already - some very good and significant improvements, applied with loving care. Second picture - Sarah paints around power points in the Library
Normal business logic might suggest that we would get a team of painters in. But normal business logic doesn't always apply. We have an excellent team who can turn their hand to many tasks, and indeed enjoy doing so. It's far more interesting to have a varied job with different things to do than to spend day in, day out changing rooms or standing at reception - I feel for hotel staff elsewhere who find themselves in such a position, I understand how easy it must be for them to lose interest (and, worse, to let the customer see this) ... and I won't organise Well House Manor so that there's a risk of such boredom. And that means we all do all sorts of jobs. First Picture - Heather painting in the lounge
There's something else about having our own team do the painting. There's a pride in their work, a responsibility for the quality of what they do an an ongoing ownership. Sure, for the hardest parts of the maintainaince tasks that are beyond us, we'll call in the professionals in the particular field, but what "Joe Public" sometimes doesn't realise is that behind each of us in the service industry, there's a far deeper person and bigger skillset than he could ever imagine. I was only briefly on site today - I grabbed these pictures and I'm delighted to see - already - some very good and significant improvements, applied with loving care. Second picture - Sarah paints around power points in the Library