Inhospitable Hospitality

How hospitality is getting this phase of communications wrong. Why it’s not just a marketing problem.And why it’s the little guys leading the way.

Anyone who’s been on a hotel/resort/airline/retailer mailing list (and aren’t we all?) has been receiving newsletters that seem to roughly follow this formula:

We’re open. (Headline and 1st paragraph)

We want to welcome you back BUT keep you safe. (1 paragraph)

This is what we’re doing. (1 very, very long paragraph about sanitation)

Oh and this is all the other stuff that’s changed and that you won’t be able to do anymore, sorry. (1 paragraph)

So come on back! (Sign off).

Obligatory paradise-like photos sprinkled throughout.

Gosh, I can’t wait to book a visit, can you?

Not to make light of the health issues associated with COVID-19, but this is not the way to get people excited about travel again, particularly to areas that aren’t beachfront resorts or mountain recreation areas.

This is not just a marketing problem. It’s a customer/guest service problem. Good communications — whether it’s marketing, or onsite — is good service. Bad communications are bad customer service. And it starts long before a guest steps through your door.

For many, these communications are the first touchpoint for guests and prospects: they set the tone and send powerful signals about how they will be treated, and what their experience will be. Unfortunately, so many communications of this sort aren’t charming, welcoming, or enticing. They’re visually dense and thus will NOT be read. They’re defensive, soul-crushing, begrudging, and they’re full of compliance-speak. The read like they were written by lawyers — which they probably were.

The hospitality industry needs to get this right for so many reasons. 1) The heightened precautions will remain until a vaccine is found and widely given, and/or highly effective treatments are found. This will stretch into 2021, if not 2022. 2) The travel and hospitality sectors are on their knees economically. 3) Many travelers (and in particular, employers) are cautious and will remain so. The hospitality industry desperately needs to rebuild traveler confidence.

But most of all, it’s the attitude that needs to shift.

This is the new normal. It’s no use just pretending that it’s going to go away: any industry focused on gathering is going to have its business upended, certainly now, and perhaps forever. So, as the Buddhists are so keen to point out: acceptance is key. Embracing “what is” — and finding ways to work with “what is” is a matter of survival.

Since this is the “New Normal”, hoteliers need to get back to providing what they do so well: creating branded experiences with charm, personality, functionality, service, integrity, and a genuine sense of delight and pride in the art and craft of hospitality.

This is not to say that there is no need to communicate information about sanitation, what’s open or closed, expectations of guests, etc. Of course there is. And it’s understandable that hoteliers are focusing on the issues that have confounded and consumed them for the last few months.

But now, the attention should be back on the guest experience.

Fortunately there are some companies — particularly small, local retailers and restaurateurs–to get that tone right: they’ve consistently been better at it than the larger hospitality chains. These “little guys” — the ones without big budgets––are the ones whose survival is also the most fragile. But they’re also scrappy entrepreneurs who know what’s at stake. Based on how they’re thinking and communicating, here are some recommendations for everyone else:

Be transparent and vulnerable (as in, “hey, we’re all trying to figure this out, let’s be patient with each other.”) Adopt a “we’re all in this together” attitude.

Here’s a great example of honesty – and subtle, self-effacing humor – from Bob Klein, owner of acclaimed restaurant Oliveto, talking about easing into offering outside dining options:

“This represents our slow transition (so we get it right) from being closed for on-premises dining to becoming a real restaurant again. Sort of like a steam locomotive, not an F-15. We hope to add another evening of “fine-dining” on the sidewalk soon, as we get our rhythm.”

Nice.

Don’t sound like a lawyer — hospitality is about welcome. Put the legalese somewhere else.

Have a narrative and point of view that’s related to your brand. This is about far more than compliance. Safety is a service. Make it feel like that. Unsurprisingly, boutique hotels are doing a better job than the larger corporates. For example, Proper–a luxury boutique hotel–has the right approach.

Be optimistic! This is not to say that you’re overlooking what’s happening, but what can you offer people that’s good and inspiring and fresh? Can you make something of the fact that you’re upgrading your service in some way? That touchless means streamlined and more responsive? That the end of breakfast buffets is actually good news because you ‘re providing something better? That you’ve refreshed linens and decluttered the rooms (maybe “hand out” e-copies of Marie Kondo’s book as a thank you?) That you’re actively looking to find new ways to serve and that you’re all ears? This is not spin. This is just telling the good news like it is. And people need good news.

Pay as much attention to the design of your information as you do to the design of your lobby or restaurant. Think how much information you put in your email missive. Consider using icons that link to your website: links to your sanitation processes are much better than detailing them exhaustively in the body of an email newsletter. Besides, by now, people have figured out that hotels have significant sanitation programs in place–not that they don’t care. Some will care, very deeply, which is why there needs to be detailed information available, if they want it.

A great example comes from Spain’s Camper, (admittedly not a small brand) below.

It is important to spell out what you expect of guests (masks, physical distancing, etc.). Again, do so in links, but do include the most pressing expectations (likely to be about mask requirements) in the body of the email.

Fill in the gaps. There’s the issue of “missing” amenities and lower capacities. How can you add new services that make up for the missing ones? How can you turn the lower capacity (as much as you hate it) into a benefit? Retailers have been offering opportunities to book appointments, and avoid the line: they’re successful in making it sound sensible, high-touch, and enticing. Others are offering online/Zoom consults — not exactly feasible for hotels, but what services that you can’t provide in-person could you turn digital, making them consumable at the facility, or from afar?

And my favorite email communication? This from small LA-based Garde, a luxe homegoods store. Short, smart, with wit and charm, a bracing ice-cold martini on a hot evening.

Granted, most of hospitality can’t afford to be this short and funny — the risks and liabilities are higher–but the knowing sophistication and strength are certainly more appealing than what’s been floating into email boxes of late. And now, more than ever, the hospitality industry needs to remind us why it was such an integral part of our lives, and why it must be, again.

The future of hospitality depends on getting things like this right.