Introduction
Over the holidays, my family took a short relaxing trip to the Poconos for a bit of skilling and relaxation. We stayed at the Bushkill Inns and Conference Center, a newly renovated hotel that is one of the best in the area. TripAdvisors and other travel rating sites show solid four stars, and we were looking forward to the getaway. But, plans rarely materialize as conceived and our experience with the hotel becomes a good management lesson.
Context
When we arrived at the hotel at 3:20 PM, we were told the rooms were not ready until 4 PM. I thought that was a bit odd given most hotels permit earlier check-in, especially when it is only 40 minutes early. But the receptionist is right, so we drove around the area and came back at 4:05 PM. To our utter amazement, there is now a very long and very slow moving line. My first thought was “wow, all these people waited until 4 to check-in too”. But as I overheard the conversations, I realize that they were told that the rooms were still not ready. One agitated customers after another were told that “a large group left in the morning and they are still cleaning the room”. One lady and I reminded them the fact that the hotel had a guaranteed check-in of 4 PM, and by that time, it was passed 4:40 PM. The reception manager got on the radio, spoke to the housekeeping supervisor, and then promised us that the rooms will be ready in 15-20 minutes.
That would be the end of the story if that was the only incident. But over the next three days, many things went wrong. Here’s a short list:
- No Cups, Robes, etc.: Our suite had no cups – many wine glasses but no cups. As we later examined, it turned out that we had no robes, not enough towels, and we were not even sure what else were missing from the room.
- No Housekeeping: On our second day there, we left the hotel at 10:30 AM with the little door sign requesting tidying up immediately. I even left a small note with a request for more towels. But when we returned at 6 PM, the same door sign and my little note were there untouched. The room was not serviced.
- Poor Cleaning: On the day of arrival, I noticed that there were pieces of Dorito chips in the hall near our room. Three days later, the chips are now thoroughly crushed, but they are still there.
- No Towels: The hotel has a beautiful indoor pool, and guests were happily using it since it’s a family destination and it’s frigid out. To my shock, there were no towels to be found and no one to clean up. I went to the receptionist and asked for housekeeping to bring some towels. After 75 minutes, I gave up and asked my daughter to bring some bath towels from our room.
I can go on… But what’s amazing is that the hotel is quite nice, new and people are friendly. How come the services are so poor?
Analysis
Like most traveler, I did not think much deeper about the poor services at first other than being annoyed. But, over the course of three nights and after talking to multiple hotel employees, about getting towels, toilet tissues, cups, removing garbage, etc., I made a few important observations:
- The Hotel Employees Were Working Hard: On our first night, we passed a team of housekeeping staffing cleaning a bunch of rooms. They probably dropped everything and went to clean our room so we could move in. This scene of a team of 5+ people working diligently repeated over the next 3 days, including the day in which they did not clean our room.
- The Hotel Staff Was Friendly: Take the receptionist and the manager (name withheld to protect the innocent) there, considering how many annoyed and angry guests that they have to deal with, they still managed to smile and politely explain the situation. They were not defensive or accusatory instead they handled guests like me with professionalism.
- The Housekeeping Staff, once I Complained That My Room Was Not Cleaned, Was Exceedingly Apologetic: She went to their stock room with most of the shelf bare and started folding towels for me immediately. She did not make excuses, just apologized and tried to make up in ways she can.
On the day of the departure, my wife and I reflected on our experience. In short, we really like the hotel – partly because, so many of the Pocono hotels are outdated and partly because the employees there made us feel welcomed, despite the shortcomings, which is likely the worst travel experience in my recent memory. Who is to blame?
Our conclusion is simple: management!
Management failed on many fronts:
- Providing Inadequate People Resources: No cup, no robes, no housekeeping and poor cleaning, etc., by themselves can be caused by many reasons like poor training or poor quality of workforce. But, when the people are working hard and being good professionals, the problem is much deeper. I believe here, the management failed to properly plan and provide adequate resources to their employees so that they can perform the job well.
- Poor Planning: The reason that we did not get any towels while we were using the pool was because there were no clean towels. This is based on my observation of going into their stock room and the shelves were bare. On our final evening, again in the pool, a staff did bring some towels, but only about 20. Within minutes, no towel was left as guests snatched them. Given it’s very cold outside and Bushkill is a family destination, management should anticipate that most of the guests would use their indoor amenities like pools.
- Hiding and Not Meeting Customers: On the night of the checking, I clearly heard the manager at the reception desk asked the general manager to come and deal with our complaints. After 30 minutes, the general manager still did not come. Perhaps he/she was busy with other more important tasks, but ‘leaving my subordinates to deal with a lobby full of upset guests’ is hardly the best way to demonstrate leadership – to your staff and to the guests.
Conclusion:
It is no accident that world class organizations, like Nordstrom, Singapore Air, Zappos, etc., just work. They have perfected the art of management in which it collectively tells a whole story that links ideas to reality through quality execution. When customer experiences them, every juncture of that experience tells a consistent story as well as experience.
What is perhaps more surprising is that customers are also resilient, which means that there can be breaches to that coherent story. As long as the annoyance is not detrimental to the cause, companies can still salvage the situation. My family experience at Bushkill Inns tells this story – we would likely go back because I still remember the friendly faces of the housekeeping staff, their genuine apologies and attempts to make up. They were not defensive or made excuses instead they simply tried hard to make things right.
But I think the hotel management must examine the situation and make required changes. They can start by acknowledging the poor resource planning and allocation. I could easily count ten parties over the course of three days who experienced some severe delay when checking in. Running out of towels would easily impact a high percentage of guests in that hotel. Having the housekeeping staff cleaning into the evenings – I think it was at least 7 PM when I saw an entire team cleaning – requires better planning, time management, resource assignment and logistics management.
So when employees are doing their best but their best is not good enough, the problem is no longer with the rank and file but with management and leadership.