Small but essential hoteliers’ sins

Strategy is made up of little things

Foresight-inspired strategy

Strategy is made up of little things

As a consultant and a lecturer, I have to travel a lot. I spend many nights in hotels in different cities and countries every year, and I have noticed that most of them, regardless of the number of stars a hotel has, make the same simple mistakes bringing some discomfort in guests’ life — minor ones, at first glance. But as a person who has helped some hotel chains with strategy, I know that there are no minor mistakes in the hospitality business. Every insignificant detail (and, moreover, rather a bad detail than a good one) may be noticed by a guest and mentioned in an online review or a social media post and, thus, influence a hotel’s rates. And rates are crucial in this industry.

As a frequent hotel guest, I have built my own list of small, easy-to-fix, but significant inconveniences that most hoteliers make to their guests. They are annoying, and annoyance is the last thing a hotel’s managers would like to see as their…