Discussion on Muzzling the Guest From Hell - By Steven Ferry

	Muzzling the Guest From Hell - By Steven Ferry

owner

I missed the original article, but I get the gist. I believe the hospitality industry needs to be wary of pandering to "celebrity." Regular miscreants aside. I find it depressing to say the least. The pro-basketball player sits on the patio with a woman in his lap, the high end amenities graciously deposited in his Presidential room, no end in sight to comped bills. The couple who saves for months for a special occasion gets the crap room overseeing the parking lot. Disturbing to me. We encourage "guests from hell," basically in the name of cache. Sometimes we reap what we sow, or another property does somewhere down the road.

2006-10-27 Gina Tellez-McKee

Besting the Guest from Hell

The original article is available here.

Kind Regards, Thomas

2006-10-27 Thomas Wahl

Countdown Marketing Group

Its easy to call many guests from hell because they expect professional service and product and frequently don't get it.

In fact many just settle and don't say very much or just move on to other brands.
This is far worse then being open and upfront with the issues.

It is high time to take ownership of problems and create meaningful relationships even with so called difficult guests within reason. If you can't exchange in friendly and appropriate dialogue none of you should ever be in the business. You created the difficult guest in your property now find a way to make him or her evangelist. Of course there are a few guests that will have to be fired along the way. However I see sad behavior here from those that as managers and others who have way too much ego to deal with guests effectively. Shame on all of you. Revenge on your customers?

They will get even with you by voting with there wallets and your careers overtime as well as posting a billboard on some public forum for millions to see globally about your bad behavior in return. This is a whole new era for the hospitality industry. Sub par performance is a dead end. So is trying to get revenge on your customer by blacklisting them. Shame on all of you for tainting an industry and destroying the hospitality culture of our industry. For those with any talent in this industry take that negative energy and put it to some positive out of the box thinking and apply it.

Learning how to deal with difficult guests is part of the journey.

I hope I never set foot in any of your properties. You cant like all customers but you must reasonably find every way to please them if at all possible like it or not. Running things operationally to the best of your abilities doesn't make you qualified for the job. Your people skills clearly do at the end of the day. You live and die by the knowledge of your customers and the ability to satisfy them however difficult that may be. Excellent leadership doesnt have to whine like children. They are without ego and ready to accept failure and success in their careers
Cheers

2006-11-02 don horn

Hotel Industry Forums