In the hotel industry, guest and employee experiences go hand in hand. It’s the property-level team members who are charged with making the guests feel at home and acting as concierges to provide a quality stay. And it’s up to the managers on and off property to create a positive working environment for their employees to keep them happy and in-house.

In our latest Hotel Business Hot Topics session, “Optimal Profitability: Balancing Labor & Guest Experience,” in partnership with Unifocus, moderator Glenn Haussman, founder/host, No Vacancy Live podcast, and industry leaders Moneesh Arora, CEO, Unifocus; Ben Campbell, president/CEO, Hospitality America; Jason Kreul, COO, First Hospitality; and Ben Perelmuter, president/COO, TPG Hotels & Resorts, discussed how hoteliers, to remain profitable, must focus on both the guest and employee experiences.

The employee experience has changed over the years. No longer does a pizza party work as an employee engagement tool. Today’s staff members need to see that their boss is in the trenches with them.

“As a leader, you have to genuinely care about people, and if you don’t, you’re in the wrong business,” said Perelmuter.

Campbell agreed, adding, “If you want to give genuine experiences to our guests, we need to be trying to provide genuine experiences to our employees. We have to treat our employees as human beings so that there able to do the job for our guests.”

Most leaders are spending more time with the people at work than with their own families, noted Kreul, so they should “treat everyone like they treat their loved ones at home.”

Arora moved the discussion to the guest experience and said that hotels need to get managers in front of their guests rather than sitting at a desk in front of a computer.

“I think it’s important to free up the manager and get them away from a screen and away from administrative tasks so they have that genuine connection with their employees and their guests,” he said. “That’s what technology should help us with.”

Perelmuter agreed, noting “AI will play a role in that, and it’s playing a role already at a large, full-service property in Orlando where we’re using AI to answer the phones and generate text messaging to guests who check-in and checkout. It takes an enormous amount of pressure off of not only the management but also the staff. It’s about shifting resources to the guest, and also balancing the labor component because we have to manage the margin. There are other areas in the hotel to look for efficiencies but nothing that’s facing the guest. Utilizing AI with any technology will take mundane tasks away from those associates and keep them in front of the guest.”

Kreul noted that AI can be used as a tool to improve workforce management.

“We still have a long way to go, but AI can help with predictive scheduling, taking into account employees’ days-off requests, their desired days that they want to work and the shifts they want to work,” he said. “That could take the scheduling responsibility out of the manager role. If it can help us with having a productive and engaged workforce and a highly engaged customer, the better off we’re going to be.”

Look for more coverage of this Hot Topics session in the December Green Book issue of Hotel Business.

Download the audio version from the No Vacancy podcast channel where you get your shows.

Watch the session

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