Last week at the Global Travel Conference, and later this week on World Tourism Day, speakers tried to define what Aruban Hospitality is. They talked about it as precious and intangible, broke it down to many components, and at the end simply defined it as part of our DNA.
Invited guest Will Guidara, an accomplished speaker and writer, addressed the room – he wrote a national bestseller by the name of Unreasonable Hospitality, where he recounted the lessons he learned during his career as a top-notch restaurateur.
He spoke very well, to a packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, an audience of HORECA professionals and university students, in the hospitality stream. The audience was fully engaged.
He shared a number of principles, then illustrated them with anecdotes from his career as the owner of a famous NY restaurant, and shared his story how he managed to get from #50 on the list of best, to #1, powered by what he calls, Unreasonable Hospitality.
Food, and drink he said, are just the ingredients in the recipe, we are living in an Experience Economy, and if we create a unique experience for our guests, we will be rewarded with success, and a flow of more guests.
It makes sense, of course, and we often aspire wholeheartedly to create unforgettable experiences for our customers but we are burdened by our complicated personal lives and tend to bring our woes and worries to work, and let them lower our level of energy, during service.
According to Guidara that is the beginning of the end.
His first suggestion is being present. Pretend like there is no other place you’d rather be, he says, focus on your here and now, bring your real self to work, not the robot, the automatic shadow you become when your mind wonders.
Recently we went for dinner at Caya House, and everyone was totally plugged into us, and conducted relevant, tactful and lively exchanges while we had a very tasty dinner. And by that I mean the totally charming hostess, she is from Peru, the award-winning head-bartender, he makes the best Negroni, the bar hand, the super-friendly restaurant manager, she is Dutch, the handsome personable servers and bussers.
I don’t know what they do at Pre-Meal at Caya House, but they must be doing something right — we gave their service a ten rating: They disconnected the speaker over our heads, without being specifically asked, they apologized for a smoky, noisy, motorcycle passing in the street, and were all totally present when needed, invisible when we dined.
Compliments.
In the words of Will Guidara, they saw us, they gave us the feeling that our comfort and satisfaction were important to them, they anticipated special requests.
And that’s how they delivered a memorable evening.
Guidara’s second principle suggests that hospitality professionals should be taking what they do seriously, but not take themselves too seriously, which means allow their own individual personality to shine, from behind the corporate handbook of rules and regulation, and the stiff uniform collar.
Here he dropped a term I have not heard in a long time, the Nobility of Service, and he is right, when you are graciously served what you want, exactly the way you like it, the world feels like safe and predictable, again. You make people feel good about themselves.
The third principle Guidara shared tied into the former two, it is making people feel seen. How do you make a person feel seen? It does require the suppression of one’s ego, for the duration of the exchange, we’re all unique individuals and one size fits one.
One size, fits one, how true. I will remember that.
What’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. We all have our specific wills and wishes and if you listen carefully, you find out, then you can deliver.
A funny anecdote: During his talk Guidara tried to suggest special touches and unique gestures to offer guests who get engaged in a restaurant.
Many people he said, get engaged in restaurants, it is one of the most important days of their lives, then he faced the audience and spontaneously asked: How many of you got engaged in a restaurant.
Zero hands went up. It was funny. The marriage rate is Aruba in low, and most engagements take place on the beach. Or perhaps in a Dutch-inspired culture, engagements are out.
