Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Mandarin Oriental Creates An Impactful Work Environment For Employees.
Here is an interesting article about how the Mandarin Oriental hotels help its employees to cope with the stress at work and the idea is “to create a safe and relaxing environment for employees”.
For example, the Mandarin Oriental in Washington opened a “colleague resource center” which offers employees different services such as weight loss, stop-smoking programs, language, and personal therapy. Suffering at work can also have a very bad impact on people’s personal life as they spend most of their time at work. This kind of program can help them to balance their personal and professional life.
In my opinion it is important to take care of employees in every organization. It helps to motivate them, deal with problems more easily, to be productive. We focus a lot on a high quality service to a customer, how to improve the service, what is the best for the customer and we often forget what also would be good to improve the work situation for employees. Who wouldn’t like to work in a friendly environment? It is always encouraging to work in a nice environment where people are appreciated.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Strangest Hotel Jobs Around the World Revealed!
The title of this article totally caught my attention. In luxury hotels, what are the limits for giving entire satisfaction to clients? Hotel managers certainly have a big creativity when it comes to satisfying their customers. But is there a limit for human dignity in having these jobs done? Here are some of the weirdest hotel jobs I’ve ever heard about.
If you enjoy listening to some stories, before going to bed, you can hire the special Bedtime Storyteller. No matter how old you are, this person will come to your room and read you the book of your choice. I find this service particularly interesting for people with eye problems, or old people that cannot read anymore. Maybe some parents that are very busy could be interested, but I guess that’s all its utility.
Some hotels in India, or Italy (Venice), must hire Pigeon Chasers. Their job consists in chasing pigeons nine hours a day using a flag. What about Monkey Men in India? They are paid to chase monkeys around the hotel in order to avoid them eating guests’ food. Even if there are no small jobs, I think this one is particularly degrading especially when the man has to dress like a monkey. It is not yet the case for hotels but at Lucknow train station in India there is a man dressed like a monkey and paid to scare them. It’s only my opinion but I don’t feel comfortable with this kind of job. I find it degrading that a man has to walk like a monkey in the streets, and paint his face.
You can argue he’s not forced to do it, if it’s a pleasure for him, fine, but I’m not sure about it. I just don’t think this job is humanly ethical.
Do you need a nice tan? Tanning Butlers are at your service in a famous hotel in Miami. Even if this service exists since the beginning of the hotel six years ago, it is still a must for the clients. I guess it’s a classic service as getting a massage in a spa, nothing very inventive in it.
What about Coconut Safety Engineers? Coconut safety engineers have a very important job in island resorts since they are paid to protect their guests from falling coconuts. These coconuts can weight more than 3 pounds and can be deadly for guests.
And the award goes to… a hotel from London that offers the exclusive service of a Human Bed Warmer. Yes, you are reading correctly. Do you hate having your bed sheets being cold or unfold? Well, you don’t have to worry anymore. You can hire the service of a person that will warm your bed with a special head-to-toe suit. This person will move around under the sheets just before you go to sleep to create a nice, relaxing, and warm environment.
In conclusion, I agree it is extremely important for a luxury hotel to give customers a feeling of being unique, in a warm environment with an excellent service at their disposal. People ready to give them entire satisfaction at any time of the day or night. Some jobs mentioned above are inventive and useful but some of them in my opinion are exaggerated. Where are the limits going to be pushed? Will clients need people to brush their hair as they walk, or throw a red carpet with flowers, flush the toilet for them? What do you think about it?
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
ARMANI: a hotel in Russia’s Caucasus?
This article is about the diversification of Giorgio Armani’s group into a luxury hotel brand. The group has already a luxurious hotel in Dubai since April 2010, but plans to open a new one in Russia’s Caucasus.
The cost of this project is around 150 million dollars. Promoters expect to break even in 8 years. At first glance, it can seem very risky since this particular region has a history of big instability. On the other hand, Russian people in particular love luxury brands and spas resorts. They will be hosting next winter Olympic games in Sochi and the mineral springs area is very rich in commodities, natural resources, and mountains.
Fashion luxury groups already have diversified their activities in hotel brands as Cheval Blanc for LVMH. What is driving these groups? Is it only diversification or potential benefits in reaching more clients? The big advantage for them is that their name already represents a known quality. But the big question is how far luxury companies can get their operations diversified without having their brand diluted or getting consumers confused? Maybe they are anticipating inflation in commodities and to attract people in that region. On the other hand, Russia will be also hosting the World Cup in 2018, which could mean an increasing demand in hospitality area. What do you think?
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