Hotel Stories – Exceeding Expectations with Exceptional Service

Exceeding Expectations every day – every stay, by Fritz Gubler

Here is Fritz’s latest Young Hotelier exclusive…hotel stories about exceptional service that inspire! As is the norm with Fritz, he’s also been busy publishing new books for eager hoteliers to benefit from. His latest, which he co-authored, is called ‘The Salt Book’. The Salt Book is a guide to salting wisely and well, complete with great recipes.

Hazzan is a true professional and proud of it.

La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech, which reopened in November 2009 after a three-year refurbishment, is arguably the most famous hotel in Africa. Since it first opened its doors in 1923 many famous guests have fallen for its charms. Winston Churchill spent part of his retirement at the hotel and Marlene Dietrich stayed there while filming Morocco. Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier and Charlie Chaplin were regular guests. Hollywood stars of today have also learned to love the hotel and many, including Juliette Binoche, Salma Hayak and Orlando Bloom, attended the hotel’s gala reopening.

I am not surprised that these famous personalities would return to La Mamounia again and again. Having stayed there myself, I understand why this hotel has maintained its popularity over such a long period. La Mamounia’s staff are proud to work at the hotel and proud of the work they do. They are true professionals.

No doubt the high standard of their service is a result of an intensive training program and the guidance and attention to detail exhibited by the GM, Mr. Didier Picquot. But several times during my visit to La Mamounia I experienced staff going far beyond the training manual. Their pride in their profession enabled them to perform beyond the expectations of their guests.

When we arrived in our room we found a bottle of champagne with a welcome note from the General Manager, a nice touch indeed. However after a long journey to Marrakech we were not in the mood to kill the bottle, so we decided to save it for the following day.

The next day was spectacular, topped off by a stunning sunset. What better way to celebrate our Moroccan holiday than to enjoy the welcome champagne as a pre-dinner drink on our balcony, with the amazing Atlas Mountains as the backdrop. Sadly, the bottle was resting in an empty ice bucket waiting for its moment of celebration. I called room service and explained that we had kept our ‘welcome champagne,’ which was therefore warm, and that we needed some ice for the ice bucket.

A few minutes later Hazzan, our butler, knocked on our door and entered with an ice bucket and a bottle of champagne.
“I’m sorry” I said “I don’t need a bottle of champagne, as I received one from the General Manager yesterday. I just need ice to cool the bottle.

“I understand, Sir. I brought you a cold bottle in exchange for your warm one, so you won’t have to wait for it to cool down,” said Hazzan. Now, that is not only 5-star service, that is a professional at work who prides himself on service.

It is not necessarily the top quality Egyptian cotton bed linen and the expensive bathroom toiletries that make the stay in a hotel memorable. Often it is the smallest attentions paid by every staff member that make the difference. Only in very few hotels have I experienced such a united effort by the staff to provide that very special level of service as I experienced at La Mamounia.

Another example of attention to the smallest detail happened at breakfast. I have to admit that I am not the brightest person in the first two hours of the morning; I need a strong coffee, or two, to get me going. Being Swiss I like my muesli, and at the buffet table I made a big effort to concentrate on the fruit salad bowl in order to get as many strawberries as possible (ashamed as I am to admit it). I was so focused on the strawberries that I failed to notice the spoons on the buffet table, and I happily carried my prize of muesli and strawberries on the long walk to the terrace, where once again we had a stunning view to the mountains.

As soon as I sat down I realized that there were no spoons on the table setting, and I resigned myself to the fact that I must either return to the buffet to get a spoon or eat my muesli with my coffee spoon. As I considered my plight, a young waitress came to my table. “Excuse me, Sir, I noticed that you forgot to take a spoon from the table.” With a smile, she placed a spoon at the side of my plate. This is attentive service at its best, not the result of training, more than likely not in the service manual, but just a pride for the profession and a passion to serve.

When it comes to the physical aspects of a hotel and its amenities, it is easy to verify if the expectations set by the brochure have been met. However, the situation is different when it comes to the service provided by the staff – such services are difficult to list in detail; it is only when we have been on the receiving end of exceptional service that we understand what it means. La Mamounia was for me a perfect example of this. Having seen the brochures, I expected it to be a very beautiful hotel with fabulous amenities. What exceeded my expectations was the attitude of the staff, the spirit of service that they embodied.

No doubt the exotic location and the attractive local architecture of the hotel are the main reasons people travel all the way to Marrakech to stay at La Mamounia, but it is Hazzan and his fellow staff members who ensure that the guests come back. I will be back again for sure.

A little about Fritz Gubler

Fritz began his career in the hospitality industry as an apprentice chef, before studying at the famous École hôtelière de Lausanne. He worked for the Swiss hotel and restaurant chain Mövenpick, then the pre-opening team of the Swiss Government-financed Kenya Utalii College in Nairobi in 1975. As GM, he opened the Leisure Lodge Club in Kenya and managed the hotels of the Severin Hotel Group in Mombasa. The biggest challenge of his career was to oversee final construction and opening of Egypt’s 450-room Isis Hotel Luxor. Fritz introduced Swiss-style hotel management training to Australia at the Blue Mountains Hotel School. In 2007 he began publishing books, first with Great, Grand & Famous Hotels, a comprehensive introduction to the world’s great hotels, and most recently with Great, Grand & Famous Chefs and their Signature Dishes. For more information, visit http://www.greatgrandfamous.com/

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1. Exceeding Expectations – Adam Goes The Extra Mile
2. Exceeding Expectations – Every day, Every time – by Fritz Gubler
3. Building world class hotel brands – The importance of Service Culture