Everyone working in a hotel in Sri Lanka should read this book!
View(s):As I checked out of the Galadari Hotel a few days ago, the concierge presented me with a book he has written. What? A concierge who is an author? A book detailing the secret foibles of the hotel’s guests?
No, this book is more interesting than tittle-tattle. It’s a primer based on the concierge’s own experience of 35 years in the hotel industry and one that every new hotel employee in Sri Lanka should read.
With the declared aim of making Sri Lanka the destinationof choice for 2.5 million tourists by 2016, the biggest demand (after the infrastructure is in place) will be for trained, competent employees. Nihal Thrimavithana, the concierge author, points out that some of the most experienced and knowledgeable hotel employees left the country for greener pastures over the past three decades and were replaced by amateurs without sufficient knowledge or experience. This has led to the lack of professional hotel staff today.
“The slightest mistake by an employee could create a situation that might compromise the reputation of the hotel,” the author states.
Bravo, Nihal, that’s so true! I wish everyone working in a hotel in Sri Lanka would read this book. Nihal stresses the importance of hotel staff creating a good first impression on visitors, as the doormen do so effectively at the Galadari. He explains how staff, by the right attitude, give visitors confidence in the hotel.
The veteran hotelier, Chandra Mohotti, has written a foreword to the book in which he congratulates Nihal for detailing the practical aspects of training, based on his considerable experience at the front line of guest hospitality. Since Nihal has worked at the Galadari Hotel since 1995,and during Chandra Mohotti’s successful tenure as General Manager, I suspect that Mr. Mohotti is proud of his concierge’s effort to pass on what he knows to others.
The book covers the behind the scenes work that guests usually take for granted such as efficient housekeeping, including how to mop a floor and make a bed properly. Nihal urges staff to “wear a smile all day long” and always to convey a “we care attitude”. This is essential in the hotel lobby and reception as this is the first encounter guests have with a hotel. “Create a good first impression on visitors,” Nihal advises. “Give visitors confidence in the hotel; they will feel they are staying in a caring, efficiently well-run establishment.”
Nihal began his career in 1979 at the Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya before spending years at star class hotelsin Saudi Arabia. He knows his guests and their demands and his book is full of hints based on his own experience of how to be a good representative of a hotel. He is now a certified trainer for Front Office operations as well as a concierge at the Galadari.
The book contains lots of revealing details of the painstaking care that goes in to keep a hotel shipshape for its varied guests. There are some tips too on telephone technique, how to write a proper email (“excessive dashes, dots make it juvenile”) and even on how to shake hands (“crisply”). He suggests how to deal with guests who have a complaint (“calmly, politely and quickly”).
As a comprehensive training manual based on Nihal’s own hands-on experience, this book is easy to follow and invaluable for all hotel employees, whether beginners or old timers who are so entrenched they think they know it all. If you have encountered hotel staff you would like to encourage (or reform!) it might be a good idea to give them a copy of this book of tips, instead of a tip, this holiday season.
Book facts
Effective Rooms Division — Training and Motivational Program, by Nihal Thrimavithana. Reviewed by Royston Ellis