The “reception system” is mainly made up of structures and people.
Hospitality
By structures we mean all the tools aimed at promoting good access to the tourist service: information services, physical accessibility (roads, etc.), transport, presence of personal services, etc. By people we do not mean only those who are directly involved in tourist services, but also those who operate in other areas, but who come into contact with guests: transport, healthcare, banks, shops, public services, etc.
Already in the 80s José Seydoux, author of a research in two volumes on welcome and hospitality, had underlined the importance of considering the two aspects of welcome: the “static” one, given by the structures and their organization, and the “dynamic” one based on people.
In the literature there is also agreement in considering that hospitality is not only the result of the activity of tour operators and insiders, but rather the result of the relationships that a tourist has with the entire local system; “if, by one or more non-strictly tourist actors (the pharmacist, the traffic policeman, the station manager, …), the tourist is not welcomed according to a minimum standard, the global perception that he will have will be negative, and will condition over time the its choice processes and the “bouche à oreil” communication towards other potential customers”.
The theme of reception therefore refers to the problem of integrating the various professional figures “around a common core of threshold skills”.
Reception at the hotel
The analysis of the current hotel offer shows a composite scenario.
On the one hand, observing the many hotels that have begun a redevelopment process, the following emerges:
- that the policy of the standard, i.e. the often uncritical re-proposition of procedures and services designed to be replicable, starts from the idea that we are not faced with people, but with consumers,
- that a widespread standardization of services, immediately decodable by tourists, has at least partially emptied the ancient concept of welcome and hospitality of meaning,
- that within hotels, predominant importance is given to management rather than personalization and interpersonal relationships,
- that reception is mostly limited to receiving guests on the day of their arrival,
- that the “gadgetization” of a series of services involves a high degree of depersonalization.
On the other hand, observing the companies that have remained anchored in the past, the following emerge:
- an attitude of sufficiency and lack of conscience towards the new needs of modern tourism,
- lack of flexibility and adaptation to demand (the proposals are rigid),
- limited range of choice options,
- insufficient qualification of personnel,
- little animation of the proposal,
- inattention to the elements of marketing and web marketing,
- little inventiveness related to new offers,
- absence of host products.
From architecture to comfort, from furnishings to decorations, the hotel as such communicates its level of hospitality.
The name of the hotel, the external appearance, the organization of the spaces (proxemics), its degree of integration with the territory, the hall, are the first message sent to the guests.
The presence of flowers and plants, clearly visible information, colors and lights are also elements that contribute to creating a certain welcoming atmosphere.
In this context, a particular role is played by the reception, which José Seydoux defined very correctly as the “nervous center of the hotel, the brain of the whole house which must possess that human dimension which makes the hotel strong before, during and after the livingroom”.
Hospitality and innovation
Our country has exported the culture of tourism and the culture of hospitality for centuries.
Some realities, in the more recent past, have managed both to export the culture of tourism and to innovate.
For example, the Romagna Riviera has been able to configure its own hospitable model, and a distinct way of being in the tourism market, decidedly innovative compared to the previous ones.
But that innovative function, which saw the birth of a decidedly interesting “molecular” tourist system after the war, today seems largely lost, limited to an imitative function.
And looking closely, it can be said that the problems of tourism in Italy began when we stopped innovating, we continued to do the same things over and over again, and we began to do – more or less well – what we already did the others.
Italy is a beautiful country, but dirty, peasant and without money to “correct”
Your contact staff
Your contact staff, or the reception or dining room staff, that is, should be considered to all intents and purposes marketing personnel, even if part-time, and should be trained to learn how to carry out their duties so that customers are not only satisfied, but want return, or at least suggest this experience to others, thus strengthening the relationship with the company.
It must be taken into consideration that the value of information is relative to the person requesting it, hence the need to know how to listen and understand the needs of information and the very personality of the interlocutor.
Several experts speak in this regard of “empathy”, that is, a form of affective knowledge which consists in experiencing the feelings that the other experiences.
Here are some simple rules:
Our staff must be like a craftsman who has focused on the quality of services and has a vocational attitude, bases his success on the profession, flexibility and the ability to manage the unexpected as natural qualities, the same qualities that characterize the business model Italian.
The management results of a small structure are more the result of the work of the staff, their animation skills, friendliness, making the customer feel ” PAMPERED GUEST”
The heart of small hotels is the atmosphere that characterizes the “home”.
The structure is not only a service to tourists, but it is also a social and cultural garrison of a territory.
The structure must offer the essence of hospitality, which is given by human relationships.
The structure must offer the atmosphere and the products of a territory and express its culture.
The structure must have a soul, an identity, transmitted by our staff.