Mentoring The Next-Gen Hospitality Superstars

Lessons learned from my first hotel job still ring true

As I write my monthly article today, I find myself back at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort, in Lexington, Kentucky. This time as a guest at the place where my hotel career began 45 years ago, when I was a college student randomly applying for my first job outside of the family business I’d grown up in.

As I walked by the meeting rooms where I’d carried in many a fully stacked banquet tray, walked the corridors where I had pushed over-loaded luggage carts and stood under the porte cochère, where — when I wasn’t welcoming guests — I was proudly shining the brass rails, my thoughts drifted back to the earliest days of my career that were experienced within these same walls.

Before joining the opening staff of Griffin Gate, which was approximately the 125th hotel in the Marriott system, I had hardly ever even stayed at a hotel of this stature. Although my family was lucky enough to have had plenty of vacations, most nights all six of us bunked inside a Kenwood camper that Dad pulled behind our Dodge Monaco station wagon (picture the Wagon Queen Family Truckster!). So delivering service levels appropriate for a AAA Four-Diamond hotel was certainly all new to me.

To say I was “raw” when it came to the etiquette of guest service was an understatement. At age 20 when I walked into this hotel for the first time, I had nine years of customer service experience, having worked shifts at our family business, The Kennedy Craft (supply) Shop, so I certainly had what my Mom always called “people skills.” However, when it came to the dignified, elegant guest communications skills, I was as raw as sushi.

Unfortunately, too many of today’s leaders would have looked at a guy like me and complained about how hard it was to find qualified staff these days, or bemoaned the lack of skills that “young people” entering the work force brought in. I’m sure that the “Great Generation” leaders at other hotels back in 1981 spoke the same disparaging remarks as I too often hear today said about Gen Z staff.

Thankfully, the very first managers I worked for in this building knew how to “lead” and not just “manage,” and as a result, the opening staff of this hotel launched some of the of the top hoteliers of my generation, many of whom even today work in top positions.

For me personally, I was fortunate to work for leaders such as John Larocca, my immediate boss as banquets manager, who helped me develop a keen sense of detail when he inspected our room and table set-ups. I think of him every time I see a properly loaded camtread banquet tray.

Ralph Trent, the assistant bell captain who modeled perfection every time he put on his “monkey suit” style uniform and who was never shy about providing hard-to-hear but necessary feedback, such as “The shoes, Kennedy, THE SHOES!” Even to this day, when my dress shoes look acceptably dull and scuffed, I hear Ralph’s words echoing, then I grab my travel shining kit and get to work.

There was Rich Lillis, our front office manager, who, whenever we were bemoaning the extra, no-tip duties that were often piled on to the bell stand team, reminded us, “Well, ya gotta be here 40 hours a week anyway. Why not make the best of it?” Rich also taught me the importance of always showing up on the early side of your scheduled time.

And Charlie Hines, our resident manager, who was undoubtedly the best leader I ever worked for, who taught me to respect everyone on the team. Charlie not only knew the names of everyone on his team, including every housekeeper and laundry room attendant, but also knew the name of their dog, their kid or their grandchild. I still remember how he would pitch in when a bus load of golfers on the PGA Tour pulled up, overwhelming us with luggage and clubs.

All of these managers went on to legendary careers, but there were so many others on the opening management team in this building where I sit 45 years later who unknowingly mentored me. Amazingly, I can remember most of their names. Rolf Tweeter, who managed housekeeping and went on to found his own large hotel management company. Mike Mackie, our general manager, became a high-ranking executive at Marriott Headquarters. Ken Todd, my best friend at the bell stand, went on to serve as general manager of the Fairmont Hotel Chicago and other prominent hotels, before passing away way too young at age 43.

So many faces and names, and so many lessons learned here. If I had to sum them all up, I would say what I learned most in this building is that the spirit of hospitality is reignited every day at the employee entrance. Maybe the pilot light is on all the time, but when these leaders entered the building, they dialed up the hospitality vibe and shared it during every encounter, be it in the back corridors or in the front lobby.

For over three decades now, I have had the privilege to share what I’ve learned by conducting more than 2,720 days of small-group training for the frontline staff, but also for hospitality leaders. With an average of two nights on the road for each of the 70 days of training I have averaged each year, this means I’ve been gone 38% of the time, which translates to 14 out of the past 37 years.

I surely hope to have had an impact, and to continue to have one for many more years to come, as I do my best to inspire other hospitality professionals to lead by example. And yet some days I wonder.

I’ll never forget one time, a few months back, when I was asked to do a training program for a hotel that was near the bottom of Google and TripAdvisor rankings for its location. Although the executive managers only inquired about hospitality training for their frontline staff, I insisted that leaders also join-in shoulder-to-shoulder, as I always do.

As with every class, we talked about how important it was to model the behaviors, such as always greeting guests wherever they are encountered, throughout the hotel, and not just across a counter, bar or desk.

About two hours after that session, after I changed from my business suit into my workout gear, I found myself standing alone in an elevator that stopped on another floor on the way down. When the door opened, in walked one of the department heads fresh out of the hospitality class I had just delivered. Since I’d changed clothes, he didn’t recognize me as the trainer he just spent three hours with, so I kept silent to see if he would exemplify the proactive hospitality skills we just covered. Sure enough though, he remained silent, stoic and expressionless as we rode down 20 or more floors, and then exited into the lobby, without sharing a glance or saying a word. I guess he didn’t get anything out of my training.

Although 45 years has passed since my colleagues and I opened Griffin Gate, technology has evolved, and so many steps in the cycle of guest service have become automated. The lessons my mentors taught me back then are still as relevant as ever today. No doubt, guests encounter far fewer staff as they use Maps for directions or Uber to hail a ride; they use a QR code to order food and Yelp to find a restaurant, so each remaining guest encounter has become that much more important.

And so for my readers who are still with me and did not think “TLDR,” I close with a simple lesson. If you want your employees to remember (and use) guests’ names, be sure you remember and use their names (and even better the names of family members). If you want them to go above and beyond for guests, go above and beyond for them when they face life’s inevitable quandaries. If you want employees to enthusiastically acknowledge and greet all guests they encounter throughout the hotel, then acknowledge and greet them with enthusiasm in the back hallways. If you want them to discover and react to the guest stories being lived out every day on the other side of the guest room doors, take time to know a bit about what’s going on in their personal lives.

Some managers mandate hospitality as if it were simply another process or procedure. Worse yet, they believe that the latest new app or AI-powered algorithm is going to create “personalized” service experiences. True leaders, meanwhile, motivate, inspire, and culturalize hospitality excellence daily.

Originally published in Costar News.

Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of hotel sales, guest service, reservations, and front desk training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he has been for decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hospitality industry authorities. Check out his monthly webcasts at www.KTNwebcast.com or visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com.