Welcome to the ARM Blog series on best practices.

 

Today's guests are more demanding than ever and rightfully so. Guests are well educated and have many options when it comes to choosing their preferred hospitality partner. It is important to realize that it is no longer just about providing excellent guest service. Guests today want a positive, rewarding, safe and personalized experience. They want and deserve to be recognized and valued for placing their trust in an ARM managed property.

 

The personalized guest experience starts from the first message a potential guest ever receives regarding the property and continues throughout the guest experience. Every moment of interaction must be carefully thought out and executed flawlessly by a team of highly motivated and trained hospitality professionals. ARM associates are dedicated to providing the ultimate guest experience to every guest during every visit.

 

The direction, leadership and service culture provided by American Resort Management is paramount in achieving operational success and profitability. Enormous care, effort and support are placed upon our property leadership teams ensuring the highest level of professional "guest obsessed" service is consistently delivered. Thoughtful leadership, planning, organization and execution are the cornerstones to our success.

 

High levels of guest service and operational execution are developed and nurtured by assembling the right team of property leaders.

 

The Importance of Highly Skilled Property Leadership in Providing High Guest Service Levels

A highly skilled "leadership" team is carefully hand-picked and assembled to provide the day-to-day management and direction of the hotel, restaurant or resort (resort consisting of the hotels, indoor/outdoor water park, golf courses, F&B outlets and indoor/outdoor theme park). Individuals chosen for this team must possess the necessary skill set, experience and confidence to be an effective leader.

 

Leaders create a property specific Vision, Mission and Core Value philosophy with associates to communicate central themes and behaviors required of all associates based upon mutual respect, shared values and property specific priorities and goals.

 

ARM management teams utilize a hands-on approach and will spend the majority of their time directly communicating and interacting with guests and staff alike. The executive level managers inspire line level managers to be true leaders by acting as: manager, coach, mentor and cheerleader all at the same time.

 

American Resort Management provides the necessary leadership, coaching and training to ensure that the onsite team makes decisions that lead to positive actions. Managers act as role models demonstrating a consistent delivery of the "guest obsessed" service model and create positive work cultures where associates are valued and appreciated.

 

Guest experiences and sentiments are constantly evaluated by the management team by monitoring reviews and scores on all social media such as; Facebook, Twitter, Expedia, Trip Advisor and others as they pop up. Managers carefully evaluate, troubleshoot, and respond proactively to the feedback received by the guests and cover them in staff meetings as constructive guidance for future operations.

 

As such, property leadership must possess great listening and communication skills while displaying a collaborative servant leadership style in order to adapt and respond quickly to changing market conditions. The ability to manage and positively influence the needs of the guests, owners and associates is critical to maintaining consistently high level of guest service.