“Hospitality is simply an opportunity to show love and care”
From the ancient Greek concept of xania or ‘ritualistic friendship’ to compulsory hosting in Saxon England to 8th-century Japanese Ryokans, the concept of hospitality is hardly new. Can something with such a weighty history be reduced to simple an ‘opportunity to show love and care’? The above quote is beautiful but in our opinion, far too rudimentary.
Take a modern professional hospitality setting for example- you can take great care towards your ingredients whilst not actually being very good at cooking them. You can show tremendous amounts of love towards your guests whilst getting the basic flow of service all wrong . Of course, love and care are integral parts of being great at hospitality but to assume they are the only factors is to downplay the skillset required to take it to the next level.
What plus what equals excellence in the science of service? Though not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, let’s discover 5 other fundamentals behind the successful giving of hospitality that, when combined, are far greater than the sum of their parts.
1. Multi-tasking
Service means spinning lots of plates, wine glasses and sauce jugs at once. Whether leading the team, manning the hobs, configuring the tables or keeping the drinks service on-point, there is a lot of multi-tasking involved in a successful hospitality operation.
2. Problem-solving
With all the will in the world, service is not always going be perfect. But the art of the hospitality here is not how smoothly it runs, it’s how you deal with it when it doesn’t.
Problem-solving is a core skill of any hospitality worker and keeping a calm head as chaos descends spotlights those with service running in their veins.
3. Organisation
Fail to prepare and prepare to fail as the adage goes…
Being able to plan ahead, to preempt the desires of your guests and formulate a plan of action to resolve any issues helps with the seamless and professional day-to-day operations of your bar or restaurant. Plus time management? Really helpful when you’re in the weeds.
4. Communication
Hospitality and the successful giving of it is very much a team effort. You rely on your colleagues as they rely on you to ensure every single step of service is as good as it can be.
To achieve this, great communication is key and should include everybody. Food going out to the wrong table or white rum in the cocktail when the customer asked for dark? Not even an issue with a strong, solid chain of communication.
5. Positive Attitude
It may sound basic but most things are surmountable with a positive attitude. It puts cheer into the customers, eases worry in the team and makes the whole act of service feels like a pleasure rather than a chore. When all else fails, keep smiling and the problems will feel a little more like learning opportunities.
When all these things are working in harmony, service is at its most optimal. Keep love, care and these fundamentals (along with the 4C's of courtesy, consistency, confidence, and cleanliness) in mind and you have perfected the science of hospitality.
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