Operation Skinny – Part II, Lean Hospitality Management
Posted by Lucinda Hazen on Mon, Jan 11, 2010
This is the second part of my lean management for hospitality properties article. I kinda take a leap here from the previous musings as I was having fun with the whole skinny thing and thus we segue into ‘lean' management!
This week was a wakeup call in one of our hotels and I realized the need to ‘get skinny' in our operations. For many, reviewing your P&L's this time of year (especially this year) can really make you second guess your career choices.
I've dealt with Lean Management in manufacturing for years. But I find myself wondering, will it work in a service industry, where I now find myself? For anyone unfamiliar with the term, let me give you a very unromantic definition as it relates to hospitality. Anything that does not directly impact the guest in a positive way must go.
In lean management there are 4 goals:
- Improve Quality
- Eliminate Waste
- Reduce Time
- Reduce total costs
Positioning yourself as unique while owning or operating a mid-size hospitality property can sometimes feel like being a number 2 pencil and trying to stick out during an Iowa Basic Skills test! (Do they still have those? Perhaps I've dated myself!) Yet, you must constantly find ways to redefine yourself in order to garner you share of the business.
Improving quality, or more aptly, perceived quality, is one of the best ways to enhance your property's positioning. Recently we decided to start something as basic as ironing the pillowcases at one of our properties. It doesn't sound like much, but I know the guests appreciate it, and our positive feedback has increased, even though they do not directly mention the pillowcases. It's more subtle than that and sometimes the guests would be hard pressed (no pun intended - but I like it!) to realize it's the ironed pillowcases that tilted the feedback from them in our favor.
That's the point. Yes, you could include a bottle of Dom Pérignon in each room. (That would surely get my attention - and if you ever do that when I stay at your hotel - I promise you a great Guest Survey Card!) However; it's the practical, small, incremental steps, taken with consistency that WILL have an impact on your bottom line.
Eliminate Waste
Right now, most of us find ourselves moving headlong into the ‘off' season. The problem with that this year is that with the industry down (with some estimates as high as 36%!), we kinda missed the usual ‘up' - season. So what should we do? We have been cutting back on labor as much as possible, but still for the occupancy we are out of whack with where we need to be.
It's time to get creative and accomplish more with...well - less! Less people, less hours, and especially less dollars! Recently we implemented a few strategies to do just this.
- The Head Housekeeper now does the laundry, she inspects her rooms in between loads (this is for a 100 room property running a dismal 40% occupancy)
- Side work is implemented daily so that deep cleans can go on hold till spring.
- Each day the housekeepers are given the day's top priority. It's just one small task that will be their focus for the day as they are cleaning their rooms. i.e. vacuum the vents, or dust the top of the door jams.
- Making a ‘Daily Focus' list will help the rooms stay fresh and clean and you won't have to take a room down for deep cleans as often.
I spoke with one of our GM's and of course these changes are not always met with a lot of enthusiasm within our staff. No one likes to be told they have to swim with one hand and one leg tied behind their backs while holding a bowling ball with the free arm and wearing a lead lined boot on the free leg. Oh and by the way, we need you to swim faster and further than you ever have before!
However, now is a great time to retain the best of the best of your team(s) and tell them so! In this job climate you choose who to keep based on a forward positioning strategy. Develop an even leaner operations machine now and when the economy turns around you can begin to build on that core foundation.
Hopefully, we can return to SOP in our operations in the near future, but we should always keep in mind the lean processes that got us through the tough times. If we implement these same strategies, consistently throughout the year we can expect our profit margins to widen. Just like my hips if I don't get back to my diet soon! Good luck!
Lucinda Hazen
Marketing Director and Partner - MotelMan Management and Receivers, LLC.
LucindaHazen@gmail.com
Twitter: Infocus23
Lucinda, with over a 25year background in sales and marketing, consults with businesses looking to increase their market share through positioning. She also has extensive Project Management experience that lends itself to developing operating processes in service industries that yield results. The mother of three grown sons, she resides in Colorado with her husband.