Alright, just had to play the devil's advocate and throw this one out there to contrast the hugfest going on.
Other local colleagues first tipped us on this one, but we all call it the "Squishy Handshake" around here.
At our place, I've made it a standard practice of greeting people at their cars and offering to carry luggage.
My greeting is usually a "Hi, welcome to HLB, you must be Mary and Tom." I memorize all the first names of our arriving guests and most people are blown away by the effort to do so. If we have multiple check ins, the first ones to arrive might get a little humor like me adding a "you must be Mary and Tom?" with a little laugh at the end.
I then extend my hand and give an average strength handshake but no other touching of like their shoulder or anything that could be misconstrued as "too friendly"
I usually will ask how the flight was, or how their trip was going so far. With that, I'm also gauging their fatigue level, first impressions of the place, etc. If they respond like 95% of folks do with equal friendliness, I just know the next three days are going to be a dream. I can count on one hand where the greeting dynamic was wrong or we had a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde on our hands.
Truly troublesome guests have nearly always had bad body language and tone the second they got out of the car. Its like a hot, foul wind blowing against me.
Again to qualify the frequency, in really rare cases, I'll get this really limp, extraordinarily weak handshake and usually not much eye contact from one of the two or in even rarer cases both. The latter seems to happen more during the height of the busy season and its revealed somehow during their stay that these folks had to "settle" for our place because all the downtown B&Bs were already full.
No offense usually taken as we've made many a convert of the "downtown only" type guest over the years.
I wouldn't describe it as an already disgruntled or unhappy guest, but occasionally we get a couple who its obvious one really pushed the choice of our place on the other and the other is kind of along for the ride so to speak. Or the above described scenario and the "squisher" has had their original desires not met and its all uphill for us to overcome their displeasure and not so hidden desire to be at their first choice.
Or could just be really shy, lack some social skills, a germophobe or the person is used to the impersonality of hotels.
I don't know, just kind of bored today and throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks.
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Tim@HLB
we like the full service when we travel cuz it ain't happening at home.
