Yeah! Go fun innkeepers!
Perhaps 2011 can be the Year of Fun Innkeeping.
Perhaps we can take things in our stride and try to enjoy our guests, vs battle of the bad ones and get frustrated. Perhaps this will show in all that we do, in our outlook, our innsights and play out in a happy year.
(Boy I really sidetracked on that one! But it is just a thought.) Does anyone really want to stay at an inn with uptight hosts? Does anyone really want to be treated as a room number?
I see our lives in this business as it goes through phases. Phase one eager to please and make everyone happy (which can often make US unhappy, which then transfers back to the guests, we don't think it does, but of course it does, it is like a virus on a microbial level. If we had a magic light we could see traces of it everywhere!
I am not saying drop boundaries and policies, on the contrary stick to them and everyone will be happier. With kids you know that having an open ended bedtime only makes for a grumpy miserable existence, it is the same with the inn and policies. Keep them in place and abide by them and you know where you stand and the guests know where they stand, there is never a question, there is never a mood involved. They just are.
So how about it? How about enjoying the guests this coming year? More, I mean, enjoying what you do, and "Developing a likable personality and projecting it, may be the most important career strategy you can have.".