Guest Work Managers Say Focused Staff Key to Smooth Hotel Operation by Christine CubÈ Their names were Marriott, Miracle and Maximum. Three newborn cows that took their first breaths in the confines of the Chicago Marriott OíHare hotel during a conference for dairy farmers. How the cows got their names was easy: ìMarriottî because of the Marriott hotel location, ìMiracleî because this labor was nothing short of one, and ìMaximumî because farmers knew that cows could only give birth to a maximum of three babies at a time. For then-hotel manager Ed Rudzinski, the calvesí birth was all in a dayís work. In fact, he had just come from the hospital himself, having witnessed the actual birth of his own son just hours before. That was about 30 years ago, and not much has changed since then, said Rudzinski, general manager of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. Rudzinski likened running a hotel to swimming across a raging white-water river. ìYouíve got logs running into you, your head is banging into boulders and three hours later, you get washed up on the other side of the river,î he said. ìHotels are that white-water river and they carry you w herever they want to carry you. Sometimes all youíre doing is keeping your head above water. You have a plan, and you hope that your staff will do its absolute best.î When it comes to running a smooth hotel operation, D.C. hoteliers say it comes down to selecting the right staff. From there, the rest falls into place. ìThe success of a hotel is really about how happy [your staff] is,î said Paul Westbrook, vice president and area general manager for Ritz-Carlton. ìIt matters how well informed they are and how theyíre being respected and cared for Ö I may think I know all the answers but if I believe that, Iím wrong. The people who really know are the people who work with it every day. My job is to create an environment where people want to do their jobóitís that simple.î Westbrook, who has been in the hotel business for 32 years (20 of them with Ritz-Carlton), described one recent case involving a Ritz-Carlton front desk manager in Washington. A guest at the D.C. hotel had just checked out and moved on to the Ritz-Carlton New York in Central Park. The guest was returning to his native Jordan when he realized he had forgotten his plane tickets in his D.C. hotel room. The guest contacted the airlines to see what could be done, and the airlines informed him that he would have to get new tickets issued. Panic began to settle in. What followed was service taken to the next level. The D.C. front desk agent jumped on a plane with the guestís plane tickets in hand and traveled to the New York property to hand him his tickets home. ìHe didnít ask anybody,î Westbrook recalled. ìHe said, ëThis is what I have to do,í and off he went. These are employees who care, and Iíve got a hotel full of them.î Other times, just when things couldnít possibly go any smoother, a wrench gets thrown into the routine. Thatís what happened to Mandarin Oriental Washington D.C. general manager Darrell Sheaffer early in his career while managing a hotel in Atlanta. One day, a well-known Hollywood celebrity, whom Sheaffer declined to identify on the record, was staying at his hotel and decided to eat in the hotelís formal restaurant for lunch. She was decked out in blue jeans, a T-shirt and sandals. During the late 1980s, when this event took place, restaurant dress codes were fairly important. She wanted to eat there, but Sheaffer told her no. The star was fairly upset and, as it turned out, after lunch was heading to a press conference to talk about a show she was doing in town. At the news conference, she informed the media of the general manager at her hotel who had thrown her out of the hotel restaurant for her lax attire. ìIt became a huge deal and the phones rang off the hook all day through 9 p.m. the following night,î Sheaffer recalled. ìI was being talked about on NPR [National Public Radio], and one of the local television stations had a noon-day talk show Ö the poll of the day was, ëShould restaurants be able to dictate dress codes?í ìYou start out in the morning and itís just another day, and for the next 30 hours, I was totally consumed.î Roughly 17,000 people called in to the talk show, and it turned out that the poll was very much in the hotelís favor, Sheaffer said. The hotel also received letters from around the country in support of his decision. ìThereís always a time when you question yourselfóëDid I do the right thing?íî he said. ìBut at the end of the day, you go with your instincts, your principles, your experience, and you make 1,000 decisions every day. Itís a pretty rapid-fire environment, and youíre dealing with a lot of different personalities.î In the end, the celebrity and Sheaffer ended up being friends, and she stayed at the hotel for several days following the public debacle. Ticket sales for her show also rose by 20 percent as a result of the chatter, a smart business move involving the power of promotion and something Sheaffer thinks worked to her advantage. Sheaffer said he would never stick to that kind of restaurant dress code nowadays because itís a ìdifferent world,î and people are much less formal about such things. The hotelier agreed that running a smooth operation today involves getting the right people onboard to work with you. ìIt takes a vision of what a great hotel should be,î said Sheaffer, whose 400-room Mandarin Oriental in Washington, D.C., opened just a year ago. ìBecause youíve got to be able to have the vision and be able to articulate the vision and bring the people you work with, your colleagues, into a place where they share the vision with you. Itís totally a team effort.î It also doesnít hurt to make sure the guests are pleased with the amenities. During the presidential inauguration, the St. Gregory Luxury Hotel & Suites hosted many of the same Texas inaugural visitors who attended four years ago when President George W. Bush entered office. Jay Haddock, president of Capital Hotels & Suites, which operates the St. Gregory and the Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters, said the hotel has a trained staff that immerses itself in ìobsessing on guest satisfaction.î ìEvery hotel has a different personality that it develops,î said Haddock, who has been in the hotel business for 39 years. ìIt starts with the management, but it is really delivered by the staff. Thatís why staff members are so critical. We coordinate, communicate and document all the time.î For the inauguration, Haddock was particularly proud of the flawless 2005 inaugural visit to the 154-room St. Gregory. Each unit was decked out with red-white-and-blue top hats, wine and chocolate, and keepsake albums for the photos that guests took at the inaugural events. ìIt was wonderful,î Haddock said. Many hotels in town also go out of their way to personalize guest visits. The Ritz-Carlton is renowned for this kind of attention to detail, and for its international clientele, the hotel has it down to a science: Beyond foam or down pillows or wine preference, the hotel will supply prayer rugs, a compass, daily prayer schedule and appropriate satellite television stations. For visiting diplomats, theyíll fly the countryís flag. Every day is different, Westbrook said. One guest visiting the Ritz-Carlton, Washington D.C. booked the suite for the weekend to propose to his girlfriend. The guest arranged for a limo filled with three-dozen peach roses to pick up his soon-to-be fiancÈe at the airport. The guest also arranged for the Ritz-Carlton to go to Tiffany to locate and pick up a diamond pendant in the shape of a hot-air balloon. He requested sparkling cider to be on hand for the celebration. Everything was perfectóexcept he had forgotten the engagement ring at the Tiffany in New York. Without a moment to spare, the Ritz-Carlton concierge moved to secure a courier, who brought the ring from the store in New York to the hotel on time, and everyone lived happily ever after. Stories like that prepare hoteliers for just about anything. ìIt comes down to the teamóthese people have to have it in their heart,î said the Mandarinís Sheaffer. ìThey have that sense of urgency to move heaven and earth to delight the guest. Things come out of left field and the one thing I love about this business is that itís totally unpredictable and without routine.î Sometimes the unpredictable drives up in the form of a busload of tourists without a single hotel reservation in Washington. That happened to Dixie Eng, general manager of the 203-room Best Western Capitol Skyline Hotelóand itís the type of thi ng she and her staff have come to expect. ìYou have to think very quickly,î Eng said. ìThe important thing is to make sure that because we had rooms that we would work through the details and get the guests in the rooms.î Eng said success lies in everyoneóstaff and managersóbeing able to move quickly to make the right decisions. ìWhen my colleagues say it takes the right team, theyíre right,î she said. ìBut every time you add a new player or a new manager, you have to start all over because that person has ideas and expectations about how to achieve a goal. Sometimes you donít have all day to reflectóyou have to figure it out as you go. You need a lot of leaders.î Christine CubÈ is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.