‘Leading Quality Assurance’ (LQA) Standards are a set of criteria and guidelines used to assess and guarantee the quality of luxury hotels and their restaurants. When all employees follow the prescribed guidelines, the affiliated hotels can not only guarantee consistency in their services, but also meet the expectations of their guests. Although I have always found the rigidity with which this set of “guidelines” were enforced during my work in a five-star hotel in Zermatt particularly inhospitable, they do come in handy every now and then when running our own Bed & Breakfast.
But while, before, I appeared at our guests’ tables as a pre-programmed LQA-robot, I, now (in setting up and developing our own company), mainly draw inspiration from it. Instead of being paralyzed with fear that I were to forget one or more standards, I feel that my self-confidence, here in Spain, is increasing slowly with each new guest contact. It comes down to a matter of balance. As a hostess you should (is my belief) be constantly available but not constantly present. While in Zermatt I was forced to circle around the guests on the orders of the boss (something that neither I nor they were really happy about), here I simply use the moments that are perfect for this: during check-in, just before dinner, during breakfast and finally at check-out.
Because while one guest likes to go his/her own way, the other guest really enjoys having a chat. And while I understand that large hotel chains, with a high turnover, can indeed most easily guarantee their consistency and quality through a rigid set of rules, I find the rigidity with which these are usually enforced at the same time a sign of lack of confidence in the qualities of the staff. And the boss is right. If I keep circling the guest, it is extremely unlikely that he/she will sit at breakfast for more than two minutes without being offered a fresh cup of coffee. However, the chance that he/she will actually enjoy it also becomes smaller and smaller as the number of laps I try to sneak around him/her gets larger. It’s a shame. Because the idea behind these LQA rules is not bad at all.
Last weekend, for example, I gratefully took advantage of the idea that many guests prefer it when the host or hostess comes up with a proposal instead of leaving the choice entirely up to his/her guests. “Where do you want to watch the final match between Spain and England?” becomes “Would you like to watch the match here or in one of the bars in Benialí?” and “Would you rather sit on the couch in the living room or at the high tables in our bar?”
Grateful that I came up with a proposal myself, the guests choose the first option. It not only feels comfortable, but also most like home. While I tried to decorate the living room as ideally as possible for this important football match, I was secretly glad that my sisters weren’t there. LQA! That I would one day be inspired by it again. I thought I had closed that chapter for good. Together with the posh trousers, the stiff white blouse, the waistcoat, the jacket and the tie, they have been a thing of the past for some time now. Another life. After all, we are all familiar with the famous statement: “You can get an employee out of Zermatt, but how do you get Zermatt out of an employee?” Whoever has the solution for this problem, can tell me. Or would it be better if I came up with two suggestions myself?