Defining Hospitality

Businesses ranging from Bank of America to NASCAR have sought out my consulting and training services because they want to bring the philosophy and behaviors that have been honed in the hospitality industry into their organization. In fact, the tools and techniques are applicable to any company that has a service component. Unfortunately, staff may not always understand the wisdom involved in taking the best from one industry and adapting it to another.

Front-line employees working in fields like health care, senior living, office building management, the auto industry, banking, beauty and numerous others can be very resistant to having a hospitality expert sharing best practices. The common push back is “We’re not a hotel.” Of course, I personally understand the universality and tremendous value of using the hospitality industry as a benchmark. In fact, I’ve made a career out of it.

For the past year and a half, I have been developing “Hospitality in Action” trainings focused on senior living with Sue Funkhouser, the Managing Principal of Pinwheel Performance. During our research and site review at a CCRC (upscale senior living community), we met with residents and asked them to give us their definition of hospitality. The sales director turned the tables on us and asked, “What do you think it is? How do you define it?” Sue and I looked at each other, instantly realizing we did not have a succinct definition ourselves. That evening, we rolled up our sleeves and went to work.

We began by asking ourselves a series of questions, “What is hospitality exactly? How is it defined beyond the confines of the hospitality industry? How can we define it so everyone can and will embrace it as a universal truth and not something that involves a transient experience?”

The following definition is the net of our discussion. We love it, think we nailed it, and it has worked like a charm. It is a moment-by-moment experience that creates a feeling of being:

• Welcomed
• Cared For
• Truly Seen

It is a human-to-human connection. There is no push back on this description because hospitality isn’t simply about hotels. Hospitality is about the people who stay in them and work in them.