REMEMBER the days when our parents would talk about a trip to a foreign land as if it were a once-in-a-lifetime event? Such trips would need months of preparation before and months of anecdotes post the events.

Truly, international holidays are no longer meant for the privileged few. An international trip for the Indian middle class is equivalent to trips to Mussoorie and Nainital in the 1980s.

The Internet has also made decision making, planning and booking travel so much easier. It has also created this large, mass client base which has suddenly acquired global exposure (if not through real time travel then through the media and Internet), and thereby enhanced expectations of global standards from the hospitality industry in India.

All this and a global cross pollination of brands has resulted in setting a new standard for the hospitality industry.

What has changed? What should today's traveller expect and demand from the hotels? Almost everything! But it all comes at a price.

While luxury hotels have evolved from smiling receptionists to guest relations executives and now to lobby hostesses, business hotels have gone boutique.

A new breed of branded value (read budget) hotels are evolving to cater to the New Age travellers.

The common factor in all these hotels is the person serving you. Irrespective of the category of the hotel, s/he is the most critical factor for the quality of stay you will have.

Hotels that get this right for you should be hotels of choice for you. If you consciously look for this, you can evaluate a hotel within the first few minutes of walking into one.

But I should warn you that in a manpower intensive industry, each hotel will have its share of bad apples, so base your opinion on at least three different interactions.

Now let me let you in on a little secret.

The quality of your stay at a hotel depends more on your attitude as guests, than on the staff attitude towards you. In most cases, hotel employees are impressionable youngsters.

A good, cheerful reciprocation of their welcome greeting (even if it sounds obviously scripted), an informal chat or a genuine thank-you from you will get you great returns in most cases.

You may think I am insane to say this, but the easiest way of getting good service at a hotel is to be hospitable yourself!


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e-mail: Sanjay Sethi

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