Operation before digitalization

Of course, there are pearls in the national hotel business, success stories that prove that the industry is alive. Zurich, for example, is celebrating all kinds of new openings in all categories. The keywords are Motel One, a-ja Resorts or the soon to be completed airport hotels. Or: the Hotel Chedi in Ander-matt has developed into one of the leading luxury hotels in just a few years. And in Tschiertschen, above Chur, there is also a strong example in the boutique segment with the Alpina. And yet there is cri-ticism, especially from within the industry. Malte Budde, Director of Operations at the Park Hyatt in Zurich, sees it this way: "The hotel industry is generally lagging behind. I'm thinking of building services, innovative ability or change management. And above all, the search for well-trained and motivated employees is a constant challenge. The image of our industry is not attractive and we rarely get good employees, and then we lose many of them almost as quickly."

The Park Hyatt is one of the big providers, but also the small ones sound similar. "There is no longer a uniform quality standard in the local hotel industry. You find excellent 3-star hotels and then again luxury temples with, I can't put it any other way, lousy service." This statement comes from Ruedi Hintermann, the hotelier of the traditional "Schwan" in Horgen, a 22-room inn opened in 1466. Ruedi Hintermann is also its owner and has also enjoyed great success with his restaurant "Taverne". "Those in the industry, including small family businesses, who have regularly reinvested their profits have been able to keep their businesses going well over generations and crises. But those who don't constantly question themselves, reinvent themselves, invest and renovate, immediately lose ground."

lack of young talent
There seems to be no lack of innovation in the gastronomy industry, to say the least. The big cities in particular benefit from a scene that is creative and "ready for fusion". Vegan bars, sushi with a South American flair or tapas with Swiss cheese; the choice is wide. At the same time, however, the demand for apprenticeships and permanent positions has been declining for years. There is talk of a one-third drop in the number of school leavers who want to learn a catering profession. And the image also plays a central role here. The social media are popular platforms for topics like bad working mood, lack of respect or low wages. And that's relevant, because the Swiss hospitality industry comprises 30,000 businesses with around 200,000 employees. GastroSuisse, founded in 1891 as an association of innkeepers, is fighting above all to make the industry more popular again. The association organises career choice fairs, has introduced online marketing and offers a supplier-independent platform (www.karri-erehotelgastro.ch), which presents new career paths and further training opportunities to people in the sector. The aim is to offer students more than just knowledge about chicken dishes or how to prepare crunchy salads. New topics include, for example, hygiene training or combating allergies. As an important political topic, the aim is not only to provide young talent, but also to help career changers to find their feet in the industry.

But Ruedi Hintermann thinks that only a few young people want to do an apprenticeship in the hotel and catering industry because it is "totally boring" or "badly paid". So, there it is again, the question of image. But a positive or negative image is usually triggered directly at the front. With the service employee, at the check-in or with the staff in the reac- tion department.

"The term 'service excellence' has unfortunately been completely used up in our industry." Malte Budde

tion to a complaint. Hotels and restaurants are service industries par excellence. And this is exactly where Malte Budde wants to start: "The term 'service excellence' has unfortunately been completely used up in our industry. That's why our motto is more consciously: 'We see and read our guests in the moment. ›»

A strong WLAN already does a lot
Hoteliers can work with even the best certifications - in the Hotel Chedi An-dermatt, for example, an ISO 9002-2015 was acquired - in the end, service and care are the deciding factors. It is about an energetic atmosphere, inner friendliness and emotional intelligence (EQ) of all employees involved in the direct service process. Some have that, others don't. But if the management, the hotel manager or the Chef de Service do not master and exemplify these "warm" elements, i.e. "top-down", then even golden marble bathrooms or a fine Cuvée from France cannot do much. It may be that serving is less visually lived in our culture than in Asia or Africa, for example. All the more reason, therefore, for it to be incorporated more strongly into the training sector, both academically and in practice.

The extent to which other elements are also conducive to a positive development must nevertheless be discussed. Digitalisation is on everyone's lips, but not all Swiss hotels or restaurants are able or willing to offer secure and free WLAN across all buildings, for example. People argue about passwords and limited user times. It's like 25 years ago, when hotels still wanted to be paid individually for each facsimile page. Security is the argument, but mostly it is simply about the lack of IT investment budgets. Many have not yet understood that a functioning WLAN is also part of the service concept of a hotel and thus positively influences a subjective image. Malte Budde, however, is happy to embrace digitalization: "I only see advantages. Our guests can get information faster, book additional services, network and report about us all over the world. And thanks to digitalisation, we can, for example, sell rooms promptly, sometimes to guests waiting outside the entrance. Plus, partners like UBER have become indispensable to us and would be unthinkable without an open digitalization policy."

Keyword flexibility
Especially in the hotel business, supply and demand has become a volatile element; almost uncontrollable and at the same time active on countless partly unknown channels. Jean-Yves Blatt, Director of the Chedi in Andermatt, also confirms this: "Yield management is our daily bread, almost 24 hours a day. We have to continuously observe the developments in the markets, follow the competition, create the best possible price strategy and adjust everything again and again. What is right at 10 o'clock in the morning can be out of place four hours later."

Hintermann also wants to keep his finger on the pulse. "Even as a small provider, I have to digitalise my offers, keep them up to date and distribute them widely and then, above all, provide fast reservation portals. But unfortunately, personal contact is reduced in the process, and that is exactly what our industry thrives on. That's why I also have a hard time with all the rating platforms, where guests can express themselves indiscriminately, under circumstances without ever having been in my inn. Personally, I'm not even sure if one should actually, as it is commonly said, answer every entry. I think it takes a certain amount of common sense. You might as well just ignore individual entries. Often it's not the big infrastructures that make the difference anyway, but small, fine personal gestures, services. This may be different for larger and internationally active hotels, which are likely to answer all entries systematically, but in my case, it is primarily about the excellent service on site. And that, in turn, triggers word-of-mouth recommendation; quite 'unelectronic', to be sure,
but all the more promising."