Care for HER safety

Security, safety and discretion are of utmost importance to female guests. You as hotelier can make us women feel safe by offering (among other things) secure on-site parking, allocating us in rooms close to lifts and not on the ground floor, illuminating your hallways well, double-locking hotel doors, manning your reception 24/7 and making sure your receptionists are not announcing room numbers out loud.

Some hotels go the extra mile and offer all-female staff support which escort solo female travellers to their room or deliver room service to them. Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotel in Chicago takes it one step further. The hotel features special privacy doors allowing female travellers to order room service and having it conveniently delivered to the room – all without the need to interact with the hotel staff.

Upgrade your rooms for HER

Cornell Center for Hospitality* found that women are more concerned about getting a good night’s sleep than their male counterparts. This implies that to improve female guest satisfaction, your mattresses should be adjustable in firmness and with high-quality hypoallergenic bedding. Offering a pillow menu is another highlight (oh yes, thanks to Savvy Sleepers there are even anti-aging satin pillowcases available to prevent wrinkles and hair breakage).

Women (and not just the women!) enjoy living a healthy lifestyle. You can improve their travel experience with some in-room workout facilities and yoga mats; offer the possibility of in-room spa treatments as well as provide great coffee and an enticing herbal tea selection.

Choose an upscale skin care line, have a full-length mirror in the room as well as an enlarged and well-lit magnification make-up mirror. Ensure there are cotton pads available, enough wardrobe space with skirt hangers, satin-padded hangers and why not even a sliding show rack (think of all the Jimmy Choo’s that would thank you for it ;-)?

Last but not least, get slippers and bathrobes in the right sizes and remove the gigantic sizes from the room. Have towels that are big enough to be used as hair-drying turbans and high-powered hair dryers. Another hint: curling irons and hair straighteners will truly win your female guests' hearts – we promise you!

PS: A small but important side note for all hotels and resorts in romantic destinations: when a female solo traveller (applicable to male solo travellers as well) checks in, please check your in-room communication and facilities. Remove the invitation for romantic couple dinners and treatments, and exchange them with relaxation and detox offers (or whatever you have prepared for your solo travellers). Remove the second pair of slippers, bathrobes and amenities in general. Make them feel that the room is perfect for one – they will appreciate it.

Tailor your food & beverage offering to HER

It’s commonplace for hotels to offer healthy menu choices throughout the day that are nutritionally balanced, as well as a beverage selection that includes infused waters, fresh juices, etc. To make a greater impact, think about offering smaller portions for female guests, so that they can enjoy an appetizer and a dessert as well.

Make an effort in your restaurants to offer your lone female diners the option between joining a communal dining table or a discreet corner table, so that they feel comfortable and at ease.

One more thing: taking care of your female travellers' needs does not mean segregating them from other guests. We are not fans of women-only floors, gyms or spas in hotels. Instead, we believe that the adjustments we mention in this blog post won’t disturb but be appreciated by many other guests as well, regardless of gender.

Talk to HER

As we all know, women are different. So is their use of technology while booking and travel planning, as well as on social media platforms. Important to keep in mind is that they love to share travel intelligence and are big into rating hotels.

Make an effort to tailor and target your communication on your website and social media channels to your female guests, and mention the facilities and services you offer especially for HER.

One last thing that is dear to our hearts and we really want to emphasise is hotel photography. Long gone are the days when women appear in ads and photographs simply as the sweet companion of greying, successful (travelling) men. Show (and you’ll automatically reach out to) real women, independent business-women, female artists, single moms – feature the female buyer persona you would like to welcome in your hotel.

Women will appreciate the extra attention you give them. Take their needs into consideration and they will turn into loyal customers and come back again and again.

We hope this blog post has given you some useful insights and information. Now we are excited to hear from you: What do you believe female travellers need? Which hotel have you been to where they truly tailored the experience to female guests? Thanks for sharing!

Your MAp team

*Brownell, J. (2011). Creating value for women business travellers: Focusing on emotional outcomes. Cornell Hospitality Report, 11(12), 6-17.

Service quality is crucial

Outstanding quality in all areas is a must for luxury hotel guests. This is in terms of equipment, furnishings, design, food and facilities. From exquisite bed linen to fine tableware, the guest experience must be consistently characterized by the highest of standards. However, it is the quality of service that makes the real difference. The smallest gestures can make the greatest difference to the guest experience. Spontaneous human interaction is not easily reproducible and creates a truly unique, authentic and memorable experience for guests.

Consistency of service is also crucial. Only those luxury hotels able to provide the highest level of immaterial service components, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are regarded for years, and often decades, as truly the best.

A human approach makes the character of a hotel distinct and unmistakable

When it comes to providing services in luxury hotels, it is not, as often falsely assumed, absolute perfection, but rather a matter of conveying a sense of perfection to the guest. There will always be room for small errors. However, it is the way in which a hotel responds to and resolves these that is crucial for the luxury perception of the guest.

In order to provide an almost perfect service, hotels need people who not only truly understand and are interested in the needs of the guests, but are extremely passionate about taking care of and responding to these individual needs. It is about having the right attitude, the willingness to live the company culture and ultimately to be innovative, caring, passionate, dedicated and "human". Employees that embody these intuitive characteristics are like gold dust, as these traits cannot be achieved by targeted training from the company alone.

Trust is the key to success

Happy employees do more than just their job. Not because they are paid for it, but because they really want to do it. It is exactly this character trait that distinguishes an outstanding luxury hotel from competitors and ultimately justifies the higher price that can be achieved and is accepted by the market.

But how do you get your employees to do more than just their job? Among many different factors, the basis is definitely to create a culture of trust in which employees are empowered to make decisions by themselves. Such a culture creates optimal conditions that motivate employees to express their talents and ideas, and enables open and effective communication. This guarantees transparency and leads to an increased level of trust in the management. The proof is in the pudding - hotels with an established trust culture experience staff turnover rates well below the average as well as exponentially increasing business results.

Best practice example: the Hotel Ritz Paris

The Hotel Ritz Paris took a different approach to many hotels in 2016, after a renovation that kept its doors shut for nearly four years. Instead of employing a new and cheaper workforce once the refurbishment was completed, the company took a strategic decision to retain over 200 former employees despite incurring a significantly higher cost structure. The management consciously opted for the former hotel staff, as they had the necessary knowledge, the sound training and valuable experience the hotel needed to succeed. These characteristics were and are crucial to the Hotel Ritz Paris in order to maintain the outstanding quality and guarantee the prestigious personal service and the absolute consistency in the service provision.

The management of the Hotel Ritz Paris recognized the long-term value of their staff recruitment approach as they appreciated the importance of familiarity and consistency of staff and service to their many regular guests. Maintaining the human component has been attributed to ensuring the character and soul of the Hotel Ritz Paris remained, as well as ensuring the long-term economic success of the hotel.

Finally, our MAdvice to hoteliers

Gaining the confidence and trust of your employees is crucial to success – both economically and in terms of the guest experience. This process requires change, rethinking and buy-in from the corporate management. Happy employees live the corporate culture, the DNA and the spirit of the hotel every single day. Their service style, which is based on the corporate value and service philosophy of the hotel, defines the culture of the hotel and forms the character and soul of the hotel.

Ongoing employee training and education is also key to customer satisfaction and ultimately to financial success. However, maximum success can never be achieved unless employees are entrusted and can truly "serve", in an authentic, genuine and human way.

In this spirit, we advise you all to learn from successful entrepreneurs and to treat your employees not only good but very well. In order to win in the long-term, employees no longer have to be seen as the biggest cost factor and saving potential, but as the biggest and most important guarantor to long-term business success.

We look forward to hearing from you and as always feel free to share this blog post.
Thank you and all the best with putting employees at the heart of your hotel!
Your MA people

Revolution is the only solution

This was our credo when starting to work at the Kandima Maldives resort concept (and it still is). In an overcrowded market there is no chance to succeed if you haven’t got the vision (and the guts) to create something remarkably unique. But first you have to understand the game before you can change it. That’s why our research stage was key. We journeyed through Europe and Asia to analyse the most innovative concepts – what made them work – or not in some cases. We slept in millennial hotels and also in tiny airport cabins all in the name of research.

Work with the best

If you want to create the best, you have to work with the best. As the saying goes “You can’t do epic shit with basic people”. Therefore Kandima Maldives partnered with globally renown experts in their areas. Did you have a look at the Kandima Maldives branding? It has been created by the truly incredible Snask in Stockholm. The feedback we received: wow, different, special – game-changing. Goal achieved ;-).

Be dynamic but never compromise on the basics

Creating a resort concept might take some time, implementing it even longer. Over the last two years our partners at the project changed, the amazing and fun K’ team has been formed; new people are continuously joining and co-creating. This means that there is a steady stream of new ideas and new tasks to be tackled every single day. Our role as strategic partner is to help, assist, co-ordinate and be as flexible and dynamic as possible. Our key focus is to ensure the basics - the foundations and details that make the Kandima Maldives concept and brand fresh and unique - are implemented effectively and without compromise.

Fall in love with the details

It’s all about the details. The small touches. As a visionary and concept developer, it is a must to fall in love with these details – even if that means that you lose some sleep over that one single social media post, or design elements that aren’t quite right yet. You cannot half-ass anything if you want to create a unique and successful hotel concept and bring it to life.

It’s all about huMAns

A concept may be great on paper, but without the right people in place it will never (ever) fulfil it’s potential. We never underestimate the power of the people. At MA people our concepts start and end with huMAns. At Kandima Maldives guests will experience service unlike any other resort. The K’team will make the difference, ensuring each and every guest is "kandimatised". They will help to create memorable and unforgettable lifestyle experiences. There are many definitions out there for hospitality – at MA people we boil it down to one simple yet crucial statement: it’s from huMAns for huMAns. If everything you do and create keeps that in mind, you are already a game-changer in today’s hospitality market.

Follow the journey of the K’ team until the opening in December 2016 and get "kandimatised"!

Feel free to share this post with other visionaries - or get in touch if you, or someone you know is interested in co- creating the next game-changing concept with us.

Talk to you soon,
Your MA people 

1- Clearly positioned hotels achieve optimum returns

Clearly positioned, differentiated and specialised hotels with a strong profile do sustainably stand out from the competition. They evoke desirability, generate higher occupancy and achieve significantly higher ADRs. Hotels that have the courage to be different, incomparable and offer tailored facilities and services to a specific target group, are more likely to attract the right guests, with the right expectations and willing to pay the right prices. 

2- A unique positioning is vital for your long-term success and survival of your hotel venture

Guests do have an abundance of choice when looking for their holiday destination and online platforms as Booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor or Trivago supply them with unlimited options. Often nowadays, in an interchangeable hotel product environment only the price is the remaining distinguishing factor for consumers. Hotels with a unique positioning are clearly different than competitors, offering clear advantages and benefits for the guest. Only hotels that truly stand out from the crowd can achieve higher occupancies, ask for higher prices, obtain a higher RevPAR and in the long run win the battle.

3- A clear positioning is a basis for your marketing success

Why should guests stay with you and not with another hotel - if you have the same standard pictures and content as any other hotel on your website, offer the same facilities and services, promote the same packages and offers, have the same social media profiles, tell the same marketing messages and so on and so forth? Hotels who know who they are and have the courage to tell their unique story on a consistent basis, will clearly stand out from the crowd and be able to obtain premium returns for their product.

4- A clear positioning fosters happy guests

Guests do have clear expectations and needs when they travel and can get very upset, if their hosts do not meet these. Very often this situation results in bad reviews on rating platforms. Hotels with a clear and authentic market position and a promise to fulfil certain expectations, avoid unhappy guests, since their guests clearly know what they get and can set their expectations accordingly. As such a clear positioning does not only prevent disappointments, but on the contrary generates happy guests that are most likely to come back again and again, recommend the hotel and write positive guest reviews. 

5- A clear positioning makes your life so much easier

The more you offer for more guests, the harder it is to focus,  streamline and move on. To limit your offer and focus on your consciously selected target group to fulfil their needs and desires, can be very liberating and motivating. This (and positioning) doesn’t mean that you should ignore guests who do not fit in your target group, as you may have to cater to various target groups in order to fill your rooms. Positioning means that you know exactly which guests (and which not) you can and want to target and cater for in an outstanding way that is not comparable with any other hotel.

To sum up, we can say from our experience that a holistic, sustainable, creative and innovative hotel concept and the clearly derived positioning are fundamental to the success and sustainability of your hotel venture. As always we hope that this blog post is of great help to you. Please feel free to share it with your friends and let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

Thanks and until then,
Your MA people 

Ps.: Want to dive even deeper into the topic? Here are two other MA people blog posts that might be of interest: Why YOU absolutely need a hotel concept and Why best marketing beats the best product EVERY single time.