Have you seen the different colours and sizes of Christmas trees in shops, homes, banks, hospitals and even on the streets? There is a snow man at the Palms shopping mall, lightings in the shapes of reindeers along many streets, Christmas carols playing on radio stations, sounds of our local knock outs all over our streets, harmattan season finally here, Santa Claus sharing gifts at shopping malls and schools, sights and sounds of fireworks in preparation of D-day, people shopping like there will be no shops after Christmas day.  It’s everywhere, Christmas is in the air and then at last, I found it – a beautiful Gingerbread House at the Four Points by Sheraton.

Out of much curiosity, we finally found ourselves at the Radisson Blu Anchorage which happens to be the talk of the town in the hospitality industry. It has emerged as a business hub and as well as a threat to many other hotels on the island until intercontinental hotel opens next year. Doing business in this hotel does not just end at meeting rooms, lobby or at the bar. Another interesting spot is sitting by the room window overlooking the lagoon with the possibility of either seeing or being seen from outside by the fishermen. Can you imagine the many things you can do with this view?

What plans have you got for Christmas? Four Points by Sheraton is promising cheap room rates, a ride with Santa Claus and his reindeer and lots of food and drink. As recommended by a colleague, if you get tired of the live band at the Office bar or watching a match at the Adrenalin bar or even taking a walk down to the palms shopping mall to watch a movie at Genesis cinema, remember to get the massage of your life at the state of the art spa. Who’s going?

The casino and the theme park are just two of the attractions of the Federal Palace Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.  If you choose a lagoon view room, you can enjoy the beautiful sight of different vessels passing this exotic and luxury hotel into the country.. If you watch this long enough, you might just forget that the other side of the hotel holds the regular hustles and bustles of Lagos. It’s amazing how busy our waterway is. This is certainly a sight to see.

Housekeeping like every other department is an important but very demanding unit of the hotel. It can either make your guests come back or send them away along with their friends and family.Most times people think hotel housekeeping is just about cleaning but it entails a lot more.

Apart from proper cleaning with hygiene in mind, it involves talking to the guest, knowing the guest and his needs, respecting his space and his way of doing things and most importantly, caring for the guest.One would be amazed at how much this means to the guest. However, be time conscious and always remember that every little thing is important and sends a message. So when taking up housekeepers, look out for hints like passion, speed, honesty and a retentive memory.

• Value and Quality

Guests are looking for a balance between quality and value when choosing a hotel. So you may consider making your value of rooms and services equivalent to the prices you are charging. You may just need to touch them up a little this year  like brightening up bathrooms, improving on cleanliness, complimentary gifts like water,chocolates,sweets, more tv stations, internet,airport taxis,security etc

• Employee Management

The hotel industry is growing really fast so take care of your employees and they will not be in a hurry to leave. Give them some sense of ownership and responsibility in little decision making and always acknowledge their efforts. This way you reduce the cost of training and re-training and  also the cost of advertising for vacant positions

• Technology makes it cheaper

If you have a website, you can reduce your marketing cost but advertise to a bigger market. Being on online, anyone will find you easily and your rates and promos are readily accessible to the public. Technology has a way of captivating and keeping customers, so look at your booking and payment system, conference facilities, the finishings in your hotel and your internet faciltiies

• Benchmarking

Try to find out what your competitors are doing that can be introduced in your hotel but take and extra step and do it better. You could decide to be a guest in the other hotel or just go online to read reviews about the hotels.

• Update Websites Regularly

Updating your website regularly makes it more interesting for viewers and this way your can put more recent pictures of rooms, events and facilities available to your customers. Promotional offers or change in room rates are also made known to guests on or before arrival

• Fresh Food and Healthy Recipes

Customers are appreciating healthier options when choosing a meal as the world is tending towards healthy lifestyles. Include more of these in your menu and ensure these fruits and vegetables are properly washed and preserved to avoid food poisoning

• Advertise on tickets of coaches and airlines

Most hotel guests are travellers who come in either by air or by road. Make your hotel information available on the airline  ticket envelopes, their websites, at airports or coach stations.

• Wedding Market

This is one market that is sustainable. Partner with the Customary court or churches so intending married couples could easily reach you regarding catering, halls for reception or rooms for honeymoon. You could drop your brochure at these places with deatiled information about your hotel and its offers

• Update Customer Database

Update your customer database regularly and endeavour to preserve the relationship you have with your customers by sending them emails or text messages about recent development in your hotel

• Google, Twitter and Facebook

Let google find you and get connected with twitter or facebook encouraging your guests to visit your page and possibly drop comments of their memorable stay. This way people get to know you better

My Trip to Eko Tourist Resort

Although it was not planned, I found myself at the feet of nature and could not just leave immediately. I was a bit frustrated on my way there as there were no sign posts or directions on the road regarding how to get there, we just had to depend on other friends – the plan was to go drop off someone and hurry back home.

I couldn’t believe I was still in the Lagos after Ajah, the road was free of the renowned lagos traffic and it was smooth all the way. 45 minutes from Ajah crusing, 100box for the community so called gate pass and I was good to go. On getting there, I sensed so much peace and tranquility and walking down the beach just made me decide to spend the night there.

The chalet was not comfortable as I thought it should be but it was clean, the staff were nice and the food was good too. The ocean was actually blue, the air was fresh and the beach was clean. It was a good break from all the hustles and bustles of Lagos and I’ll do it again.

Is it just me and the people I know or is it everyone that experience anxiety over travelling overseas. Although the facade of our international airports are a lot better and they are also more equipped, the stress involved with customs is becoming an issue. The trauma and anxiety is not over whether you will arrive safely at your destination but rather it is over how your checking in process will go or how you will pass through our intimidating customs officers at the arrival wings of our international airport. For the travellers who do not know anyone to easily clear our luggage, we find this task overwhelming having packed. Even though we have detectors at the airports, we still have to open our suitcases to further inspection, in the process the officials start to make you feel guilty about travelling overseas and then ‘the now normal’ phrase comes- find us something.

On arrival, the number of officials at the nothing to declare area is so intimidating. It’s amazing that now we are asked to pay customs for our personal things and the two suitcases we are entitled to. It’s confusing what is banned and what isn’t. Some don’t even who the circumstances surrounding your trip and just incase you have no money to pay them, they make it very clear to you how kind they have been to you by letting you go. This should be home and one should be glad to be back not anxious.

Have you noticed it in the papers or do you see it glaring at you each time you go out? The number of hotels, restaurants and related outfits are popping up almost every other week. It’s great the our entrepreneurial skills are becoming more evident thanks to unemployment and a demand to meet the basic needs in life. That is the good thing about the industry; you don’t need long years of training to be able to cook or attend to guests with a smile- a reason why junior staff are not always paid so well generally even though the nature of their jobs may be physically demanding. But this BIG QUESTION is for the operators in the industry-is it business or pleasure. Sometimes we wonder why our outfits are not doing so well even when it seems like the customers are still around. Our culture encourages that we care for our relatives and friends and assist in any way we can. That is a beautiful thing, but it is important to be able to draw a line as to how far you can overlook some things in your organisation. If you are not careful, you will loose your customers and after a while you will be struggling to pay your employees- including the relatives and friends.

You need to:
Train your employees to be pleasant- whether you are related to them or not
Make them understand that they will face disciplinary actions if they abuse the relationship
Assume you work for someone else when you start feeling lazy about doing your work
Remember that how successful you become depends on how hard you work and how serious you are about the business
Be careful with habits like withdrawing money from the business to meet your personal needs

It’s not difficult to do, it’s all about discipline and setting your priorities right
Good Luck

Here are a few tips on how the hotels  in the world are responding  to the economic meltdown. Let’s remember that even though we are part of the global economy, Nigeria has its own economy and unique consumer lifestyle therefore, its operations could be managed differently. Research  sources suggests that:

• Cutting room rates should be recommended for hotels whose target market is sensitive to prices. Even though the global economy is not encouraging, there are many products and services consumers cannot do without and will pay the current market price for like hotel and conference facilities.
• Identify a niche in the industry and explore such opportunities. There are many classes of customers that need hotels. Weddings, Churches, Corporate Bodies, Leisure and so on. Package a special deal to meet the needs of your niche and offer superb services. It may be something additional to the conventional style or fresh ideas that may just solve Nigeria’s problem- publicize it. They say that where are many problems, there you will find many business opportunities so be observant.
• Monitor how you are doing compared to your competitors. Find out how they are better than you, how you are better than them and also what the leaders in the industry do to make that stand out. It helps you to sit up or work on your lapses.
• Remember, hotels belong to the service industry so try to recruit for attitude and train for skills. You may know the job but if your attitude towards your customers is discourteous then you may end up sending customers away. For non-management positions, it is cheaper to recruit industrial attachment students or even NYSC members as they are learned and have some level of exposure. By doing this, you reduce your operational costs because you pay little or no salaries. If the person is really good, then do not fail to recommend managerial training after a while.
• Encourage regular training, reward system and mentorship in your organisation. This empowers your employees with some sense of acknowledgement, belonging, job security and technical Know-how. Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.
• Improve customer service delivery- make efforts to stand out do your competitors and you will have customer returning for more