Having been a journalist for 25 years and specialised in hotel business, Maria Pütz-Willems travelled the world for 16 years as a freelance journalist for leading hotel and tourism publications. Always with a certain feeling for trends and ideas and staying in permanent contact with international dialogue partners. In 2005, she launched the online magazine www.hospitaliyInside.com, a bilingual network for international hotel business.
 |
|
How's Christmas in Hotel Business?
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go… In the weeks of December, hotel owners become CEOs, Christmas Event Organizers. He invites people to the Kick-Off Event (1. Sunday in Advent) for the SANCROS (Santa Claus Road Show) and starts both the Christmas roll-out and the Christmas mailing-actions.. The service providers (angels, elves and reindeer) are informed via conference call and the core competences are re-distributed. In an additional Client Management Conference, the organizers decide to launch a hotline for short-term Christmas wishes as a pilot project in a test market in order to increase the presentees’ added value. Thanks to the top sophisticated application system handling (TRASH), benchmark-oriented controlling is possible for every private present-centre… Happy X-Mas!”
This e-mail sent by an unknown mass sender was waiting in my mailbox in the days before Christmas. With intelligent language use and wit, the text presents us today’s Christmas world – a world that has moved far away from its original values. Many hoteliers try to bring back this deep, original meaning of the festivity on Christmas Eve. There are literature evenings next to the fireplace, classical music and the mandatory gala dinner. The guests’ children have spent their afternoon baking cookies and listening to Christmas stories. Many hotels come to life on Christmas Eve; entire families move in, generations celebrate together around the Christmas tree. Traditions become more important than ever. Naturally, the hoteliers are always there in their role as charming hosts. On Christmas Eve and in the following days, the give out presents, chat with everybody and toast with their guests. That’s the tradition in good family hotels.
Not many guests think about the host’s family. When do they celebrate Christmas? The long-established experts see the situation with humour and forethought: Some celebrate before the actual day, some after. Others secretly take a couple of hours off on the second day of Christmas. And they come back to their guests with a smile on their face. For festivities such as Christmas, everybody in a hotel becomes part of a large family. And fortunately, only few hosts actually become CEOs…
Merry Christmas!
Maria Pütz-Willems
|
