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How relevant are official hotel rating systems for the consumer in Africa?

183:845641172 (Ronald Stilting) — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 20:00:30 GMT

Do they give enough & reliable information in the age of Social Media?

WHAT ARE TRAVELERS LOOKING FOR?

Are people purposely looking for the star rating first when looking online for accommodation?

Some of the review platforms and other sources show the star-rating but this is often provided by the property itself and not verified.

The star rating is -at most- an add-on to the information provided by reviewers.

Reviews from peers/other guests are considered more trustworthy.

Guests are increasingly looking for experiences, which can not be captured in stars but needs a description.

“Instagrammability” is more important than official ratings.

Reviews can not always be trusted as there continues to be fraud.

The motivation of reviewers differs, and the reviews are not necessarily a representation of the actual situation.

Posts from influencers can be helpful but the quality and trustworthiness greatly varies (product-placement/sponsored posts).

CAN BRANDS REPLACE THE RATING-SYSTEM?

Hotel brands/chains tend to have requirements which the property must comply with and these are verified and, depending on brand/chain, periodically audited.

Not all brands/chains are equally strict in accepting properties and auditing them after they have been branded.

The reliability of the brand as a quality guarantee depends on the brand/chain policies and their implementation and enforcement.

HOW GOOD & RELIABLE ARE RATING SYSTEMS IN AFRICA?

In many African countries these systems either

· do not -really- exist

· are not known to the general public

· are not actually implemented

· are not trusted or monitored

· The rating-/classification systems that exist are not uniform or synchronized amongst the continent (nor world-wide).

Rating systems almost only focus on the availability of hardware and amenities, whilst quality service is not being rated.

The guest experience is up to a high extent determined by the quality of service.

CONCLUSION

Hotel Rating/classification systems in Africa currently have limited added value.

There is a real need for coordination and standardization given the lack of uniformity and -often- poor implementation.

Since many consumers are looking for “experiences” a simple rating will not be sufficient.

The consumers will need to spend time and effort to make a good judgment through the myriad of available information.

Brands can replace star-rating and reduce the need for extensive research depending on the brand reputation and possible previous experience of the consumer.

Safety/security, sustainability and hygiene are not yet structurally considered in these systems and platforms and these criteria which will become more important.

Can African tourism benefit from the relatively low spread of COVID19?

183:845641172 (Ronald Stilting) — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 12:34:08 GMT

How to kickstart tourism post-COVID19

We are currently experiencing a second wave of the COVID19 pandemic, which strongly varies per country. In parts of Europe which were doing well, new contaminations are skyrocketing. In most cases it seems clear that this is caused by the -too early too much?- eased restrictions, such as lock down, holding of gatherings etc., in combination with lack of discipline in the implementation of remaining measures. Around July travel restrictions were eased and people were eager to start travelling again, especially after having been restricted for several months. There are, for a part, considerable protocols when traveling, but it is possible to visit a good number of countries.

In the early stage of COVID19 it was predicted that Africa would be hit very hard by the pandemic due to the poor health care systems and congested living conditions of millions of people. Tens of millions of infected people and millions of deaths were predicted. To almost everybody’s surprise this has not happened, as the map shows.

The fact that African governments have reacted swiftly on the pandemic and implemented strong measures, the overall unfavorable temperature for the virus in Africa, the experience with previous epidemics such as Ebola and the general better immune system of African population as they are continuously exposed to viral threats etc. are suggested reasons for this development. But the numbers might also be quite low because the relatively small number of tests done due to lack of capacity. Let us hope that there is not in fact a large number of undetected COVID19 cases, but only time will tell.

The measures, especially the lockdown and closure of all tourism and hospitality and other industries caused millions of workers to be laid off, means that they do not have an income and cannot feed their families. During recent trips in Africa I found the measures a “mixed bag”; efficient restrictions and protocol on one side, in airports and some institutions, and lack of implementation, such as wearing masks and social distancing, on the other -general public- side.

In recent publications and webinars the relaunch of African tourism Post-COVID19 was discussed and it was raised if African tourism could benefit from the fact that the COVID19 related risk is minimal in Africa.

As much as I would want this to be true, I feel that we are getting carried away and ignoring some relevant facts.

A fair number of high-net-worth travelers will start traveling to destinations who have done their homework in terms of protocol etc. But we all know that tourism (traveling as a whole) in Africa is expensive due to high air fares, visa etc. The increased protocol means that every traveler will have to get a COVID19 test prior to the trip, which is both cumbersome and means increased cost.

The biggest potential to revive travel and tourism in Africa remains domestic tourism within the Africa countries or sub-regions, especially in destinations that can be reached by car.

But the majority of those who think of vacation in Europe and other parts of the world do not think of Africa as a possible destination and in some countries USA travelers are considered as “high-risk”.

The reason is more structural: the lack of marketing power of Africa and its’ reputation as a tourism destination. Several tourism regions have built a good reputation and manage to attract substantial numbers of tourists, such as South-Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Gambia & Senegal and Indian Ocean islands, to name a few but many other countries have far less marketing power and reputation. In this situation with this uneven start and a reduced airlift, the second drawback becomes apparent; the situation requires swift and strong, decisive action. With the economic downturn due to the pandemic the funding for tourism marketing from government side have often dwindled. Governments are making huge debts for various stimulus packages and tourism marketing is often not high the priority list.

But public sector is generally not known for swift and decisive action, compared to private sector, though there are some efficient and professional tourism agencies who do great work.

But Africa has a “reputation”-problem, besides some popular areas, which lacks nuances and is not justified in many cases. The lack of knowledge of the “general” public about Africa will remain a big hurdle to market tourism. Most people speak of “Africa” and are not aware that there are 54 countries in Africa, each one with its own profile, including pros and cons for tourism.

There is a lot of hard work to be done to develop and market tourism but when done the right way things can look differently and the industry and societies may be more resilient 10-20 years from now.

At this point in time I strongly suggest focusing on domestic tourism, which is structurally the fastest and easiest to revive, irrespective of the pandemic.

Let us keep moving and working hard to get back on our feet again!

What position does a GM play if Hotel Management would be football?

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 10:34:38 GMT

With 6’ 6” and clumsy long legs, I was never good at football (and some other sports….) nor very football-enthusiastic, though our Dutch national team did -sometimes- do fairly well.

As a General Manager I have been “on the road” in Africa for 20+ years and leadership philosophies have evolved in that time.

I did keep an eye on the news regarding football teams, such as Bayern Munich (at some time with fellow-countryman Van Gaal as coach and Arjen Robben scoring), but the stories around it were sometimes more interesting than the actual football. I noticed some interesting similarities with “football” and managing hotels or companies. They both face challenges operating and managing a team to achieve a certain outcome.

A t the 2nd day of soft-opening a hotel in a large city in West-Africa, an owner without previous hotel-experience called the whole management team for an “Emergency Meeting“. His “Emergency”-issue was that he had a problem with the way the bedsheets were folded when making the beds. His most significant statement was however (he was, as many Africans, a big football-lover) “If the team doesn’t play well, you know what happens to the coach” whilst looking at me. I thought “but doesn’t have the coach have a clear influence on the team-strategy and choice of players……?” but kept silent.

I tried to figure out if the General Manager is really "just" the coach / manager of the team. He surely has to “coach” and develop his team through training and individual team members through coaching & mentoring.

I soon found that he has more roles to play:

Team-captain; sometimes the most glamorous part when receiving the trophy, which he should – as a real team-player- hand over to the other players. But he also plays a role in binding the players together.
Midfielder: continuously plays the ball forward to the players in the best position to score the goal.
Striker: the one who, in most cases but not always, scores the goal.
Defender: sees imminent upcoming dangers and tries to prevent worse.
Goal-keeper: if “the sh** hits the fan” the GM will stand in and saves the situation by doing damage control and take the ultimate responsibility.

Technical or sporting director of the team; as the General Manager should have ample knowledge of the technical aspects of the hotel in all its aspects and be able to support all players with advice. I do feel that a General Manager should not have a “know-it-all”-attitude however but know where to look for expertise or solutions if it is beyond him.
Business Director of the club; he continuously keeps and eye on the financial bottom line and less on the football-side of the venture
Team-doctor; the General Manager continuously monitors the mental and physical health of the players. Sometimes team-members get “hurt” and the GM /team-doctor has to “patch up” a team-member.

If “scoring goals” is the ultimate objective, it is a good thing to give ALL players a chance to score. At any time all team (staff) members should at least feel that they have considerably contributed to achieve it.

I deliberately left out the “politics”-aspect, as this is difficult to describe but it plays a role in both football and hospitality business. The “fans” (ownership-entourage and friends / advisors) also play in interesting role.

I always put the people, both guest and employees, as a pivoting point for all activities and strategies, which hasn’t really changed. Thankfully this is common knowledge these days, but it is not always implemented.

So what is the "position of the GM in a football team"?

The answer is: all of the above (and more.....)

At the end of the day I feel that “situational leadership” guided by a strong underlying strategy and integrity is the best way to describe the role of the General Manager.

The continuous change of role/position during the day is one of the things I love about this job and it never get’s boring.

One can lead from the front, the back and even from the side-lines.