Yes, feed back from our guests is important. We have established that fact already. What about feed back from our employees?

Someone said this: One cause of stupid management is stupid employees. It is easy for the Emperor to go naked when everyone's telling him how good he looks.

Many junior staff would choose to keep quiet rather then speak out and inform his or her superiors of the problems. But equally sad is a lot of the middle and higher management staff also do not bother to speak out.

Lack of understanding is one of the reasons. Once I discussed a problem with a department head in the hotel and he replied that it is a management problem. I asked him who is the management and reminded him that we are the management team and it is our problem.

Of course, most of the hotels is run with a capable and experienced General Manager. It does not help when the GM is authoritative and full of confidence and so many procedures and processes are carried out based on his direct instruction and direction. This has created an environment where most senior staff would "just do it" and keep quiet.

Another reason is that the messenger always get shot. Because I am the bearer of the bad news, I was shouted at and reprimanded. Why would I bother?

So both the employer and the employees can be at fault. It is important to realize that we are one team and we are here to do a successful business. The channel to encourage feedback from staff must be open and likewise employees must realize that his feedback is necessary and he cannot afford to shut up while assuming that completing his shift of work would guarantee job security.

Religious scripture and early forklores have all emphasized on expressing appreciation whenever a good deed is done.

According to the Chinese tradition, filial piety is the duty in which a son must fulfill the obligation of showing appreciation to the parent. In the Bible, there was a story told that out of 10 leapers healed, only one return to praise God and the other nine did not even bother.

In the service industry, showing appreciation and feed backs are vital for the improvement of the establishment.

Without feedback, there is no way we can tell if the product and service is what is expected from our guests. The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake. We will continue as if nothing is wrong but wondering why is the business isn't great.

Obtaining feedback is a two way street. First of all, hotel must encourage and actively sourcing for feedbacks. Likewise, guests must also give serious constructive feedback.

Remember this: If your customer says it's a problem, it's a problem. We should always look at feedback as opportunity for us to improve. Negative feedbacks are painful and can be demotivating. I know of one new cafe operator who took offense with a negative feedback. He was angry and defensive. With attitude like this, how can we improve?

Feedback is the springboard to make a hotel great. We need to know the problem before we can rectify it. On the other hand, a positive feedback especially those that show appreciation to the staff has tremendous consequence. The staff that is singled out is motivated. The rest of the staff are also encouraged. This is esepcially so when the hotel encourage and reward staff to go the extra mile to delight the guests.

Westerners are very good at providing feedback as well as showing their appreciations. Many of them will take their time to write and express their appreciation, especially when they have a very copacetic staying experience.

On the other hand, Asians are not as good in providing feedbacks although the trend is improving. Most of us, Asians have the attitude of walking away from a bad experience and not to speak to the establishment but would not mind telling every friends and family members. And when we do speak to the establishment, we do it with a vengeance with a lot of unforgiving attitude which can be misunderstood as wanting to take the establishment for a ride with freebies and compensation.

I am encourage that more and more of our local guests are starting to fill in the comment forms and some even take time to write back. This show that our guests want us to improve and they care about our industry.

How much are you going to compromise when it comes to safety and security in the hotel that you stay?

No doubt, budget hotel galore. But when you really look at it, the saving may not worth the risk if you put your safety into consideration. Yet this is often overlooked by most budget seekers.

Fire in hotels and lives lost because of poor safety standard may not be everyday news, yet we do come across them now and then. Branded chained hotel will safeguard their name at all cost to play down any fire. But the truth is that these branded chained do put in extra effort and resources in hotel safety and security. To them, these areas are not negotiable.

This is a different story for budget hotels. In order to keep cost down, a lot of budget hotels in Asia are housed in buildings that are not necessary suitable for hotel. This is especially true for the "shoplot" hotel where the rooms are on the higher floors. A shop lot is meant for office or residence. When you convert a few upper floors of the shoplot into hotel, safety is compromised.

Because of the sheer size of these hotels, a lot of safety measures and equipment will not be implemented. Some findings are that these hotels have only one exit, or additional exit is closed to prevent guest from skipping out without paying bill and to prevent robberies. Very often, these exits are also blocked. A lot of the rooms have barred windows which made escape almost impossible.

One finding in US points out that 96% of fire has minimum lost and zero casaulities when the building is equipped with sprinkler system. Sprinkler system will definitely be missing in these small budget hotels. Very often, alarm system will also be non available.

In addition, with minimum manpower, training on safety awareness and fire drill will most certainly be absenced.

These budget hotels cannot be our choice even if it is to save money. So it is wise to check out the budget hotel that is also safe and secure.