What is Hospitality and why a Waiter can be a great YouTuber

What means Hospitality? 

How can you get lost there?

Why is your Homepage named like this? I got these questions a lot after I started. Let me make this more complicated….

 

Hospitality is a metaphor. It can be adjusted for any industry or life circumstances.

You can be lost in self-development, in university, in your marriage, in Translation, on Instagram. 

You name it. I met so many people over the years in this profession, which got affected by working too long in hospitality. I got myself in a bit of a struggle as well, but that’s part of another story.  

 

But don’t get me wrong I truly love to work in the Hospitality industry!

 

In a previous Blogpost: Change is coming no matter what (Link), I go more in detail about the downside of this profession, but now back to the history of hospitality:

 

“Hospitality is simply an opportunity to show love and care.”

 

In line with the quote above, how many times would you say you’ve been shown genuine love and care whenever you visited your favorite hotel or local fast food joint? Hospitality started with the intention of making guests feel at home even outside their homes but somehow, somewhere things shifted.

 

Nowadays, hospitality refers more to the establishment you’re visiting rather than a hospitable environment. At what point did running a business become more important than making You the guest welcome?

 

The hospitality train has been moving along as far back as you could imagine. Back then traveling wasn’t something you set out to do every day. There were barely roads and the distance traveled ran for miles. People had to either rely on the kindness of strangers or try their luck out in the wild. Hospitality then involved more than a bed and a hot meal. Whenever you opened up your house to a person, the intention was to make them feel as though they were in a home and not a house.

 

From open doors in houses to taverns, inns, lodges, and hotels, hospitality moved from you showing kindness to another but showing kindness while charging them for it. Things have come a long way from when our ancestors seemingly used to be merry at dinner time over pints in the local tavern. Once an industry was born, standards became essential. You couldn’t just put out dusty sheets and breakfast and call yourself a hotel. As far back, considering how long hospitality has been around, and as recent, considering what century this is, and as 70 years ago boards were created that rated your hotel to see if it was up to standard for human use.

 

 

Hospitality is old-style Digital Marketing

 

In keeping with running a business and keeping your guest happy, hospitality establishments are similar to marketing:

 

• Keeping up with the ever-changing demands of your guests (if you can’t please them, you lose them)

• Making a profit while handling training of staff and variety for guests (labour costs are a thing)

• A team that shared the same views as management in terms of hospitality

• Providing security for guests and staff alike (room keys being actual keys and all that were returned when you step out)

• Embracing growing technological advancements while still maintaining the heart of hospitality (who would have known how essential appliances are)

 

Every Bartender can be a Vlogger

 

I hope this makes the whole concept a bit more understandable. I genuinely believe that a waiter, chef, bartender, barista etc. can be an excellent YouTuber or Digital Marketer. A restaurant manager can be, in my opinion, responsible for a whole social media community. 

 

You get the skills automatically in the hospitality industry. We work hard, we are entertaining, we can (up)sell, we can adjust to customer needs, we never say no. That’s why it came so natural to me. And that’s why my heart is still with hospitality. It’s a great industry which offered me so many opportunities , but in the end, I moved on. 

 

Conclusion

 

The Hospitality sector will change dramatically in the near future (Link). Many workers will have to face some big changes and I hope my little project will help someone along the way to master the challenges.

 

Truly, hospitality boils down to the heart. It goes beyond fluffy pillows and a complimentary breakfast. It lies in that friendly face that remembers your name every time you go down to the lobby. True hospitality, more than another visit at the hotel or restaurant, births a memory that won’t be forgotten.

 

 

At your service,

 

Dan Draper