When the guest experience comes second

I’ve been traveling for business quite a bit the past few weeks and I must say, everything has gone quite smoothly. Airline travel has been without incident, and all of the hotels I’ve stayed in have provided excellent service and good, clean rooms. The only minor standout was at a full-service property where someone seemed to knock on the door every hour or so: minibar attendants, housekeeping and other people who seemed to be on staff though I’m not sure what their role was. I think the service mantra at that place was, “As soon as the guest checks in, tap on their door constantly to check up on their room, especially for little tasks.” In some cases there was a perfunctory knock and then they tried to unlock the door immediately, only to find out my latch was thrown.

The topper was when I got a phone call from a man identifying himself as the head of engineering. “Ma’am, it’s come to my attention you’ve got a DND on your door and I’ve got an engineer who’s been instructed to replace an air filter in your room,” he said.

The tone in his voice was not of someone involved in working in a luxury hotel. Rather, it sounded like a police detective who’d finally had a crack in a cold case that had been sitting for 12 years or so. A DND? What was that? Is that like a DWI? Had I broken some basic rule at the hotel? Would I be asked to leave? My brain cells, thankfully, started working and I realized my offense was posting a “Do Not Disturb” sign outside during this guy’s work day. Intimidated into being super cooperative (I do respect the law), I consulted with my husband as to when a good time would be for the air filter to be replaced. We concurred we’d be out of the room in an hour and I relayed that information to the man on the phone.

“Ma’am, my engineer is right outside your door now,” he barked. “Oh, ok,” I laughed, completely unnerved. “Let’s let him in then.” Upon which I

opened the door to reveal a kind, older man with a tool kit and a great big air filter in his hand.
My husband and I excused ourselves and went out on to the patio, which sure beat sitting on the bed and watching the air filter being replaced.
This wasn’t the first time I’d noticed that the engineering team in a hotel had free rein to intrude on the guest experience.

I once returned from dinner to find a man on the floor of my Las Vegas hotel room fixing a non-working electric socket I’d complained about 12 hours earlier. He wasn’t surprised to see me but I sure was; I was a woman traveling alone and it was rather jarring. But darn it, it would have been jarring even if I’d had an entourage with me. Intimidated, I excused myself and told the workman I’d be back in an hour. He nodded and I wandered around the casino, worrying about all of my possessions being on full display as a stranger resided in my guestroom.

What are the rules in your hotel? Is engineering required to play by the rules when it comes to interacting with guests or is it all right for them to function in their jobs as if they’re maintaining a factory or an office building? I’m not saying their jobs are easy—hotels are complex assets to keep up and having guests on the premises 24/7 messing up the TV remote controls is probably a constant annoyance.

Maybe the real question is this: What’s your process for communicating with your engineering team and training them on guest services habits? I bring these examples up because I know I’m not the only guest who has been thrown off when a workman shows up at an inconvenient time to take care of a problem I may or may not even know about. Problems happen every day at hotels, and guests never know because your highly trained front-desk, concierge and housekeeping staffs know how to solve problems while keeping guests happy. So my advice is this—don’t leave engineering staff out of those guest-services training sessions or you’ll be doing a disservice to your hotel and your guests.