Travel and Tour Awards 2017

4 Corporate Vision / Canadian Business Awards 2017 , A London luxury hotel in the city’s Belgravia district, COMO The Halkin promises an elegant and discreet environment. We invited Katherine Gordon to tell us a bit more about the hotel and what makes it amemorable stay for visitors. Best Luxury Hotel 2017 - West London Widely regarded by loyal regulars as a home away from home, you can expect faultless service, award-winning cuisine and Asian-inflected style. Belgravia is flanked by the life of Knightsbridge, Mayfair’s Regency squares and St James’s parks. London’s best restaurants are within easy reach, as well as Hyde Park’s greenery and Bond and Sloane Street’s glittering shops. We invited Katherine to tell us what it is that makes the hotel so attractive to its visitors. “Location is key, whether the corporate is based in the local areas of Belgravia, Knightsbridge or the ever expanding hub of Victoria, the transport networks in close proximity enable our corporate clients to reach their destination of work with relative ease. With the Hotel being located on a quiet residential street, you can experience London but enjoy the calmness of being in a residential neighbourhood in the evening. A good night’s sleep enables our guests to be ready for the next working day. All of our rooms are equipped with WiFi and international power outlets making the convenience of international travel all the easier. “COMO Hotels & Resorts celebrates individual spirit. Our hotels and resorts worldwide are entirely different from each other while sharing respect for exceptional cuisine, meaningful wellness, contemporary design, local culture, environment & service. We strive to deliver experiences that are unique to our guests and the local area. This anti-cookie cutter approach is what makes our guest experiences stand apart.” Within the corporate travel industry there are many avenues for hotels to explore and always new opportunities arising in the surrounding areas. Katherine lists what major prospects the hotel could see open up, noting further development in Victoria and the usual corporate market. In a busy area, the hotel must differentiate itself from its competitors in order to attract more clients and Katherine explains what the hotel does in order to mark itself out as the best. “The corporate market has always been a solid provider of business into the property & with the further development within Victoria, which is just minutes away this potentially will attract new corporate offices into the area. Being a boutique hotel with 41 rooms, each of our guests are treated as individuals and the Hotel prides itself on warm and passionate service anticipating our guests needs.” In order to attract the best client, the hotel must provide the best customer service. Katherine outlines how the team at the hotel ensure all staff are well equipped to provide all guests with a memorable experience, citing the company vision as a main reason why staff are able to provide great customer service. “It all stems from our company vision, which is about inspiring guests to travel and live differently by creating experiences worth reliving. We recruit our employees based on their ability to demonstrate passion, creativity and style. The skills element of a job role we can teach but encouraging someone to behave with energy, spontaneity and authenticity is much more difficult when it is not naturally instinctive to them. Employees are further encouraged to operate with a surprise and delight mentality at the forefront of their minds. To enable this they are trained and coached to engage with our guests and to look for the opportunities where we can make a difference and do something extraordinary and unexpected for them. It is the little touches that our guests enjoy, it shows we are listening to them, they are important to us, and we care about providing them with the best experience whilst staying with.” Overall, the internal culture within the firm is vital in implementing the company’s vision. The values of passion, creativity and style are all explained during a presentation which staff must attend on their first day of employment. Katherine tells us how training is in place to make sure staff are always able to provide their guests with the services they require, whilst the General Manager provides incentives and initiatives to ensure the staff enjoy working at the hotel. “Our values of passion, creativity and style are explained in great detail during new hire orientation, which everyone must attend on their first day of employment to ensure that they have a true understanding of the Company’s vision. It is important to ensure that they receive full and proper training on our service standards so that they become second nature to an employee. This breeds confidence and capability and allows the employee the capacity to let their personality shine through. Training is in place to assist employees with delivering these softer skills and experienced departmental trainers to assist with day to day coaching. When an employee delivers on our vision and we receive feedback from our guests to this effect it is important to acknowledge them for their great performance. The General Manager often hands out thank you cards to employees and we have recognition schemes in place to clearly show our appreciation.” TTA17002