I recently shared my definitions of the word HOSPITALITY in a column published in this service and asked readers to contribute their definitions.   The response was very positive and I am pleased to share a sampling of the responses from a diversity of people and places.

Defining Hospitality 

My original article included personal and professional reflections as follows:  

• Hospitality is much more than a word today. It has become an industry that runs the danger of becoming too high tech, with too little high touch. 
• Hospitality should have many adjectives, but many of us cannot precisely define it. 
• Hospitality means providing service to others, yet not being cast as a servant. 
• Adjectives that should apply to Hospitality include: Attentive, courteous, amiable, cordial, agreeable, gracious and welcoming. 
• Hospitality also means demonstrating consistent excellence and quality in people skills (staff and guests), product and ambiance. It should also mean profitably providing value and worth at any price level, while demonstrating your own unique points of distinction. 
• Hospitality should be smiles, trust, caring and sharing your operation�s success, regardless of you job title. 
• Most of all, Hospitality should be a �place�, where people can still be exceptional individuals, where they can extend their own personality and style. 
• Hospitality  is a place and a feeling where one can build their own self-esteem and pride, by providing positive memories and experiences to our guests.

Enjoy their reflections and definitions of Hospitality. 

A shared definition from a relatively new Director of Sales and Catering and one of his sales managers

Hospitality is �Providing your guest with the same amount of attention and service as you would expect if you were in their shoes.�    - Jed Arrogante  Director of Sales and Catering and Angela Hueth , Sales Manager - The Westgate Hotel, San Diego, California 

�When it comes to hospitality my thoughts drift toward Marriott.  Based upon my travels of 23 years plus throughout the United States of America, Europe, Scandinavian countries, Caribbean Islands, etc., the following are  my thoughts on hospitality.  Hospitality is   � To be invited and made to feel genuinely welcomed and relaxed. To be treated with a disposition of cordiality, reception and support. To be professionally guided by the host to meet and exceed the guest�s expectations.   -  Mike Henning, Founder and President Henning Family Business Center, Effingham, IL

From a lifetime career hotelier who operates in multiple locations and continents

�Hospitality is being a Service provider. A Hotelier taking care of their guests is like a Doctor treating, caring, comforting and thinking about the well being of their patients.  - Manhar P. (M.P.) Rama, CHA,  Chief Operating Officer  JHM Hotels, Greenville, SC

From an industry professional now in academia:

�For me Hospitality is defined as "self discovery."  This might sound trite, but it is based on the tenet that as humans we need other people who allow us to discover our strengths and weaknesses.  So, hospitality provides the medium for us to explore different places, culture and things.�  - Jennifer Calhoun MBA, CHE,  Assistant Professor/Director, Hospitality and Tourism Institute (HTI),  Prince George's Community College,  Largo, Maryland  

�To me, hospitality is about exuding warmth....genuine care....an innkeeper showing pride and sincere offering of their "space"...Me casa su casa.�   -  Shannon Evans, Manager, Strategic Planning, Phoenix AZ

�Hospitality is treating others with warmth and generosity, authentically! � - Doug Kennedy, President and Founder, Kennedy Training Network, Hollywood, FL

�Hospitality requires a Passion for serving�  - Phillip Alfus , President and CEO, The Alfus Group, , New York, NY

Here is the definition of Hospitality I generally use: �Hospitality is providing outstanding hotels with exceptional associates, for ecstatic guests and delivering defined optimum results in profitability to the owners and investors.�  - Ramesh Gokal, CHA President & COO VISTA INNS  Murfreesboro, TN 

�I have been teaching this subject for a number of year and find that people try to put it in a small box.  I suggest and finally have resolved to use the following: Hospitality � The care and feeding, and their supporters who care, for people away from home. This really does expand the skills and knowledge of where our students may eventually find themselves - Vast areas that many may not have thought that really belongs to hospitality.  Originally, I used just the Care of Feeding of People away from Home.  I have since amended it to include those  people who are the suppliers, association groups etc.  �  An interesting exercise is to divide groups of students into their areas of interest- hotel- food- Travel and tourism- and Sports, event and meetings-  Let them then define the different aspect, segmentation etc. and when finished put it all on the board.  Most students have never thought their options were so vast or that the skills and knowledge and attributes we teach are transferable across all of these options. � - Caroline A. Cooper, CHA, Ed.D, Executive Director, Business & Hospitality Relations, Johnson and Wales University, Providence, RI .  Dr. Cooper is also the current chair of the AH&LA Educational Institute�s Certification Commission.

�As your article leads to express, there may be many definitions of Hospitality. Some may be more meaningful to the customer; some other, more meaningful to the professional. I wish to contribute with a couple, addressed to the professionals: Hospitality is to create a working atmosphere that empowers and motivates "front liners" to furnish guests with a memorable experience. Hospitality may be obtained by creating a wise combination of three crucial elements: a well conceived architecture in the largest sense; the design of an operational concept that may fulfill all expectations; and a human factor with the attitude and proven aptitudes to deliver excellence. � - Jean-Claude Koster, CHA, EHL, Président, Koster Associates, Consultants to the hospitality Industry, Madrid - Spain

From South Korea:

Here is my (quick) definition of Hospitality:
H = home: the original �Public House� was exactly that: a house where the inn-keeper welcomed  strangers to stay with him: at a (fair) rate 
O = openness: a place where one is welcomed with openness: genuine and caring
S = secure: where you are ensured that you can indeed sleep without a worry
P = peaceful: in order to be refreshed upon departure
I = intelligent: a place where they have given your stay more than a good thought
T = trust: the re-assurance that you are �not taken for a ride�
A = able: where there are �able� men (and women) there to serve you
L = listen: where one is being listened to
I = informative: where you can gather news and information as well as share it
T = together: in the sharing warmth of other travelers and providers
Y = YOU: are our Number One: the Guest  - 
Jean Keijdener, Country General Manager, Executive Office, Somerset Palace, Seoul, South Korea 

1. Hospitality means patient listening and understanding of people�s feeling and desire.
2. Hospitality is no religion, no nationality and no border.                
      - Zay Ya  Min Din,  Managing Director  Amazing Hotels and Resorts,  Yan Yangon,  Myanmar

�I would like to agree with your definitions of hospitality.  My definition is simple - it is the offering of kind reception, accommodation and entertainment to a stranger, a friend or a partner in business�.  -  David Opele, Intercontinental Hotel,  Nairobi, Kenya

�Greetings from the Ancient City of China, Xi�an. My definition for hospitality will be �providing local knowledge to our customers�,� gracious good bye�, �knowing the culture of each individual�.  - Jim Khoo, General Manager, Holiday Inn Xi'an Greenland Century City (Pre-opening Office), West High-tech Development Zone , Xian ,  PR China

One can notice that hospitality may have two different meanings. The first one from the point of view of the guest and the second one from the point of view of the service provider or the so called the server. A guest would define 'hospitality' as a process which takes place in a hotel, restaurant etc. where he/ she receives' a service that is beyond his/ her expectations. However on the other hand a server may define 'hospitality' as a simple process in which they can impress the guests without putting one's life in danger. For example if a server just smiles when he/ she serving the guests he/ she can count himself/ herself in the good books of the guests.   -  Utsav Arora, Graduate of International Hotel Management Institute,  Lucerne, Switzerland. He is currently living in India and planning to open a restaurant there. 

"Hospitality necessitates an ongoing humility from us, the practitioners. It requires our natural instincts of being right to become deferential to our guests and our prospects. To these people, it should convey a feeling of safety from a physical AND an emotional perspective. Hospitality is the reason my business card is replete with all lower case letters out of respect to the capital letters in my life (my clients)."  - ed. iannarella, president, stonehenge consulting group  lancaster, pa.   relocating to Ft Myers, FL late 2008 

At Renard, customer service is not a "Department" it's an "Attitude"!    - Sylvia Menezes, Senior Consultant RENARD INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY SEARCH CONSULTANTS  Toronto, Ontario , Canada 

Fundamentals of Resort Hospitality: Delivering Welcome-Home Ambiance | �Managing resorts is really about creating incredible experiences. It�s ensuring every owner and guest enjoys special moments, high-touch service, and quality vacation time. Resort management does encompass budget, reserve funds, board management, and all the other back-office functions that are integral to success. But you can have it all and still not deliver the hospitable environment that creates and maintains your relationships with your team members, customers, and owners. Front-line team members make or break your hospitality. Service is all about actions�but it�s also ambiance. It means that special touch, as well as consistent behavior and standards. It means intuitively anticipating a guest�s need for quality that you can directly control and develop among your team members. Practicing a common-sense approach to providing remarkable vacations can be done at all levels, every day, and in every action.�    - The American Resort Development Association (ARDA),  a  Washington D.C.-based trade association representing the vacation ownership and resort development industries.

1. Problems and solutions for room service
2. How to effectively say �thank you� at check out
3. How to provide training for all levels of staff in a tight economy
4. Making Cultural Diversity Real in today�s workplace 

Please communicate your thoughts and I will post a collection of responses in an upcoming column

Feel free to share an idea at [email protected] anytime or contact me regarding consulting, customized workshops or speaking engagements.  Autographed copies of LESSONS FROM THE FIELD � a COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO EFFECTIVE HOTEL SALES can be obtained from THE ROOMS CHRONICLE  www.roomschronicle.com and other industry sources. 

All rights reserved by John Hogan.   This column may be included in an upcoming book on hotel management.

John Hogan�s professional experience includes over 35 years in hotel operations, food & beverage, sales & marketing, training, management development and asset management on both a single and multi-property basis.  He holds a number of industry certifications and is a past recipient of the American Hotel & Lodging Association�s Pearson Award for Excellence in Lodging Journalism, as well as operational and marketing awards from international brands.  He has served as President of both city and state hotel associations.

John�s background includes teaching college level courses as an adjunct professor at three different colleges and universities over a 20 year period, while managing with Sheraton, Hilton, Omni and independent hotels.  He was the principal in an independent training & consulting group for more than 12 years serving associations, management groups, convention & visitors� bureaus, academic institutions and as an expert witness.  He joined Best Western International in spring of 2000, where over the next 8 years he created and developed a blended learning system as the Director of Education & Cultural Diversity for the world�s largest hotel chain. 

He has served on several industry boards that deal with education and/or cultural diversity and as brand liaison to the NAACP and the Asian American Hotel Owners� Association with his ongoing involvement in the Certified Hotel Owner program.  He has conducted an estimated 3,100 workshops and seminars in his career.  He served as senior vice president for a client in a specialty hotel brand for six years.

He has published more than 350 articles & columns on the hotel industry and is co-author (with Howard Feiertag, CHA CMP) of LESSONS FROM THE FIELD � a COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO EFFECTIVE HOTEL SALES, which is available from a range of industry sources and AMAZON.com.  He resides in Phoenix, Arizona and is finalizing his 2nd book based on his dissertation �     The Top 100 People of All Time Who Most Dramatically Affected the Hotel Industry.

Dr. John Hogan, CHA MHS CHE
[email protected]