Stayful CEO Cheryl Rosner has a background working at both Hotels.com and Expedia. Stayful is now almost one year old and so far the company is in 19 markets with listings of a few thousand boutique hotels. 

The site is skewed to Millennials and seeks to make hotels stays more affordable with its bidding and booking system by enabling one-to-one negotiation on rates. It also hopes to give greater exposure to boutique hotels that have traditionally paid higher distributions costs.

In the video, she discusses the boom in the boutique hotel business with Pimm Fox on "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)

As you can see, I am on a service mission this month! Here are some Good and Bad examples of service... and some traps we so easily fall into, yet can avoid! I know it is a long blog - but you MUST read these - Wilna 


Bad Hotel Trends We Hate
By Karen Tina Harrison
Luxury Travel Expert

Bad: Charging for every amenity in your room, save the sheets
Better: Hiding it in a “resort fee”
Best: Including the wifi, water, snacks, and shoeshine in your room rate

Bad: Faux "pet-friendly" restrictions and fees that penalize your pet and you
Better: If you’re a hotel that doesn’t want pets, don’t give mixed signals; just bar them entirely
Best: Welcoming pets (cats too) with no restrictions or fees; that's a pet-friendly hotel policy (as at The Point in the Adirondacks

Bad: Paying on top of your room rate to use the hotel gym; or being told “the gym is under renovation” (and "here's a voucher" to a gym 15 minutes away)
Better: The gym is free, but closes at 9 or 10 p.m.

Best: The gym has free entry (and is 24 hours, with a fruit bowl, cold water, and iced towels)

Service Gaffes (this section contributed by Eric Weiss of ServiceArts Inc.)

Bad: Waiting an hour for your luggage to arrive in your room
Better: Your luggage arrives in your room within a few minutes that you do

Best: Your luggage gets to your room before you do and is placed out of the way

Bad: Your wakeup call never comes (I give it no more than a 50/50 chance, even in a top hotel)
Better: You get a mechanical wakeup call
Best: You get called on the dot by a real live human being

Bad: All staff uses the same exact greeting

Better: A neutral and appropriate greeting (time of day, weather, etc.)

Best: An individualized and appropriate greeting that seems spontaneous and authentic (as in, when you're carrying a briefcase: “Good morning ma’am, have a great meeting!”)

Bad: "What would you guys (referring to men and women or just men) like to drink?"
Better: "What can I get you to drink before you start your meal?"
Best:  "May I tell you about some of our house-made cocktails?"

Bad: "Just one for dinner?"
Better: “One?”

Best: "Nice to see you, let me find you a great table"

Bad: Knocking on the door when the Do Not Disturb sign is up
Better: Calling your room during Do Not Disturb 
Best: Least intrusively, slipping a note under your door 

Bad: Staff's clothing is either indistinguishable from guests', or cheap institutional uniforms (please, no vests for women, ever)
Better: Clean, pressed, well-fitting uniforms that identify staff as staff

Best: Definite uniforms, but designed to harmonize with the surroundings

Bad: No card in-room that instructs staff to greenly reuse your sheets and towels, so you have to make this request by phone 
Also bad: A card is offered, but housekeeping disregards it and changes the sheets (sadly, the usual)
Best: A card that is respected by housekeeping

Bad: Charging outrageous fees for room wifi 
Better: Charging a minimal fee for fast wifi or comping a basic connection

Best: Fast and free room wifi 

Bad: Room service indifferently served and hardly better than fast food
Better: A tasty room service meal taken off the metal trolley and served as a waiter would
Best: Room service as good as the hotel restaurant, served with distinctive flair 

Bad: A poorly informed concierge of the "least effort" school, or one who seems to be judging you, or one whose default recommendation is tourist traps
Better: A concierge who appears to be up on things but whose restaurant recommendations are the Top Ten on every website
Best: A concierge who finds out your tastes and does extra research to give you the best experience

Bad: No chocolates at turndown!
Better: Chocolates, but commercial kisses or wafer mints
Even better: High-end commercial chocolates like Lindt Lindor truffles
Best: Locally or house-made fresh chocolate bonbons (as at MGallery Hôtel de la Cité in Carcassonne, France)

Bad: No gift amenity in your pricey room
Better: A gift, but it’s another baseball cap or logo-ridden tote
Best: A nice bottle of local wine, or something you want to take home, like a straw hat or elegant beach bag (as at Mexico's NIZUC) 

Room Features

Bad: No dresser and no drawers or even shelves anywhere for your clothes; you can only hang them on hangers in the closet or pile them on the desk
Better: An all-in-one closet with at least shelves and maybe a drawer or two under the safe
Best: Plenty of shelves and drawers, or an actual dresser (like at The Grand Del Mar)

Bad: No slippers or bathrobe in the room

Better: A robe but no slippers 
Best: Two pairs of slippers and two robes 
Best of all: Two pairs of slippers and two pairs of robes: one for beach, one for bath (as at Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Thailand)

Bad: Flimsy, generic white terry slippers
Better: Handsome cloth slippers
Best: Fashionable slippers to take home, like the black elastic-strapped sandals at Regent Bali

Bad: Jungles of electrical cords; as architect Mies van der Rohe said, "G-d is in the details" (he designed the iconic tower that now houses The Langham, Chicago)
Better: Electrical cords neatly shortened by twisties
Best: Nearly invisible cords

Bad: Motel-style non-removable hangers
Better: Nice wooden hangers, but typically not enough of them
Best: Ample wooden hangers made from the same wood as the closet (as at Regent Bali and Regent Phuket Cape Panwa)

Bad: Packets of chemical-laden non-dairy creamer beside your coffee maker
Better: Single servings of Half-and-Half
Best: Real milk for coffee in your fridge (as at Four Seasons Rancho Encantadoin Santa Fe)

Bad: Wood or stone floors with no rugs (and a girlfriends’ getaway in stilettoes above your room)
Better: Hardwood floors with a lot of area rugs
Best: Dare I say it? Quiet-enhancing wall-to-wall carpeting, beautiful, of course
Best of all: You requested and got a room on the top floor, or below an empty room

Bad: Noisy fridges in room (second thing I do, after removing the bedspread, is unplug it)
Better: Noisy fridge, but basically out of earshot in the vestibule
Best: A quiet fridge positioned where you can’t hear it at all

Bad: Minibars that are sensitive to touch: you move it, you buy it
Better: A small munchie threat delivered with turndown (as at Four Seasons Baltimore)
Best: Free minibar, as in all-inclusives

Bad: No bottled water in room
Better: A couple of bottles, replenished on the house
Best: Earth-friendly glass bottles of purified water (as at Four Seasons Rancho Encantado in Santa Fe)

Bad: No ice waiting in room, so you have to call and wait for it
Better: An ice machine not a long walk away, so at least you can get it yourself
Best: Ice is always in your room

Bad: Windows that cannot be opened (common in city hotels)
Better: Windows that can open, but you needed to call for help
Best: Easy-opening windows (as at Loews Philadelphia)

Bad: Noplace to hang your hand laundry (washing your own UW is a lifesaver forcarryon packers)
Better: Lots of hooks and racks for drying your scanties
Best: The hotel does your laundry gratis (a frequent feature of club floors)

Bad: No full-length mirror in the room
Better: A mirror on your closet door
Best: A heavy wall mirror (like at Four Seasons Nevis) or freestanding dressing mirror

Bad: A clock-radio (welcome to the Eighties!)
Better: A clock on a modern device like the Bose Wave
Best: A room with a view of a clock tower like Big Ben (Corinthia Hotel London) or Kowloon Station Tower (Peninsula Hong Kong)

Luxury Travelers' Obsession: Bathroom

Bad: A generic porcelain throne
Better: A generic john in a partitioned area
Better still: A john and a bidet
Best: A Japanese-made TOTO toilet (as at Palace Hotel Tokyo)

Bad: It's a tub! It's a shower! It's a tub!
Better: A separate tub, but not generously sized 
Best: A deep soaking tub made for two, with water jets (as as Corinthia Hotel London)

Bad: And that tub-shower has a depressing sliding glass door
Better: The shower is separate, with a stone bench inside
Best: The glamorously lit, marble-lavished 'throom feels like a spa suite (as atHazelton Hotel in Toronto)

Bad: No wall-mounted makeup mirror for Madame
Better: A makeup mirror without a light
Best: A mirror lit in non-Halloween fashion

Bad: Outsourced made-in-China toiletries
Better: Global luxury brands like Bulgari and Bliss 
Best: Locally made bathroom toiletries (like Byredo at Nobis Hotel Stockholm, soaps made in the Yucatan at Viceroy Riviera Maya), or custom-made (like Rosemary and White Tea potions by Natura Bissé at Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace and Lady Primrose's Piñon-Eucalyptus at Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe)

Bad: Those toiletries are either too masculine or flowery
Better: Unscented toiletries
Best: Genderless herbal aromatherapy scents or green fragrances like L’Occitane Verveine

Bad: Micro sizes of toiletries (Ace Hotels’ soap is the size of a matchbook)
Better: Wall-dispensed, Earth-friendly refillable bottles like at Viceroy New York)
Best: Take-home sizes close to the TSA limit of 3.4 ounces for carryon packing (as at Le Negresco in Nice)

Bad: Arty, raised, bowl-shaped sinks that splash everywhere
Better: Deep porcelain sinks
Best: A pair of capacious sinks side-by-side

Ready for Your Tech Challenge?

Bad: Electric control panels that are ultra-high-tech and so hard to figure out, not even the staff know how
Bad variation: You program your room and service controls on the remote screen – hey, you're on vacation, not a competitive corporate team-building challenge
Better: When you check in, your valet or butler shows you how to use the overcomplicated electric panels
Best: The room's tech aspects are familiar enough for you not to need a tutorial

Bad: It's nice to offer a tablet in your room. But no one wants a knockoff brand that requires instructions
Better: An iPad you can borrow from the front desk
Better: An iPad in your room (as at Regent Phuket Cape Panwa)

Bad: An old-style coffeemaker with packets of inferior java that create, basically, hot brown water
Better: A basic coffeemaker with good choices like Starbucks Breakfast and Blonde
Best: A pod coffeemaker that's easy to use (no programming, please!), with a choice of strong brews

Bad: Nothing to plug your iPod or iPhone into, so to hear music, you have to play it on your laptop
Better: A player device with only an aux jack, so your iPod plays but doesn't charge
Best: an iHome device or similar style of iPod/iPhone dock and charger (as atFour Seasons Resort Nevis)

Bad: No in-room safe
Better: An off-brand safe with obscure instructions, or any safe too small for your laptop
Best: An Elsafe-brand safe sized for a laptop, with a charger outlet and a jewelry tray inside (as at The Pierre New York)

Bad: A room phone that requires a master's in engineering to use, and whose voicemails are impossible to retrieve
Better: A phone that doesn't give you a headache
Best: Free local calls and free international calls to the US and Canada (as atLe Blanc in Cancun)

It’s All About the Bed!

Bad: A dated, fusty, maybe even synthetic bedspread that’s not only potentially viral but ugly
Better: A handsome bedspread with natural fibers
Best: No bedspread but a fine cotton duvet with a newly laundered, spanking-white cover (as at InterContinental Montreal or Mukul Beach, Golf and Spa in Nicaragua)

Bad: Puffy, foam-filled pillows
Better: A pillow selection on your bed or in your closet, or a “pillow menu” you can choose from
Best: A pillow concierge offering a range of therapeutic pillows (as at The Benjamin in NYC)

Bad: Heavy down quilt in a tropical hotel, forcing you to blast the AC
Better: An appropriately chosen down quilt
Best: A choice in your closet (in case you like to blast the AC)

Bad: Wrinkled linens or any other remnants of past guests

Better: Pressed and clean sheets, made with military precision
Best: A well-made bed with sheets from Frette, Pratesi, Delorme, Dr. Porthault, or Frette (as at Hotel St, Francis in Santa Fe and Windsor Court in New Orleans) and embroidered by Lesage (hopes Eric Weiss)

Thank you for paying attention, hotels!

What Luxury Hotels Must Do for Guests, According to Hospitality Guru Eric Weiss
By Karen Tina Harrison
Luxury Travel Expert
  
Many of us luxury travelers believe that service makes the difference between a very nice hotel and a memorable hotel. But what constitutes truly great luxury hotel service?

To find out how a savvy hospitality consultant appraises hotel service, I spoke with one of the world's best: NYC-based expert Eric Weiss of Service Arts Inc.

Eric is a hotel-service guru who terms the hotel trade "the ultimate people business." He is called in to consult and train at some of the world's top hotel and resorts.

1. A hotel needs a top manager – a GM or resident manager – who is on premises and not sequestered in an office or focused on conference business. The boss must be present, available, and in evidence. He or she should be out on the floor greeting guests and putting a face on hotel operations. Connected, committed, on-on-one hotel service starts at the topand sets the tone for the entire hotel.

2. Personality: An Emotionally Intelligent and Spirited Staff

To be great, a hotel needs a team -- both management and front-line staffers – with emotional intelligence. This means intuitive people sense, empathy, and genuineness.

There's the phrase "hospitality personality," which goes further than cheerfulness. That's important, but so are natural kindness, graciousness, humor, and joie de vivre. A person who quietly makes guests feel comfortable and important.

A great, five-star hotel employee also thinks things through. He or she has a sense of priority, attention to detail, practicality, follow-through and efficiency."

You could boil all this down to the question: does the guest feel that a hotel staffer really cares about them? Sadly, I'd say that this happens 10% of the time.

3. Checkin, Checkout Focused, Friendly, Fast In and Out

Check-in should be personalized, quick, genuinely friendly, and thorough. I like the trend of roving staffers checking guests in swiftly  via an iPad, as at Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace in Vegas.

A guest's first contact with the hotel is the valet, doorman, and bellman. These staffers must communicate welcome, in words, smiles, and body language. They should be happy to serve guests, and not angling for a tip…or, as in some boutique hotels, silently critiquing you, your clothes, your luggage, your car.

As far as bellboys, luggage should be delivered to your room within 10 minutes. Period.

A great reception desk and checkin team:

• Make a guest feel more important than the computer, with immediate and direct eye contact. The clerk's manner is personal, engaging, and efficient
• Offers not a vague "How are you?," but a hospitable greeting: "Welcome/Good evening/So nice to have you here/It's a pleasure"
• Is candid about room placement and noise issues (A converted smoking room? Fresh paint? A dog/kids/honeymooners next door?)
• Is discreet. The guest's name and (horrors!) room number should never be spoken
• If there is an issue, either during checkin or once the guest has seen the room, the front desk should be willing and eager to solve the problem, no questions asked

Checkout should be as convenient and easy as possible. There should be an express option, and/or the clerk should be happy to go over your bill with you, discreetly.

4. Discretion with Names: Good to Know, Bad to Broadcast

Knowing guests' names is a good thing, and makes the guest feel valued. But guests should be addressed by name appropriately and discreetly. Broadcasting names in a public space is an invasion of privacy. It can even be a security issue.

And when a front-desk clerk announces a guest's room number aloud, game over! That is a complete security breach and a cardinal sin of hospitality.

5.  Observe, Don't Presume
There's a delicate balance between pro-active and presumptive service. The guest should feel in command and not dictated to.

Hotel staff should never presume they know they a guest's taste. They should ask questions, give options, and let the guest decide.

6. Aesthetic Details: Refined, Generous Touches for Refined Guests

Today, one way for a hotel to appear distinctive is in its choice of room amenities and in-room features. These accents should be useful, tasteful, distinctive, and local whenever possible. Nothing second-rate or corner-cutting.

The hotel must furnish all the luxury travel essentials. These include necessities like ample drawer and closet space; a safe with an interior laptop charger; puffy hangers; free bottled water; robes and slippers that go beyond basic white terry; an iPod dock.

I look for refined goods and services that show true taste and respect. Little touches that go beyond the usual, and that are local. For instance, many luxury hotels shine your shoes overnight. At Hotel Halekulani in Waikiki, Honolulu, your shined shoes are returned to you in a bamboo box.

Everyone gives chocolates. I like them to be local treats -- great truffles, chosen not merely because they represent the destination. Beautiful flowers not just in the room, but on your room-service tray. A fruit bowl with ripe, edible fruit. The weather report, brought with a handsomely printed poem or goodnight fable. Fresh, not mass-produced, pet treats when you've checking in with your pet.

These are non-negotiable services: an appealing, free, 24-hour gym with brand-name equipment; if space permits, a pool with lifeguard; complimentary wifi (this is not the place to profiteer). I also look for a variety of dining options; a business center with meeting rooms and gratis printouts; a with-it concierge who knows more than you do; and an honestly pet-friendly policy.

Bath amenities are a particular obsession of many luxury travelers. They don't need to be vast in variety, but carefully chosen, with daily essentials like Q-tips, toothpaste, and razor as well as the bath stuff.

The best toiletries would be a locally made product line; also good is a true luxury brand like Bulgari, Penhaligon, Acqua di Parma, or Hermes. And not one-use sizes but take-home bottles verging on the 3.4-oz. carryon limit.

Luxury travelers notice when hotels cut corners with these cheap hotel trends >>


7.  Room Service: Where a Hotel Can Really Shine

There's so much variation here. Room service can be exquisite and personalized, or perfunctory and so-what. What makes the difference:

• A room-service menu that accurately describes every dish, no guesswork, no surprises
• Phone personnel trained to take your order accurately and answer any questions
• Timing: delivery when promised; and no more than 30 minutes tops for impulse order
• The server knocks and asks where to set up, and asks when to return to clear
• Lovely presentation makes the difference between 4-star and 5-star room service. I want fine tableware and china, and linens, and a hothouse flower in a silver vase
• When the service is cleared, the cart should be brought to a hidden service area, not left in the hall

8. Housekeeping: Pride Is In the Details

Housekeeping staff, being minimally skilled and paid, are the hotel personnel most resistant to training. But they can excel, and the best hotel maids take fierce pride in their craft. This is very detail-oriented work, and the difference is in the details.

The best housekeeping personnel are extremely observant and not assumptive. They cast a wide net for cleaning -- including places like under the bed.

They can rearrange things slightly, but should never move your possessions. And they should not take away anything unless it's in the garbage or recycling bin. They should not remove newspapers, half-empty water bottles, or shopping bags. It's infuriating when the maid takes your razor, shower cap, or unfinished candy bar.

Housekeeping must be aware of the hotel's eco-conscious programs and guests "don't launder" wishes. Sadly, this is almost never observed. Nor should housekeepers in rain-starved places like Santa Fe waste precious water filling unused bathtubs  in order to clean them.

Housekeeping should be silent. A hotel fails if housekeepers' chatter awakens a guest, or if maids can be heard socializing or playing a TV or radio in a room.

9. Knowing Their Terrain: Complete Mastery of the Hotel and Locale

A fine hotel's staffers do not wear blinkers. All personnel above the level of housekeeper should know what's what. They should be able to tell a guest where everything is situated in the hotel: services, dining, entertainment. They should know hours, charges, policies.

And staff should have a very good knowledge of the hotel's surroundings and how to get around. It's dispiriting for a guest to hear "I don't know" when asking a hotel employee about local transportation or attractions. The attitude of "it's not my job" has no place in a true luxury hotel.

10. Teamwork: Seamless service is like a symphony

At a great hotel, the staff is finely tuned, like an orchestra. They are conducted by a skilled, intuitive, and committed GM. Everyone knows their job, how to get it done, how to work with other staffers, and – most importantly – how to read each guest.

The bottom line: a hotel's goal is to create a memorable experience which guests will want to repeat – and tell their friends, colleagues, and online review outlets about.

You know great service when you find it; it feels brilliant and rare, but at the same time completely natural – the way things should be.

Find out more about Eric Weiss & what he does for hotels >>
And his rarely-met criteria for a true luxury hotel >>
And what Eric designates the worst hotel trends that we all notice & hate >>