The marketing industry has its rule of 4 P’s: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Placement. Following these rules help keep a product successful in the market place. Likewise, guest service has its 4 P’s of hospitality rule. It’s important to any job in the hospitality career field to be Polite, Personable, Presentable and Professional. They are vital to keeping hotel guests happy, likewise they are a vital part of any job for a hotel or hospitality employee.

Be Polite

Being polite not only makes your guests’ stay more enjoyable, it makes your job easier and more rewarding. A friendly smile and a warm greeting is often all it takes to melt away the complaints of an unhappy guest. Likewise, if the incomes derived from your job come by way of gratuities or commissions, as is the case with many hotel and hospitality jobs, making your guests feel welcome and liked will set them at ease and put them in a better mood. Guests are more likely to splurge on a finer bottle of wine, larger gratuities, or bigger timeshare packages when they are enjoying themselves and the service they’re being offered.

Being polite on the job is more than just offering a rehearsed smile and being agreeable. It means being an attentive listener, remembering a guest’s name and information and being appreciative of their time. If the guest has a complaint, it’s important to not only apologize for the inconvenience but also thank them for their patience.

No matter the circumstances, whether you’re dealing with an upset guest or a happy one, being courteous and polite is a requisite of the job. As a hospitality professional, begin and end every guest interaction with this in mind.

Be Personable

Most large hotel and hospitality companies put new hires through job orientation. The Walt Disney Company is renowned for their commitment to guest service. This begins with their employee orientation which runs an entire day. One of the first things Disney teaches its new employees during orientation is to seek out guest interaction. This concept is repeated throughout the entire day and continues on through an employee’s entire Disney career.

As Disney knows, friendly, extroverted service is essential to any hospitality job and essential to making your guests feel welcome at your hotel.

A great example of being personable is offering the guest your name and letting them know if they have any further questions they can ask for you personally. It’s a convenience for the guest and has the added benefit of helping build your professional reputation around the workplace. It makes a great impression on your coworkers and hotel management when they hear guests asking for you by name when requesting service or mentioning your name when offering positive feedback on their stay at your hotel. Things like this will be noted when you’re looking for a job promotion to further your hospitality career.

Likewise, if your guest offers their name make sure you use it. No matter what language they speak, the thing we all love hearing most is a friendly voice saying our name. It makes us feel welcome and important.

As a hospitality professional, it’s important to your job to build repoire with your guests and gather any information applicable to their stay. Where your guest is from, how long they will be staying and even the nature of their visit are all great things to learn. This will help you to anticipate their needs and offer them better service. Learning these things will help in referring them to restaurants and services or attractions that are appropriate to the nature of their visit or might offer experiences they don’t have access to in their hometown.

At the end of the day, everyone wants to feel liked. As your guest is leaving your restaurant, spa or concierge desk, it’s important they feel like they’ve just made a new friend.

Be Presentable

Being presentable is perhaps more important in the hospitality career field than any other. Careers in fields outside of hospitality often have you miles away and several departments removed from your customers. Not so in hotel and hospitality jobs. Every job at the hotel, whether restaurant server, housekeeper, front desk or engineering, will have you crossing paths and interacting face to face with guests on a daily basis.

Your appearance is the first thing a guest is going to notice about you. Your guests are going to see how well you’re groomed long before you have the opportunity to impress them with your knowledge of your restaurant menu or your impeccable directions around town.

A freshly pressed uniform, conservative makeup and jewelry, a straightened tie, and a polished name tag are going to make a great first impression. It’s the first indicator to a guest that you are a competent and attentive employee of your hotel and that you take your job, hospitality, and likewise their service seriously.

Be Professional

This one goes hand in hand with being personable. While it’s great to have a friendly chat with a guest, remember you are on the job, acting as an employee of your hotel. Sometimes we have to choose our words and delivery more deliberately than when we’re sharing drinks with our coworkers at the end of a shift.

Also, remember no matter how far removed you are from any financial transactions the guest makes while staying at your hotel, you are still there to help the hotel generate revenue. When interacting with a guest, gravitate the conversation to additional services offered at your hotel or invitations for a return visit. If the guest asks for a good restaurant in town, make sure to include the restaurants you have on property in your list of options.

There are many different hospitality careers available to job seekers, but being Polite, Personable, Presentable and Professional are a requirement of all those jobs. As a hospitality job seeker, being able to convey these attributes will help you land your next service industry job. Likewise, as a currently employed hospitality professional, exercising and cultivating these attributes will help you provide guests better service, earn better commissions and gratuities, and take your hotel job or hospitality career to the next level.