Benefits of a Survival Guide for Your Hotel

By Nathan Gawlik
Nathan Gawlik's experience includes being a General Manager of a Hampton Inn and other front line roles such as a Banquet Captain, Front Desk Agent, Housekeeper, Catering Event Manager, and Director of Sales.

Benefits of a Survival Guide

By Nathan Gawlik

I'm a firm believer that all properties should compile a living document that I like to call a survival guide. You might call yours a Resource Guide, or Front Office Binder or The Property Owner's Manual, or any number of things. While this binder can be printed, I like to have an electronic document that I can quickly update and browse.

If you are just starting your hotel, campground or inn, consider what information you or your staff might need to access. I use this document to keep track of important standard operating procedures that may only come up every six months. I also keep checklists, permits, and other non-display items. Generally, everything goes in this document, folder, or binder - whichever you choose, so it can all be easily located in one place.

Below are some examples of what to include in your Survival Guide:

Welcome Letter to New Employees

New Employee Training Checklist
New Employee Training Schedule
Detail goals & priorities - i.e. able to answer the phone by the end of the week.

This also gives the new associates something to read or work on when you inevitably get interrupted. It also serves as a prompt for you as the trainer to ensure you don't miss anything during training.

Team Heart

List staff birthdays or favorite foods. We had a ‘Get to Know Your Team' section. New employees review this survival guide their first week and may learn that they share a favorite book, hobby, or candy bar with another staff member. This page helps to build camaraderie. At some of the properties I've worked, staff members have even taken it upon themselves to decorate a page about them and really make it their own. Giving your staff space to do this allows them to feel part of the team and that they belong.

Driving Directions

You will likely get a call asking for directions to your property. Provide a quick reference guide with driving instructions from all four directions. Include greater detail referencing landmarks for added clarity that the staff member can relay over the phone. I would also consider including shuttle rates from a specific area or average costs for a cab or an uber.

List of Phone Numbers

Include phone numbers for the staff and their emergency contacts. This has saved me more times than I can count.
Local area attractions.
Local food. Do you get asked for good pizza just about every day? Keep their number handy. We also kept their flyers or coupon cards in a file within the binder to easily hand out to guests.
Frequent or preferred vendors. Have a plumber you prefer to use, but you're out of town? Your staff can easily find their information in this guide.

Step by Step Guides

There is any number of ‘How To' guides you could provide for your specific property. Provide standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your staff so they know how you expect things to be done. Here are just a couple of examples:

Detail how inventory is completed
Detail how a check-in is completed
Detail how to clean up after breakfast
How to perform preventative maintenance
What to do if...

Specific Unit Instructions

On one occasion, we received a call at about 11 o'clock at night. The guest stated their lights didn't work in the bathroom. I asked if they had checked the breaker box. They indicated that they had. I drove out to the unit just to find that the GFCI outlet just needed to be reset. I pushed one button and headed home. A troubleshooting guide could have saved me a trip, given the guest could have easily performed this task.

At this same property, there are over 330 units. Some were handicap accessible and only 6 of these units were split level 2 bedroom condos. Others were pet-friendly and some had fireplaces or hot tubs. We had a spreadsheet in our Survival Guide that detailed specifics about a unit for quick reference right down to the number of parking spaces per unit. Some property management software will store these details, but they can be difficult to locate when trying to accommodate a guest standing in front of you.

Things to consider:

Include how to make local calls, dial long distance, and check the in-room voicemail, if offered.
Provide specific WiFi passwords if they differ for each unit.
Unit Troubleshooting Guide. Include common problems like:

Electrical problems
Fireplace problems
Hot Tub problems or other appliances like TV remote instructions.

Gate codes

Driving directions to your units.

*Take the time to drive out to your units at night to check porch lights and ensure the address is well lit and legible.

Provide Emergency Procedures

You definitely don't need staff fumbling around looking for what to do when there is an emergency. Consider common emergency situations and take note from OSHA.

At a minimum, detail the following:

Where the fire extinguishers and pull stations are located
Emergency and non-emergency phone numbers
Where the first aid kit and defibrillator is located
Lost and Found policy

Benefits & Special Offers

If you have a standing sweetheart deal that Police Officers eat free on Fridays, be sure to list that. It's certainly embarrassing when a new staff member gets corrected by a customer on their own policies.

Things to consider:

Employee benefits or discounts
Family or owner benefits or discounts
Special considerations
Organizational hierarchy with pictures

Waivers and Policies

Do you have guests sign a pet policy? Do you have the coach of a high school team sign a code of conduct? Do you have waivers for innertube rentals? Keep all these items here for quick review as master documents in the same place.

Pet Policy
Team Policy
Rental Liability Waivers
Parking Policy with the speed limit
Smoking Policy

Hours of Operation

Do you have different operating hours for the pool, breakfast, or fitness center? Provide those for quick reference.

Pool and Fitness Center hours
Dining Hours
Group activity hours

When to Call a Manager

Give your staff the resources to feel confident in their decisions. Provide some examples on when it might be appropriate to call a manager and when you shouldn't be bothered. These are completely subjective and specific to your individual preferences.

This is a great place to provide examples of heightened stress that might warrant assistance from a supervisor. Every new staff member needs to know what a bad day looks like and how to handle it, right off the bat. Providing these examples helps to define the staff member's scope of responsibility. In this way, they know where their job ends and yours begins.

Other Property Specific Information

Detail where the designated smoking areas are located on the property. Do your property doors automatically lock at a certain time of night? Is the pool drained for cleaning on a weekly basis? What are the dimensions of your ADA room doors and tubs? Guests requiring these services will call and ask for this information, and it would be a shame to have to reference the original blue prints each time. I tend to keep this information with the property map or room layout illustration.

Summary

Remember I use this document to cut down on the time it takes to train a new person. I used to have them read part of a chapter, then perform that task with help. Then reiterate to the trainee if they need to reference the task again, they know where to find it. I can't tell you how much time this saved me personally in training them. Fewer questions were directed to me specifically and the employee already knows the desired outcome before the task is started.

Establish early on with new employees that they don't need to be dependent on you. I've worked with staff that have been in their role for over two years - yet still need help with menial tasks and often forget rare tasks that have multiple steps. This Survival Guide is a tool to free up your time to do other things.

Even down the road, I would direct employees to the Survival Guide. Every time I was asked a question, I would respond with, "Is it in the survival guide?" If it wasn't, I would be sure to include it.

Of course, these are merely suggestions. Not everything listed here will be necessary for your property and there are likely other resources I've missed that you would want to include. This article was meant to help you think about all the information you have about your property. How can you share this information with your partners or your staff most efficiently?

Ultimately, this guide is meant to make you or your staff's lives easier. If you are getting a lot of the same questions or late-night calls, include the answer to these in your Survival Guide. Over time, investing in documenting these answers will pay dividends down the road.

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