Hotel Consultant: TURNING EVERY HOTEL INTO A SUCCESS

Mrs. Lyuba Misheva, Founder and Manager, and Mr. Kiril Panayotov, Managing Director, on why any hotel/restaurant and its clients can benefit from hotel consultant.

The word “I” doesn’t exist in good hotels with happy and satisfied customers: this is the first thing that Mrs. Lyuba Misheva shares with us at our meeting. She means that the professional hospitality manager should put themselves whole into the business. As a founder and manager of D and L Management LTD, a Bulgarian consultancy company for the hospitality industry, Mrs. Misheva knows well what she is talking about. She has an impressive experience in hotel management. Besides a Bachelor degree in the field from International College Albena (currently University of Management International College Dobrich) and a number of trainings in Strategic Planning, Customer Experience Management, Train the Trainer, Time Management and others, she has worked in all segments of the hotel industry and in high-end establishments in New York and Germany.

Since the beginning of 2019, Mr. Kiril Panayotov, joined the D and L Management team as a Managing Director. He has over 20 years of experience in Restaurant and Hotel Management and dozens of successful projects under his belt. The total amount of properties consulted both by Mrs. Misheva and Mr. Panayotov so far is around 40. D and L Management provides a wide range of services: from “mystery client” to implementation of operational standards, development of marketing strategy, budgeting and pre-opening consultancy for hotels and restaurants.

How can a hotel benefit from partnership with D and L Management?

LM: First and foremost, it’s the hotel’s clients who will benefit. The main mission and aim of each hotel owner and manager should be to meet the guests’ criteria, and to go beyond them. This is where we, as consultants, can help. We can show where and how hotel owners and managers can go beyond the clients’ expectations.

Secondly, but not in importance, happy guests lead to increased revenues.

And thirdly, the satisfied client and the increased revenues lead to faster return of investments, thus inspiring the staff to perform even better.

Does the size of the hotel matter?

KP: For us it doesn’t matter whether a hotel is big, small or a boutique one. The most important thing, the one that leads and inspires us, is that we approach each client individually. Our service is tailored to the needs and specificities of each hotel. The quality of our service and work stays the same. This is what makes us stand out.

Sometimes smaller hotels present a bigger challenge to us than bigger ones. It is quite logical, actually. Sometimes the small structure asks for more work and time than the bigger one as bigger structures are supposed to have already established rules and standards. These, however, are not always the best working rules and regulations.

What is the secret of the perfect hotel organization?

LM: The answer is in the question itself: the secret is in the right and good ORGANISATION of the whole team. To achieve this, several steps should be made:

1. Implementation of operative standards of work (know-how);

2. Regular staff trainings;

3. Correct and functioning organizational structure;

4. Staff motivation that doesn’t include financial stimuli only;

5. Communication with the staff and openness to feedback at any time.

 

It has been proven that the hotel’s guests are happy when the hotel’s staff is happy.

That is why my personal belief and motto is “Investing time and efforts in our people, helps us create our future and reputation.”

Source