Viewpoint: What is hospitality? – Carol A. King
Introduction:
One reason for failure of hospitality in hospitals was a narrow focus on training front line
employees to be courteous to patients, or improving their interpersonal communications and
complaint handling skills. Such programs were ineffective because they were merely imposed
on top of the organisation, rather than being an integral part of its mission and culture.
Non-hospitality organizations that call their customers ‘guests’ are using hospitality as a
metaphor or shorthand to describe for their employees a type of relationship with those
customers.
The use of a hospitality metaphor was intended to tell employees that they should treat
patients as if they were guests.
A hospitality metaphor can be useful for many services in which employees interact directly
with customers.
Review of literature:
Modern views of hospitality
Four characteristic of hospitality in its modern sense:
- It is conferred by a host on a guest who is away from home.
- It is interactive, involving the coming together of a provider and receiver.
- It is comprised of a blend of tangible and intangible factors.
- The host provides for the guest’s security, psychological and physiological comfort.
Reuland, Choudry and Fagel (1985) viewed hospitality in restaurants and hotels as a process
involving provider/employee and receiver/guest. This process involves the transfer of three
elements:
- Product (Meal or Bed)
- Behavior of employees
- Environment of restaurant or hotel.
Receivers of hospitality bring physiological, social and psychological needs and expectations
to the transaction.
The three steps of service include a warm and sincere greeting, anticipation and compliance
with guests’ wishes and a fond farewell.
Social meaning of hospitality
Many societies developed an ethic of hospitality to allow a degree of safety for travellers
without which there could be no travel or trade.
In some societies, the host’s obligation was expanded to include not just the assurance of
safety, but also the provision of comfort, ease and welcome.
White (1970) observed that the harder the physical conditions, the greater the obligation of
hospitality.
Introduction:
One reason for failure of hospitality in hospitals was a narrow focus on training front line
employees to be courteous to patients, or improving their interpersonal communications and
complaint handling skills. Such programs were ineffective because they were merely imposed
on top of the organisation, rather than being an integral part of its mission and culture.
Non-hospitality organizations that call their customers ‘guests’ are using hospitality as a
metaphor or shorthand to describe for their employees a type of relationship with those
customers.
The use of a hospitality metaphor was intended to tell employees that they should treat
patients as if they were guests.
A hospitality metaphor can be useful for many services in which employees interact directly
with customers.
Review of literature:
Modern views of hospitality
Four characteristic of hospitality in its modern sense:
- It is conferred by a host on a guest who is away from home.
- It is interactive, involving the coming together of a provider and receiver.
- It is comprised of a blend of tangible and intangible factors.
- The host provides for the guest’s security, psychological and physiological comfort.
Reuland, Choudry and Fagel (1985) viewed hospitality in restaurants and hotels as a process
involving provider/employee and receiver/guest. This process involves the transfer of three
elements:
- Product (Meal or Bed)
- Behavior of employees
- Environment of restaurant or hotel.
Receivers of hospitality bring physiological, social and psychological needs and expectations
to the transaction.
The three steps of service include a warm and sincere greeting, anticipation and compliance
with guests’ wishes and a fond farewell.
Social meaning of hospitality
Many societies developed an ethic of hospitality to allow a degree of safety for travellers
without which there could be no travel or trade.
In some societies, the host’s obligation was expanded to include not just the assurance of
safety, but also the provision of comfort, ease and welcome.
White (1970) observed that the harder the physical conditions, the greater the obligation of
hospitality.
