Service quality is determined not by rules, but by the employee's own decision
In an opinion piece published on Hospitality Net, a hotel check-in example demonstrates that it is not procedures but the employee's on-the-spot decision that determines the outcome of the service.
Hospitality Net published an opinion piece on 14 October, and its main point is this: the quality of service is determined not by written rules but by the decision an employee makes in a specific situation. The author illustrates this with an incident that occurred during check-in at a hotel — when the rules are followed literally, a gap opens up between the guest's expectation and the outcome.
The piece emphasizes that no policy document can write such decisions out in advance. The problem lies in training and empowerment: if an employee does not know when they may deviate from the rule and to what extent that is acceptable, even the best intentions turn into a negative experience for the guest.
This raises a practical question for hotel and restaurant managers: in which cases has the team been granted the authority to make their own decisions, and are the boundaries of that authority clear to the employee? Both unlimited freedom and tying every step to a rule lead to the same result — the guest feels left alone in an unexpected situation.