The "Caribbean Hug" Surprised Me, Then Made Me Want To Amplify Authentically Local Hospitality - Nikheel Advani, Grace Bay Resorts

Josiah: One question I've been thinking a lot about recently is how do you leverage the strengths of local culture while also using best practices on providing remarkable hospitality from around the world from the best hospitality organizations. I've really been impressed by a number of guests who have been on the show who have leaned into the power of place for their business and all the unique special aspects of it, including how the culture of the people that work there is authentically local to that place. But of course, there's always room to level up in the way that we provide hospitality, which is why I'm excited for you to learn from our guest today, Nikheel Advani, co-founder, chief operating officer, and principal at Grace Bay Resorts in Turks and Caicos. On Monday, Nikheel joined us to talk about the power of mentorship, and then yesterday, he shared a glimpse into their uniquely local guest experience, how they begin the wellness journey with their guests with a beach walk. Sounds great, right? Well, today Nikheel joins us again to connect these two themes, teaching, training, and mentoring, along with amplifying the beauty of local hospitality in Turks and Caicos. Regardless of where you are in the world, there is so much for you and me to learn in what he shares here, because you're going to hear a deep care for people in the community, and then some remarkable ways this shows up in empowering them. Let's get into it. 

Nikheel: I think the first thing is when I got to the island, really observing the culture and finding out how it works. And, you know, the early stages, we had a lady who was incredible. Her name was Beverly. And I came from more of a corporate hotel background with Ritz-Carlton, the Raffles Hotel. And I see Beverly hugging this guest. And, you know, in a corporate hotel in Ritz-Carlton or Raffles, you should, you would not be hugging a guest. And when I looked at her, I was like, oh my God, this is It's so foreign to me, but let me see and the guest is so happy and you know the guest had gone through a really hard time and that hug was so valuable and I didn't get it until a few days later when she looked at me and I might have been going through a harder time or trying to figure something out and she came and gave me that hug. And I got to tell you, a Caribbean hug changes your life. It makes everything better. And so I realized, wow, if we let them be themselves, their strengths will supersede their weaknesses. You know, in every culture, there are different strengths and different weaknesses. And in the Caribbean, Their ability to emotionally attach to you is so powerful. And everybody has to have a chance in life to experience that. There's a slogan, everybody needs a little bit of Caribbean in their life. And what is it? Is it a great hug or just an interaction? They will emotionally bond with you in a way that it just creates loyalty and a warm feeling in your heart. And so, yeah, I learned a lot during that journey. Being part of that community, you attend funerals and weddings, and you really find ways. We go to the schools and see what we can do there. And we also involve our guests who come to be part of that because they want to make this place better. They've got a vested interest. We have a lot of owners of different real estate properties that we own. So getting them involved allows them to feel more connected to the island and allows the island to feel more connected to them.

Josiah: Amazing. Now, I feel like you describing that leads me to my next question that I'd love to get your perspective on. And that is the founding of Grace Bay Club Hotel School. What led to you starting the school? And then how did you think about kind of framing it up? Because it feels like a really interesting environment.

Nikheel: So one thing I'll say about our business, it's always a team. There's incredible teamwork. There's no one person that's able to do this all by themselves. And again, I had a leadership committee of the local community when I first got to the island, and they advised me on things that I was doing right and things that I was not doing right, or were perceived like, hey, they're curious about why you move so fast. You know, and I have to say this is how I move. So I have to slow things down a little bit, you know because I wanted to get the best of us, right? So, the hotel school idea was when I shared a lot of what I was learning. They're like, wow, where do you learn this? How did you know this? And I said, well, In hotel school, I learned this, and then while at Risk Heartland, I was able to use that. And what we realized is a lot of the team members we had didn't have any formal hotel education. And if they had had education, it might have been in medicine or something different because the island, you know, hospitality was pretty new when I got there. And we hadn't perfected it yet. So their advice led me to think, wow, we've got to create a training center or an academy. And it was called the Hotel School because that's really what we were doing. At times, we sent people to different hotels. I remember at the time we sent somebody to the one and only in Mauritius and one in Maldives. Because you know what? You've got to go out and see these things. We were lucky in our growth that we moved around. I worked in Asia. I worked in the U.S. and New York and Washington, D.C., and I got to see so many different cultures. And so I wanted them to go see those things.

Josiah: I got to jump in there. You're sending people to these like halfway around the world. Who gets to do this? This is amazing.

Nikheel: And you can see when they came back, they had all this new energy and they've seen this and they wanted to implement that. And we did that because the power of exposure is crazy good in our business. We get that. Many of us in these global brands have the exposure. And if you don't, then you've got to create those environments.

Josiah: Amazing. I was just talking to someone earlier today in upstate New York, and they were talking about this interesting dynamic of where they're recruiting from. People aren't necessarily used to, let's say, an elevated, very refined level of hospitality. What you just shared, maybe some of the people you hire haven't experienced this yet themselves, How do you think about, I don't know what the word is, but kind of acclimatizing them into this environment where they're ready and able to provide hospitality at the caliber and the style that you want to provide your guests with?

Nikheel: So I think it starts with an incredible HR director and the general managers, because they come with all this knowledge. It also having mentor systems within the organization and good training programs. If you have that, that'll open up their exposure to these new worlds. And also, I think one of the things we do sometimes is we tend to script our staff quite a bit, in the old days at least. And we're seeing service becoming more intuitive, and I want to say a little bit more casual, but definitely more intuitive. And the connection, the human connection, is almost more valuable than me saying, most certainly, or whatever that phrase that hoteliers use. And if it's intuitive and they can connect emotionally, I'm starting to see that more valuable. And in the Caribbean, people definitely have that skill set. And I don't know whether you can teach that skill set, but I'm sure it's like inviting somebody to your house. it's really that's what it is it's just a bigger house and you're inviting a lot more people but it's really starting from a warm welcome you know you invite your friends into your house everybody has friends that they emotionally connect with so it's not a cultural thing in any culture people connect with their friends really well So we're just trying to paint a scenario where there's a warm welcome, and then when you're in your home, you know what they like to drink, so you anticipate guest needs while they're there. People love that. I love Coke Zero. So if I check into a hotel room and there's Coke Zero, I think I'm like dining on to heaven. I love that. You can put a great bottle of wine in and I might love that too, but Coke Zero is like my feel. I love it. So, it's obviously somebody who cared, somebody who thought about it, and then you give them a foreign farewell before they leave, you know? Give them a hug and say, hey, I hope to see you soon. from a warm welcome to expressing guest needs while they're with you, to a fond farewell. That is what you do at your home. So yes, you might not have formal education, but everybody has great buddies and friends, and everybody in a shape or form, doesn't matter where they come from, does that with their great friends. And I think that's the kind of energy and the theme that we want to share. And that's what we did in the early days as well.

Josiah: I'd love if you could elaborate on that a little bit more, because I am fascinated by the way that place shapes the hospitality that the hospitality providers provide. And what I'm hearing from you is a warmth, you know, everything you mentioned of sort of this sense of inviting someone into your home. that's very rooted in Turks and Caicos sort of way of living. I guess, how do you think about not balancing that, but that through a lens of some luxury expectations? I imagine people have when they are staying at one of your Grace Bay properties, what does that balance look like? Or how do you think about that?

Nikheel: So I think it's also teaching them a little bit of psychology, right? Not everybody wants that connection right away. Some people need a bit of space till they've really arrived. So I think the other part of it is training them to read your guest, to understand what they want. Some people want interaction right away. They'll start talking to you and they'll never stop, right? And you've got to learn how to break away in a very tactful manner. because you've got stuff to do. You know, you can't ignore everybody else. And some guests will sit with you and talk for hours. So it's really understanding human behavior and studying and understanding what they want and what they don't and at different times. So I think that part of the psychology of amazing guest interaction for luxury hotels is really valuable. And that's definitely, some people have that naturally, and it's definitely something that can be trained. And our team and human resources definitely provide that. But also, a lot of our leaders, the hotel industry is very hands-on. You fold up your sleeve, whether you're a general manager or an executive director for housekeeping, or a director of food and beverage. You're generally with your people setting the example. So there are two ways of doing it. You can be educated in a classroom to learn some of this stuff, but you also learn through the day-to-day on-the-job training.