Never Cut Corners - Richard Garcia, Remington Hospitality

Today is July 4th Independence Day in the US and to celebrate, I'm re-running one of the first episodes we ran on this podcast. It's with Richard Garcia, a veteran of the US Marine Corps, star chef, and the senior vice president of beverage and food at Remington Hospitality. He talks about coming out of the pandemic, but the message here is timeless: Never cut corners on providing a great guest experience.

The reality is we've got - and I do believe this - we got one shot period, and if someone comes into my hotel, orders room service and something is wrong, they're not doing it again. So for me, it's really about ensuring that every program we've created in the past 10 months ensures an experience the first time around. Right, I mean, that's got to be key, that positive experience right now, with short staff, you know which supply chain issues, etc. Etc. Just creates more of a challenge. But I can tell you that most of our competitors are still using that as an excuse. Well, sorry, we can't do that, we don't have the staff. That's something Remington is not doing and we won't do. If we don't have the staff, we'll, you know, streamline our menus to ensure that what staff we do have will be able to execute properly. I would much rather streamline menus, but not necessarily take away from the guest experience than provide a negative experience. At the end of the day, experience matters, right, bottom line, it just does, and more and more, I think, today, maybe then pre-pandemic, and I think what I mean by that is not that pre-pandemic guest satisfaction, you know, not really matter, but the reality was, I think we were all very comfortable, right, the industry was moving. It was a well-oiled machine. I think what the pandemic did for us was really kind of solidify that. Frankly, experience does matter, you know, more than they've ever paid to stay in hotels. And the guest is now paying. And today, you know, I think unfortunately we can't just rely on great food and a great chef anymore, right, it's such a major piece of the puzzle when someone goes to stay in a hotel And I think that that's regardless of whether it's the Ritz-Carlton in Lake Tahoe or whether that's a residence in, you know, at the Phoenix airport the reality is that there is an expectation from that guest, regardless of who they are. So I think for me, you know, providing a personalized experience and I know that that might sound a little bigger than you know, a little heart or sounds easier said than done But I can tell you that the reality is, if you just focus on being best in class within that class, we can create an experience for that guest that the Residence Inn at the Phoenix airport. But at the same time, we can create that experience at a different level at our luxury resorts, right? So I thought. But that experience is going to turn into a guest that wants to come back. Number one. That to me, is just extremely important. You know, kind of get back to your question. The reality is, if I can really control that experience, about their experience, and what that does is that creates free marketing for me as well, and that guest is also going to tell their friends, their family, and, frankly, the world. With social media today, the importance of ensuring that food and beverage are not taken for granted anymore is really what's helping us generate what we're seeing.