Kimberly Appels: The guest is king. But who takes care of the people wearing the crown?

I have been working in hospitality for a long time. But I still notice that sometimes people don't really know what that means. As if a hotel is an obvious place where everything just happens. Whereas the hotel is actually one of the few places where everything comes together at the same time: numbers, emotions, logistics, creativity, complaints, children, weddings, night flights and tired but proud teams. It is a business that never closes and where people make the difference. 

In the hotel industry, we grew up with one mantra: the guest is king. And that is true. Of course. We do this business because we want to give people a good time. But somewhere along the way, we approached it in such a way that the guest always takes precedence over everything and everyone. Also over our own people and the way we want to work with each other. 

I see it every day. Young employees who are perfectly willing to work in a hotel, but not if it means they can never take their children to school. Or no longer have weekends. Or feel they are expendable. At the same time, I see managers who still steer the way they themselves were once trained: hierarchical, rigid, results-driven. Understandable, but the world has changed.

A hotel is a 24-hour business. It always will be. But being open 24 hours does not mean you have to stretch people 24 hours.

In my previous role as operations manager at Novotel Rotterdam Brainpark and now as general manager of ibis Rotterdam City Centre, I try to do things differently. Steering less by control, more by trust. Thinking less in job titles, more in people. I consciously plan space in my diary to be there for the team. To hear what's going on. Sometimes this is about work. Sometimes about quitting smoking. Sometimes about money worries. If someone gets stuck at home, you see it reflected in the workplace. Vice versa just the same.

We often talk about guest experience. But employee experience ultimately determines how that guest feels. That's not a soft HR term, that's just business administration.

This does not mean that everything is non-committal. On the contrary. Working in a hotel requires commitment, flexibility and sometimes sacrifice. But these must be mutual. As a manager, you have to put your feet in the clay yourself. Not just deciding, but participating. Not just talking about entrepreneurship, but showing it. I see a hotel as a place where everyone is allowed to have a little ownership. Idea? Try it. Made a mistake? Learn from it. Success? We celebrate together.

What I hope for the coming years? That we stop pretending that the hotel is only about the guest. It's about people. About teams. About trust. About leaders not taking themselves too seriously, but their profession.

The future of the hotel industry is not in even tighter procedures or even smarter dashboards. It lies in leaders who dare to let go, listen and invest in their own people. Because at the end of the day: a guest faultlessly senses whether a team enjoys working.

And that is exactly what hospitality should be.