The hospitality workforce plays an important role in many areas of our society. But why is hospitality important? Well, hospitality is a necessary component of any customer-facing business. Furthermore, being able to fully leverage the powerful influence of hospitality is critical to the success of these ventures.
Within this article, we will explain hospitality’s importance by taking a look at the hospitality industry, and each of its various sectors. Furthermore, read on to learn more about the hospitality industry’s role in the economy, and how businesses can harness this powerful aspect, to optimize their organizations to their fullest potential!
What Exactly is Hospitality?
In order to recognize what makes hospitality important, we must first realize that it exists within many different aspects of business and life. Hospitality refers to a set of behaviors that are designed to make a guest or visitor feel comfortable and welcome in an environment. Some reports suggest that the practice of hospitality originated in 15,000 B.C., when people took shelter in the Lascaux cave in France, which accommodated people of different tribes. However, different examples of hospitality can be seen throughout history and today.
Hospitality examples can include any acts of generosity towards an establishment’s guests, including providing them with refreshments, entertainment, and a comfortable place to stay during their visit. Of course, the hospitality that an establishment shows toward its patrons can depend on the type of business and the services that it offers.
As a concept, hospitality can be applied to various settings, as it can include generous behaviors meant to make guests feel comfortable in a home or a business. The wide application of the acts surrounding hospitality lends to hospitality’s importance across our society. That said, people often use the term “hospitality” to describe the hospitality industry, as an essential part of the economy.
Hospitality Industry Sectors
As an industry, hospitality covers a wide variety of sectors and business types. Different forms of hospitality can be seen in these dispersed types of businesses, as each of them provide welcoming services to their visitors. The hospitality industry employs various kinds of workers to support their businesses, through full-time, part time, temporary, or seasonal positions.
Below, take a look at some of the various types of businesses that commonly practice hospitality for their patrons.
Food and Beverage
The food and beverage industry includes a range of businesses that all deal with the preparation, packaging, transportation, or serving of food and drinks. This can include restaurants, diners, fast food chains, cafeterias, bars, pubs, delis, catering businesses, food manufacturing operations, and more.
Businesses within the food and beverage sector practice hospitality in order to provide top-quality customer service to their consumers. Customer service is vital for these organizations, as consumers expect to be greeted and sought after, especially when visiting dining establishments.
Therefore, food and beverage industry businesses gain value by sourcing qualified and hard-working employees to appropriately serve their customers. This can be done by seeking talent from reputable sources like Adia’s on-demand staffing solution. Adia’s platform provides businesses with an easier approach to hospitality staffing, as it matches employers with skilled restaurant workers looking for employment.
Accommodation
The accommodation sector also seeks to provide value and respect to their consumers by offering hospitality services. This sector includes any and all establishments that provide lodging or accommodations for people seeking short-term overnight stays in shelters. Examples of accommodation sector businesses may include hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, or Airbnbs.
These businesses all deliver customer service for their guests by providing them with a welcoming atmosphere and a comfortable place to stay. That’s why many of these organizations seek out high-quality staff through staffing solutions like Adia, which provides hotel staffing, making it easy to find the best workers for the job.
Travel and Tourism
The travel and tourism sector provides services for individuals or groups venturing to new places, and is another industry that demonstrates why hospitality is significant. Businesses within this sector can include transportation businesses, tourism attractions, travel companies, and even some accommodation services.
As a large and wide-spanning industry, the travel and tourism market depends on many different types of staff members to provide services for their customers. Whether they be guides that entertain visitors with tours of popular destinations, or helpful flight attendants that cater to travelers in the skies, these workers all fill necessary hospitality roles to ensure that customers feel supported and comfortable.
Entertainment and Recreation
The entertainment and recreation sector also practices hospitality service to amuse and involve customers. Entertainment and recreation businesses include establishments that offer experiences for their patrons, usually related to leisure, creativity and culture. This can include everything from history museums to spectator sports, and amusement parks to musical performances.
This sector is diverse, and therefore employs many different types of hospitality workers. For example, an entertainment and recreation sector worker could be a ski slope instructor, a zoo janitor, or even a man dressed up like a beloved cartoon character and offering pictures to passersby in Time Square. Event staffing is another prevalent situation where entertainment and recreation sector workers may be sought after to support shorter-term work.
No matter the role, all of these types of individuals must possess customer service skills in order to provide friendly amenities and attract new customers to their business. Therefore, staffing agencies are often utilized to help businesses find workers that can help them attract and retain customers with friendly customer service and hospitality. For instance, a Los Angeles temp agency can be a great resource for entertainment and recreation businesses seeking hospitality staff members in the southern California area.
The Role of the Hospitality Industry in the Economy
So why is hospitality necessary for establishments to thrive in the business world? As you can probably tell by now, the hospitality industry is an important cornerstone of the economy. This can be seen in recent years especially, as unfortunately, the COVID 19 pandemic caused the hospitality sector to suffer. As a result of the pandemic’s negative impact on the hospitality sector, the U.S. economy suffered greatly.
The pandemic caused people to spend less time and money frequenting hospitality businesses, and some health and safety restrictions placed on these businesses also deterred customers. According to reports by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, US hotels lost in excess of $46 billion, and 4.8 million hospitality and leisure jobs have been lost since February 2020.
The United States hospitality sectors are still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These businesses are indispensable, as they employ many U.S. citizens and bring in valuable income for the country’s economy.
Why Hospitality Matters
So why is guest experience important? Hospitality is an important element of any successful business, and customers often choose to seek out services from businesses who provide great guest experiences.
Customer service and guest experiences go hand-in-hand with hospitality both as an industry, and a practice. Don’t believe me? Well, according to reports by Zendesk, 81 percent of consumers indicated that a positive customer service experience increases the chances of them making another purchase. Showing generous acts of hospitality and excellent customer service is a vital part of a successful business.
Still confused on why hospitality is important? Read on to learn more about the many ways providing a positive guest experience through acts of hospitality can boost the popularity of customer-facing organizations.
It Boosts Positive Reviews and Word Of Mouth Marketing
Hospitality is important as it can greatly influence a businesses likelihood of attracting customers. One of the ways that this can occur is through positive reviews and word of mouth marketing.
When a customer has a positive experience with a business and feels respect and value through their services, they often spread the word of their encounters through positive reviews and recommendations to other customers. Online review sites contain many reports of customer experiences and ratings, which can be easily accessed by potential customers. Organizations that prioritize hospitality provide better customer service, which can lead to favorable and attractive reports on review sites.
Customers may also provide reviews of their experience through word of mouth. If you have ever heard an obscure rumor then you know that vocal reports can travel far and wide. Therefore, providing great experiences and top-of-the-line hospitality can also be influential to a businesses likelihood of bringing in new customers.
By prioritizing hospitality within your business structure, you can see reviews and social proof as an essential element of your marketing strategy. This can help your organization to gain new customers as it builds a positive reputation. Gaining a glowing reputation through reviews and word of mouth can in turn do wonders in terms of reaching and attracting new customers.
It Creates a Loyal Customer Base
Practicing good hospitality throughout your services can lead to more repeat customers, who appreciate the customer-service aspect of your organization. As a result, repeat customers can lead to your business developing a loyal customer base. Customer retention and return customers are extremely beneficial for businesses, as they can provide your organization with consistent patronage and income.
It Makes You Stand Out From Competition
Hospitality and customer service can help businesses gain a unique advantage to their competition. Organizations within the hospitality industry especially have to face fierce competition, as there are often other businesses offering similar if not identical services.
Therefore, customer satisfaction is a highly coveted factor, as customers value friendliness and helpfulness from the businesses that they choose to utilize. Therefore, providing hospitality throughout each element of your business could help you stand out from the competitors.
It Helps Your Business Grow
All business owners desire the ability to expand their consumer base and increase their revenue. However, hospitality is a critical element to fueling business growth. Hospitality can affect this aspect of running a business, as customer reviews, word of mouth marketing, customer loyalty, and competitiveness can all lead to reports of higher traffic and more trade opportunities for an organization.
If you don’t want to take my word for it, plenty of reports can be found online that exemplify why hospitality is important for business growth. There is even data that suggests that people are happy to spend more money if they are guaranteed better service. For instance, survey reports by Forbes reflected that 59% of customers would be willing to pay more for better customer service.
Ensure the Highest Levels of Hospitality With Adia
Hospitality is an important element for businesses, regardless of their sector. Maintaining value in hospitality and customer service can provide an organization with more opportunity to attract new clients, maintain loyal customers, stand apart from the competition, and grow in revenue.
Of course, in order to provide best-in-class hospitality, a business must be represented by qualified and capable hospitality staff members. To source talented hospitality staff, many organizations across the country trust Adia. Adia’s on-demand staffing service helps business leaders to ensure the best hospitality levels regardless of their industry. For more information on sourcing top-quality hospitality staff members for your business, feel free to reach out to our team!
