By Raoul Fisher · Guest Experience & Hospitality Specialist
For more than fifteen years I have stood, watched, listened and learned in some of the finest hotel lobbies in London and beyond. I have walked the marble floors of heritage landmarks, overseen arrivals at country estates and stood at reception desks where heads of state, royalty, families and weary travellers all pass beneath the same chandeliers. And in all that time, I have never once believed that a great welcome is created by expensive stone, gilded mirrors or grand staircases. Those things catch the eye, certainly. But what stays with a guest — what they speak of at dinner parties, what brings them back year after year — is how they felt in the first sixty seconds, and how they were treated throughout their time under that roof.
Over my career, three values have become my compass. They are simple, they cost nothing, and yet they are the hardest standards to maintain consistently. They align exactly with the most rigorous service benchmarks in our industry: Forbes Travel Guide 5‑Star criteria, the Leading Hotels of the World Service Excellence Framework, and the professional standards set by the Institute of Hospitality. They are also the principles I shared recently in my Tuesday Huddle Musings, and they are the subject of this piece.
1. Welcome the person, not just the process
If there is one behaviour I have corrected more than any other in training, it is the moment a member of staff looks straight past the human being in front of them and sees only a checklist: passport, card, signature, room number, key. It is efficient, perhaps — but it is not hospitality. To me, true welcome begins when we pause the procedure long enough to acknowledge the individual. It is eye contact before a question. It is a tone of voice that says I am pleased you are here, rather than I need to process you.
This is not merely my opinion. Forbes Travel Guide makes this explicit in its 5‑Star arrival standards: staff must greet guests warmly, sincerely and promptly, using names wherever possible and demonstrating genuine attentiveness rather than scripted routine. The Institute of Hospitality similarly identifies ‘recognition of the individual’ as a foundational professional competence, arguing that personalisation is what distinguishes mere service from authentic hospitality. Leading Hotels of the World frames it as intuitive engagement — the ability to read mood, pace and need before a word is spoken.
You see this mastered at Claridge’s, where the arrival experience is legendary. The doormen and lobby hosts are trained not simply to open doors and handle luggage, but to read the guest: are they fatigued after a long flight? Excited for a celebration? Anxious about a meeting? Their posture, their eye contact, the measured warmth of their greeting changes accordingly, yet the process of registration remains precise and secure. At The Ritz London, the same ethos is codified within the property’s own service standards, descended from the principles of César Ritz himself: the guest is the most important person in the building, and they are never an interruption to work — they are the purpose of it. At The Royal Horseguards, where I led front office operations, we embedded this into our R.O.Y.A.L. framework: Recognise, Open, Yield, Acknowledge, Learn. Every team member was taught that the system exists to serve the guest, never the other way around.
In training terms, this is central to The Ritz‑Carlton Gold Standards, the twelfth of which states: We are proud of our professional appearance, language and behaviour. More importantly, the very first of their service values is I build strong relationships and create Ritz‑Carlton guests for life — something that cannot happen if you only interact with a reservation number. Four Seasons takes a comparable view in its Service Culture Programme, teaching that procedural excellence is the price of entry; emotional connection is the prize. Training is not about memorising lines; it is about learning to be present.
2. Kindness between colleagues sets the tone for every guest
This is the value least often written into manuals, yet the one I consider non‑negotiable. Guests are extraordinarily perceptive. They may not be able to explain exactly what they have picked up on, but they know instantly when a team is fractious, cold, dismissive or rushed with one another. Equally, they relax immediately when they see courtesy, good humour and mutual respect between staff. Put simply: the atmosphere in the lobby is a direct reflection of the atmosphere within the team. We cannot ask our people to be warm, patient and generous with visitors if they do not experience those things from their managers and peers.
Leading Hotels of the World explicitly includes internal culture within its excellence framework, noting that engaged, valued employees deliver measurably better guest outcomes. Forbes Travel Guide evaluators are trained to observe team dynamics as much as guest interactions, because they know that service standards cannot survive in a culture of fear or indifference. The Institute of Hospitality also highlights ‘effective working relationships’ as a key professional standard, recognising that hospitality is a team endeavour, and that respect is contagious.
I saw this most beautifully demonstrated at The Torridon in the Scottish Highlands, a Forbes 5‑Star estate where I worked as Front of House Manager. It is a remote location, weather can be testing, and the working day is long — yet the lobby always felt calm and uplifting. Why? Because every shift began with a genuine greeting, a check‑in on how people were, and a culture where saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘may I help?’ was as automatic between colleagues as it was with guests. In London, The Savoy is equally famous for this. Behind the scenes there is immense pace and pressure, yet you will never hear a raised voice or a sharp word in any guest‑facing area, and the courtesy shown between departments is legendary. The Dorchester Collection codifies this in its People Philosophy, which states: We treat each other with the same care and respect we show our guests. It is not an afterthought; it is a design principle.
Training here is less about classroom sessions and more about modelled behaviour. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, in its Relationship Hospitality ethos, teaches that culture is built in the small moments: how a manager speaks to a junior team member in front of a guest, how handovers are conducted, whether people are thanked publicly as well as privately. At The Langham, part of its service training is dedicated entirely to internal service, with the mantra: if we do not look after each other, we cannot look after anyone else. When kindness is the default between us, it flows naturally outwards.
3. Remember the small things — they are the foundation of trust
A guest will rarely thank you for processing their payment correctly or issuing a key card promptly; those are expected. But they will never forget that you recalled they take their tea without milk, that they were travelling to a family birthday, or that their knee was troubling them when they arrived. These tiny, seemingly trivial details are the currency of trust. They say: you matter enough for me to keep you in mind. That is luxury. That is loyalty. That is what people pay a premium to experience.
Forbes Travel Guide lists anticipation and personal recognition as two of its clearest differentiators between recommended and 5‑Star properties. To achieve the highest rating, staff must demonstrate they have retained and acted upon information volunteered earlier in a stay, without being prompted. Leading Hotels of the World calls this memory as a service skill, and the Institute of Hospitality identifies it as a core element of relationship management. It is not about having a perfect memory; it is about caring enough to note, to record and to act.
Claridge’s is the global benchmark here. It is well documented that their guest preference records go back decades — dietary requirements, seating choices, reading habits, even the way a guest likes their newspaper folded. It is never intrusive, always effortless, and it is why generations of the same families return. At The Royal Horseguards, we made a point of capturing one non‑operational fact about every guest on every stay — a meeting, a journey, a celebration — and ensuring it was referenced at departure or on a return visit. The uplift in guest satisfaction scores was immediate and sustained. Four Seasons refers to this as making it personal, and trains every employee to capture and share preferences across shifts and properties, so that recognition follows the guest around the world. The Ritz‑Carlton Gold Standards go further, empowering every employee to spend up to $2,000 per guest per incident to solve a problem or create a memory — a level of trust that only works when people are also trained to notice and remember what matters.
Crucially, this is not about technology alone. Systems help, but a database cannot replace the human act of listening. Training focuses on active listening, concise note‑taking and disciplined handovers — skills that are taught, practised and coached, not assumed.
Conclusion
Standing in a grand lobby, it is easy to believe that excellence is something expensive, complicated or reserved for a naturally gifted few. My experience tells me otherwise. The welcome that builds reputations and creates guests for life rests on three quiet choices: to see the person ahead of the process, to treat colleagues with the same warmth we extend to visitors, and to honour the small details that make each of us unique.
These values are fully supported by the most respected service standards in our industry — from Forbes and Leading Hotels of the World to the professional guidance of the Institute of Hospitality — and they are embedded in the training philosophies of Ritz‑Carlton, Four Seasons, Rosewood, Dorchester Collection and every truly great hotel I have known. They are also teachable. They are habits. They are choices made every time the revolving door turns, every time two colleagues pass in a corridor, every time we listen just a little more carefully than we have to.
Marble and chandeliers may open the door. But it is these three values that make people want to step inside, and to come back again and again.
Raoul Fisher
Guest Experience & Hospitality Specialist · 15+ years delivering Forbes 5‑Star standards across luxury UK hotels and venues.
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