Many 3-4-5-star and better hotels (national and international) have this stingy practice of giving two half-litre water bottles per room per day. That is one litre per day. They charge for extra water.
It is penny-wise and pound-foolish, because it is blatantly customer unfriendly. They could be spending a lot of money on building their brand image. But in the end, they make their customers’ experience unpleasant due to this shortsighted practice. They do not realize that they may earn a few rupees on selling water, but they may eventually lose customers completely.
Drinking water is an essential commodity. A general understanding says that an adult should drink about two litres of water a day. At that rate, two people need at least four litres of water in 24 hours. Good hospitality needs this basic understanding. But these hotels don’t get this. Or they seem to have found an easy way of making some extra money in a cheap manner. After charging 10-15k (or more) for a room, to expect customers to shell out more for a bottle or two of water is cheap. When you want to make money by fleecing your unsuspecting customers, it creates a psychological impact of being cheap in the minds of customers.
It destroys all your efforts of building a positive brand image. You may have the high-end facilities and amenities. But in your heart you are low-end.
You may have smiling faces greeting customers politely, but customers will make out your fakeness.
You may have swanky facade and upscale interiors, but your inside is in shambles.
5-star status may be obtained by following some government guidelines, but to receive 5-star rating from customers, you must provide 5-star experience. For that you must give up such miserly practices. Brand building requires generosity.
So, as a customer next time when you want to find out how good or bad your experience in a hotel would be, just find out how many water bottles do they give free per day. If the hotel focuses on making money on drinking water, you should not be surprised that it may be disappointing in other service aspects as well. They will make you struggle for every little thing. Avoid such cheap hotels, however luxurious they may appear on their website or videos.
A good rule of thumb to remember: a good brand is a generous brand.
-Sanjay Shah
SME Business Coach
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