A successful travel path is a key component for every successful manager in the hospitality industry. It is something that should be done at both the beginning and end of a shift but should also happen at least once throughout the day. Sadly, though, most managers have never actually been trained on how to walk a successful travel path.
To be honest, I was not “trained” on a travel path until I was several years into my hospitality career. It was about three years into my career before a superior manager actually took the time to walk me around the property to point out the nuances of a travel path I was missing on a regular basis.
I had been working at the Hilton Cherry Hill for several years when there was a massive change in executive management. We got a new general manager, new director of catering, and a new food and beverage director all in one fell swoop. My first few weeks with the new general manager were a bit rough, to say the least. EVERY time he walked the property my radio started chirping for issues he wanted fixed ASAP.
Embarrassingly, the things he was seeing were not even on my radar. After two or three of his “tours,” I walked into his office and asked him to do a tour with me. I wanted to see things through his eyes, because he was obviously far more skilled than I was at spotting these problems. Taking the initiative in this case inspired two things to occur:
- Allowed my general manager to see I was not afraid of criticism, but rather welcomed it to make me a better manager
- Created a mentoring relationship that existed throughout both of our careers
I learned several things that day and over the years, I developed a few tricks of my own to create a more effective travel path.
High Lookers and Low Lookers
Everyone is naturally a high looker or a low looker. Point being, you will naturally notice things that fall into your wheelhouse and need to train yourself in checking areas you are not naturally drawn to. In my case, I was a low looker. While I would check the ceilings and lighting, I did not do so with the same eye for detail I did items that were at eye level or lower. That skill had to be learned.
Checklists and Diagrams
When doing a travel path, the entire route should be mapped out with a checklist and diagram. For every room, you should have a diagram of the layout and a checklist for areas to check. When there is a problem, it should be marked on the checklist for the detail and the diagram for the location (so staff can address it later).
Walking with Staff
Time and again the importance of the staff seeing things through the guest and their managers eyes has been stressed. Just handing off a set of work orders is a recipe for disaster, at least initially. Until the staff is capable of seeing what you see, walk the property with them to show them the problems marked on the travel sheet checklist and diagram.
Make It Fun
During slower times, managers are presented with the opportunity to turn a mundane task into a fun activity for the staff. I did this in two ways: contests and scavenger hunts.
From time to time, I would mark the problems on my sheets, then have the banquet housemen walk the property on their own. The housemen that had the most citations on his list compared to mine won the prize. This ranged from cash to gift certificates to smiley checks.
Scavenger hunts were also very effective. I would disguise prizes as trash or an equipment problem. For instance, a gift certificate was hidden in a cup that was placed in a corner of banquet room or inside a dirty HVAC vent. This encouraged the staff to not only look for problems but to also investigate them.
The end effect was a banquet houseman staff that for the most part, saw the same things I was seeing throughout the day. This had a direct impact not only on the overall cleanliness of the property and upkeep of the equipment but also in how much time was being spent at the end of the day fixing misses and mistakes.
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