Salvatore Casarrubia - General Manager of Opera Suite Hotel, Yerevan
Mr. Casarrubia, taking into consideration
your experience can you share some
advice for managing a successful hotel.
irst, to become a successful hotel, it is very
important to have a motivated and professional
staff. As an example, for an inspiring and
motivating manager, we can take Jose Mourinho,
a famous football coach. Maybe, he is not the best
tactical coach in the world, but in my opinion,
he is the best at motivating and making
his players feel valued and appreciated.
Following the same logic, I demand from
myself to motivate my employees and
put them in the position where they
can do their best every day, and that
is the way to help and empower them
to grow professionally, to have new
experiences every day, of course by
providing the necessary conditions.
It is very important to understand that
it is bilaterally effective both for the
company and the employee. As a hotel,
you can have the worst facilities, but if
you have a motivated staff, you will have
an advantage over your competitors with
the quality of service your staff can provide.
Today I am more than happy to share
my experience with my employees
and colleagues, I am not
jealous. I understand
that sometimes it
can be a little bit
challenging, like in
any other industry,
working in the
hotel has its ups
and downs, but I
am not talking
from my side
as
Salvatore
Casarrubia,
I
am telling it
as a person
with all this
experience.
I
am
asking
my
employees
to trust my
experience
and when I tell
them to do things
in a certain way, I ensure
that it will run very good.
Let me tell you also
another
thing.
The
position of a general
manager is very delicate,
you have to say when
something is wrong and
it is not personal. My goal
F
is not to please everyone, that’s why from time to
time I have to make decisions that some people will
not like, but again as they say “nothing personal,
just business”. My goal is to make sure that the
company is running as it is supposed to run, also, of
course, take care of my staff. But I must be sure that
they are giving all the maximum for the company.
You must be sure they are doing what you require.
You spoke about how you need to treat
your
employees
and
colleagues,
tell us more about your views
on
how
to
treat
customers.
s for the customers, my thought
is following; never say no to
the customer. I used to say to my
employees, don’t reason with your
pocket, because you never know
who is standing in front of you.
For sure when a customer asks for
something very special, they know
that they must pay. That is self-
understanding. We should ensure that
whatever is customer demanding,
of course within the law, we are
doing our best to provide it at
the highest level possible.
When I came here,
I
introduced
the
Latin
expression
to my staff.
“Vademecum”
which means
“Come
with
me”. That gives
them guideline
how I wish
they treat each
other and how
they treat our
guests. I don’t
like to use the
words customer
or client; I prefer
using Guest. In
the
past,
there
were no clients or
customer,
everybody
was called GUEST. You
must treat them as a
friend,
as
someone
you are hosting at
your house. Hospitality
is not only a job, but
it is also a culture.
I understand that it
is not easy, working
as a waiter, barista
or receptionist, for
example, as you are
A