IN
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ANA BRANT
By JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
Hoteliers with a know-it-all ego better leave it at the door when working with Ana Brant , director of global guest experience and innovation , The Dorchester Collection , London . Working mostly from Los Angeles , home of the group ’ s Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air , Brant is relentless in her pursuit of uncovering true customer needs and making execution on delivering on those needs a strategic priority over what some hoteliers simply think they want , thank you very much . With Brant it is not so much about what databases tell her because more often then not , she says , those needs and wants are only discovered by acute observation and sometimes simply by asking . Yes , her ’ s is a customer-centric culture .
Brant is uber user-centric , as well , and she points to Uber , the ride-sharing experience , as the perfect example of an organization that recognized pain points – the traditionally bad taxi experience – and turned them into points of joy . Unfortunately , she says , the hotel business is far behind today ’ s curve and fails to ask what luxury means to guests – not what the hotel decides it should be .
“ When you look at how hotel companies have been organized , it ’ s like the military ,” says the native of Croatia who first came to the U . S . when she
SERVICE E AN CONTEXT T
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THE DORCHESTER COLLECTION ’ S ANA BRANT BELIEVES CONTEXT IS WHAT TURNS SERVICE INTO EXPERIENCE .
April 2017 hotelsmag . com 37