Good morning to you! How is your Go-Go Juice brewing this morning? OMG – I thought I had run out this morning – couldn’t find any and fervently searched the cupboards, pushing the cans of tomatoes and green beans aside and finally, I found it! Oh – to go a day without Go-Go Juice would be an absolute catastrophe! Awe! The sweet, steamy goodness of Go-Go Juice is the ultimate go-getter for every day!
You know, I was in a discussion last night on LinkedIn and shared some thoughts on how to put an emergency preparedness kit together when it comes to management emergencies. In the thread of discussions, I had mentioned an issue that arose in one of my hotels and how my staff and I put our “kit” to work! A participating member wrote me in utter laughter because he had identified that hoteliers have the most opportunities to share “hotel horror stories” and to hear how management resolve such stories is a hoot! With that thought, I decided how you too, could share and possibly identify with the characters of the story…read on:
This particular sold out night at the Holiday Inn of Hudson, Ohio, we had prepared for a full house, plus three different banquets to fill our 17,000 square feet of conference space totaling up to 350 people. One of the banquets had produced 250 attendees. It was a gala event that started sometime around 5PM. Everyone looked beautiful walking through the hallways – women wore gorgeous glittering gowns while their male counterparts dawned on tuxes and tails. I thought we had just sponsored the annual Emmy Awards. Everyone was enjoying themselves and was finally seated to engage into their event and their dinner had started. About half an hour into the event, the kitchen notified me as the General Manager that we didn’t have any water. Maintenance scrambled to identify the problem and discovered how our operation was not the source of the problem. Having made a quick call to the company (as if to ask, “OK, did our company pay the water bill…we’re out”) only to learn that a main water pipe located 1 ½ miles away had broken and that the entire area would be out…for hours.
Now, if you’re not experienced in working in hotels (or restaurants for that matter) then you’re not accustomed to experiencing or solving problems that occur behind the scenes. As a consumer, you become the victim and simply expect the problem fixed or to be offered an alternative. Right? Of course right. But I was charged with looking at the dynamics in whole…no water means no washing dishes, no water for drinking, no water for showers, no water cleaning and no water for…yes, toilets. And, what’s worse is in a public environment, such as a hotel, if you run out of water for 5 or more hours, you must evacuate the hotel guests and place them into other properties, paying their cost for the room and board plus make travel accommodations for the trouble because the lack of water for that long of period becomes a health hazard. So, my problem with the current situation was rather large.
While we made immediate conservatory directions for various departments, my biggest concern was maintaining the banquets without hindrance. We were told we could be out for just a few hours and no longer. So, I decided to send staff out to acquire cases of bottled water to provide our dining guests, plus bring a few 10 gallon drums of water to use for the public restrooms. I directed someone to immediately print brief notices to our in-house guests with apologies for the inconveniences and then knowing that we could not per say afford to continually purchase big drums of water for the public restrooms, that we would rent three portables conveniently located outside the banquet rooms and shut down the public bathrooms upon their arrival.
Once this happened, I went in front of the banquet gala, to the podium and spoke confidently into the microphone. To break the ice, I gave a warm welcome to the entire group and asked if everyone was enjoying themselves. The responses were full of cheer, excitement and people were smiling, laughing having such a good time. My stomach wrenched at what I was about to say – so I tried to put a lighter upbeat spin on the news…the crowd seemed to understand about conserving their requests for water in terms of delivering water bottles, however once I mentioned the bathroom situation and offered the use of the port-a-potties – the room fell silent for a couple seconds and you heard a bunch of “ohhhhh…noooo…” and a few grumbles. Hence my news went over “real well” with our kings and queens. Needless to say, they did not use the portables, making our job more challenging.
While we could not “lock up” our bathrooms, our guests used them regardless of requests – remember, toilets don’t flush without water in the bowl. It’s after dinner – can you imagine? I make my point.
However, we could not leave the bathrooms vulnerable to after dinner treasures, but I couldn’t buy the amount of water needed either. My team and I worked ferociously to come up with a quick logical answer and my Food and Beverage Manager used her Go-Go Juice and found it! The answer lay at our feet, shimmering in delight with an abundant supply of goodness: our enormous indoor pool. So, we put together a means to transfer pool water into large containers and transport them to the bathrooms where my wonderful staff would maintain the cleanliness and flushing of the public ceramic bowls for the further convenience to our guests. Yes, after a couple more hours, the pain and anguish finally subsided as the main water supply was back to normal – we managed to save the day and come out smelling (well, better than it could have been).
Hotels are an environment that are always at risk of something challenging, exciting and full of new ventures. It’s an environment that’s never dull. What about you and what you do? Do you have a story to share that stands out in your mind of an enormous emergency and the way in which it was fixed? I’d love to hear about it. Write a comment or send me an email.
So, be sure to keep Go-Go Juice in your management emergency preparedness kit – boy, it can really get you out of a bind! Have a great day!
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