Social and Cultural Accommodation in the Hospitality

Social and Cultural Accommodation in the Hospitality Field

Contemporary businesses organizations, particularly those in the service industry, must maximize customer loyalty to remain competitive. That concern only becomes more important in times of relative economic difficulty (Mankiw, 2008), such as in the case of the current U.S. economic recession that began, in earnest, in 2008. The Ritz-Carlton-owned Marriot Hotel chain recognizes that concept and reflects it throughout its corporate philosophy (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008; Lampton, 2003). Customer service and appreciation are the core values relied upon by the organization to meet customer expectations and ensure their satisfaction and repeat patronage. Marriot and other Ritz- Carlton hotels emphasize the importance of providing their customers a highly consistent experience regardless of where they stay (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008; Lampton, 2003).

Meeting the Challenges of Geographic and Cultural Diversity

In that regard, the challenge of meeting that objective is greatly magnified by the need to provide varied customer experiences in different regions and host nations (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008). More specifically, Ritz-Carlton maintains different types of services and accommodations in its facilities to comport with the local customs and expectations of customers from different social cultures and environments around the world. Within the framework of the high standards of services and customer satisfaction goals that are constants throughout the organization, each Ritz-Carlton property also strives to incorporate and support the various and often extremely varied idiosyncratic differences in those expectations in every locale in which it maintains hotel operations (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008).

Those differences require training all of Ritz-Carlton's employees to recognize and perfect their abilities to meet the expectations and fulfill all of the needs and concerns of hotel guests in a manner that is completely consistent with local mores and social values (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008; Lampton, 2003). That emphasis is expressly designed to ensure that hotel guests from those regions will appreciate and value the fact that an international company is capable of executing all of the hotel and guest-relation services necessary to comport with the needs of guests from every nation and culture (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008; Lampton, 2003).

In the Far East, for example, Ritz-Carlton hotel employees all receive training in the social customs and finer aspects of etiquette that expected within ordinary interactions between hotel staff and guests, precisely because they typically differ so substantially from the typical expectations of Western customers (De Bono, Van Der Heijden, and Jones, 2008). Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Ritz-Carlton facilities must be equipped to respect fundamentally different dietary laws in relation to Muslim traditions that preclude the use of certain types of foods entirely.