Post by Basia Murphy

Right off the bat, after returning from a holiday in North Devon, I had a heated conversation with a fellow hospo friend about the lack of genuine hospitality in businesses. He said: “Businesses can’t find the right people. Young people who enter hospitality don’t care. Times have changed. Businesses don’t have the money to invest in people’s training.” I said: “Yet giving up on hospitality culture is not the solution to all the problems facing the industry.” What heated the conversation was how much we both care about our industry and the challenges it’s facing. An observer listening to us at that point could conclude that my friend was a realist and I an idealist. In fact, we are both. We’re both idealists. Having experienced genuine hospitality in our working lives, we know the ideal. We know the value of hospitality in a business. We’re both realists, too, but where we differ is in our responses to what’s happening “on the ground”. Yes, the current situation is dire. The reality is grim. Yet when the going gets tough, tough get going! Through all the tough moments, days, weeks, or months of my working experience, turning up the volume on hospitality never failed. Restructuring and opening new restaurants, the 2008 crisis, and Brexit met with extra commitment to nurturing in-house hospitality and spreading it out to our customers – never failed. Hospitality made us stronger. I replied to my friend: “Young people don’t care? I beg to differ. In every workshop so far, exploring genuine hospitality has been beautifully received, often with an “I did not think it could be like that!” Times have changed? Times are always changing, yet hospitality remains the constant, the heart, the essence of the industry, and it’s our responsibility to protect it. After all, what is our industry without hospitality? Plus, the numbers prove it. Caring for your team and your customers makes great business sense. Businesses don’t have the money to invest in people’s training? Training always pays off, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.” My friend was not immediately convinced. The grim picture of the current situation was firmly established in his mind. It was only when I reminded him of examples of hospitality’s saving grace in our times working together that he smiled and nodded in agreement. 🙏 🧡 ------------------------------------- Hi, I’m Basia. As part of LaSA Training, I host workshops that teach and inspire teams to cultivate genuine hospitality while delivering exceptional service. If you’d like to know how genuine hospitality training would benefit your team and your business, I would love to hear from you.