SpongeG
Sep 15, 2008, 10:07 PM
Delivering top hotel service to athletes at 2010 Olympics
Vanoc hopes to embrace a resort mentality where one call will lead to any service
Nejat Sarp wants to bring a "Service One" resort hotel mentality to the Vancouver 2010 Games.
So when athletes begin checking in to the Vancouver and Whistler villages, Vanoc's vice-president of services and villages wants them to know they will only have one number to call if they need anything.
One number for a wake-up call. The same number for laundry service. And for any kind of help. He doesn't want them distracted from their efforts on the field of play.
"All you have to do is talk to me and all your needs will be met," he said.
"We've got to continue to deliver [the best] day by day where the athletes can perform to their optimum and take away their stress."
It is a concept that has never been used before at the Games, he said. In the past, organizing committees have used an old style of multiple employees for single needs that wastes resources and increases the possibility that important tasks will get overlooked.
Sarp knows what he's talking about.
Before he came to work for the Vancouver Organizing Committee three years ago, he spent much of his career managing properties for high-end hotel chains, including Intercontinental, Hilton, Pan Pacific and Mandarin Oriental.
He's lived in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and Turkey.
He brought in Service One at hotels in Yokohama and Singapore, he said, and it will work at the Olympics.
"It's a hotel resort concept, no question. That's been our vision from day one."
Last week, Sarp wrapped up a 10-day observation tour of the Beijing Games. He came over after the Olympics to watch how the Beijing Organizing Committee converted the athletes village and food services for the Paralympics.
What he found, he said, was a smooth operation that quickly sorted out accommodation issues for nearly 6,500 athletes and coaches from 148 countries.
Bocog put massive amounts of young manpower into making the Games work but didn't use the Service One concept.
Beijing's model is one he says he can't afford to use in Vancouver, where he wants to deliver the same service with less staff.
"We won't have the sheer numbers that they have here. In the villages, for example, they have more than one-to-one, one workforce for one guest. There is no way in hell we can do that in Vancouver, nor do we want to do that in Vancouver."
Sarp said the key for him is to have one employee deal with many areas of responsibility.
"Our style of delivery is going to be very different, and the reason it's going to be different is because we are going to need to work in a multi-functional approach.
"That way, unlike most hotels where you have a room service button and a housekeeping button and a front office button and a bell desk button, you call one location with one button and all your needs are channelled through that concept."
Requests are tracked daily on a colour-coded spreadsheet.
Is there a flaw in the idea?
"The downside of this is communication and follow-up, but if we can do it in hotels we can do it in the Olympics," he said.
Like all Vanoc employees, Sarp is reluctant to be seen criticizing other organizing committees.
But he noted his concept of Service One would not have worked in China, where there is a cultural concept about not overstepping one's boundaries.
"They have so many people, I am not sure whether it would have been an advantage for them. And culturally, they are different," he said.
"We're used to the multi-tasking way of doing things. Here they would be very hesitant to take over someone else's responsibility outside of their own area. I think it would have been very difficult to manage that process."
Still, Sarp said the Beijing Organizing Committee excelled at putting on the Games. "They grabbed it 110 per cent."
He said one of the biggest lessons he learned was to continue to pay attention to detail, something that reinforces his long-held view as a hotelier.
And he wants to make sure his staff understand not only the mechanics of their job, but also why they're doing it.
"That is the difference for me, coming from the hotel business. You can train anybody to put a fork and a knife on the left and the right, but once you tell them the reasons why, they will never forget it."
Sarp said the new service concept, which has been under development for three years, will be tested in late 2009 when Vanoc takes control of both villages and opens some of the units to athletes attending test events.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20080915/133779-49031.jpg?size=l
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun Files
Nejat Sarp hopes to bring a 'Service One' resort mentality to Vancouver's 2010 Games so athletes will only have to call one phone number no matter what they want, whether it is for a wake-up call, laundry service or any kind of help at all.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=45f9f121-dbb3-4b0a-ae09-c8cc5812cb68
Vanoc hopes to embrace a resort mentality where one call will lead to any service
Nejat Sarp wants to bring a "Service One" resort hotel mentality to the Vancouver 2010 Games.
So when athletes begin checking in to the Vancouver and Whistler villages, Vanoc's vice-president of services and villages wants them to know they will only have one number to call if they need anything.
One number for a wake-up call. The same number for laundry service. And for any kind of help. He doesn't want them distracted from their efforts on the field of play.
"All you have to do is talk to me and all your needs will be met," he said.
"We've got to continue to deliver [the best] day by day where the athletes can perform to their optimum and take away their stress."
It is a concept that has never been used before at the Games, he said. In the past, organizing committees have used an old style of multiple employees for single needs that wastes resources and increases the possibility that important tasks will get overlooked.
Sarp knows what he's talking about.
Before he came to work for the Vancouver Organizing Committee three years ago, he spent much of his career managing properties for high-end hotel chains, including Intercontinental, Hilton, Pan Pacific and Mandarin Oriental.
He's lived in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and Turkey.
He brought in Service One at hotels in Yokohama and Singapore, he said, and it will work at the Olympics.
"It's a hotel resort concept, no question. That's been our vision from day one."
Last week, Sarp wrapped up a 10-day observation tour of the Beijing Games. He came over after the Olympics to watch how the Beijing Organizing Committee converted the athletes village and food services for the Paralympics.
What he found, he said, was a smooth operation that quickly sorted out accommodation issues for nearly 6,500 athletes and coaches from 148 countries.
Bocog put massive amounts of young manpower into making the Games work but didn't use the Service One concept.
Beijing's model is one he says he can't afford to use in Vancouver, where he wants to deliver the same service with less staff.
"We won't have the sheer numbers that they have here. In the villages, for example, they have more than one-to-one, one workforce for one guest. There is no way in hell we can do that in Vancouver, nor do we want to do that in Vancouver."
Sarp said the key for him is to have one employee deal with many areas of responsibility.
"Our style of delivery is going to be very different, and the reason it's going to be different is because we are going to need to work in a multi-functional approach.
"That way, unlike most hotels where you have a room service button and a housekeeping button and a front office button and a bell desk button, you call one location with one button and all your needs are channelled through that concept."
Requests are tracked daily on a colour-coded spreadsheet.
Is there a flaw in the idea?
"The downside of this is communication and follow-up, but if we can do it in hotels we can do it in the Olympics," he said.
Like all Vanoc employees, Sarp is reluctant to be seen criticizing other organizing committees.
But he noted his concept of Service One would not have worked in China, where there is a cultural concept about not overstepping one's boundaries.
"They have so many people, I am not sure whether it would have been an advantage for them. And culturally, they are different," he said.
"We're used to the multi-tasking way of doing things. Here they would be very hesitant to take over someone else's responsibility outside of their own area. I think it would have been very difficult to manage that process."
Still, Sarp said the Beijing Organizing Committee excelled at putting on the Games. "They grabbed it 110 per cent."
He said one of the biggest lessons he learned was to continue to pay attention to detail, something that reinforces his long-held view as a hotelier.
And he wants to make sure his staff understand not only the mechanics of their job, but also why they're doing it.
"That is the difference for me, coming from the hotel business. You can train anybody to put a fork and a knife on the left and the right, but once you tell them the reasons why, they will never forget it."
Sarp said the new service concept, which has been under development for three years, will be tested in late 2009 when Vanoc takes control of both villages and opens some of the units to athletes attending test events.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20080915/133779-49031.jpg?size=l
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun Files
Nejat Sarp hopes to bring a 'Service One' resort mentality to Vancouver's 2010 Games so athletes will only have to call one phone number no matter what they want, whether it is for a wake-up call, laundry service or any kind of help at all.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=45f9f121-dbb3-4b0a-ae09-c8cc5812cb68