While I know in my heart that the hotel industry globally will inevitably abandon its infatuation with the ever so limited concept of SOP-Customer Satisfaction and change wholeheartedly to Heart-Based Hospitality, I feel sad that it will take many years for the change to come about; sad because mankind will be stuck with the current, global concept of hospitality for many more years to come in spite of growing awareness that there is something wrong with it.
Heart-Based Hospitality is not a fancy name for another corporate customer service training programme. It is a completely new direction in hospitality – one which is aligned with the spiritual essence of hospitality; with our spiritual nature; with the discoveries about the energetic nature of the human heart; with the discoveries in the quantum energy sciences about the energetic nature of the universe and human beings; with the texts of mankind’s main religious traditions; and with the wisdom of ancient cultures in Tibet, the Andes, Egypt, etc. In contrast, SOP-Customer Satisfaction is a left brain, corporate construct, which serves the efficiency and expansion needs of hotel groups according to a mass production-oriented corporate template.
The more I explore the possibilities of Heart-Based Hospitality, the more I realise how little I have scratched the surface of what is possible, and that I probably never will do more than scratch the surface. As more scientific research is carried out into heart energy, we learn more ways to open the heart; to increase the vibration of the energy emitted by the heart; and to affect the energy of spaces and the feelings of people in beautiful ways. As more is learned about how ancient cultures worked with energy; and as more is learned about the energetic nature of the universe, more ways appear in which hoteliers can change the feeling of the hospitality provided. Compared to the beautiful future of hospitality, we are living in very dark days.
While SOP-Customer Satisfaction has a ceiling in 100% conformity to the SOPs, there is no ceiling to Heart-Based Hospitality. There is no limit to how warm, caring, compassionate, and loving hospitality can become. The more you develop the spiritual capacity of the hotel staff; the more you open their heart; the more you deepen them in the essential core values of genuine hospitality; the more you develop the powers of their heart; and the more you heal their heart; the more intensely loving they can become.
I have created the direction, but it needs others to get involved in order to develop its potential. What I dread, though, is that a hotel group corporate office will adopt it and turn it into another version of SOP-Customer Satisfaction like what happened with the concept of “Creating Truly Memorable Experiences” (CTME), a concept whose spiritual essence was divested by corporate offices around the world.
When I look back at CTME I realise how limited that concept is. Heart-Based Hospitality, though, takes hospitality so much further by opening the door to an infinite number of levels or degrees of hospitality. But love and energy have yet to become acceptable words in corporate offices, and most probably they will not be acceptable for many years to come. I think it will take 15+ years before corporate hoteliers will dare to use these words in their board rooms and strategies. At the moment, there is not even a listening ear.
