By Dr. Richard Kelley
The Spectacular Sonnenalp Resort of Vail, Colorado
Last weekend, my wife Linda, my daughter Anne Marie, and I went on our own “spring break,” spending two nights at the Sonnenalp Resort of Vail, Colorado. Our son Chris was nearby visiting friends.
The Sonnenalp was completely sold out; yet, every staff member we encountered was warm and friendly, while still working very competently and efficiently. They were all focused on The Customer, and it reminded me once again that customer focus is always the hallmark of great companies, large and small.
Johannes Faessler, proprietor of the Sonnenalp Resort
The proprietor of the is Johannes Faessler, a European-born, fourth-generation hotelier. We chatted with him while we had fondue dinner in the hotel’s Swiss Chalet restaurant during our first night there. We saw him again later that evening, while he was making the rounds of the lobby, cocktail lounge, and dining room, just to make sure that everything was going well. He was also in Ludwig’s restaurant during breakfast on Saturday morning, greeting the many families who return to the Sonnenalp year after year.
It was quickly obvious to me that Johannes Faessler’s leadership and example are important reasons why every employee of the award-winning Sonnenalp believes that attention to The Customer is their No. 1 job.
For the Faessler family, the hospitality tradition goes back over 90 years to 1919, when Eleanore and Adolf Faessler purchased a small ranch house in Germany’s picturesque Allgau Alps and refurbished it, turning it into a lodge where they offered their guests Moor mud treatments, a spa service still popular today.
The Faessler Family Sonnenalp Resort
In 1932, their son Ludwig and his wife Resi became the second generation of hoteliers, followed by their son Karlheinz and his wife Gretl in 1964. Despite a disastrous fire in 1967, the resort set new standards for health-and-wellness luxury. The fourth generation continued the tradition when Karlheinz and Gretl’s eldest son, Michael Faessler, assumed leadership in 1994.
In 1979, Karlheinz and Gretl purchased the Wedel Inn Motel in Vail, Colorado. In 1985, their other son, Johannes (Michael’s younger brother), a graduate of the hotel program at University of Denver, assumed responsibility for the Colorado operations. A year later, the Faessler family purchased the Kiandra Lodge, the future site of the Sonnenalp Resort of Vail.
Johannes’ wife, Rosana, plays an active roll in the Sonnenalp operations. Their son, Sebastian, representing generation five, is learning the ropes of hotel operations and hospitality by working at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C.
One could say that true attention to customer service might be achievable in a property like the Sonnenalp Resort of Vail with only 115 suites and 12 hotel rooms to worry about, but it must be difficult, or near impossible, in a larger hotel or a chain of hotels scattered across many miles or countries.
I could not disagree more. Marriott and other successful hotel chains, including Outrigger and OHANA Hotels & Resorts, are doing a great job in this area. Unfortunately, not all hotel companies follow these examples.
Saturday Briefing readers may recall my comments of last January, when I visited with Mike Leven, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Mike’s company owns and operates a sprawling complex in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, including The Venetian, the adjacent The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino, and Sands Expo and Convention Center. It was a busy weekend, but we did not feel we were lost in a crowd. The service everywhere was excellent — friendly and efficient.
Dr. Kelley greets Sonnenalp server Emily Peterson from Monroe, WA, who is wearing a dirndl, the traditional dress seen in Southern Germany, Liechtenstein, and Austria
Johannes Faessler and Mike Leven are operating at different ends of the hotel spectrum, but both are passionate about The Customer.
Leven has been quoted as expressing his philosophy this way, “No matter the size of the organization, if a customer-oriented culture doesn’t exist, the organization will eventually fail. As companies grow, they get farther and farther away from The Customer. You begin to place your attention on your internal, not external, customers. Hiring, training, meetings, discussing, budget management, [and] pleasing your boss –– these become the functions of the business, taking you farther away from what is the essence of the business: The Customer.”
Leven adds, “The end result is that you stop talking to customers because you are talking to yourselves. [Then] you go out and spend millions of dollars to hire a major research or advertising firm, and in effect, you tell them, ‘You go out and talk to my customers; I don’t want to talk to them anymore.’ Why? Because my focus is that I have to please my boss, my department head, and my peers. The end result: the customer sits out there looking for help and can’t find anybody.”
Dr. Richard and Mrs. Linda VG Kelley discuss customer service with Johannes Faessler, a fourth-generation hotelier.
Our company’s founders, Roy and Estelle Kelley, were also passionate about talking to their customers. Estelle had her desk in the lobby of the Edgewater Hotel, and Roy’s desk was right next to the front desk in the lobby of the Reef Hotel. They talked to customers all day long.
Just this week, I received a letter from Ivy On Hing-McLeod and her husband, Graham C. McLeod, who first stayed at our Waikiki properties over 20 years ago, as members of Air New Zealand flight crews. They recalled those days fondly, saying, “Mr. Kelley, Sr. [Roy] was always on his rounds of the Outriggers, and we all enjoyed the pleasure of his friendship and hospitality.”
I am proud that at Outrigger and OHANA Hotels, now in its third generation of family leadership, the tradition of hospitality continues on, with lots and lots of customer attention and contact.
In today’s fast-paced world of technology and the Internet, even the best-intentioned hospitality professionals sometimes focus on the blue glow of the computer terminal in front of them and not the customer standing a few feet away – someone who has probably traveled thousands of miles and may have endured delays and hassles along the way.
No matter how busy you get, take a tip from Roy and Estelle Kelley, Mike Leven, and five generations of the Faessler family. Forget about the computers, your budgets, your spreadsheets, or the next meeting for a while. Talk to your real boss – The Customer!
