On November 12, 2019 as a part of subject Basics of Hotel Industry we attended a lecture about Hotel – The magic of irrelevant, with director of Hotel Devín in Bratislava and president of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Slovakia Ing. Tomáš Ondrčka.

At the beginning of the lecture, he explained his position in the hotel and how he perceives hotel industry. He told us about competition between hotels and how he tries to differentiate it. In his presentation he focused on 7 main points: hotel experience, reservations, arrival of guests, reception, rooms, breakfast, bar and restaurant.

He described the hotel experience as a set of services that try to adapt to the needs of guests. He mentioned ways of booking; whether by phone, e-mail or via the website, which is currently used to accurately find a hotel that meets our expectations. His speech has shown that he travels a lot and knows a lot of things about foreign hotels and their functioning and from every single trip he tries to bring some new ideas which can improve functioning of Hotel Devín. He also told us how he perceives hotel, what is the first thing that he and guests notice when they enter the hotel. Trivia create whole, therefore one of the first things he often notices is the cleanliness of the surroundings, the smell, the flowers and optionally so-called wow effect that will charm the guest right at the entrance to the hotel. He also told us about his staff at the reception, who should be experienced enough in the industry to be able to provide information to guests and to represent the hotel in a pleasant manner. The cleanliness of the rooms is in the first place because it is a mark of quality of the hotel. He described some conditions which are important to them, so-called decalogue NO. These are the things that can never happen or be forgotten. He also mentioned that his goal is to have the best breakfast in the town because breakfast is the basis of the day and so they are very important.

We are thankful that the director accepted the invitation. We heard a lot of interesting information and thanks to his lecture, we have got again a new perspective on working in hotel industry.

Text: Niklas Péter, RCR16b

Foto: Ing. Ľudmila Mazúchová, PhD.