Having spent time in a hospital recently I couldn’t help but take a moment to discuss the word “hospitality.” The word “hospitality” traces its roots through the Old French word hospitalite to the Latin hospitalitem, meaning “friendliness to guests.”
It’s hard to imagine a more challenging service environment than the hospital setting where guests come only if they are sick or suffering physically or mentally and often emotionally. The remarkable caregivers who serve in this setting work within the constraints of the labyrinthine medical economic structure that has developed over the last century. Unwell patients plus caregivers stressed to the max equals an often cold and impersonal environment.
I thought for a bit about who understands the nature of true hospitality. The world’s best hotels do, for starters. Hoteliers, the masterful managers of the hotel industry, meticulously guard the spirit of hospitality as the Pontifical Swiss Guard protects the Pope in the Vatican. The guest experience is carefully balanced with financial concerns, but when managed properly, the guest always feels as though he or she has obtained excellent return on investment.
I have yet to meet a hospital that is able to provide that level of guest service and satisfaction. The food is often a mixed bag, the quality of staff can vary greatly and hospitable service does not seem to be high on the totem pole of priorities.
Could there be ways to better balance the relationship between quality of service and cost in the hospital environment? There must be! I wonder how many hoteliers or even spa directors for that matter have been invited to consult on cost-effective ways to enhance the guest experience in the medical environment. Hospitals, doctors offices, testing locations might benefit from such a perspective.
What about you and your personal life. Do you embrace the spirit of hospitality in everything that you do? If everyone you met in the last month was to fill out a “satisfaction survey” of your treatment of them while in your care, how would you rate: Motel 6, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Ritz Carlton or perhaps Aman Resorts? Is time with you something others would rather quickly forget about or do they long to return for another stay of any duration, be it a moment, an hour or a day?
Do you simply indulge in the cursory niceties or do you genuinely care about others? It seems that nowadays you have to go out of your way to be kind and friendly to people in our society. Concerns for liability often outweigh the impulse to help someone who has been hurt, fear for safety might trump the thought of helping a stranger stranded on the roadside with a disabled vehicle and the pace of life – even in small towns – seems to render friendliness a vestigial organ in the body of humanity!
This world needs people who care genuinely for the welfare of others – not as martyrs(!) – but as bona fide caregivers and protectors of the spirit of hospitality. Knights and Ladies Hospitaller as in times gone by. At times you have to redefine the scope of your service, because stretching yourself too thin may result in exhaustion or even collapse, which limits your ability to help at all. Invest wisely in others.
You can’t give what you don’t have. If the spirit of hospitality does not reside deep within your heart, your ability to serve others will be compromised. If you spend most of your time and efforts thinking about and caring for your own needs, for example, your ability to be hospitable to others will be unnecessarily and sadly limited. Likewise, if you fail to keep your own house in order you will not be able to effectively help others. It’s all related.
Take time today to zero in on how you might raise your bar in this area today. Hospitality has somehow become an uncommon luxury in our great nation of late. Please do your part to restore it!
Gregory Hake 
After reading your post, I imagine the ability to provide hospitality is a delicate balance of always searching for the current needs of others, while at the same time making sure that you don’t lose your life’s balance as well. I think I need some practice before I can say I have this skill down! Thanks!
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I’d guess that hospitality and hospitals are not usually discussed in the same conversation but I’ve appreciated the relevance. I have many close friends who are nurses, I’m sure ALL of them chose it because they wanted to help others but most have mentioned on many occasions that the heart has been removed from their profession, it’s value is judged on the balance sheet. Yes it is a business but it seems as if we missed the middle point that makes it both a business and a system that truly cares for people’s body and spirit. As far as our health care system in the USA goes it is broken and the answers don’t seem to be cut and dry there are so many factors to consider. Florence Nightingale, was also quoted as saying ” Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization”. What was the greater stage of civilization that she envisioned? I imagine it was as you wrote ” to care genuinely for the welfare of others”.
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I think the success of any business ultimately depends on exactly what you are speaking of here. Important points.
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Hospitality for me has tended to be shrouded in all sorts of guilt and shoulds. So I could easily re-title your post “Not your mother’s hospitality”. Thanks for the refreshing perspective – hospitality does need to be freed from all the constraints the human heart has put on it!
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Love your observations and ideas on this subject.
I’ve just started reading “Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale” by Gillian Gill.
Florence’s passion was more far reaching than I had ever understood. She wanted to develop nursing as a profession for educated, capable and dedicated women like herself, making Britain a healthier, safer and happier place for all its citizens, reassessing and rebuilding the whole system of health care in public institutions.
This was the 19th century a time when the laws and traditions pertaining to women prohibited them from being in the public sphere. She was driven by an all consuming commitment and felt she was directly called by God to this task.
What a beautiful beginning for an institution. We can see with all the problems surrounding the health care issues today that seemingly very little of her concerns are at the root of most of the proposed solutions.
I wanted to share this account as I think once more it brings the responsibility back to how we conduct our own lives. This was one person and she made huge strides in an area that neither recognized her or welcomed her but she was determined to live her life continually raising the bar for herself and an entire industry.
It can be done and it has been demonstrated time and again. We each have a part; the joy of living is letting our lives reveal ours.
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Thank you for your insights on how to revive this lost art in our experience.
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As someone who is in the service industry, I certainly appreciate your introspet into hospitality. Indeed it is a fundamental aspect to the success or failure of not only to our buisinesses but to the success of our individual lives. The currenct econimic crisis has caused us to redefine price/value in many ways, and expectations have shifted dramatically. We must be eager to exceed expectations and to seek first to care for others as our primary goals, then most certainly the result will be success, on all levels. I read a wonderful blog on Customer Service stories by Barry Dalton- “The Ninja – Power of Expectations” by Ted Coine, it goes quite nicely with this post regarding the neccessity of raising the bar and the power of expectations. http://custservicestories.blogspot.com/2010/04/ninja-power-of-expectations.html
We all have a responsibility to care for others and in return someone will be looking out for us. This sounds like the right way to live!
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Most people mistake endurance for hospitality. BIG difference!
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No longer living in the South but raised in the customs of “Southern hospitality” I have often joked that “hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even though you wish they were” – the point being that the custom of being hospitable doesn’t automatically mean genuinely caring for others. An old proverb I like states “Who practices hospitality entertains God himself.” If this isn’t the genuine concern in our hearts, then our homes, business and society as a whole are destined for failure. The world does actually depend on us handling the small details well. Thanks for an unexpected topic well deserving of our consideration!
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