In the modern interconnected global society, the hospitality industry enjoys a high level of attention along with shaping the consumer’s perception of the travel experience and the destination.
Hospitality ethics plays a very crucial role in today’s hospitality industry as these ethics build customer trust and result in organisation success. When ethical standards are followed, the service delivery to guests is amazing while the sustainability of the industry boosts. The Hospitality and Hotel Management Course offered by the British Academy for Training and Development aims at developing participant’s competencies in leadership, customer relations and operational techniques for improving the quality of guests and organisational objectives.
This article provides an overview of hospitality ethics, explores essential ethical principles and how to address ethical problems in the hospitality industry.
“Hospitality ethics refers to a set of rules and standards by which hospitality businesses are expected to conduct their practices and build relations with clients.”
These principles help hotels, restaurants, resorts and tourism services to offer a positive experience while at the same time protecting the rights of every participant. Ethical practices in hospitality mean consideration, honesty, respect, and a focus on being welcoming to all. This goes beyond just ensuring customers have a positive experience; it is about accountability of actions and consistency of behaviour, despite emerging complications.
Tourism and hospitality are the two sectors that operate closely together, where ethical standards are vital for the improvement of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ethical leadership in hospitality and tourism enhances the efficiency, and stability of the businesses as well as destinations.
Ethical tourism consequently promotes respect for other people’s cultures and resources while ensuring the travellers and the tourism providers have considerable good relations with the communities.
Ethics in tourism is therefore very important when it comes to conserving cultural resources, preserving the environment, and promotion of sustainable income sources.
The fundamental principles of hospitality ethics can be expressed in nine principles. Known as the 9 principles of hospitality, these principles serve as guidelines for businesses and professionals in the industry:
Integrity is a core principle of hospitality, ensuring all the dealings are grounded in truthfulness. Hotel and tourism leaders specifically require integrity to reduce deception and act responsibly to guests and other employees. This means clear communication about pricing as well as about policies to be adopted.
Integrity guarantees that the clients get what was promised to them, ensuring a steady environment.
Accountability means being answerable for one’s actions especially in case of mistakes. In particular for the hospitality industry, this means that customers’ concerns are addressed, mistakes are corrected without delay, and commitments are fulfilled.
Responsible managers understand that their business is responsible for the positive as well as the negative consequences. By acknowledging errors, businesses create credibility and trust in the market.
Respect is related to fostering an amicable relationship with the guests and with the employees. This ethic is mainly applied under the premise that people are respected in any case irrespective of their race or rank.
Regarding guests, it means appreciating their time, personal space, comfort and privacy, while regarding employees; it means treating them fairly and recognising their worth. Respect creates a healthy, favorable climate in any environment associated with hospitality.
The concept of fairness is non-discrimination, guaranteeing that guests and employees are treated equally and without bias. This means ensuring that guests are treated equally and, similarly, pay and opportunities for the employees should remain equal as well.
Fairness avoids discrimination and makes all members feel equally important without any prejudice. And, in return it strengthens the relations of trust and loyalty both with customers and employees.
Confidentiality is paramount in order to prevent people’s privacy rights being infringed and this is particularly sensitive especially in this world of digital information. Ensuring personal and financial information is protected and only shared when necessary.
Privacy makes guests reassured and valued because individuals understand that the company they are in takes their privacy seriously. In following confidentiality, it also creates a good brand image that people can trust.
Sustainability refers to undertaking matters that will seek to reduce the impact which organisations have on the environment, a matter of concern to many hospitality ventures. This ethic is manifested in including waste minimisation, energy efficiency and provision of support to local environmentally friendly projects.
By following sustainable practice, environmental safety is enhanced while satisfying the environmental conscious guests. Sustainability means the commitment to the improvement of the business environment in the long-term interests of the planet.
Encouraging safety and security while hosting guests and employees is one of the most important areas of concern in hospitality. These involve cleaning of premises, safety measures, emergency preparedness and safety of the environment.
This way, companies show their appreciation to clients and prove that they meet their needs for security and safe services. Safety measures also lessen risks and are essential for a comfortable, and memorable guest experience.
Quality is not just about guest fulfillment of wants and needs, but the delivery of excellent service standards. This ethic entails going a notch higher to meet the needs and expectations of guests.
Delivering quality service to the guests creates a loyal customer base that is always giving positive feedback. This is because, through quality, hospitality businesses offer themselves as unique and make guests have great times.
Continuous improvement is the ability to constantly evaluate the process by which service improvements are offered. This ethic has to do with collecting feedback from the guests and using them to modify the services in the future.
In the context of a growing industry, staying updated on trends and adjusting to guest needs is vital. Continual enhancement creates a competitive advantage for organisations and the very best practice ensures a superior standard of offering in the long term.
The hospitality industry still experiences ethical issues. One of the major difficulties within the tourism sector is its negative impact on labour including over exploitation, impact on the physical environment and unsustainable privacy violation among others.
For instance, while selecting tourist destinations some facilities can be overstretched due to high numbers of visitors straining the availability of resources and affecting quality life of the residents.
The following issues should be managed through solutions which include restricted guest occupancy, environmental conservation with emphasis given to settlement of the workers without compromising their standards.
With regard to employees, the hospitality companies must understand the need to provide fair wages of work, reasonable working hours and safe methods of work. Companies ethically work for mutual benefits by protecting their employees so they can help the businesses deliver quality customer service. Also, they should respect the privacy of the guests because violation of privacy is detrimental to a company’s reputation.
In conclusion
Hospitality ethics plays an imperative role in the formulation of a trustworthy, respected and sustainable industry. If hospitality providers remain informed of the inherent principles of hospitality as well as the role and significance of ethics and tourism, it will be possible to build a hospitality environment that not only honors the guest, but also the locations that they visit.
Additionally, the incorporation of ethical practices into the discipline of hospitality makes the industry uphold ethical, diverse and environmentally sensitive standards. The sum of all these values is particularly important to the customers, the employees, and the hospitality businesses as a whole helping to create a more ethical and enjoyable experience.