COMMENT: It’s amazing how the Australian tourism industry who has powerful lobby groups expect Federal and State government to bail them out when there is a market downturn or when tourism is taking a downer because visitors who have been here before refuse to come back or alternatively have told their friends that Australia is expensive and delivers “lousy” service for the price they are asked to pay.

The bottom line is that overseas tourists are not coming back to Australia not because of the beauty of the Country but because of high costs and poor service by hotel operators who want to charge premium rates but fail to deliver the quality of service that many of the visitors get in their own Country.

Almost every tourism research study identifies service as a major issue. A classic example of poor service is Conrad Jupiter’s on the Gold Coast which is often promoted by Tourism Australia and the cQueensland government as being a premium property.

Owned by Tabcorp who describe themselves as Australia’s “premier gambling and entertainment group”, this property is fast going downhill and despite an injection of capital to tart up what is fast becoming a tired four if not three star gambling property the hotel is failing to deliver even the most basic of customer service.

I have just come back from 3 days staying at this property and if my experience is anything to go by tourists are in for a very rocky ride. While gambling and the goughing of money into pokie machines or other gambling activities is a high prioity for Tabcorp it appears that customer service is suffering because of high staff turnover and poor customer service systems. 

Talk to any major hotel group, in particular the European and US operators and they will tell you that one of their most valuable assets is their customer database in particular the profiles they keep on the likes and dislikes of their frequent visitors. When I arrived at Conrad Jupiter’s I was told that they had no customer profile this is despite the fact that I have been staying at this property since first opened the last time being 12 months ago. I have done function after function in their ballroom while also booking hundreds of guests through the property for past clients.

When I checked in late on Friday night after booking directly with the hotel and after specifically asking for a King Sized bed my wife and I found ourselves in a twin room. When we pointed this out the response from the front desk operator was “Sir you did not book a king sized bed”.

Maybe he should have asked first what I had booked before telling me what I had not booked. This is called customer service.  Then when they did find a room with a king sized bed we discovered it was in a smoking room where everything in the room smelt of tobacco smoke. It then turned out that a non smoking was not available till late the next day.

Then there was the issue of room and floor keys. Eight times I had to go to reception where after waiting in a queue they had to re code my room key. They blamed my phone, then my wallet and other credit cards as the being the culprit for wiping the card of information.This is despite the fact that several customers were complaining of room key swipe problems.

In today’s market and with the technology there is available these issues can be avoided and should be avoided. This hotel is a classic example of what Tourism Queensland puts up as a 5 star hotel to overseas guests but in reality it is struggling to deliver a 3 star service.

One of the core problems for Conrad Jupiter’s is staff churn, which is uncommon among hotel properties in Australia. Speak to any of the staff at Jupiter’s and they will tell you that they are under paid and that there is high staff turnover. A check by SmartOffice reveals that staffs at Jupiter’s are paid up to $100 a week less than their counterparts at Star City which is also owned by Tabcorp and during the next few months this could well lead to further problems as staff seek further pay rises.

Service and the building of a close relationship with customers are critical in today’s market. As an example I am a regular visitor to both the Westin in Irvine in the USA and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and at both properties they not only hold extensive customer profile but communicate with me on a regular basis with offers and information that they believe could be relevant to me.

2 years ago when I was checking into a hotel in Europe the concierge said “Welcome back Mr Richards, your non smoking aren’t you”. I had not visited this hotel for two years. Inside they knew my room preference and pillow preference and the fact that I wanted a copy of the Financial Times in the morning.

For a hotel like Jupiter’s this level of customer service is essential particularly as this hotel is now very tired and is about to lose their ocean views to new developments who will take customers away from them because they are newer, have great views and are going to be committed to not only wining customers away from Jupiter’s but retaining them with a higher level of service.       

Maybe one solution for the Federal Government is to invest in “Service” software for the tourism industry and better training for key staff instead of blatently proping