How Do You Handle Guest Preferences Without Appearing Racially Biased?

I work in the hotel industry where many times we have to give preference to a guest based on their gender or past association with the company. This, at times, is assumed by other guests as racial discrimination, especially if the guest who received preference was white. We aim to establish a proper policy against racial discrimination with guests, ensuring that no team member can engage in racial discrimination under the guise of guest urgency.

Policy Against Racial Discrimination

Do you have something similar in your organization? Please note that for our staff, we clearly outline this in the house rules, although it's just a one-liner.

To avoid being blamed for partiality, you may divide your guests into four categories: Platinum guests, Gold guests, Silver guests, and the general category. Now, what should be the eligibility criteria to become a member of the respective category is something you have to decide. The higher the level of the category, the higher the level of preferential treatment.

Example of Preferential Treatment Program

Erstwhile, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) had a Frequent Flyer Programme (FFP). In some other programs, members of the King Club were given preferential treatment, and their booked luggage was off-loaded immediately after landing. Members of the King Club did not need to wait for the luggage at the conveyor belt.

You may also design a similar program for your guests to avoid confusion regarding preferential treatment.

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

I have worked in the hotel industry for 2 years (at the front desk specifically) and can comment from my own experiences and observations. Generally, the experiences that different guests have at one hotel are very different; even one guest can have different experiences at different times with the same hotel. While hotels do try to provide uniform services to all guests, many times Caucasians (or whites) receive preferential treatment, especially by the staff who financially benefit from them (housekeepers, bell-staff who receive higher tips). It's not a generalization, but I have seen it happen.

I don't know what the solution to this is, but in my opinion, high sensitization of the staff needs to be implemented. Additionally, sometimes preferential treatment does occur (as you mentioned) based on the guest's relationship with the hotel. In this context, past (bad) experiences with the hotel, revenue generated by the guest, length of stay, overall profile of the guest, and the relationships they have with the staff—all these factors matter.

To answer your question, don't you have values, ideal behaviors, or mantras for your hotel—the way most hotels do? As far as I know, all such rules emphasize customer service and have an anti-discriminatory message, whether explicitly or implicitly mentioned.

Have those in place, but nonetheless, have now designed a dedicated module on the same too. Being a hotelier, you understand the issue I was referring to. I would like to thank Mr. Dinesh for his inputs too.

On a broader level, you can modify this to sensitize your staff on diversity in general and guard against any type of discrimination. This includes, but is not limited to, racial, gender, language, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and physical disability discrimination against anyone. This is just a suggestion. As you spoke of racial discrimination, I wanted to offer a wider perspective.