Every aspect of our everyday life is unique because even exactly the same experience changes depending on whether I am the one living it or someone else.
That is the magic of not knowing what tomorrow will bring.
Take training. Studying. Learning a trade. Even something as simple as repeating the same thing over and over.
The setting may be the same. The teachers and the guidance may be the same.
But then there is the way we approach that situation, and our own ideas about what it means to do something well.
And suddenly the whole perspective can change.
Take taste, for example.
I like flowers. You like sculptures. I like understated colours. You like extravagance.
There are two services in a hotel that matter more than anything else: the bed and breakfast.
Everyone uses them.
So, looking at the numbers, these are inevitably the two aspects of our hotel that receive the most attention, opinions, criticism and praise.
And while a bed is, well, a bed – even though the materials and the care that go into preparing it can vary enormously – breakfast is something much more fluid.
Some products are eaten by everyone. Some by only a few. Others depending on the season, the weather, the mood… or simply who happens to be sitting at the table that morning.
As the value of a service increases, so does the difficulty of getting it right.
Personal taste expands into a very wide spectrum, alongside the mood of that particular day (and, of course, the weather).
You can learn. You can observe colleagues who are better at something than you are.
But when it comes to putting that learning into practice, the result is still influenced by personal preferences, someone else’s guidelines, and the resources available.
Our breakfast is getting a lot of love this year.
And we think there are three main reasons:
- the improved organisation of the buffet;
- Simona’s creativity and passion in the kitchen;
- the above-average competence of the dining-room team.
And yet, even now, three “brilliant” reviews can be followed by one saying: “It’s always the same.” And one: “You have a fantastic team.” can be followed by: “There were too many staff in the room and we felt uncomfortable.”
It’s all a matter of taste, isn’t it?
What’s more, even if people’s habits are changing – and people are certainly paying more attention to what and how much they eat – what we actually eat for breakfast is probably still a fairly limited universe. There is a whole world of eggs we could explore. We’d love to offer composed salads, but they still don’t get much attention. Our coffee station uses high-quality powdered milk. Fresh milk would obviously be better.
We could have more variety in our pizzas, focaccias and breads.
But objectively speaking, the vegetables and fruit you find on a breakfast buffet are more or less the same everywhere. In our case, yes, there are some of the more expensive ones that we don’t offer as regularly – strawberries, berries, avocado…
But we don’t really believe that these are the products that would radically change the way people perceive our breakfast.
One thing we could certainly improve is the room itself.
Oh, we could do a lot there…
The cakes? I think they’re good, and there’s plenty of variety.
Yoghurt? Seeds? Cereals? Different types of milk? All good questions.
We would really love it if those of you who tell us that our breakfast is “monotonous” would explain why. We take that criticism seriously. And we’d like to put ourselves more on the line.
We want to understand what feeling lies behind it. Because growing by completely renovating the breakfast room – when we’re able to do so – would clearly make a difference.
But improving it a little every day, every year, is a much more difficult path.
Perhaps we should travel more. We don’t do it nearly enough. Or perhaps not at all.
Anyone who works in hospitality should really do it every year, and should also choose what to look at.
Looking at other hotels’ photos on social media is NOT research.
Having said all that, we’re genuinely pleased with how much more positively our breakfast has been received this year. Precisely because this particular opinion carries more weight than many others about the hotel, it’s clear that a positive trend here brings us a greater absolute value.
We’re proud of it. But maintaining a good result is much harder than having a temporary burst of success. And taking another step forward… Well, that’s harder still.
So perhaps our greatest allies for the future will be… honey, in several different varieties, and jams with no added sugar?
Who knows. 🍯
