The quality of Macau’s hotels and resorts is variable and the offerings diverse, with some properties standing out, either for all the good or for all the wrong reasons

As 2011 has just come to a close, this is the perfect moment to assess where Macau stands in the ranks of hospitality service, and which hotels and resorts can be regarded as winners.

With the opening of Galaxy Macau, the city now has 26 five-star hotels, many managed by international hospitality groups. Guests are entitled to expect all to give excellent service, matching the level offered by their sister-hotels abroad. Unfortunately, my experience as a hospitality consultant shows me that this standard has yet to be reached in Macau.

Most of the five-star hotels here offer great rooms – some are lavish – so service is even more important to set a hotel apart from the competition.

In this regard the Hotel Okura Macau and the Banyan Tree Macau, both opened last year, stand out. The quality of their staff is ahead of the pack and they make guests feel quite welcome.

Even so, both hotels have shortcomings, notably in the way they check guests in and out. It is disappointing for arriving guests to be kept waiting, sometimes for hours, for their rooms to be made ready. It is quite the opposite when it is time to check out, with the staff betraying an urgent need to have room keys back. This “please leave” attitude is unacceptable and makes customers feel uncomfortable. Hoteliers should be more sensitive to this problem.

As an industry professional, I understand that hotels here are short of manpower and that this makes the process of getting rooms ready for arriving guests all the slower. I also know that hotels are often fully booked and so need departing guests to check out as soon as possible to vacate their rooms for arriving guests. But these are not a guest’s problems and should not detract from their stay.

Shows and no-shows

The standards of room cleaning at both the Hotel Okura and the Banyan Tree Macau are higher than elsewhere in Macau. Even so, I strongly advise their housekeeping departments to give more attention to detail.

When it comes to free in-house entertainment, the city has three clear winners and one big loser. Galaxy Macau and StarWorld offer the best free in-house live entertainment shows. The resorts, both managed by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., have done excellent work in selecting outstanding performers from around the world to offer their guests non-stop shows. It is remarkable how many different live performances they present each day.

But Galaxy Macau has tremendous room for improvement in other areas, even allowing for its massive dimensions. The resort is full of restaurants but has very little else for tourists to do apart from watch shows. The recent opening of its cinemas is good news.

The Venetian Macao is the other winner in the field of free in-house entertainment. Besides offering the breath-taking spectacle of its interior, the Venetian shows that its marketing department understands how to entice the masses with special events and live acts.

Across the street, City of Dreams also amazes me, but for all the wrong reasons. I find it a monotonous place, with barely any free live entertainment – at least on the scale one would expect from such a big resort. I would love to meet the management of City of Dreams to ask them what they were dreaming of. The resort is the big loser in this field.

Year zero

Turning to casinos, and food and drink, the variety on offer is huge. It is hard to pick a clear winner and probably unfair to do so. All hotels have at least one extraordinary restaurant and most gaming areas give customers what they are looking for: a range of games to play and chips to play with.

That said, Wynn Macau sets itself apart from the rest. Inside its casino, one can find the best customer service in Macau, at least on a gaming floor. There is still work to be done on employee attitude but without a doubt Wynn Macau’s staff are the best trained in town.

Is there a point to listing the winners and losers in this industry? Yes, there is: to set standards for all hotels and resorts to match or surpass. With a new year, a new opportunity arises for hoteliers to think again about how they do things and improve the quality of their service.

Will 2012 be the year when, finally, we will see the revolution in service that Macau is crying out for? Will this be the year when, finally, all involved in the tourist industry come to realise the need to start building a better workforce? Will this be the year when employees start performing responsibly, with a view to excelling in the performance of their duties?

I still have high hopes for the future. The evolution of the industry depends simply on a change of attitude among those that work in it – a change that would eventually allow Macau to call itself an “international tourist destination” without a hint of irony or trace of wishful thinking.

By Gustavo Cavaliere

Hospitality industry expert – gustavo.cavaliere@gmail.com