Ahmed Shareef

Every resort in Maldives has some sort of welcome proceeding for arrival guests. A team member goes to the jetty and expects guest’s arrival before the boat could alongside. In some resorts the Greeter goes to jetty before a guest onboard could notice the people on the island.

When the guests travel by boat many do enjoy the scenery of tropical island chains in different shapes and colours. A silhouette view of the island comes into sight from a distance of 10 miles. The guests could notice the size and some vegetation of the island compared with neighboring islands if any. Soon they see the glimmering white beach, and when the boat is close to 2 miles they see the structures of different shapes beautifully portrayed in real colours.

Guests see a well-groomed team of staff await standing upright watching the boat arrive. They feel the resort is well prepared for their arrival. The team members smile and greet each and every guest in finest words of hospitality as soon as they get off. They are then guided to lobby or welcome pavilion where servers expect them with cold funnel and welcome drinks. Passports are collected along with travel agent’s vouchers and team members fill the registration cards quickly and continue the check-in process.

This could be a normal arrival to a resort in Maldives. However, the luxury chains have specific phrases and standards to use during different interactions with the guests, including the arrival. In Marriott, the arrival treatment is called Arrival Ritual. The word itself has the fine touch of warm hospitality and spirit to serve. Marriott’s Renaissance brand have these steps in their Arrival Ritual:

WELCOME:
A. “Welcome to Renaissance”
B. guide the guest
C. Delighted to welcome

RECOGNISE:
D. Use the standard
E. Greet for the time of the day with a smile
F. “We are delighted to welcome you”… and guest name

PERSONALIZE:
G. They use the guest name as often as possible.
H. Find out the guest needs
I. Attentive, proactive and maintains the flow of conversation

These standards are quite common in Maldives as they are pretty basic, I would say.

The Arrival Ritual is just a single chapter of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which includes the complete set of standards for hotel operations. All high class resorts in Maldives have this in place and the entire operation is precisely guided. But, inspiring terms like ‘Arrival Ritual, Mr.Friday, Thakuru’ are still rare in the Maldives.