What is hospitality?

Pijls: "Hospitality is a feeling and therefore difficult to put into words. Through interviews with experts from industries such as the care, hospitality, airports and event venues and at the same time guests, I arrived at a definition. Synonymous with hospitality is personal attention and three components influence the experience of hospitality, namely ´inviting´, ´care´ and ´comfort´."

What do these 3 components mean?

"Inviting is the component how inviting an organization comes across to the guest. The second component 'care' is about how and if the guest feels that he is taken care of. Comfort is about to what extent the organization makes the guest feel comfortable, regardless of how the guest feels about himself. Hospitality here is about what the organization contributes to the guest and involves the entire organization: from the website to the physical premises, from how services and facilities are arranged to how employees behave."

"In the second part of my research, I went deeper into what sensory aspects influence these components. What turns out? Physical warmth produces mental warmth, physical transparency produces mental transparency, and physical comfort produces mental comfort. For example, in a theater, we investigated how a warm welcome drink affected the guest's experience of hospitality. The people who received a warm drink felt the organization was more welcoming than the people who received a cold drink. A heated chair in a self-service restaurant contributed to the feeling of care. Also, a transparent facade of a hotel made people feel more inviting about the hotel."

To what extent is hospitality different for healthcare organizations than for the hospitality industry, for example?

"The three components mentioned are important for all types of organizations. However, it differs which component is the most decisive in the guest's experience. In a hospital, for example, the care component is more important than inviting. In a hospital, the guest must feel that he is being well taken care of. While the inviting component is more decisive for a restaurant or bar, for example."

What role do materials play in the hospitality experience?

"With materials you can easily give an environment a hospitable feeling, however, materials can give conflicting messages. A transparent facade may be more inviting, but once you're in the building, it may not feel that way. For example, wood or fabric are warm materials, but feel less hygienic. Steel and glass are less warm, but again communicate hygiene. So in a healthcare organization you could choose to use glass and steel for everything we touch with our hands and place soft and comfortable chairs. This is how you communicate care and hygiene. The use of color and smell also influences our perception. So with materials, colors and fragrances it's important to carefully consider what message you want to convey as an organization."

And the people?

"The human factor is the most important in the hospitality experience. Employees can compensate with their behavior for example a not so up-to-date environment. A still wonderful environment does not compensate for a wrong remark by an employee. An environment has a supportive effect. In doing so, people are more flexible than the environment. For example, people can influence the three components of hospitality simultaneously: as a hostess at the entrance (inviting), explaining the walking route in the hospital (care) and reassuring (comfort)."

"All the people, buildings, rooms and facilities a guest encounters contribute to the experience. It involves the whole patient journey that someone travels: from visiting the website, parking the car, waiting in the waiting room, talking to the doctor and the cup of coffee afterwards. So smooth links in this process are very important."

What is indispensable in a hospitable healthcare organization?

"Ultimately, the core of hospitality - personal attention - is the most important thing. People are the key to this, and you can think of guests and hostesses. Use language that people understand. The non-verbal behavior of each employee is important. Think open posture, standing up straight, taking your time, making eye contact and a friendly tone of voice. I would also recommend that the employee who is responsible for the hospitality policy should also travel through the journey that a patient makes from A to Z. Make sure that it goes smoothly and that all the details are clear. Make sure it goes smoothly and all touchpoints follow each other logically. And finally, do not underestimate the impact of a hospitable environment. It is quite simple to influence with, for example, soft materials in the furniture and images of nature."

Does this change in relation to the corona crisis?

"The corona pandemic affects how organizations can be hospitable to guests. What we experience as hospitable doesn't change that much, but the means that organizations can use to convey hospitality does. Shaking hands to greet a patient or putting your hand on his arm to show understanding is not an option at the moment. Mouth masks also impede non-verbal communication."

"To be inviting and to offer care and comfort, other aspects have to be taken into account. Eye contact and non-verbal communication are particularly important. Keeping a distance is what makes you hospitable. So pay extra attention to what you say as a doctor or care worker to patients and their relatives, and also how you say it. Think about voice, intonation, speed of speech and choice of words. Also clear instructions on how to use the environment safely is hospitality. Where can you walk, how do you make sure there is enough distance between people in the hospital? And how do you disinfect your hands? We now know that an automatic dispenser where you don't have to touch anything comes across as more hospitable than a pump you operate by hand."

View here the video interview with Ruth Pijls of Saxion University of Applied Sciences