Yes indeed, hindsight is wonderful. Reflecting recently, I have been completely taken aback at how one bad apple in the family can have such a profound effect, not only on the financial stability of a company but on what I didn’t realise – the mental effect – that such a burden places on a team.
In the start-up stages of BON Hotels, very eager (as are most hotel management companies) to get our portfolio numbers up, we were sucked into the proverbial question of ‘how many hotels have you got in your group?’ This proved to be a yardstick that we fell for, as we set out to prove our worth and impress our peers. All the while, in the back of our minds, we were actually aware that the numbers game is a useless game.