Employee empowerment examples from a hotel front desk

What does empowerment look like in a hotel, beyond a slogan on the staff room wall? The most useful employee empowerment examples are small and specific: who decides on a refund, who signs the card that goes with a gesture, who deals with the guest who is angry at the desk. Each of them moves a decision from the manager to the person who is actually standing in front of the guest.

Jordy Smit, general manager of Courtyard by Marriott Amsterdam Arena, has built his leadership around that shift. He has worked for Marriott brands for more than 16 years, starting as a receptionist, and wants his frontline team to own complaints, decide on compensation and put their own name under the gesture. In his view, when staff are trusted to solve problems, guests notice it, and so does the guest satisfaction score.

Why complaints belong with the frontline team

In Smit's view, a job title does not make a manager the best person to fix every problem. When a receptionist comes to him with one, he turns the question around: what would you do, and what do you think is a proper solution for this guest? More often than not, he says, the team member answers it themselves.

“I want you to work from the heart. So everything you do guys, I want you to do it because it's a passion and it's genuine.”

Jordy Smit, 19:12

That approach goes back to his own start. During an internship in Barcelona, his general manager ignored the school's internship rules and moved him to front office, because that was what he wanted to learn. He has tried to pass on that kind of trust in his own teams ever since.

One question that guides every compensation decision

Freedom without a guideline can feel risky for a young receptionist facing an unhappy guest, so empowerment needs a simple rule. Smit gives his team one he learned from an earlier general manager: ask yourself whether the stay is ruined, yes or no. If the answer is yes, the guest gets the night refunded or a voucher for a free night, so they can come back and the team can make sure the next stay is perfect.

Below that line, he deliberately stays out of the way. He describes himself as the last one to step in on compensation once it has been given.

“If you think it's the right compensation, nobody should be there to judge you on it.”

Jordy Smit, 20:42

He gave an example from the day of the recording. A receptionist had just checked in a couple celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and asked whether the hotel could do something. Smit asked what she wanted to give. She chose a bottle of champagne and a tiramisu from the hotel restaurant, and took it to the room herself. He could have written the card in his own name as general manager. He prefers that the person who spotted the moment signs it.

Put together, these employee empowerment examples come down to four habits any hotel can adopt:

• Ask "what would you do?" before stepping in yourself.
• Use the "is the stay ruined?" test to decide on a refund or a free night.
• Do not judge the compensation afterwards if the staff member thought it was right.
• Let the colleague who handled the guest take the credit, not the manager.

Handing over a complaint that gets personal

Handing over ownership also means keeping your hands off when it gets tense. Sometimes the person who is not emotionally involved is the better one to resolve a complaint. Smit learned this as front office manager in Ghent. At the start of a shift he had agreed that his guest experience supervisor would act as duty manager that evening and take ownership of any complaint. During a check-in, a guest showing a UK passport demanded that Smit speak French and apologise, and pointed a finger at him. In the end the guest no longer wanted to be helped by him.

His colleague, reluctant at first, stepped in. She apologised again for what had happened and offered to continue in English or French. The guest chose English. Smit says she handled it very professionally while he was shaken by the exchange. He gave her full trust, did not interfere, and eventually stepped away to calm down. It is a textbook case of how to handle guest complaints when emotions run high.

What employee empowerment examples do for guest satisfaction

A harder management style can look like the safer choice for a hotel that needs results. Smit tested that. When he joined the Amsterdam Arena hotel on 1 August 2024, his former manager told him to be a bit harder on the team, because that was what the hotel supposedly needed. He tried it.

“I tried that, two or three months, and the guest satisfaction was quite low.”

Jordy Smit, 22:11

He returned to his own style, which he sums up as being himself, and over recent months guest satisfaction increased significantly. He credits both the change in management style and the team getting to know him compared to the previous manager. Trust in the team turned out to be his most reliable way to improve guest satisfaction.

He is open about the trade off. His pitfall, he says, is that he can be too lenient, and a stricter approach might give the hotel higher profitability. But his goal is that guests leave happy and tell the next ten people that this hotel pays attention to them as a person, not only as someone who brings in money. In his view you sometimes have to spend money to make money.

Keeping the team motivated during busy shifts

Complaint handling holds up better when the team is not running on empty. On an evening when the restaurant turned its tables twice and the kitchen was under pressure, Smit grabbed six cans of Pepsi from the hotel shop and handed them out. It cost the company about three euros, and the team was happy. He also helps with check-ins and carries plates when needed, something a former general manager in Berlin encouraged: guests are human, and a joke that misses once in ten tries is no disaster. It is leading by example in the workplace in its simplest form.

To keep that spirit going beyond single moments, he introduced bus ambassadors. Three colleagues from three departments get a budget of 500 euros a month to organise an activity for the whole team. The ambassadors decide; Smit only gives hints.

If you want to hear these employee empowerment examples, from the Ghent story to the anniversary gesture, in his own words, watch the full conversation with Jordy Smit. More leaders share how they shape service on the floor in the Lead the Experience series.

Frequently asked questions

What are employee empowerment examples for handling a guest complaint?

Jordy Smit coaches his team to answer the question themselves: what would you do, and what is a proper solution for this guest? By turning the question back to the receptionist, he finds they usually come up with the answer on their own. The manager stays available for critical situations, but the person at the desk owns the solution and the follow up.

When should a hotel offer a free night after a complaint?

The rule Smit learned from an earlier general manager is one question: is the stay ruined, yes or no? If the answer is yes, the guest gets the night refunded or a voucher for a free night, and the team makes sure the next visit is perfect. Below that line, staff decide on the gesture they think fits.

Does giving staff more freedom affect guest satisfaction?

In Smit's experience it does. When he tried a harder, more direct style during his first months as general manager of a new hotel, guest satisfaction was quite low. After returning to his own empowering style, he saw guest satisfaction increase significantly over the following months, which he links to both his approach and the team getting to know him.

How can a general manager keep a team motivated during busy periods?

Smit combines small gestures on the spot with team led initiatives. During a full restaurant service he bought cans of Pepsi for the kitchen, and he helps with check-ins and carries plates when needed. He also set up bus ambassadors: three colleagues from different departments who get a monthly budget of 500 euros to plan an outing for the whole team.