What I Learned at a Hotel in My Younger Days

Hello, everyone. This is Ken, a butler. Though I now hold a position entrusted with running great houses, I too, of course, had my fledgling younger days. Today, let me tell you of an unforgettable lesson I received back then.

In my younger days I was training in service at a first-class hotel. One day, a guest I was attending wished for "a fish dish, as I am not fond of meat." Yet from the kitchen came, for some reason, the reply, "We recommend the steak here." The guest said, "Well then, that will do," and I, relieved, was about to proceed accordingly.

At that moment, the manager who had been watching beside me admonished me quietly, but clearly. "What the guest first wished for was a fish dish. To match the guest is our work." I was struck. The guest had said "that will do" only out of consideration for us. Their true wish, I had been about to bend for my own convenience. We at once prepared the fish dish anew.

This incident became the foundation of everything I did afterward. Hospitality is to "match" the guest's wishes — never to press our own convenience upon them. It seems obvious, and yet, swept along by busyness and efficiency, a person can lose sight of this obvious thing all too easily. To that manager who admonished me sternly, my gratitude has never ceased. Behind the sternness was a sure warmth.

Long years have passed since then, and now it is I who am in the position of guiding those who come after. When I convey something to young people, I always recall that manager of that day. People grow while being set right by someone. To return that kindness to the next generation is, I believe, the duty of an elder. I shall keep striving, without forgetting my first resolve, to offer our guests a comfortable space.