In an article in Realbusiness, Peter Knight describes his experience at Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, which describes itself as “the most luxurious hotel in the world”. If you look it up, you’ll recognize the building from every article you’ve read about building in Dubai. They have a fleet of Rolls-Royces and rainshowers and jacuzzis in every room. It sounds wonderful.

Their success, according to the article, is down to people and systems. Within a few days, the author of the article says that they had taken pages and pages of notes on his likes and idiocyncrasies. This meant that for breakfast they could deliver a cup of tea, and ten minutes later a pot of coffee, exactly as he likes it.

None of the systems would work without the people though. Even with 1200 employees for 200 rooms, the people have to be the right people in order to deliver the right kind of service. With 24 hour butler service, the kind of person you sometimes see on night shift, sleeping at their post, would not work. The systems have to be there, but without the people, the systems would fall down.

By the way, if you’d like to stay there, the room I looked at was $5000/night. I might be saving for some time.

http://realbusiness.co.uk/peter_knight/peter_knight_business_lessons_fro…