Managing Director Philip Wood keeps The Jefferson Hotel above the luxury fray. This is the latest in a series of profiles of leaders around the world challenging the status quo. Read them all, including Legend Sir Michael Kadoorie of Peninsula Hotels, and Groundbreaker Cyril Aouizerate of Mob Hotels, in HOTELS’ April issue.
When the 2016 presidential election heated up last summer, Philip Wood, managing director of The Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C., gladly told people who had his vote — the hotel’s resident beagle, Monticello, or Monti, for short.
Monti’s faux presidential bid was a stunt that doubled as both a marketing campaign and a light-hearted take on politics (slogan: A Sniff in the Right Direction). For Wood, it was a perfect example of how The Jefferson, a 95-room luxury property in a historic beaux arts building, is willing to try things that are “a little off the wall.”
“No one would expect the hotel to do anything like that,” he says. The campaign was also a perfect example of Wood’s management style — approachable, encouraging and involved.
In his long career, the British-born Wood has taken roles on property, in the corporate office and with ownership for hotels both small and large. Yet six years ago, tired of constant international travel, Wood wanted to be an innkeeper again and alighted on The Jefferson for what he calls his “swan song.” With The Jefferson as his last permanent stop, Wood is focused on imparting his lessons on staff who are coming up.
Further, faster
Early in his career while managing a multi-cultural and -lingual staff at Café Royal in London, he discovered he could get further faster with managing by example as opposed to translating ideas to each language. “People can sense when you are being positive and when you are being encouraging, as well as challenging,” he asserts.
Another valuable lesson learned was time management. Wood realized he had to help his employees take on more of their own responsibilities. “Each of my roles has sort of honed my skills in giving other people the tools to do the job,” he says. “And it’s more than physical tools. It’s giving them the mental stability, too.”
When it comes to guest relations, maintaining a personal connection remains of utmost importance to Wood, even as technology automates many hotel operations. In fact, that human touch may just separate one hotel from the rest.
“In the larger hotels, technology is the tail that has started to wag the dog,” he observes. “But at the end of the day, the more technology there is in a hotel, the more people will be receptive to that person-to-person contact.”
This is especially important in an age when angry guests will often go to social media first without giving the hotel a chance to address the issue.
“When we used to do training of line employees, we’d talk about when people have a compliment about the hotel, they will tell three people,” Wood says. “When they have a complaint, they will tell 12. Now it’s 1,200.” The bright side to this, he adds, is that front line staff are very aware of what they do.
“I don’t care how good a hotel is, it’s going to make mistakes. Once in a while, it’s going to happen,” Wood says. “How we look at it is, ‘OK, if we find out about it, we’ll help fix it.’”
‘Beautiful experience’
To that end, Wood advises managers to get out from behind their desks and get involved. “To be a success in the luxury industry today, it needs to be MBW — management by walking. You’ve got to get out there and make sure you know what’s happening throughout your operation. Get involved.”
And do it with personality. “Like Disneyland’s pixie dust, we need to spread emotional dust or personality dust,” he says, likening the hotel industry to the entertainment industry. “Because that really makes a difference between a beautiful building and a beautiful experience.”
Aside from the out-of-the-box presidential campaign for Monti, his advice on financial matters and sales and marketing initiatives are more practical than experimental, focusing on both short- and long-term goals and stressing personal relationships. “Be less worried about making the hard sell and more into building relationships,” he says.
Oft considered the “dean of D.C.,” Wood has earned much respect from his contemporaries, including Hans Bruland, the vice president of the Hay-Adams Hotel across from the White House. “He is the ultimate professional and gatekeeper who will aim for the remarkable. Phil sets the right expectations, and defines the right outcomes,” Bruland says.
While Wood is in the process of handing over some of the daily management to his second in command, he plans on being involved with The Jefferson Hotel for a lot longer, while possibly taking on other projects for the hotel’s owners, Ogden CAP Properties. “I just love this little hotel,” he says.
Contributed by Juliana Shallcross