Luis Marcó, founder and CEO of Marcó & Asociados

Marcó & Asociados is a leading firm in the hotel consulting service, born from the experience and long career of Luis Marcó, who has worked in  several luxury companies, such as Princess Hotel, Ritz-Carlton LLC and Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona. Marcó will be the moderator of the parallel session focused on luxury, within the III track of the HIWC (“People and change: The new intelligence of success”).

What is the strategic factor in human resources management within the hotel industry?

In my opinion, there isn’t just one factor, but three: the first one is to appoint a HR Director that understands and assimilates the philosophy of the company; the second is totally dependent on good personnel selection. In fact, there are companies with a specialised methodology to do this; and the third one is intensive and continuous training of employees to attain the expected level of service.

What are the keys to get to excellence in the service?

First of all, the global mission of the company has to be clear, as well as the type of services that they want to offer to their customers. After all, efforts must focus on getting all our employees to feel part of the company, which will guarantee the good service.

What position does Spain hold in terms of quality of service?

In five star hotels there is a noticeable improvement in customer service. Compared to the rest of the most visited tourist countries, ie. USA, France, Mexico, China… we would be, on a 1-10 scale, in 6^th position. This means that, except from the students from tourism schools who want to develop their careers in this industry, the rest of the people working in this sector do it for work, not because it’s their vocation.