I was fortunate recently to have a lengthy telephone conversation with Horst Schulze, the man behind Ritz-Carlton’s famous operating standards and more recently, the founder of Capella Hotels.

Schulze is an industry legend when it comes to service standards and a staunch advocate of the importance of offering the personal touch, which, he believes, is actually pretty simple to achieve.

You just have to think like a guest, not like a hotelier.

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It all comes down to putting the guest first in every decision, says Schulze. But can the guest really have priority — over the housekeeping team, restaurant operations, the general manager, even the owner?

One aspect of this that really caught my attention revolves around the two things every hotel guest does — they check-in and they check-out.

At most hotels, check-in is at around 3pm and check-out is at 12noon the following day. This is an accepted industry standard, but why?

According to Schulze, it’s for the convenience of the hotel, not for the guest — and that goes against putting the guest first.

So Capella Hotels decided to break “the rules of the industry” and do away with check-in and check-out times.

Schulze says: “Every hotel has a check in and a check out time. Well we don’t at Capella because the guest doesn’t want it. The guest doesn’t want to be told when they arrive early ‘oh you can’t check in now’.

“It is the convenience of the hotel and size of the hotel that dictates the rule of the hotel,” he says.

Size is an important factor to note, as Capella Hotels have 100-rooms or less, flexible check-in is “very easy”, according to Schulze, who accepts larger hotels may struggle to offer the service to all guests

Housekeepers start early and are in constant radio contact, so as soon as a guest checks out, that room can be cleaned for the new arrivals.

Now, housekeeping managers may not think this is as “easy” as Schulze, but he does have a point. At the luxury level at least, isn’t it time hotels were more flexible?

Capella Hotels does not have a flag in the Middle East yet, but other groups in the region have noticed, and acted on, a similar trend.

Across its portfolio, The Address Hotels + Resorts offers suite and club guests a total 24-hour-stay without incurring late check-out charges, and a similar initiative was recently introduced at Raffles Dubai.

This means that guests arriving in the evening or even after midnight have the option of keeping their room for a complete 24 hours without having to follow the traditional check-out time of 12 noon.

As well as being convenient for the guest, this is surely a great way of giving the customer value for money.

Perhaps it’s time more hoteliers were brave enough to break the rules.