Interview With Diego Galbiati From Italy

The “Hôtellerie” has always been my passion long before becoming a job. As a travel lover I spent many nights in hotels around the world and from each stay I learnt as much as possible. Hospitality is an integral part of life of each person. If everyone in the world should behave as a gentle receptionist, it would be for sure a better and happier world.

I help the management find the best way to make the structure successful. For sure, the most important traits for this role are: be open-minded, embrace innovation and never think that there are limits.

I proudly introduce you to AL MOLO 5. Literally the Pier #5. As you probably can imagine this name take inspiration from the surrounding area where the establishment is located. Al Molo 5 is a front lake boutique hotel situated in one of the most prestigious and finest area in the world: LAKE COMO. The hotel was built just a year ago but is already offering top-level service.

Our hotel is particularly appreciated for our ancillary services such as the Italian café, the lake-view restaurant, the boat rentals, the water-taxi, the e-bikes, etc. Since our opening, we decided to create a 360° environment where a customer can enjoy every aspect and activity for a perfect holiday on the lovely shore of Como Lake.

We are incredibly proud and thankful for this achievement since it means that our efforts have been productive. The entire staff is very happy, and this victory keep us motivated.

It will help us a lot since we are new, and we need exposure. From the point of view our future customers will see us as representatives of excellence.

The main challenges especially for the past season were the uncertainty about reservations. We have seen cancellations shortly before the stay due to the political and social instability that is affecting Europe today. Luckily for us, there was so much demand that we always filled the facility.

Our advice is to be very clear regarding all the procedures and rules to follow for preventing COVID-19. In fact, every country has different rules. Finding clear rules during the booking or during check-in is a very positive experience for guests.

We are very lucky to be located in Lake Como area that is a place where you have plenty of activities, museums and villas to visit. All the attractions on the lake organize often special events that gather many people from all over the world.

The most exciting trend from our point of view are the “digitalized guest experiences”. Thanks to mobile and Apps the guests can find easily all the needed information and the hoteliers can easily manage the services to provide by controlling many aspects of the guest cycle and experience. We recently launched our app where our guests can decide the time to receive breakfast and where they can book all the extra services we are able to provide such as e-bikes, taxi boat and boat rentals.

TIME: Guests have less time. We must offer not only an excellent service but also a very fast one.

EXPERIENCE: our customers look for something to remember. A relaxing and peaceful stay is not enough. The activities to spend during the stay are an important aspect to consider. Thus, the challenge is to keep innovating to find the best activities to provide.

TRANSPORTATION: a challenging aspect nowadays is transportation that instead of becoming easier It is becoming even more difficult and pricy.

The most important resources are people and technologies. Finding the right people that can exploit technologies is a key element for promoting the establishment at the best.

The industry is relying every day more on images and video to better show the structure. Visibility is extremely important to communicate reliability and trust. For this reason, I see virtual and augmented reality the next step to the digitalization of hotels. Some examples application could be virtual tours, digital environments for consumers to picture themselves in and videos providing 360° views of rooms, restaurants and public areas.

My CEO and my colleagues keep inspiring me everyday thanks to their work ethic.

Never stop learning.

Become a renowned property in the area keeping the high-level service as top priority.

We thank all our customers for choosing our structure and if today we have won this award, it is thanks to them that push us improving more and more.