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| At the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, Maui. As seen from the hotel's patio, the sacred Indian burial grounds, discovered during construction, forced architects, planners, and developers to reroute guest access to the beach. |
It’s not that Toner shuns publicity; it’s that Toner doesn’t pursue—or need—this kind of p.r. to prove his worth. The kind of p.r. that pleases Toner is the kind of tacit p.r. that radiates from the efforts of his employees. I suspect that when Toner reads this he’ll try to keep it to himself. It won’t work: others will find out about it and the word will spread throughout the hotel and Toner will be embarrassed. Or, pissed. In a nice way.
Toner is 40-something. He got into the hotel business in the late ’70s. He loves it. “I don’t know what else I’d be doing if it wasn’t in this business,” he says. “It’s scary.”
John and I are sitting in the lobby of his hotel. He’s trying to relax. Whenever he averts his eyes from our interview, it is to focus on activity at the front desk.
The average stay at the Maui Ritz is six days. For those six days, guests spend about $2500. “I’ve had guests who spend $10,000 in six days,” Toner says. “Sometimes more. And I care if they have a good time. If they don’t, I want to know why, so I can fix it. I’m told you can’t make everyone happy. I don’t believe that.”
I ask Toner, “To the extent that it works for guests, it must first work for the employees?”
“You bet. They’ve got to be happy. If they’re not happy, the guest suffers. Yes, I work closely with my executive committee—the heads of my departments—but the relationships with the line and staff employees are critical. My role is to build a business environment that’s healthy for the owners and the guests, but—just as important—is healthy for the employees: that they have an opportunity to grow, have a good income, can take care of their families, and leave here every day knowing this place is very special, looking forward to when they return tomorrow. If I can spread that feeling throughout the organization, the guest benefits and we’ve got business. That’s the only way I know how to run this place.”
Toner doesn’t like to fire anyone—doesn’t want to—especially if he’s had a hand in hiring him or her. Yet, even after several interviews where backgrounds are confirmed, references screened and verified and the person’s character found to be compatible with the Ritz-Carlton catchphrase of “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,” he will not hesitate to dump someone who fails or doesn’t care to accept and apply the values he feels are essential to the guest’s wellbeing.
“It is the rotten apple affliction,” Toner says. “I won’t have it. It not only undermines employee morale, it messes with our guest relations. It takes only one person to destabilize what we have here.
“When Horst [Schulze—Ritz’s president] visits, one of the first places he goes to is the laundry. He loves the people who work there. The word gets out that’s where Horst goes when he first comes here and it just reinforces what I’ve been talking about. I know it’s a cliché, but what the hell, here it is: relationships with employees are most important.”
Toner is general manager. No one else is. The maître d’ is the maître d’. No one else is. Toner was hired to be general manager; the maître d’ hired to be maître d’. And so on up and down the rank and file.
“We respect each other. We do not order each other about. I don’t care about seniority. When I visit our maître d’, I have to respect him or her. It doesn’t matter that I am the general manager. The maître d’ is the maître d’ because he or she knows what a maître d’ is all about. I think I know what a maître d’ is supposed to do, but no one knows that better than the maître d.”
You could say that about every position, from entry level to yours? “Yes,” he says.
It’s about trust.
“No matter how complicated your hotel is, if your employees don’t trust that you trust them, then lack of trust is going to show up in some very mysterious ways. When trust breaks down, when it deteriorates, your employees are not going to enjoy coming to work; they’re not going to enjoy watching the store. What happens? An erosion in employee morale, a downturn in business.
“Look at that guy checking in. Let’s assume he’s worked his tail off for 50 weeks so he can come here for two weeks to relax. Our job is to let him do just that. I’ll tell our wait staff, for example: when you’re finished serving him, it’s got to be the best service he’s ever received. He doesn’t care you’ve got other tables. Every other employee who will come in contact with him knows what he or she has to do. The only thing this particular guest knows is that he’s saved a lot of money to come to the most expensive hotel in Maui and we’ve got to drive service, service, service throughout his stay. We have a moral obligation that when he checks out, he’s got to believe that what he spent was worth every penny.”
Toner holds his index finger a half-inch from his thumb. “All I want from my employees is to care that much more than I do. That’s all.”
Outside of Toner’s office is an herb garden. He didn’t ask to have it planted outside of his office; that just happens to be where it is. It doesn’t bother Toner that it’s there. It’s there for his cooks, not for him. I’m assuming the cooks put it there because they figure outside of Toner’s office is the best place for it. Even so, I don’t know whose idea the herb garden was and I didn’t ask. What I do know is that if it wasn’t Toner’s, he didn’t think twice about letting someone plant it.
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