Hospitality vs. Service
I tend to get asked quite a bit about what the real difference between the hospitality industry and the service industry is. The answer isn’t straight forward one. In fact, when it comes to bars and restaurants, you need to have both working in tandem with one another. I think that this is where the confusion starts for most people. Throughout this article, I’ll be doing my best to breakdown the major differences between the two and explain how they have to work in unison to create those amazing experiences that keep us continuing to go out and enjoy the magic that is visit some of our favorite places.
At its core, the real debate here is “What is hospitality?” and “What is service?”. Let’s start by breaking these two down to their most fundamental levels:
Definition: Service – The action of helping, doing, or providing something for someone.
Definition: Hospitality – The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.
You can see here where the big differences start to separate the two from one another. When you’re providing a service, you’re doing something for someone. When you’re engaging in hospitality, you’re impacting the way a person feels in a positive way. Let’s take a real life example and apply these two ideas next to one another. You walk into any restaurant and place your order. You’re served your food. Your water and beverages are refilled. You pay your bill and the correct change is given to you. These are all services that have been provided. When you look at hospitality, you want to look at all of how all of those things have made you feel. Were you welcomed when you came inside? Did your waiter/waitress ask how you day was going before he/she/they took your order? Were you asked how you were enjoying your meal or beverages? Did they give you a warm goodbye and welcome you to join them again sometime in your future? These are all important aspects of hospitality that set it distinctly apart from service. Anyone can provide a service in any manner of fields or areas of employment. Not everyone has or wants to provide hospitality to people and that makes the biggest difference when talking about the two areas.
So how do we navigate between the two ideas if we’re employees of any establishment in the food and beverage industry? Well, we all know that we have to provide certain services. Without some of those services, why would anyone be driven to visit your establishment? Food, drinks, etc. are all services and niceties that are provided. Hospitality is what creates the experience and sets the entire mood, culture, and ambience of any location. Hospitality is also almost always what motivates people to return time and time again.
Let’s turn back to that initial question then, “What is the difference between the hospitality industry and the service industry?” The difference is everything. Without services, you can’t have the opportunity for hospitality in the world of food and beverage. However, without hospitality, this industry lacks all of the heart, passion, and excitement that pushes everyone to continue working in this field each and every day. It’s also the same reason that millions of people love going out to visit certain places. Everyone can cook at home and everyone can just get food anywhere they want. It’s hospitality and those amazing moments that hospitality creates that give people the chance to experience something that they couldn’t anywhere else. To feel welcomed, to feel loved, to feel important, and to have an amazing time. All of these wouldn’t be possible without hospitality. Maya Angelou said it best, “People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
At the end of the day, this is an industry founded on service but thrives on hospitality. For that reason, this will always be the hospitality industry.
