FEATURE: The morning routine of successful hoteliers

Every day is an opportunity to grow your hotel, and every day begins with a morning – the first step you take, setting you on the path to seizing and maximising your opportunities.

There seems to be a growing interest at C-level across the business world in ‘peak performance’ and ‘self-optimisation’ and the rituals that achieve these ends seem mostly to happen in the morning. So I decided to interview some of London’s most successful hoteliers, to understand how a morning routine creates success.

In their answers, five key things kept recurring, but I suspect the devil of success is in the detail. So, in their own words…

1. Early Start

This came up in every interview. It makes sense: to have a morning routine at all, you need to create enough time – by getting up just that little bit earlier than everybody else.

The hospitality industry requires you to work late at night, particularly when you are hotelier/host and people like to see you … but that doesn’t preclude me getting up early in the mornings.

Mark Fuller, CEO, Sanctum Hotel 

To kick start my day I want to deal with as little friction as possible, and friction for me is traffic – I cannot deal with standing still and doing nothing. So getting up earlier solves this.

Michael Levie, COO, CitizenM Hotels 

My non-negotiable routine is being a bit of an early bird, so I am always up and on my feet quite early. I do have two young daughters who help me stick to that routine – I don’t need an alarm clock.

Jason Catifeoglou, COO, The Zetter Hotel 

I get up at 7, which is not dramatically early. I spent years working in the fish business, which is up before 4am every day. Like everything in life, you get used to it but I now avoid early starts when I can.

Robert Nadler, Owner, Nadler Hotels 

2. Nutrition

Breakfast is as important to hoteliers as it should be to everyone. The unanimous focus was on nutritious energy without the wheat and sugar that result in lows later on.

One thing I do religiously in the morning is my green juice. My wife and I are green juice fanatics, so we always kick start our day with something very green and potent and pretty ugly, but fantastic for awakening you and being the first thing that hits your stomach in the morning … If it’s not a thick juice is will be followed by a nice raw breakfast.

Jason Catifeoglou, COO, The Zetter Hotel 

Porridge and a mashed banana, which is quite delicious and I look forward to it. I love eating well. There are really simple things that can provide such great pleasure.

Robert Nadler, Owner, Nadler Hotels 

I gave up coffee some time ago, it gives me the jitters, but I’ll take a pot of green tea and some coconut water, sometimes some wheat-free toast.

Mark Fuller, CEO, The Sanctum Hotel 

I take a natural food supplement, Ambrotose. Most food supplements, believe it or not, are petrochemicals, but Ambrotose is based on essential sugars that promote cell communication. I’ve seen great results from it. After that I grab a few apples and drive to work.

Michael Levie, COO, CitizenM Hotels 

3. Clarity

Once the day has started, there’s little chance of finding a moment to calibrate, and that’s why each of the hoteliers ensured they found time in the morning to focus and prepare themselves for the day.

I used to practice shorinji kempo, a Japanese version of Kung Fu. What I liked about it was the focus on ‘zen’ – something I have always been attracted to. Now, I practice transcendental meditation; it used to be Zazen … but I moved over to something less severe, something that is much easier to take with you and do wherever you are.

Robert Nadler, Owner, Nadler Hotels 

[Responding to a leading question about meditation] Nooo … none of that business, just jump in for a quick swim, may hit the sauna for half an hour afterwards. Just chill out and think through things then straight to work.

Mark Fuller, CEO, The Sanctum Hotel 

From a mental state perspective, I just try and reset my day. It’s easy to say ‘you wake up, it’s a new day and off you go’ but all too often people tend to bring yesterday through to today’s agenda. So I like to reset on a daily basis – to have a real clarity of mind to begin my day, removing yesterday’s thoughts, and those of the potential of tomorrow.

Jason Catifeoglou, COO, The Zetter Hotel 

I arrive in the office an hour early. As a leader if you want to be effective in what you do, you need to be able to orientate yourself at all times in the big picture of things, and from there you can then go into the most minute detail. It is being one step ahead. It gives me the opportunity to be clear and navigate.

Michael Levie, COO, CitizenM Hotels 

4. Facilitating Productivity

The hospitality industry is full of surprises. All the hoteliers explained, however, that they endeavour to control the variables as best they can – even if that means simply preparing themselves for anything.

There is always an element of responding to changes, but I like to prepare the night before, think about what is coming up the next day – anticipate, don’t expect, so you then look at what has come in to require changes. As they say in scuba diving ‘plan the dive and dive the plan’.

Robert Nadler, Owner, Nadler Hotels 

Deal with the physical part, pack in the nutrients nice and early, then deal with your emotions –getting your mental clarity as high up there as possible to start the day in a high-spirited way.

Jason Catifeoglou, COO, The Zetter Hotel 

I tend to work off the cuff. I find if you plan the night before, you are given so many curve balls first thing in the morning that there is little point in pre-planning. I rely on my PA for the structure of my day, so the only plan is where I am, then I respond to it from there.

Mark Fuller, CEO, The Sanctum Hotel

I am early to the office, so I get to do a few things that I want to organise which I’ve thought of on the drive in. The day then runs away, and I don’t have time to regroup until the working day is over.

Michael Levie, COO, CitizenM Hotels

5. Balance

I asked each hotelier how they’d improve upon their routines, and all referred to something they’d mentioned already: balance. Taking time in the morning to ‘smell the flowers’, whether that meant more opportunities for independent thought, spending time with the family, or walking the dog. But why hadn’t they already made these changes? They all said the same thing: they enjoy their work.

For my equanimity … I would like to be strong willed enough to avoid looking at emails until you get into the office. Is it really necessary to spend half the evening and first thing in the morning going through emails?

Robert Nadler, Owner, Nadler Hotels

To get a better strike in terms of balance. It’s another facet to that recalibration process, in terms of creating a neutrality and ridding yourself of distracting concern.

Jason Catifeoglou, COO, The Zetter Hotel

Hospitality is a seven-day week, but I like to work. I don’t see the benefit of making changes. Maybe a few extra hours in bed or more frequent weekends in the country.

Mark Fuller, CEO, The Sanctum Hotel

One question I asked each hotelier was: which part of this routine is the most important? Universally, the answer was “everything”.

The morning has a great weight of responsibility resting on its drowsy shoulders: to provide nutrition, to keep you mentally and physically fit, to align your mind ready for the day ahead, to provide the time required to strike the right balance in your life. It’s a lot to ask of it, so perhaps take it one step at a time.

A good start: getting up a little earlier!