the jakarta post

Letter: The hospitality business

Fri, 03/26/2010 10:14 AM  |  Readers Forum

The prohibitive price of beer, wine and spirits in tourist-unfriendly Indonesia is comparable only to the unprofessional attitude of the nation’s hospitality and tourist industry which doesn’t know how to sell alcohol even if people could afford to buy it. 
You don’t need to blame luxury taxes or excise tariffs for hindering the sale of alcohol. The people in restaurants and hotels supposedly meant to sell the stuff are already doing a good job discouraging its consumption. In the past 15 months I can remember only one occasion while dining at a five-star hotel or any restaurant in Jakarta when I was asked by the waiter if I would like to have a drink before dinner.
Rule number one of the waiting game: As you hand out the menus, you don’t walk away until you have asked the customers if they would like a drink. That’s the first thing you do. You offer the customer the choice and you may well make a sale.  Restaurants, after all, are in business to make money.
Then, after you have taken the orders for food, ask the guests if they would like to have wine with their meal or other drinks. And as the meal progresses, check to see if more wine or drinks are required. Then at the end of the meal, ask if anyone would like a port or liqueur with their coffee.
Last week in Bali, six of us walked into a five-star hotel for lunch. Inside the door of the restaurant was a well-stocked wine cellar, beautifully presented in a glass enclosure. Behind the bar there was a display of assorted beers, spirits and liquors. On the table, well-polished, elegant wine glasses. The waitress handed each of us a menu and without asking if we wanted it, filled all the wine glasses with water. She took our food orders. At no stage were we asked if we wanted alcohol. 
What’s with the wine cellar and the bar then? What are wine glasses for if not to drink wine out of? A restaurant offering food and wine presumably wants to sell both. That is not the impression you get in Indonesia. Can anyone explain to me how a business is run by stocking shelves with products you make no effort to promote or sell?
Hotels and restaurants are in the business of selling food and wine. Presumably that is the case in Indonesia as well.  But here they will sell you food, but sometimes it is as if you have to get on your hands and knees and beg them to sell you some wine. It’s ridiculous and shows that the staff and management are poorly trained to deal with a customer’s needs.
At present, this is often not the case, even in some of the most expensive and luxurious hotels in Jakarta. The staff simply doesn’t have a clue about basic restaurant procedures. I suspect some waiting staffs are not interested in selling alcohol because they have funny ideas about it and this reflects their lack of service. If that is the case, they are in the wrong industry and are a liability for their employers not to mention a cause of considerable annoyance for customers.
I worked for many years in the hospitality industry in Australia and worked my way up to become a head waiter in a five-star hotel. I received an award as “Waiter of the Year” from a leading hotel group. I don’t believe in just criticizing, even when the criticism is valid and deserved. 
If anyone in senior management from the hospitality or tourist industry, or major hotels and major restaurants in Jakarta is reading this and is interested in upgrading the skills of their waiting staff and would like me to come and speak to their staff about the appropriate use and service of alcohol, I would be happy to do so completely free of charge.  The Jakarta Post has my email.

Phillip Turnbull
BSD City, Banten