Colin Powell’s advice to IHG hoteliers

Few people have visited as many hotel rooms as Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State. Powell shared his very definite hotel preferences with an audience of owners and hoteliers at the IHG Annual Convention in Washington, DC recently.

“I’m an old man, and my eyesight is not what it used to be,” Powell said, putting in a request for hotel shampoo and conditioner bottles that he could read — possibly with a big S or C on them to make things really clear.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Clock radios are another pet peeve.  “I don’t want to have to go to astronaut school to use them,” he said. “I don’t need three alarms and an iPod docking station.  I’m there for the night only.” He suggested that hoteliers get ones with letters big enough for him to tell a six from a three. “Go to any drug store — they cost about $9.99.”

Even if the hotel suite is huge, the closet is always tiny, and it is always filled to the brim with an iron, an ironing board and a safe, said Powell, making a pitch for bigger closets.

“In the information age, as we move away from wired to wireless technology, it’s a real annoyance to get into a room, put the computer down and set it up, try to plug it in and then have to climb under the desk to find an outlet that is already fully occupied with a lamp.” A lamp with an AC outlet would solve that problem, he said.

“I’m a simple person with simple preferences, but I like to do things that are very smart,” Powell said.

As Secretary of State, he attended meetings in Brussels. His entourage would race downtown to a big, fancy hotel he didn’t particularly care for, then come back to hold meetings five minutes from the airport. On the way, they were passing a Holiday Inn, and Powell wondered, “why don’t we just stay there?” So they moved to the Holiday Inn and they took good care of him, Powell said, adding that Holiday Inns have always had a special place in his heart.

Powell’s fondness for Holiday Inns goes back further than his tenure as Secretary of State. 

“If you were a person of colour driving through the south in the late 50s and early 60s, driving south from New York to Georgia while the interstates were still being constructed, anywhere south of Baltimore, there were always three restrooms—for white men, white women and coloured. 

And if  you were a black couple, you just kept on driving and hoped you could stay with relatives, as there were only a couple of hotels you could use.

But Holiday Inn pioneered integration of hotels. “In the early 60s, when I travelled back and forth, if I saw a Holiday Inn on the interstate or side road, I knew I was welcome.”

Powell’s advice for hoteliers also included the following:

If you’re going to be successful, you have to stay at the leading edge of technology.  Anyone not making maximum use of technology will be left behind.

Hoteliers must have a clear sense of purpose. You are really here to provide a noble service to fellow citizens who are travellers. You have to be a great leader, whether you’re running a hotel or running the military.

Give your employees the tools they need. When Powell became head of the State Department, one of the first things he did was to make sure there was a brand new computer on every desk.

Finally, take care of the troops, recognize and reward them.  “There’s nothing more important than leaders recognizing a person for being a human being.” Powell handwrites dozens of notes all the time.  Writing two lines takes 10 seconds per card.  “It’s not brain surgery, just understanding the human connection,” he said.