As we see time again, the story of a hotel is the story of the people working at the hotel. This is especially true for the luxury hospitality segment where service excellence, exclusive amenities and personalization are hallmarks of an experience worthy of the term ‘luxury’. With so much buzz around personalization these days, what is often missed is the precision of service delivery necessary to execute this attention to detail at scale, for which there’s no truer form of expressing this precision than through customization of the guest journey in a seamless blend of meticulously curated experiences.
Offering an exemplary lesson on how to craft a truly personalized – and customized! – guest experience comes from none other than the city that’s renowned for its hospitality: Las Vegas. With 332 exquisitely furnished rooms and suites, Crockfords Las Vegas is a hotel within a hotel; it’s a member of Hilton’s LXR Hotels & Resorts collection, sharing the Resorts World Las Vegas campus alongside the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World and Conrad Las Vegas at Resorts World, altogether totaling 66 floors and over 3,500 hotel keys.
At the helm for Crockfords Las Vegas is General Manager Aleksandra Kotle, who leads a team over 100 service professionals that encompass both front-of-house and heart-of-house roles. This is a team that functions as a single, tight-knit unit immersed in a company culture that emphasizes caring about all the details to attain service excellence. Focusing on this level of precision as well as committing to lifelong learning gives opportunity to ensure the Crockfords Las Vegas team is always one step ahead of dynamically changing guest expectations.
The results are evident, right from the moment you set foot in the expansive and pristine lobby adorned with perfectly manicured orchids, Chinese evergreens, and a captivating aroma titled Serenity that had us longing for more. Indeed, we’re hardly the only ones to notice just how special Crockfords is, with this property having the prestige of hosting The Summit – the annual awards gala for Forbes Travel Guide – twice in a row (this past February 2024 as well as in 2023). There’s a lot that everyone can learn from Kolte’s example or by visiting yourself!
Rising above fierce competition
Kotle represents not only a consummate hotelier but also a real American success story, having immigrated from Bosnia in 1998 at a young age, hustling to build her career. Growing up and being exposed to war and political unrest, Aleksandra recognized the value of a dream and hard work; she possessed a relentless dedication to making this dream become a reality. Now, a wife and mother of two young girls, Kotle ushers in a new era of empowerment, identity and adaptability in service and leadership, thus setting the stage for the next generation.
Attending college at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and with over a decade of prior experience at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa and ARIA Resort & Casino, she understands all too well that competition for guests in this city is more intense than anywhere else on the continent. With more than 89,000 rooms – the most in North America – Las Vegas visitors have a myriad of options and are more than willing to take their business elsewhere should their hotel of choice not deliver on its service promise. Kotle is an avid believer that, “Although this is Las Vegas, exceptional service shouldn’t be a gamble.”
With luxury competitors who happen to be next-door neighbors like Wynn Las Vegas and the recently opened Fontainebleau, personalization ‘in name only’ no longer cuts it for luxury guests. If you are only meeting expectations, then you aren’t excelling at real luxury. What Kotle stressed is that we are in a new era of luxury where those guests that can afford hotels and travel of this caliber have already experienced – or have seen vicariously through social media – numerous examples of service that can be deemed as ‘personalized’.
And before you think that this ‘been-there-done-that’ crowd is exclusive to only millionaires, billionaires and gaming’s ‘high rollers’, Kotle was quick to remind us that many luxury hotel guests nowadays are firmly middle class but have prioritized splurging on travel versus other discretionary spend. Oftentimes, you wouldn’t know either way, so the first step in curating a bespoke experience is acknowledging that every stay should be special and working with the team to ensure that the hotel is never resting on its laurels by consistently striving to deliver the unexpected.
For the two of us, this started with the lobby experience. Immediately struck by the shimmering Samurai Cat statue by artist Hiro Ando, enchanted by Serenity’s alluring scent. With wonder ignited in all of our senses, we shifted our gaze to Crockfords’ three-story marble finishes, the ivory hide furniture, and the versicolor bar off to the right of the aforementioned flora. These moments of marvel didn’t even impress us most. Instead, it was that Kotle was already there warmly waiting for us by the front desk, even though we hadn’t taken the resort up on its offer of a chauffeur airport pickup – a simple yet profound and difficult to execute service.
This required expert timing to schedule the personal greeting in between meetings (GM’s definitely have a lot of these!), which was coordinated in tandem with a member of Kolte’s concierge team, Linni Chia Matsuo. Growing up in Singapore, and a 20-year concierge veteran having worked at Marina Bay Sands, The Venetian, Mandalay Bay and others, Matsuo had reached out to us over a month prior to arrival to ask for flight details and to inquire if we sought anything different from our previous visit to Crockfords (yes, we were there previously in late 2023).
That alone is impressive, especially when so many other midscale or even upscale hotels are still asking guests during check-in, “Is this your first time staying with us?” With all the technology available in 2024, they should already know! Crockfords Las Vegas leverages their guest experience by their use of profiling and historical data to surprise and delight their guests at every turn.
Beyond this remarkable service note, the attention to detail at Crockfords hardly stopped there. On a quick tour to show us what’s new, even Kotle, a senior leader, was ever vigilant in scanning the corridors for garbage and picking it up whenever sighted to ensure the premises remained totally pristine. And throughout our two-night stay, Matsuo went out of her way to find us in lobby, ask about we had planned next and if she could be of any assistance, all while recalling details from our previous stay as unaided by ready access to our guest profile data.
Customization is the new personalization
The phrase ‘personalization in name only’ belies the trend of every property – as well as other customer service businesses like retail and car dealerships – using this term. It’s become homogenized, and no guest is more sensitive to lackluster effort than the luxury traveler. Instead, Kotle touched on the term ‘customization’ as an alternative to framework the dynamic because this word inscribes more creativity in the execution and the sequencing of the service delivery. Like a snowflake or fingerprint, Crockfords is committed to crafting moments that are as unique and as individual as every guest experience.
As Crockfords demonstrates, modern luxury must bring together immaculate amenities with strong SOPs, meticulous service timing, continuous retraining and expert leadership. On that last note, as avid readers ourselves, it was refreshing to hear that Kotle and other members of the senior team lead by Shannon McCallum at Resorts World Las Vegas have their own book club where they discuss recent publications that are applicable to the industry such as “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara and “Be the Unicorn” by William Vanderbloemen, and then workshop how they can use the lessons to improve operations at the resort.
We saw this customization firsthand when we came down to the lobby one other time during this past visit and there was a wedding photoshoot in progress – all with professional lighting, flagging and outfit changes – as one of many services that the Crockfords team can arrange. Kolte’s ethos about committing to continuous improvement requires her and her team to constantly evaluate the competition and other hotel brands from around the world to see what they are doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and applies their assessment of said data to elevate their guest experience to new heights. Next, for every event or stay that may hint that customization is in order, the team meets to brainstorm ideas before they design the details, BEOs or sequence of service that will wow guests, transforming them from leisure guests into loyal, legacy guests.
To give you a sense of what this customization has included for past guest stays:
- Custom-printed napkins, engraved liquor or perfume bottles, and custom embroidered or monogrammed robes
- Rearranging all the furniture in a suite or villa to accommodate a specific setup or celebration such as an in-suite wedding ceremony plus reception
- Arrive in style in Resort World’s very own private charter thus ensuring a seamless experience between the jet, the notorious fleet of Resorts World Bentleys in bright red, and the finely appointed room by having all custom-labeled materials and monograms matching throughout every turn
During our time together, Kotle listed off over a dozen others like these from memory. But truth be told, they wouldn’t necessarily be relevant going forward because her team will continue to update, tweak and refine these customizations to ensure that each stay is unique – and not just different from an individual guest’s past stays at Crockfords but distinct from all other guests’ past stays and from what other casinos on The Strip are doing.
That’s certainly a high bar to pass, especially when all these creative inventions must be preceded by proficiently timed and often invisible service. And the main reason these types of once-only customizations can occur is because of the team synergy, and how well they work together to execute on whatever the assignment requires. Applause to Crockfords for a fantastic and unparalleled luxury experience. Those looking to elevate, redefine, and curate bespoke experiences can take note when it comes to personalization or true customization for each guest, as Crockfords continues to set the standard for service excellence.
