Chronicle No. 40 · Lessons

The Bellboy Who Wrote the Rules: E.M. Statler's Service Code

He started work at nine and ended up the hotel man of the half-century. His secret was a set of rules he was willing to print for guests.

Ellsworth Milton Statler was born in 1863 and started work at nine, tending a glory hole in an Ohio glass factory. At thirteen he was a night bellboy at the McLure House in Wheeling, West Virginia, carrying luggage, kindling and hot water up the stairs because the lift was reserved for guests. By nineteen he was managing the place.

That apprenticeship shaped everything. When Statler finally opened his own hotel in Buffalo, he was not chasing glamour. He advertised a room and a bath for a dollar and a half, and he told anyone who would listen that a hotel has just one thing to sell, and that thing is service.

Then he did the unusual part. He turned the belief into a written document, the Statler Service Code, which set out in plain sentences what every employee owed every guest:

• No employee may argue a point with a guest; the matter is settled at once, or a superior is called
• Never judge a guest by appearance
• A new customer matters exactly as much as a regular
• Service must never depend on the size of a tip

The code became so well known that it was eventually printed for guests to read. Publishing your own standards is the most uncomfortable form of accountability there is, and the most useful.

Statler was equally blunt about hiring. He told new staff he was employing them to look after unreasonable guests, because anyone could handle a reasonable one.

He died in 1928. In 1950, when the trade press polled 104 hotel executives on the hotel man of the half-century, 102 of them named Statler.

“I'm hiring you to cater to unreasonable guests. The woods are full of men who can handle 'em when they're reasonable.”

Lesson: Write your service promise down in plain language, then be brave enough to show it to the guest.