Beyond Know-How: The Missing Dimension of Hospitality Excellence.

Ana Van de Werf
Oct 3
3 min read

In hospitality, the conversation is often dominated by systems, procedures, and technical mastery. Hotels and restaurants invest heavily in training, ensuring their teams possess the knowledge and skills to execute with precision.

This savoir-faire, the ability to perform tasks correctly and consistently, is essential. It is what ensures a wine is served at the proper temperature, a check-in flows seamlessly, or a guest’s request is fulfilled without delay. Without it, service collapses into disorder and inconsistency.

But here lies the paradox: technical mastery, while indispensable, is not what makes hospitality truly resonate. Guests rarely remember flawless mechanics alone. There's another hidden dimension that becomes a brand's jewel.

What lingers for guests is how they felt in the moment, the warmth of a welcome, the calm reassurance during a problem, the unspoken sense of being cared for. This reveals that there is another savoir, equally critical, but far less often taught:

the 'savoir-être'.

Where savoir-faire is about knowing how to do, savoir-être is about knowing how to be.

It is not simply attitude or personality; it is a cultivated presence, a posture of elegance and authenticity. It manifests in the way colleagues communicate with one another, in grace under pressure, in the subtle poise that conveys respect without words. It is the invisible layer of hospitality, sensed by guests without their being able to articulate it. They may leave a hotel praising the architecture or cuisine, but what compels them to return is the memory of how the place (and the people) made them feel.

Savoir-Faire: Knowing How to Do

Savoir-faire is the realm of technical mastery. It is the art of doing things well, of delivering service with competence and precision.

In hospitality, this translates to:

Deep knowledge of food, beverage, and brand identity.
Mastery of the service journey: pacing, timing, choreography.
Recovery and enchantment protocols that empower staff to act swiftly and with confidence.

Without savoir-faire, service becomes inconsistent, prone to error, and unable to deliver the standards that create guest trust. It is the visible side of hospitality: the “what” and the “how” that every guest can notice.

Savoir-Être: Knowing How to Be

But technique alone does not create great hospitality. What transforms service from functional to memorable is savoir-être: the art of presence, attitude, and being.

It is revealed in the smallest gestures:

Communication that is clear, respectful, and elegant.
Calm under pressure, maintaining grace in the busiest of moments.
An atmosphere of trust and warmth, felt by both colleagues and guests.

This is the invisible side of hospitality: the emotional resonance. Guests may not be able to describe it precisely, but they know when they have experienced it. It’s the difference between “I had a nice dinner” and “I felt truly cared for.”

The two dimensions are inseparable. Savoir-faire without savoir-être produces efficiency, but risks reducing service to a sterile transaction. Savoir-être without savoir-faire generates warmth, but lacks the consistency that builds trust. Authentic hospitality is born only when the two are fused, when the security of technical competence is enlivened by the humanity of presence.

Leaders carry the responsibility of cultivating both.

Technical training builds confidence, but structure alone is insufficient. Culture is equally shaped by rituals of togetherness: a shared meal before service, a daily briefing that aligns intention, a pause respected as “sacred time.” These small gestures reinforce unity and teach that being is as important as doing. Leadership, in this sense, is never abstract. It is learned in the way managers respond under pressure, in their ability to model dignity and care in everyday interactions.

The future of hospitality depends on embracing this duality. True excellence is not a matter of robotic perfection, but the fusion of competence and humanity. Teams who know both how to do well and how to be well.

When this happens, hospitality transcends service. It becomes an art.

Floris Van de Werf