HARWICH, MA—Behind every success is a great leader and a stellar team. Reaching for the stars doesn’t have to be impossible, but it does take effort. “It’s mostly hard work,” said Mark Novota, managing partner of Wequassett Resort & Golf Club here. Novota, together with his team, reached beyond the resort’s current status as a four-star to achieve a five-star rating by Forbes Travel Guide. It is the only property in Cape Cod to have this distinction.
Other than a stint in his youth at the five-star Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Novota has spent the bulk of his career at Wequassett Resort & Golf Club, which is unusual in an industry where there are a lot of moves around the globe. “It’s been quite a journey, a lot of fun and hard work. I inherited an undervalued asset where there was a tremendous upside and an opportunity to make it very special,” Novota said. “Over the years, me and my team did just that. We recently achieved our pinnacle and was gifted the five-star rating from Forbes.”
Do you know what it takes to become a five-star property? In this case, it was first a collective desire to make a change and not settle for less. Wequassett held steady at four stars for more than 10 years, but the difference between a four- and a five-star rating is subtle yet significant, according to Novota.
“A four-star property is wonderful but at five stars, the levels of consistency and ability to do it at each and every turn, and connect emotionally with the guest differentiates those properties,” he said. “As we became a stronger four, it became clear we had something special and our culture was ready to arrive at a five-star rating and live there as one.”
The resort’s culture and commitment to excellence was already firmly rooted, Novota noted, so he took a strategic approach and set about examining where they might be “falling short of five-star status.”
He explained, “We started evaluating the specificity of our business. We asked ourselves: ‘What is it we’re doing at five-star level and what is it we’re not?’ We focused on the opportunities. For example, it’s about the way you communicate to the consumer. Slang is inappropriate when you have 20-plus countries in our employee base as there are different language interpretations.”
The resort staff focused on upgrading the customer experience by injecting surname usage at every possible stage, while seeking to create memorable moments for guests. It was imperative that leaders from various departments were involved in this process in order to effect change property wide.
“We started looking at it strategically and formed a Forbes five-star committee of senior, middle and members of staff to collaborate on these efforts. For us, more than anything else, we felt we were very passionate about service and everything we did was with enthusiasm,” he said. “Our guests loved us and we loved our guests, but there came a moment in time that proficiency had to come to a higher level.”
Another aspect of the resort’s formula for success is a robust academy for ongoing education in an effort to build on positive qualities and stretch beyond current abilities. Wequassett’s academy has four schools covering key areas for the resort—technical training, information and technology, management and customer-focused operations.
“The academy is where passion meets proficiency. The passion is about caring about the guests and getting to know them. But proficiency is serving every detail of dinner perfectly and anticipating guests’ needs at a five-star level. We operate on the premise of long-term relationships and memorable service and we put the cherry on top through proficiency to operate at a five-star level consistently,” he said. “The ability to do it routinely and naturally is not something you have to use smoke and mirrors to accomplish. It is innate in our culture and systems. We’ve refined our approach so that the five-star culture was born through our team. You’ve got to love people and be willing to service and expand your comfort zone to please the guest. It’s all about what we teach, who we are and what we believe in.”