Serving 20 Cultures Before Noon: Adapting to High and Low-Context Communication in Hospitality

On any given morning in a bustling Amsterdam hotel lobby, a single receptionist might greet more than 20 nationalities, welcoming Americans, French, Germans, Spaniards, Chinese, Saudis, Brazilians, and Japanese guests, to name a few. Behind every “good morning” or “welcome” lies a complex dance of unspoken cultural cues, or communication style. 

Why be conscious of this matter? Because guests don’t just hear what the team says, they interpret how it's said through the lens of their own culture. “The essence of effective cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing the right responses than with sending the right messages.” - . T Hall. 

To truly excel in guest experience, especially across cosmopolitan hubs like Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, or New York, making operational teams aware of context in communication is meaningful, a concept first introduced by anthropologist Edward T. Hall.

High vs. Low-Context Cultures: A Crucial Distinction

Hall classified cultures along a spectrum of high-context and low-context communication:

In high-context cultures, messages are embedded in the environment, relationships, tone, and body language. Communication is economical but only when the speaker and listener share a similar cultural background. By contrast, in low-context cultures, people are expected to explain things clearly and explicitly, assuming little shared knowledge.

Operational Example: The Front Desk Dilemma

A Japanese guest may expect discretion and intuitive service; an American guest may want direct answers and proactive communication. Deliver the same greeting “Welcome, Jane!” to both, and reactions may differ: the American might smile, while the Japanese guest might find the informal tone too familiar.

Unless the guest expct it from the hotel concept (lifestyle, relaxed), one solution might be to always beginning with a formal tone, particularly with Asian guests as well as for some European countries such as for French people. Let them signal when a warmer, more familiar style is appropriate.

Guest Reviews: Culture Shapes Evaluation

How guests review their hotel stay also reflects cultural communication styles, according to corpus analysis with data from Travel Appeal th researchers Chen, M.-M., Seach, K., Inversini, A., & Williams, N. highlighted that high-context guests react emotionally to service nuances, while low-context guests focus on problem-solving and logistics:

• High-context cultures (French, Spanish, Japanese):

  • Reviews emphasize emotion, atmosphere, and social rituals like meals

  • Example: French reviews often mention breakfast quality and dining ambiance, reflecting cultural values around food as a social event (Quellier, 2013)

• Low-context cultures (German, American, Dutch):

  • Reviews focus on efficiency, accuracy, and functionality.

  • Example: U.S. guests may comment on punctual housekeeping, Wi-Fi speed, or booking clarity

Cultural context is a practical lever to enhance guest loyalty and operational excellence. In the diverse, fast-paced environments of cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, or New York, every interaction becomes a micro-moment that can reinforce or erode trust.
By training teams to recognize and respond to high and low-context cues, a hospitality leaders cultural intelligent are elevating the entire guest journey.

Operational takeaway: build a cross-cultural briefing tool

To integrate these insights into daily operations, you could create a Guest Cultural Briefing Tool. This can include:

• Guest nationality and context level (high/low)

• Preferred greeting formality (title vs. first name)

• Cultural sensitivities (e.g., eye contact norms, proxemics)

• Dining expectations (emotional vs. functional)

• Key “icebreaker” phrases in common guest languages

• Review behavior cues (What guests will likely comment on)

This tool can help empowering staff to personalize interactions with cultural precision, increasing satisfaction, loyalty, and positive reviews.

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For more insights and talk about this topic, feel free to contact me at lamya@lvsacrosscultures.com or connect with me on LinkedIn here!

Books and articles I have read to write this article:

• Chen, M.-M., Seach, K., Inversini, A., & Williams, N. (2023). Different cultures review hotels differently. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 25(2), 214–228.

• Goethals, P. (2015). Multilingualism and international tourism: A content- and discourse-based approach to language-related judgments in Web 2.0 hotel reviews. Language and Intercultural Communication, 16, 1–19.

• Dubuisson-Quellier, S. (2013). A market mediation strategy: How social movements seek to change firms’ practices by promoting new principles of product valuation. Organization Studies, 34, 683–703.

• Hall, E. T., & Hall, M. R. (2003). Key concepts: Underlying structures of culture. In Readings and cases in international management: A cross-cultural perspective (pp. 151–162). Sage Publications.

Sofitel, The Grand 1578 Historical Building - Amsterdam , The Netherlands. Captured by Lamya Valter Schmidlin