Opinion: Do you still sharpen your knives?

There is a hotel in Sydney that we often stayed at several times per year, either for training or mentoring/consulting work. I really like it. If you asked me why though, I would find it hard to list all the reasons why I like it. (There are some things I don’t like about it too but that’s a topic for another day).

But one of the things that had always surprised me, each and every time I ate breakfast there, is how sharp the knives were. It might seem an odd thing to notice but I’ve never noticed this in any other hotel that I’ve ever stayed at.

Why was this?

Clearly, someone must have been assigned to sharpen them. Alternately, I suppose it could also be that the hotel replaced them very regularly but that’s unlikely.

Perhaps one of the staff members might just have been passionate about it and it was a really individual effort. We’ve had years where we’ve spent about 160 nights in hotels and I can tell you that most hotels (big or small) certainly don’t bother doing this.

What changed?

One day at breakfast, I noticed that the knives weren’t sharp. And again the next time, and ever since.

I was left wondering why this would have changed.

Was it a little tell-tale sign of some belt-tightening in the running costs of the hotel? Or if it was an individual effort, had that staff member left and no-one else at the hotel thought it mattered. Or even knew he/she was doing it.

Do you still sharpen your knives?

This got me wondering about what impact these little things have i.e., the little things that companies do, but that would never appear on a brochure.

Do you have little things that you do for your customers that are a bit unique and that your customers appreciate without telling you? Do you still do them? Do you still sharpen your knives?

2026-02-21