What the Brussels hotel industry can learn from the Cannes Festival

What the Brussels hotel industry can learn from the Cannes Festival

14 May 2025

Every May, the Croisette becomes much more than just a red carpet. For a fortnight, Cannes brings together the most spectacular things the hotel industry has to offer: over-subscribed establishments, tense teams and some of the most demanding customers in the world. And yet everything has to run smoothly, impeccably, invisibly. The Cannes Festival is a full-scale laboratory for exceptional service.

What if, from Brussels, we took the time to observe what goes on there? The European capital may not have the palm trees or the gala dresses, but it also hosts political summits, international delegations, concerts and luxury city-trips, all with the same image, efficiency and discretion at stake.

Like Davos, Art Basel and Paris Fashion Week, Cannes is a reminder of the extent to which the hotel industry is becoming a key link in the organisation of global events. Brussels, more discreet but just as strategic, has everything to gain from drawing inspiration from these dynamics.

A culture of detail

In Cannes, everything is calibrated to the second, to the millimetre. A famous client asks for vintage champagne at 3am? He gets it, without a fuss, and with a smile. The air conditioning doesn't work? Someone takes care of it before he has time to complain. In these establishments, every detail counts, because it only takes one hitch to tarnish a reputation.

This culture of detail is not reserved for luxury hotels. It is accessible to any hotel that values the training of its teams, the fluidity of its organisation, and listening to its customers. It's the same obsession with quality that can be cultivated in Brussels, sometimes with a little more human warmth.

The right recruitment makes all the difference

Cannes' establishments know it: you can't get through a festival without a solid team. Every member of staff, whether extra, seasonal or permanent, must be operational, elegant, discreet... and able to handle the pressure.

This is also the daily routine for many hotels in Brussels, particularly during peak periods such as EuroSummit, major exhibitions, state visits or busy tourist weekends. Here too, the level of expectation is high.

This is where recruitment becomes strategic: knowing how to detect profiles that combine technical know-how and interpersonal skills, being able to propose reliable talent quickly, training upstream, understanding the constraints of each establishment... This is exactly what a specialised agency, rooted in the Brussels hotel sector, can offer.

The soft skills that make the difference in the events industry

Whether you're in Cannes or Brussels, the best profiles share invaluable human qualities :

• • Resistance to stress (without losing your smile)
  • Perfect presentation
  • Anticipating needs
  • Absolute discretion
  • A sense of service... even behind the scenes
  • Ability to adapt to all types of customer
  • It is often these invisible but essential skills that transform a simple presence into real added value for a hotel.

Employer image, an asset worth cultivating

At Cannes, image counts for customers, but also for the teams. Working in a palace during the Festival is rewarding, intense, educational... and often seen as a great addition to a CV.

In Brussels, many hotels offer an equally rich, multicultural and stimulating environment. And yet, in a market under pressure, enhancing your employer brand is becoming a powerful lever for standing out from the crowd.

Highlighting the company's values, the working atmosphere, the opportunities for career development, and even the small internal gestures: all these things help to make the company more attractive to candidates.
Because today's talents are looking for much more than just a job: they're looking for a project, a team, a vision. And hotels that know how to tell that story are always one step ahead.

Brussels, a discreet but strategic mini-Cannes

Brussels doesn't have the glitz and glamour of Cannes, but it does have its own major events, prestigious delegations and high-profile clients. It also has the European diversity that makes it so rich... and sometimes so complex.

What is played out spectacularly at Cannes is played out in Brussels in a more discreet but just as decisive way. And that calls for the same rigour, the same agility, the same concern for excellence.

With this in mind, it's in the interests of Brussels hotels to surround themselves with the right talent and the right partners, and to promote their commitment to impeccable service.

A demanding stage... but so inspiring

The Cannes Festival reminds us that service, when mastered, becomes an art. But this art is not reserved for the palaces of the Croisette. It is cultivated on a daily basis, in Brussels as elsewhere, in the care given to teams, in intelligent recruitment, and in the desire to always offer a better welcome.