Myths Debunked

Building A Hospitality Culture Starts With You

Building A Hospitality Culture Starts With You

Hospitality is what we call our industry, it’s the art that we practice, it’s the reason why we follow a career in service to others.  While it is all of these things, it can still be very difficult to explain if you are not in the middle of it on a daily basis.  How do we practice it, how do we teach it, and how do we communicate it in order to have the maximum impact on those around us?  Ultimately, how are we using the principles and concepts of Hospitality to help our business units to be successful?  And do you have to be a five-star property in order to foster a culture of Hospitality?

Time to Change that Bad (Business) Attitude

Time to Change that Bad (Business) Attitude

As hospitality professionals, we spend a significant amount of time and money on the training and direction of our teams to provide guests with the finest in service and hospitality. Our goal is to keep our guests happy & satisfied so that they will return to us, continue to give us their business and sing our praises to their family & friends.  Imagine the disconnect that occurs when our actions convey the exact opposite sentiment to our customers, flying in the face of the most basic principles of hospitality and business development.  Everyone in every industry knows that good service, good value, and good product improve one’s chances of growing one’s business.  So why are we sabotaging ourselves?

The Search for the Loyal Customer

The Search for the Loyal Customer

In the world of consumer products, the concept of “loyalty” has never been more important.  From the inception of airline “frequent flyer” programs in the early 1970’s to today’s rewards programs for almost any product imaginable, the “loyalty” of customers towards products has never been more aggressively sought-after. The question is, what methods are we using to secure this loyalty and is it really working?

Hospitality Is NOT One-Size-Fits-All

Hospitality Is NOT One-Size-Fits-All

The question “how do we define hospitality?” should not be rhetorical.  Whether we are Cocktail Servers or CEO’s, Accountants or Asset Managers, each of us has signed up for the hospitality industry and therefore the definition of hospitality must mean something significant to us.  While there is a baseline definition of hospitality across our industry, sometimes we can lose sight of an honest definition of the term, and most importantly what this means to our guests.

Maximize Results By Turning Your Budgeting Process On Its Head

Maximize Results By Turning Your Budgeting Process On Its Head

It’s difficult to believe, but the time for budget and marketing plan development for 2017 is upon us.  Yes, it’s true, now is the time when many of us are working on our plans for the coming year.  As we go through this exercise, the challenge for all of us is to remain focused on the desired outcome.  Do we all agree on what that outcome should be?   Surprisingly, perhaps not.

New market entrants: challenging the paradigm

New market entrants: challenging the paradigm

In major markets around the United States, hotel performance is suffering due to a phenomenon that is forever a part of our world: the addition of new supply to our competitive sets.  

Why is it that a high-demand market can be experiencing such a decline in price?  Is it not a fundamental of pricing that as demand grows or at least stays strong, so too should price remain constant? The variable here, the basic reason for strong, growing occupancies along with significantly declining rates is, in a word, us.  

Challenging Convention: Why Do We Discount?

One of the greatest opportunities for revenue enhancement in the hospitality industry lies with our ability to break through some of the paradigms that drive our decision-making process.  So many times, our strategies and tactics are determined by doing things the way we’ve always done them, rather than asking ourselves WHY we are doing them that way.