For the next two weeks the blog editor will be heading for the sunny south shore and the life of a cottage rat! This means no internet and subsequently no updates to the site. All will return to normal on Monday August 14th when you can expect our next article to be posted. In the interim we invite you to review our archives and even get some conversation strings going on articles in which you have an interest, an opinion or best yet an opposing point of view.
The Editor
Friday, July 28, 2006
Catch Them Doing It Right!
By Mike Albert
Staff turnover and poor customer service are significant issues facing restaurant owners and managers. By implementing quality and service evaluation programs that focus on what employees are doing right, then using those programs as a tool to develop recognition and reward systems, operators can dramatically increase employee morale. With higher morale, operators will experience less staff turnover, better customer service and increased revenues.
Ultimately, people want to do their job well and feel they are part of something special. Employees will lose the motivation to do a good job when managers only point out the negative and never the positive. Unfortunately, many companies tend to place more focus on what employees are doing wrong in an effort to redirect those actions. Over time, employees start to feel they never do anything right and will stop trying to do a good job. Customers will immediately pick up on this attitude and are likely to move on to a competitor who offers more pleasant service. Obviously, focusing on the negative aspects of staff performance creates an environment where no one can succeed.
A negative environment can be reinforced by implementing quality and service evaluation programs that send secret shoppers into restaurants specifically to catch employees doing something wrong. Unfortunately, this is the traditional use for a secret shopper program.
A better mindset is to develop a service evaluation program that looks for employees getting things right. People will do more of what you inspect than what you expect. If the staff is aware they are being inspected for things they are doing right, they will consistently make an extra effort to include the small things that add something special to the customer experience. Frequent evaluations by random observers will ensure that staff will treat every customer like a secret shopper, so it is important to develop an ongoing program with a different evaluator each time.
Armed with results from a quality and service evaluation, restaurant operators can take the next step by developing recognition and reward programs.
Employee morale drastically improves when restaurant owners and managers simply show appreciation by recognizing and rewarding employees who are doing a good job. After all, who does not want a pat on the back from their boss when a job has been done well? People want to be recognized for the positive things they are doing, even if there is no tangible reward. For many employees, just the recognition in front of co-workers is enough.
While simple recognition can let employees know they are appreciated, tangible rewards can help drive healthy competition among employees and encourage them to go beyond the basics.
Developing a program to reward your employees does not have to be costly. Simple and inexpensive rewards can include a certificate, naming the employee in a company-wide newsletter, adding their name and photo to a plaque that is displayed in a public area, or a small monetary incentive.
More elaborate incentive programs could include a weekend getaway, large bonuses, plasma screen televisions, or company-wide competition/award program.
With a high level of employee morale established from simple recognition and reward programs, any restaurant is set up for success. Staff will feel appreciated and develop a sense of loyalty, reducing the level of turnover. Healthy competition for rewards and the knowledge that good work is appreciated will result in employees who enjoy what they do and provide better customer service. Customers can sense when employees enjoy their work, and that leads to a more enjoyable customer experience. When the customers enjoy their experience, they will visit more often and will encourage their friends to do the same, resulting in increased sales. Everybody wins.
This article found at:
http://www.foodservice.com/editorials/ed_listing_detail.cfm?&article_id=888
Staff turnover and poor customer service are significant issues facing restaurant owners and managers. By implementing quality and service evaluation programs that focus on what employees are doing right, then using those programs as a tool to develop recognition and reward systems, operators can dramatically increase employee morale. With higher morale, operators will experience less staff turnover, better customer service and increased revenues.
Ultimately, people want to do their job well and feel they are part of something special. Employees will lose the motivation to do a good job when managers only point out the negative and never the positive. Unfortunately, many companies tend to place more focus on what employees are doing wrong in an effort to redirect those actions. Over time, employees start to feel they never do anything right and will stop trying to do a good job. Customers will immediately pick up on this attitude and are likely to move on to a competitor who offers more pleasant service. Obviously, focusing on the negative aspects of staff performance creates an environment where no one can succeed.
A negative environment can be reinforced by implementing quality and service evaluation programs that send secret shoppers into restaurants specifically to catch employees doing something wrong. Unfortunately, this is the traditional use for a secret shopper program.
A better mindset is to develop a service evaluation program that looks for employees getting things right. People will do more of what you inspect than what you expect. If the staff is aware they are being inspected for things they are doing right, they will consistently make an extra effort to include the small things that add something special to the customer experience. Frequent evaluations by random observers will ensure that staff will treat every customer like a secret shopper, so it is important to develop an ongoing program with a different evaluator each time.
Armed with results from a quality and service evaluation, restaurant operators can take the next step by developing recognition and reward programs.
Employee morale drastically improves when restaurant owners and managers simply show appreciation by recognizing and rewarding employees who are doing a good job. After all, who does not want a pat on the back from their boss when a job has been done well? People want to be recognized for the positive things they are doing, even if there is no tangible reward. For many employees, just the recognition in front of co-workers is enough.
While simple recognition can let employees know they are appreciated, tangible rewards can help drive healthy competition among employees and encourage them to go beyond the basics.
Developing a program to reward your employees does not have to be costly. Simple and inexpensive rewards can include a certificate, naming the employee in a company-wide newsletter, adding their name and photo to a plaque that is displayed in a public area, or a small monetary incentive.
More elaborate incentive programs could include a weekend getaway, large bonuses, plasma screen televisions, or company-wide competition/award program.
With a high level of employee morale established from simple recognition and reward programs, any restaurant is set up for success. Staff will feel appreciated and develop a sense of loyalty, reducing the level of turnover. Healthy competition for rewards and the knowledge that good work is appreciated will result in employees who enjoy what they do and provide better customer service. Customers can sense when employees enjoy their work, and that leads to a more enjoyable customer experience. When the customers enjoy their experience, they will visit more often and will encourage their friends to do the same, resulting in increased sales. Everybody wins.
This article found at:
http://www.foodservice.com/editorials/ed_listing_detail.cfm?&article_id=888
Research uncorks new insight into the famed, but little understood, Sangiovese
Anyone who follows the world of Italian wines knows Sangiovese. It is Italy's highest-profile red grape, the one Italian grape that winemakers in other countries have most admired, to the point of growing it in their own vineyards. But recent research suggests that Sangiovese is an extremely complex variety that is far less understood than it is famous.
Sangiovese is Italy's most-planted variety. It makes many decent everyday wines in regions such as Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Tuscany. Its claim to fame, however, is the trio of great wines that this variety makes in Tuscany: Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino.
A symposium on Sangiovese in May, organized by the Ruffino wine company, focused on these three classic wine zones as arenas for exploring such issues as the best clones of Sangiovese, soil compatibilities, growing methods and winemaking techniques.
What became clear to participants in the symposium is that Sangiovese and its history in Tuscany hold more questions than answers. According to professor Attilio Scienza, one of Italy's top viticultural authorities, perhaps by 2015 experts will understand Sangiovese as much as they now do Cabernet Sauvignon.
The three wine zones where Sangiovese excels are each different from one another in soil and to some extent climate — and each of the areas is complex in its own right, featuring a range of climate and soil variations. In fact, specific manifestations of Sangiovese have evolved in different areas in response to the local growing conditions. In the Montepulciano zone, the grape is traditionally called Prugnolo Gentile, while the Montalcino version — sometimes informally, but not technically, called "Brunello" — is Sangiovese Grosso. Actually, each of these areas — and every other area where Sangiovese grows — has multiple clones of Sangiovese.
Recent clonal research has sought to identify all these clones and to determine the individual characteristics of each. Younger vineyards in all three areas now are likely to have clones of Sangiovese that are not necessarily the traditional ones for the area.
For example, some properties in Chianti Classico have clones originally from Montalcino — with names such as Janus 50 and Tin 50 — that make rounder, more substantial wines than the traditional clones of the Chianti area. Where nature once determined which form Sangiovese would take in a particular area, man now decides, according to his concept of what would make a "better" wine.
Viticultural research also has sought to fine-tune how Sangiovese performs in the vineyard, mainly with the goal of growing grapes with richer color and riper tannins. This research has involved issues as broad as the density of vines per acre and as specific as the optimal temperature that the grape bunches should reach in the vineyard, and the optimal average age of a vine's leaves for maximum photosynthesis. Based on this research, wineries are tweaking their pruning and other aspects of managing their Sangiovese vineyards.
While the main thrust of the effort to understand Sangiovese seems to involve the vineyard, winemaking practices, too, are under scrutiny. Relatively new techniques such as microxygenation are considered to be particularly useful in extracting color and soft tannins from Sangiovese, for example. And blending with other grape varieties continues to be a key method of crafting Sangiovese-based wines.
Only Sangiovese may be used to make Brunello di Montalcino or its younger version, Rosso di Montalcino. But in both the Chianti Classico area and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano zone, producers are blending Sangiovese with Merlot, Cabernet or Syrah, as well as with its native blending partners such as Canaiolo, Mammolo and Colorino. The goal is to make a higher-quality wine, which winemakers generally define as a wine that is richer in color and flavor, with softer tannins than Sangiovese wines traditionally have had.
Behind all the research and experimentation is the fundamental belief that in most cases, Sangiovese has not been living up to its true potential, and can do better. Longtime aficionados of Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Chianti Classico might not appreciate the changes that are underfoot, but the international marketplace — which values dark, powerful red wines — is likely to respond favorably to the modern versions of these wines. Given Sangiovese's tendency to produce wines of high acidity and subtle flavor, however, it is likely that these wines will remain among the food-friendliest of all reds.
This article found at:
http://www.nrn.com/newsletter-bt/story.cfm?ID=3564606183&SEC=Beverage%20Trends%20Newsletter&CFID=9029926&CFTOKEN=74283752
Sangiovese is Italy's most-planted variety. It makes many decent everyday wines in regions such as Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Tuscany. Its claim to fame, however, is the trio of great wines that this variety makes in Tuscany: Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino.
A symposium on Sangiovese in May, organized by the Ruffino wine company, focused on these three classic wine zones as arenas for exploring such issues as the best clones of Sangiovese, soil compatibilities, growing methods and winemaking techniques.
What became clear to participants in the symposium is that Sangiovese and its history in Tuscany hold more questions than answers. According to professor Attilio Scienza, one of Italy's top viticultural authorities, perhaps by 2015 experts will understand Sangiovese as much as they now do Cabernet Sauvignon.
The three wine zones where Sangiovese excels are each different from one another in soil and to some extent climate — and each of the areas is complex in its own right, featuring a range of climate and soil variations. In fact, specific manifestations of Sangiovese have evolved in different areas in response to the local growing conditions. In the Montepulciano zone, the grape is traditionally called Prugnolo Gentile, while the Montalcino version — sometimes informally, but not technically, called "Brunello" — is Sangiovese Grosso. Actually, each of these areas — and every other area where Sangiovese grows — has multiple clones of Sangiovese.
Recent clonal research has sought to identify all these clones and to determine the individual characteristics of each. Younger vineyards in all three areas now are likely to have clones of Sangiovese that are not necessarily the traditional ones for the area.
For example, some properties in Chianti Classico have clones originally from Montalcino — with names such as Janus 50 and Tin 50 — that make rounder, more substantial wines than the traditional clones of the Chianti area. Where nature once determined which form Sangiovese would take in a particular area, man now decides, according to his concept of what would make a "better" wine.
Viticultural research also has sought to fine-tune how Sangiovese performs in the vineyard, mainly with the goal of growing grapes with richer color and riper tannins. This research has involved issues as broad as the density of vines per acre and as specific as the optimal temperature that the grape bunches should reach in the vineyard, and the optimal average age of a vine's leaves for maximum photosynthesis. Based on this research, wineries are tweaking their pruning and other aspects of managing their Sangiovese vineyards.
While the main thrust of the effort to understand Sangiovese seems to involve the vineyard, winemaking practices, too, are under scrutiny. Relatively new techniques such as microxygenation are considered to be particularly useful in extracting color and soft tannins from Sangiovese, for example. And blending with other grape varieties continues to be a key method of crafting Sangiovese-based wines.
Only Sangiovese may be used to make Brunello di Montalcino or its younger version, Rosso di Montalcino. But in both the Chianti Classico area and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano zone, producers are blending Sangiovese with Merlot, Cabernet or Syrah, as well as with its native blending partners such as Canaiolo, Mammolo and Colorino. The goal is to make a higher-quality wine, which winemakers generally define as a wine that is richer in color and flavor, with softer tannins than Sangiovese wines traditionally have had.
Behind all the research and experimentation is the fundamental belief that in most cases, Sangiovese has not been living up to its true potential, and can do better. Longtime aficionados of Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Chianti Classico might not appreciate the changes that are underfoot, but the international marketplace — which values dark, powerful red wines — is likely to respond favorably to the modern versions of these wines. Given Sangiovese's tendency to produce wines of high acidity and subtle flavor, however, it is likely that these wines will remain among the food-friendliest of all reds.
This article found at:
http://www.nrn.com/newsletter-bt/story.cfm?ID=3564606183&SEC=Beverage%20Trends%20Newsletter&CFID=9029926&CFTOKEN=74283752
Thursday, July 27, 2006
“A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Front Office Managers"
by Dr. John Hogan, CHA MHS CHE, July 2006
Following is A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Hotel Front Office Managers
1. Learn to practice and improve listening skills – and then coach others, as the front desk is the critical listening center of the hotel. We all need to not only hear, but listen with better intensity. Front office managers must remember that the front desk is the communication center of every hotel. It is the financial center for reservations and much of the cash activity at many hotels. The front office manager must monitor both guest and staff interaction to insure proper guest service and protocol. Mentor those staff that need it, coach appropriately and increase the two way communication cycle.
2. Learn everything about the services and product you will be promoting and then be certain your staff also knows the details. This first step is very similar to the suggestions offered in a previous article for Sales Professionals. The most obvious requirement for any successful front office manager or sales professional is to know all the details about your product and services. At a time in business history when the danger of many hotel accommodations being considered commodities differentiated primarily by price, the need to be able adequately explain what your hotel offers is critical to and potential guests and staff. This cannot be overlooked at any size hotel because our product that is not sold tonight cannot be put back into inventory for resale tomorrow- it is lost forever! Particulars include:
3. Learn everything about the services and product of those hotels that you will be competing with. As in the preceding strategy, effective front office managers know who is in their competitive set, and everything about them. They learn the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors and plan accordingly as they try to increase market share at the expense of their competitors. It is not the sole responsibility of the “sales” team or general manager to be part of the selling effort – successful front office managers embrace the mantra “Everyone Sells.”
4. Share the professional expectations provided to you from ownership and or Management Company clearly with all members of the staff. Newcomers to the industry sometimes imagine huge profits when they compare their hourly wage with the rooms’ rates paid by guests. Those of us who have been in the industry for more than just a few years realize that profits and losses go in cycles, and that it is important to share the realities of the cost of doing business at all levels. All staff should understand the total costs of ownership, including support staff such as engineering and sales, franchise or royalty fees, management company fees, the concepts of debt service and more. Make those expectations understood, explain the value and rationale to all staff and be certain these expectations can be measured fairly.
5. Hold regular one-on-one sessions with all direct reports in this department, including the night auditor. While the 3rd shift is usually quieter, it still represents 30% of the day and needs to be included in discussions and communication. These sessions should not be formal “reviews” but guide posts to reinforce positive actions or to correct a potentially dangerous course of action. The 1st time will be awkward because people might be “gun-shy” or are looking for hidden agendas. When it becomes apparent that these are honest dialogues, they sessions are actually anticipated as opportunities to clear the air.
6. Constantly assess time management. The 80-20 rule of priorities and value remains true much of the time. 80% of our profits often come from 20% of the client base. The same hold true for problem areas or staff that needs attention. The question needs to be not are we doing things “right”, but are we doing the “right” things correctly?
7. Learn the science of accurate and realistic forecasts. Operating budgets are often approved by the ownership or Management Company in a remote location, but the start of every budget is the forecast of anticipated volume and revenues. The most opportune time to project accurately for the next years is right after that period has finished for this year. For example, if one waits until July to project the following January to December, there can changes in market conditions, staffing or simply a memory lapse that can seriously undermine accuracy. If one makes a draft of the budget for following March in April after the incomes statement and market analysis has been reviewed, the chances are that the projections will be able to be justified and more accurate than when trying to prepare 12 months in one action. One will obviously adjust a forecast if there was a special event in the current year that will not be repeated or if there is a one time event (such as the Super Bowl or Olympics) but regular practice improves accuracy and success at many levels.
8. Plan, coordinate and implement revenue management strategies regularly. This is another example of blended learning. Some hotels are fortunate to have a full time revenue manager working with their hotel, while other companies sometimes have someone at the owner’s or management company office regularly watch inventories and demand patterns. The blended learning must come from “people” who recognize trends and cycles and anticipate the necessary steps. Software programs are excellent resources, but they must be properly programmed and maintained.
9. Embrace the Brand. A majority of hotels in the US today are part of brand, and the trend is growing worldwide. The Front Office Manager should become the authority on all the brand’s services, features and programs.
A WORD TO INDEPENDENTS - if your hotel is not part of a brand, does your staff know the special programs offered to the Department of Tourism, AAA or other negotiated partners?
10. Training must be maintained and increased. There is no excuse today for inadequately prepared or untrained front desk staff. There is enormous training support available at very low cost online from the major brands and a wealth of support from CDs, books, newsletters and the internet. When running high occupancy, many managers claim to be “too busy” to train. When occupancy is flat or declining, cutting ongoing training to “save money” will really cost more as it will drive the good staff to consider leaving and the loyal customers to the competition because it appears you don’t care. The following expression holds true: “the only thing worse than an untrained staff that leaves, is an untrained staff that stays to service your customers.”
11. When hiring people, pay attention to the “human” resource role. We must balance “high touch” and ‘High Tech”. Recruit and select people wisely. Encourage your General Manager to pay competitively or better and lead in incentives. As Front Office Manager, recognize your team regularly with “thank you’s “and expressions of appreciation. Retain the champions by whatever it takes to keep them.
12. Review your market analysis monthly. It should not just be the sales team or general manager that has an interest in trends or shifts in markets. As the area closest to guests, understanding their needs is essential. Sharing observations on changing guest preferences, needs or demand should be a critical part of front office monthly management practices.
13. Know your customers. The legendary managers are those who know the base of their clients and interact with them regularly. This is not the same as analyzing trends – it is the “high touch” of our industry. As the nerve center of all hotels, the front office is essential to keeping up with what is happening at all areas of the hotels. Effective front office managers professionally interact with guests as often as possible.
Think TankQuestions of the day These questions are offered to stimulate discussion about the way we do business. There is not necessarily only one “correct” answer – the reason for this section of the column is to promote an awareness of how we might all improve our operations. Consider using these or similar questions at staff meetings encourage your team to THINK!
Topic:A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Hotel Front Office Managers
Following is A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Hotel Front Office Managers
1. Learn to practice and improve listening skills – and then coach others, as the front desk is the critical listening center of the hotel. We all need to not only hear, but listen with better intensity. Front office managers must remember that the front desk is the communication center of every hotel. It is the financial center for reservations and much of the cash activity at many hotels. The front office manager must monitor both guest and staff interaction to insure proper guest service and protocol. Mentor those staff that need it, coach appropriately and increase the two way communication cycle.
2. Learn everything about the services and product you will be promoting and then be certain your staff also knows the details. This first step is very similar to the suggestions offered in a previous article for Sales Professionals. The most obvious requirement for any successful front office manager or sales professional is to know all the details about your product and services. At a time in business history when the danger of many hotel accommodations being considered commodities differentiated primarily by price, the need to be able adequately explain what your hotel offers is critical to and potential guests and staff. This cannot be overlooked at any size hotel because our product that is not sold tonight cannot be put back into inventory for resale tomorrow- it is lost forever! Particulars include:
Personally inspecting every type of accommodation in your hotel. Learn the differences and potential benefits of each type and how they can be of value to different customers. This tour should not be a one time event – monthly or even weekly tours will keep you aware of changes in the hotel and can also help management to be better aware of potential problems.
- Maintain your awareness of the property of the whole. This includes parking areas, public areas, access points to the hotel and the all important curb appeal.
- If you have work with an adjacent restaurant or other external service that is part of your offerings, regularly assess their quality and how it affects your guests’ satisfaction.
- Effective front office managers take pride in their hotels, and often offer to assist senior management in room inspections or in the sales effort as appropriate.
3. Learn everything about the services and product of those hotels that you will be competing with. As in the preceding strategy, effective front office managers know who is in their competitive set, and everything about them. They learn the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors and plan accordingly as they try to increase market share at the expense of their competitors. It is not the sole responsibility of the “sales” team or general manager to be part of the selling effort – successful front office managers embrace the mantra “Everyone Sells.”
4. Share the professional expectations provided to you from ownership and or Management Company clearly with all members of the staff. Newcomers to the industry sometimes imagine huge profits when they compare their hourly wage with the rooms’ rates paid by guests. Those of us who have been in the industry for more than just a few years realize that profits and losses go in cycles, and that it is important to share the realities of the cost of doing business at all levels. All staff should understand the total costs of ownership, including support staff such as engineering and sales, franchise or royalty fees, management company fees, the concepts of debt service and more. Make those expectations understood, explain the value and rationale to all staff and be certain these expectations can be measured fairly.
5. Hold regular one-on-one sessions with all direct reports in this department, including the night auditor. While the 3rd shift is usually quieter, it still represents 30% of the day and needs to be included in discussions and communication. These sessions should not be formal “reviews” but guide posts to reinforce positive actions or to correct a potentially dangerous course of action. The 1st time will be awkward because people might be “gun-shy” or are looking for hidden agendas. When it becomes apparent that these are honest dialogues, they sessions are actually anticipated as opportunities to clear the air.
6. Constantly assess time management. The 80-20 rule of priorities and value remains true much of the time. 80% of our profits often come from 20% of the client base. The same hold true for problem areas or staff that needs attention. The question needs to be not are we doing things “right”, but are we doing the “right” things correctly?
7. Learn the science of accurate and realistic forecasts. Operating budgets are often approved by the ownership or Management Company in a remote location, but the start of every budget is the forecast of anticipated volume and revenues. The most opportune time to project accurately for the next years is right after that period has finished for this year. For example, if one waits until July to project the following January to December, there can changes in market conditions, staffing or simply a memory lapse that can seriously undermine accuracy. If one makes a draft of the budget for following March in April after the incomes statement and market analysis has been reviewed, the chances are that the projections will be able to be justified and more accurate than when trying to prepare 12 months in one action. One will obviously adjust a forecast if there was a special event in the current year that will not be repeated or if there is a one time event (such as the Super Bowl or Olympics) but regular practice improves accuracy and success at many levels.
8. Plan, coordinate and implement revenue management strategies regularly. This is another example of blended learning. Some hotels are fortunate to have a full time revenue manager working with their hotel, while other companies sometimes have someone at the owner’s or management company office regularly watch inventories and demand patterns. The blended learning must come from “people” who recognize trends and cycles and anticipate the necessary steps. Software programs are excellent resources, but they must be properly programmed and maintained.
9. Embrace the Brand. A majority of hotels in the US today are part of brand, and the trend is growing worldwide. The Front Office Manager should become the authority on all the brand’s services, features and programs.
- Have you, as Front Office Manager, explained your brand’s expectations and agreed on values and standards to your staff?
- Do you take the time to train your staff on the brand’s programs?
- Does your staff know how to address a range of questions relating to those programs?
A WORD TO INDEPENDENTS - if your hotel is not part of a brand, does your staff know the special programs offered to the Department of Tourism, AAA or other negotiated partners?
10. Training must be maintained and increased. There is no excuse today for inadequately prepared or untrained front desk staff. There is enormous training support available at very low cost online from the major brands and a wealth of support from CDs, books, newsletters and the internet. When running high occupancy, many managers claim to be “too busy” to train. When occupancy is flat or declining, cutting ongoing training to “save money” will really cost more as it will drive the good staff to consider leaving and the loyal customers to the competition because it appears you don’t care. The following expression holds true: “the only thing worse than an untrained staff that leaves, is an untrained staff that stays to service your customers.”
11. When hiring people, pay attention to the “human” resource role. We must balance “high touch” and ‘High Tech”. Recruit and select people wisely. Encourage your General Manager to pay competitively or better and lead in incentives. As Front Office Manager, recognize your team regularly with “thank you’s “and expressions of appreciation. Retain the champions by whatever it takes to keep them.
12. Review your market analysis monthly. It should not just be the sales team or general manager that has an interest in trends or shifts in markets. As the area closest to guests, understanding their needs is essential. Sharing observations on changing guest preferences, needs or demand should be a critical part of front office monthly management practices.
13. Know your customers. The legendary managers are those who know the base of their clients and interact with them regularly. This is not the same as analyzing trends – it is the “high touch” of our industry. As the nerve center of all hotels, the front office is essential to keeping up with what is happening at all areas of the hotels. Effective front office managers professionally interact with guests as often as possible.
Think Tank
Topic:A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Hotel Front Office Managers
- How often do you really listen to guests? (We are not talking check-ins, but real interaction)?
- How are your forecasts prepared? When? By whom? Do you challenge yourself on accuracy?
- What percentage of your staff really understands the fundamentals of revenue management?
- How to interpret the Smith Travel STR Report?
- When was the last time you had an open forum discussion with your night auditor and listened to their input?
This article found at:
http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2006_3rd/Jul06_FOManager.html
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Travel & Leisure Readers Name top 100
Travel and leisure announces the results from theri reader server for best 100 in the tourism industry.
Some points of interest
Some points of interest
- Vancouver island hosts three of the top 100 hotels in North America
- Cape Breton places 4th in the best islands to visit (Right after Maui !)
To find our more go to : http://www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2006/
Dont' forget to check out their slideshow.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
It's 2006 - Do You Have a Human Resource Strategy
By Dr. Rick Johnson
This new century demands that management have adaptive skills working across the generation diversity that exists in today's workplace. No doubt people are an organization's most precious asset. Today, unlike any other time in history, that asset is filled with generational diversity.
This diversity sits side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, cubicle-to-cubicle and warehouseman to warehouseman. This generational diversity can create tension, mistrust and conflict and negate loyalty to the company in general.
How is This Generational Diversity Defined?
The most publicized and visible generation grouping of today are the Baby Boomers, born between 1943 and 1965, then we have the Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1980 and finally we have the Generation Veterans, nearing retirement, born between 1935 and 1942. Generalities tell us that the Boomers think the Xers are greedy, lazy and have a poor work ethics. The Xers think the Boomers are obsessive, dictatorial and lack understanding and empathy. They 'live to work' and the Xers 'work to live.' The generation veterans are considered a pain in the backside by the action oriented Boomers and the technology crazed Xers.
To add even more challenge to your objectives in Human Resources, consider the workforce born between 1981 and 2000. These are the youngsters just now entering the work force. Let's call them The Nexters. Many in this group, early on , primarily hangs out in the service industries like fast food. You may run into a few out on your warehouse floor. As they age and gain more education you find them entrenched in technology, E-Business and many become web-head evangelists. They are eager to learn, willing to work, but lack the loyalty the Boomers expect from their employees. The Generation Xers consider the Nexters self-absorbed, spoiled brats.
You might find it helpful to create a portrait of each generation. Study it, understand it, try to learn what they value most. Listen to them. Try to understand the historical events that shaped their lives (Viet Nam, Woodstock, Gulf War, civil rights, birth control, Kent State University, safe water, safe environments). Try to profit from their perspectives and insight. Take advantage of the youthful energetic innocence and the wisdom of the experienced.
Things to Be Aware Of
Since we are experiencing the most value-diverse workforce this country has every known, traditional thoughts in the area of Human Resources must be challenged. The Xters and Nexters have a completely different mind set and value system than most of the executives in the distribution industry who happen to be Boomers. We can no longer think that this generation should be grateful for the opportunity to work for us. In fact, we may have to consider a hiring bonus. We must temper our expectations of long term loyalty. As one Generation Xer put it, 'If you want loyalty, buy a dog.' The Xers and Nexters are much more technically savvy. They carry laptops, are much more mobile and have a different value system.
A Human Resource Strategy is Key to Becoming Employer of Choice
A human resources strategy must be included in your corporate strategic plan. Make sure you have a Human Resources professional on your staff to deal with the sweeping changes in the workplace. This person must be a skilled, knowledgeable business partner. They must play a vital role in helping your organization become or remain competitive in the labor marketplace. Becoming the Employer of Choice begins and ends with your Human Resource staff. However, it is not their task alone. Every manager in the company, from the President to the warehouse supervisor, shares in that responsibility.
Where are you now?
Determine where you are today in relationship to becoming an Employer of Choice. What strengths do you have to build on? What are the competencies that you need to develop?
As an example, consider your company's current performance in the following areas. You may want to assign a score of 1-10 to each item and include a list of its strengths and weaknesses:
• Human relations leadership skills
• Commitment to treating employees as your most valuable asset
• Training
• Credibility of your management team and company vision
• Communication skills
• Decision-making skills
• Benefits
• Other employee related support systems
Create a Human Resource Vision
Once you've determined the current state of your human resource function you should create a vision of what your human resource competency should be. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your vision must evolve around that commitment. It must be developed with intelligence, sound judgment, a willingness to step outside the box and, most importantly, a focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
The Human Resource professional must move from the 'back room' to the 'boardroom' if you expect to become Employer of Choice. Emphasis and focus must be placed on the importance of continuous progress and managing change through goal setting. Goals must be realistic, reasonable, challenging and attainable:
• Long term
• Intermediate
• Short term
Developing Your Human Resource Strategy
Once you have established your vision, the next step is to develop your human resource strategy. This strategy is the process by which you will achieve your vision of becoming an Employer of Choice. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your strategy must evolve around that commitment, intelligence, judgment and one more time, it must focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
Do not let ego get in the way of judgment. Managers need to challenge old ways. You must be determined to create a culture where worth is determined by a willingness to learn new skills and adapt to change. You must create an environment that makes it fun to go to work. Do not measure how well you are doing, measure how much you have changed.
'In the years ahead, workforce stability will be a company's competitive sales edge. In these turbulent times, exacerbated by a tight labor market, employers will be continually challenged to locate, attract, optimize and retain the talent they need to serve their customers. The most successful employers will be those who legitimately inspire highly talented workers to join them and stay with them.'
Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia
How to Become An Employer of Choice
Adam Fein of Pembroke Consulting reports in Facing the Forces of Change that nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce will be 55 years old or over by 2010, up 13%. He states that baby boomers are aging and the situation will get worse. The 25-44 year old segment will decrease by another 6% to 26% by 2010. All these facts mixed together only heighten the importance of your Human Resource strategy.
The Human Resource Planning Process
• Clearly define Human Resources role in the strategic business plan. Set specific objectives, assign accountability and develop time lines for becoming employer of choice.
• Follow the planning process map:
- Develop performance drivers
- Develop recruitment and retention strategies
- Create a scorecard
- Define policies and practices
- Career counseling
- Coaching and mentoring
- Internship program
- Education and training
- Creative employee support (day care- job sharing etc.)
Make It Fun to Come To Work
The key to employee retention is not necessarily compensation based. It has been proven time and time again that money is not high on the motivational factor list. However, money can rise to the top of the list of complaints if an employee does not enjoy coming to work every day. When an employee really likes their job, environment and peers and feels they are well treated and respected, money becomes a non-issue in most cases.
There is a book called 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (Author, Bob Nelson, Workman publishing). I encourage you to order this book.
Human Resource is an Investment in Your Employees
Unleash yourself from the self imposed trap many of us have placed ourselves in by considering Human Resources a cost center. If you develop a definitive Human Resource strategy geared to make your company the Employer of Choice in your markets, Human Resource will become a profit center. Recruitment & Retention alone will create a tremendous return on investment to your company
Research shows that it costs between 50 - 150% of an employee's annual salary to replace them. This does not include their actual salary. For example, the cost to replace an inside sales person that just resigned could exceed $75,000. The cost to replace an employee includes costs for both recruiting and training the new employee plus the loss of productivity while the position is empty and even during the "learning curve". The exact cost depends on the level of the position and the current market demand for that position. However, consider having to replace 10 employees over the course of a year. Suppose the average salary is $40,000. The replacement cost of those employees would be as follows:
10 employees@ $40,000 = $400,000 X 150% = $600,000 and that doesn't include their pay. This is a phenomenal hidden expense.
Even if you use the more conservative statistic of 100% of salary, the cost savings would be four thousand dollars.
'This does not include the lost opportunity costs in the market place.'
Don't underestimate the power of your employees. Treat them with respect, gain their trust, invest in becoming Employer of Choice and you will release more discretionary energy, creativity and innovation than you can imagine.
This article found at :
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article23228.html
This new century demands that management have adaptive skills working across the generation diversity that exists in today's workplace. No doubt people are an organization's most precious asset. Today, unlike any other time in history, that asset is filled with generational diversity.
This diversity sits side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, cubicle-to-cubicle and warehouseman to warehouseman. This generational diversity can create tension, mistrust and conflict and negate loyalty to the company in general.
How is This Generational Diversity Defined?
The most publicized and visible generation grouping of today are the Baby Boomers, born between 1943 and 1965, then we have the Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1980 and finally we have the Generation Veterans, nearing retirement, born between 1935 and 1942. Generalities tell us that the Boomers think the Xers are greedy, lazy and have a poor work ethics. The Xers think the Boomers are obsessive, dictatorial and lack understanding and empathy. They 'live to work' and the Xers 'work to live.' The generation veterans are considered a pain in the backside by the action oriented Boomers and the technology crazed Xers.
To add even more challenge to your objectives in Human Resources, consider the workforce born between 1981 and 2000. These are the youngsters just now entering the work force. Let's call them The Nexters. Many in this group, early on , primarily hangs out in the service industries like fast food. You may run into a few out on your warehouse floor. As they age and gain more education you find them entrenched in technology, E-Business and many become web-head evangelists. They are eager to learn, willing to work, but lack the loyalty the Boomers expect from their employees. The Generation Xers consider the Nexters self-absorbed, spoiled brats.
You might find it helpful to create a portrait of each generation. Study it, understand it, try to learn what they value most. Listen to them. Try to understand the historical events that shaped their lives (Viet Nam, Woodstock, Gulf War, civil rights, birth control, Kent State University, safe water, safe environments). Try to profit from their perspectives and insight. Take advantage of the youthful energetic innocence and the wisdom of the experienced.
Things to Be Aware Of
Since we are experiencing the most value-diverse workforce this country has every known, traditional thoughts in the area of Human Resources must be challenged. The Xters and Nexters have a completely different mind set and value system than most of the executives in the distribution industry who happen to be Boomers. We can no longer think that this generation should be grateful for the opportunity to work for us. In fact, we may have to consider a hiring bonus. We must temper our expectations of long term loyalty. As one Generation Xer put it, 'If you want loyalty, buy a dog.' The Xers and Nexters are much more technically savvy. They carry laptops, are much more mobile and have a different value system.
A Human Resource Strategy is Key to Becoming Employer of Choice
A human resources strategy must be included in your corporate strategic plan. Make sure you have a Human Resources professional on your staff to deal with the sweeping changes in the workplace. This person must be a skilled, knowledgeable business partner. They must play a vital role in helping your organization become or remain competitive in the labor marketplace. Becoming the Employer of Choice begins and ends with your Human Resource staff. However, it is not their task alone. Every manager in the company, from the President to the warehouse supervisor, shares in that responsibility.
Where are you now?
Determine where you are today in relationship to becoming an Employer of Choice. What strengths do you have to build on? What are the competencies that you need to develop?
As an example, consider your company's current performance in the following areas. You may want to assign a score of 1-10 to each item and include a list of its strengths and weaknesses:
• Human relations leadership skills
• Commitment to treating employees as your most valuable asset
• Training
• Credibility of your management team and company vision
• Communication skills
• Decision-making skills
• Benefits
• Other employee related support systems
Create a Human Resource Vision
Once you've determined the current state of your human resource function you should create a vision of what your human resource competency should be. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your vision must evolve around that commitment. It must be developed with intelligence, sound judgment, a willingness to step outside the box and, most importantly, a focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
The Human Resource professional must move from the 'back room' to the 'boardroom' if you expect to become Employer of Choice. Emphasis and focus must be placed on the importance of continuous progress and managing change through goal setting. Goals must be realistic, reasonable, challenging and attainable:
• Long term
• Intermediate
• Short term
Developing Your Human Resource Strategy
Once you have established your vision, the next step is to develop your human resource strategy. This strategy is the process by which you will achieve your vision of becoming an Employer of Choice. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your strategy must evolve around that commitment, intelligence, judgment and one more time, it must focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
Do not let ego get in the way of judgment. Managers need to challenge old ways. You must be determined to create a culture where worth is determined by a willingness to learn new skills and adapt to change. You must create an environment that makes it fun to go to work. Do not measure how well you are doing, measure how much you have changed.
'In the years ahead, workforce stability will be a company's competitive sales edge. In these turbulent times, exacerbated by a tight labor market, employers will be continually challenged to locate, attract, optimize and retain the talent they need to serve their customers. The most successful employers will be those who legitimately inspire highly talented workers to join them and stay with them.'
Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia
How to Become An Employer of Choice
Adam Fein of Pembroke Consulting reports in Facing the Forces of Change that nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce will be 55 years old or over by 2010, up 13%. He states that baby boomers are aging and the situation will get worse. The 25-44 year old segment will decrease by another 6% to 26% by 2010. All these facts mixed together only heighten the importance of your Human Resource strategy.
The Human Resource Planning Process
• Clearly define Human Resources role in the strategic business plan. Set specific objectives, assign accountability and develop time lines for becoming employer of choice.
• Follow the planning process map:
- Develop performance drivers
- Develop recruitment and retention strategies
- Create a scorecard
- Define policies and practices
- Career counseling
- Coaching and mentoring
- Internship program
- Education and training
- Creative employee support (day care- job sharing etc.)
Make It Fun to Come To Work
The key to employee retention is not necessarily compensation based. It has been proven time and time again that money is not high on the motivational factor list. However, money can rise to the top of the list of complaints if an employee does not enjoy coming to work every day. When an employee really likes their job, environment and peers and feels they are well treated and respected, money becomes a non-issue in most cases.
There is a book called 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (Author, Bob Nelson, Workman publishing). I encourage you to order this book.
Human Resource is an Investment in Your Employees
Unleash yourself from the self imposed trap many of us have placed ourselves in by considering Human Resources a cost center. If you develop a definitive Human Resource strategy geared to make your company the Employer of Choice in your markets, Human Resource will become a profit center. Recruitment & Retention alone will create a tremendous return on investment to your company
Research shows that it costs between 50 - 150% of an employee's annual salary to replace them. This does not include their actual salary. For example, the cost to replace an inside sales person that just resigned could exceed $75,000. The cost to replace an employee includes costs for both recruiting and training the new employee plus the loss of productivity while the position is empty and even during the "learning curve". The exact cost depends on the level of the position and the current market demand for that position. However, consider having to replace 10 employees over the course of a year. Suppose the average salary is $40,000. The replacement cost of those employees would be as follows:
10 employees@ $40,000 = $400,000 X 150% = $600,000 and that doesn't include their pay. This is a phenomenal hidden expense.
Even if you use the more conservative statistic of 100% of salary, the cost savings would be four thousand dollars.
'This does not include the lost opportunity costs in the market place.'
Don't underestimate the power of your employees. Treat them with respect, gain their trust, invest in becoming Employer of Choice and you will release more discretionary energy, creativity and innovation than you can imagine.
This article found at :
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article23228.html
Monday, July 24, 2006
So can tourism ever really be ethical? ; A report says eco-travel is booming, and yet aviation is de...
Jul 19, 2006 - Evening Standard;
London Author(s): Simon Davis
THE driveway of my Spanish hotel cut a ribbon through one of its three golf courses, kept lush by thousands of sprinklers. I checked in and a sign in the bathroom read: "We do not wash your towels daily as we care about water usage and the environment."
It's confusing, this ethical travel thing.
Then there's the classic tale of Brazil's first eco-resort, Praia do Forte, a 247-bedroom hotel opened by a developer who bought 30,000 hectares of rainforest that happened to border a spectacular beach. His aim was to show how you could develop eco-friendly tourism, so he levelled the forest and built his hotel. It didn't occur to him that the most friendly thing would have been not to built the resort in the first place. Still, Sting went along and now everyone wants to take the 14-hour flight there.
Try as it might to make planet-saving concessions, the travel industry is fundamentally detrimental to the environment and nothing of lasting value can be done to ease the damage holidays inflict on the planet. The only way to stem the effects is to reduce the number of holidays, and business trips, people take.
But this would prove unpopular with those of us who work hard and enjoy our holidays. It would go down badly with a travel industry generating $682 billion annually and providing millions of people with their livelihoods.
We therefore find ourselves in a Catch-22. You can't stop people flying off on holidays. Even if you could, the loss of revenue for many destinations would be calamitous. Yet if we keep travelling at the rate we do - we now fly billions of extra miles, thanks to budget airlines and cheapo destinations - we will destroy the planet. It's never easy to reconcile yourself to a problem that has no feasible solution.
I see no point in the popular towel fascism of that Spanish hotel - it is like McDonald's trying to ease obesity rates by offering salads - but we should still support efforts being made to reduce the environmental impact of our holidays.
The most important area to examine is the effect of global warming, resulting from the greenhouse gases emitted from your journey. By 2015, aviation is predicted to account for half the annual destruction of the ozone layer.
The airline industry, like the motoring industry, is trying to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions but aircraft take a huge amount of fuel to get off the ground. This will never change unless we learn to fly, which is unlikely.
Cruise ships, which more than 10 million people use annually, are also great spewers of greenhouse gases and use up an extraordinary amount of energy.
The best thing you can do is holiday at home and avoid flying, but we want to see the world, taste its foods and experience cultures. Do we need five foreign holidays every year, though, as a recent survey showed that many Londoners take? Why not one holiday with a flight each year, then maybe one by train?
The second effect of our holidays involves the destinations we choose to visit. There are concerns that ecotourism can unwittingly harm the people, animals and ecosystems they seek to protect - whales are often killed surfacing under whalewatching boats and hundreds of turtle nests are destroyed each year by tourists. And we must not ignore the obscene amounts of water and electricity that have been used to create the likes of Las Vegas and Dubai.
"It's a difficult balance to try to help a community maintain its cultural integrity without destroying the goose that laid the golden egg," says Carole Carlson, science adviser at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
We are doing our bit, though, it seems. Reports surfaced this week that ethical holidays are the fastest growing travel sector. According to a survey from Mintel, by 2010 the outgoing market for ethical holidays from the UK will have swollen to 2.5 million trips a year - five per cent of the market.
Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.com) has seen bookings double in the past year, while Climate Care (www.climatecare.org) has seen an eightfold increase in people offsetting carbon emissions from flights.
A survey by Tearfund, a Christian action group, found that more than half of all holidaymakers would pay more for their trips if they were guaranteed that the money went towards preserving the local environment and that workers get good wages and working conditions.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do in developing countries is to ensure that as much of the money you spend on your holiday goes to the locals.
For every pound you spend on a package holiday to Kenya, 20p goes to the travel agent, 40p to the airline, 23p to the hotel chain, 8p to the safari company, 9p to the Kenyan government: the Masai, on whose land you will probably take a safari, get nothing.
The nearest I have come to an ecolodge that has done something special is Adrere Amellal, in the western desert oasis of Siwa, in Egypt. It was built using traditional techniques by local tradesmen and serves local food. It is reminiscent of the Flintstones but more elegant. Prince Charles and Camilla visited on their recent trip to Africa.
There is no electricity and a freshwater swimming pool is fed by a natural spring. The owner is Dr Mounir Neamatalla, the head of one of Egypt's most prominent families and the president of Environmental Quality International, a business that "protects economic development that respects a region's natural heritage". All the staff are local and they benefit directly from the hotel, although they can't understand why they wait years for electricity and when it arrives wealthy tourists pay US$400 a day to stay in a hotel that prides itself on having none at all. I can accept that must seem odd.
But despite the merits of Adrere Amellal, the fact remains that I took a fumechugging taxi to Heathrow where I had breakfast in an overlit, air-conditioned restaurant. I then boarded a five-hour flight to Cairo, which released 0.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger into the environment (apparently). This was followed by an eight-hour drive across the Sahara to lie in a mud hut.
We have to accept that we cannot take holidays that benefit the planet because the negative aspects of most journeys outweigh the positive ones - no matter how many towels we avoid washing.
I'm off to Cornwall.
This article found at:
http://www.intellisearchnow.com/mp_pwrpub_view.scml?ppa=7iempY%5BihinortWUgc%7DGJ%7Bbfel%5D%21
London Author(s): Simon Davis
THE driveway of my Spanish hotel cut a ribbon through one of its three golf courses, kept lush by thousands of sprinklers. I checked in and a sign in the bathroom read: "We do not wash your towels daily as we care about water usage and the environment."
It's confusing, this ethical travel thing.
Then there's the classic tale of Brazil's first eco-resort, Praia do Forte, a 247-bedroom hotel opened by a developer who bought 30,000 hectares of rainforest that happened to border a spectacular beach. His aim was to show how you could develop eco-friendly tourism, so he levelled the forest and built his hotel. It didn't occur to him that the most friendly thing would have been not to built the resort in the first place. Still, Sting went along and now everyone wants to take the 14-hour flight there.
Try as it might to make planet-saving concessions, the travel industry is fundamentally detrimental to the environment and nothing of lasting value can be done to ease the damage holidays inflict on the planet. The only way to stem the effects is to reduce the number of holidays, and business trips, people take.
But this would prove unpopular with those of us who work hard and enjoy our holidays. It would go down badly with a travel industry generating $682 billion annually and providing millions of people with their livelihoods.
We therefore find ourselves in a Catch-22. You can't stop people flying off on holidays. Even if you could, the loss of revenue for many destinations would be calamitous. Yet if we keep travelling at the rate we do - we now fly billions of extra miles, thanks to budget airlines and cheapo destinations - we will destroy the planet. It's never easy to reconcile yourself to a problem that has no feasible solution.
I see no point in the popular towel fascism of that Spanish hotel - it is like McDonald's trying to ease obesity rates by offering salads - but we should still support efforts being made to reduce the environmental impact of our holidays.
The most important area to examine is the effect of global warming, resulting from the greenhouse gases emitted from your journey. By 2015, aviation is predicted to account for half the annual destruction of the ozone layer.
The airline industry, like the motoring industry, is trying to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions but aircraft take a huge amount of fuel to get off the ground. This will never change unless we learn to fly, which is unlikely.
Cruise ships, which more than 10 million people use annually, are also great spewers of greenhouse gases and use up an extraordinary amount of energy.
The best thing you can do is holiday at home and avoid flying, but we want to see the world, taste its foods and experience cultures. Do we need five foreign holidays every year, though, as a recent survey showed that many Londoners take? Why not one holiday with a flight each year, then maybe one by train?
The second effect of our holidays involves the destinations we choose to visit. There are concerns that ecotourism can unwittingly harm the people, animals and ecosystems they seek to protect - whales are often killed surfacing under whalewatching boats and hundreds of turtle nests are destroyed each year by tourists. And we must not ignore the obscene amounts of water and electricity that have been used to create the likes of Las Vegas and Dubai.
"It's a difficult balance to try to help a community maintain its cultural integrity without destroying the goose that laid the golden egg," says Carole Carlson, science adviser at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
We are doing our bit, though, it seems. Reports surfaced this week that ethical holidays are the fastest growing travel sector. According to a survey from Mintel, by 2010 the outgoing market for ethical holidays from the UK will have swollen to 2.5 million trips a year - five per cent of the market.
Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.com) has seen bookings double in the past year, while Climate Care (www.climatecare.org) has seen an eightfold increase in people offsetting carbon emissions from flights.
A survey by Tearfund, a Christian action group, found that more than half of all holidaymakers would pay more for their trips if they were guaranteed that the money went towards preserving the local environment and that workers get good wages and working conditions.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do in developing countries is to ensure that as much of the money you spend on your holiday goes to the locals.
For every pound you spend on a package holiday to Kenya, 20p goes to the travel agent, 40p to the airline, 23p to the hotel chain, 8p to the safari company, 9p to the Kenyan government: the Masai, on whose land you will probably take a safari, get nothing.
The nearest I have come to an ecolodge that has done something special is Adrere Amellal, in the western desert oasis of Siwa, in Egypt. It was built using traditional techniques by local tradesmen and serves local food. It is reminiscent of the Flintstones but more elegant. Prince Charles and Camilla visited on their recent trip to Africa.
There is no electricity and a freshwater swimming pool is fed by a natural spring. The owner is Dr Mounir Neamatalla, the head of one of Egypt's most prominent families and the president of Environmental Quality International, a business that "protects economic development that respects a region's natural heritage". All the staff are local and they benefit directly from the hotel, although they can't understand why they wait years for electricity and when it arrives wealthy tourists pay US$400 a day to stay in a hotel that prides itself on having none at all. I can accept that must seem odd.
But despite the merits of Adrere Amellal, the fact remains that I took a fumechugging taxi to Heathrow where I had breakfast in an overlit, air-conditioned restaurant. I then boarded a five-hour flight to Cairo, which released 0.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger into the environment (apparently). This was followed by an eight-hour drive across the Sahara to lie in a mud hut.
We have to accept that we cannot take holidays that benefit the planet because the negative aspects of most journeys outweigh the positive ones - no matter how many towels we avoid washing.
I'm off to Cornwall.
This article found at:
http://www.intellisearchnow.com/mp_pwrpub_view.scml?ppa=7iempY%5BihinortWUgc%7DGJ%7Bbfel%5D%21
Thursday, July 20, 2006
No Blog Friday July 21
The editor is off campus Friday July 21 visiting co-op students in Campbellton and in St. Andrew's New Brunswick. Blog entries will return Monday July 24, 2006
Hospitality Q&A: Designing for the 21st Century
July 18, 2006
By Eugene Gilligan, Senior Editor
CPN hotel editor Eugene Gilligan spoke with Kay Lang, president & CEO of Kay Lang + Associates, about the latest innovations in hospitality design. The internationally recognized firm specializes in designing four- and five-star hotels, as well as high-end residential and restaurant properties. Its signature projects include the Premier Coex Hotel in Seoul; the Yen Du Hotel in Shijia Zuang, China; and the Fairmont Pacific Rim and Residence Project in Vancouver.
CPNHospitality: Please talk about new trends you are seeing in hotel design.
Lang: The condo hotel trend has recently seen developers rush to sell, or convert part or all of their hotel properties into residential properties, or develop new mixed-use boutique and upscale projects with condominiums that will be returned into the revenue stream for the hotel.
Trends in guestrooms are leaning toward a more personalized room that is more than simply beautiful or functional. Plumbing fixtures, tubs and hardware now have the appearance of works of art rather than simply utilitarian objects, and are used as key design elements. Public areas within the rooms are mixing with more intimate spaces and are now becoming the norm.
There is also more innovative green thinking in hospitality-related product design. For example, I recently came across oxygen tiles, which are actually designed to improve the environment. Unlike porcelain or ordinary floor tiles, they are supposed to contain titanium dioxide, a compound that releases pure oxygen when it is exposed to sunlight (much as foliage releases oxygen during photosynthesis). The pure oxygen then reacts with common air pollutants, such as automotive emissions, and helps to neutralize them. Imagine using these tiles in outdoor restaurants in hotels or on roof-garden restaurants.
CPNHospitality: What amenities are now becoming musts in hotels?
Lang: Wireless high-speed Internet access, residential-style linens, more ease and comfort in guest surroundings and more personalized concierge services.
CPNHospitality: Spending by Generation X travelers is becoming a proportionally larger part of hotels' overall revenues. Do you design with this traveler in mind?
Lang: Yes, we do. This particular group is driven by the allure of entertainment and living combined. W Hotels was the first to pioneer this in our industry, by combining the bar with the lobby area. I've recently read about a property in New York City that has space that operates as a day spa and a bar lounge by night.
CPNHospitality: Do you have any project that you are most proud of, and why?
Lang: No. I always fall in love with the current project that I am working on.
CPNHospitality: With the continuing escalation of construction costs, do these rising costs influence your design plans?
Lang: Yes, rising construction costs set limits as to what the scope of the design concept will entail, and limits the end products. Budgets are always budgets.
CPNHospitality: You have designed hotels worldwide. What are the challenges to designing properties overseas?
Lang: Maintaining the appropriate flow of communication in a timely manner, and understanding the local customs and cultural differences. The Internet has made the information get there sooner, but communicating the design can be a problem. We recently completed a project in Korea where we showed photographs as examples of our design concept to the developer. Somehow, the design we had in mind got lost in translation.
nother example of cultural differences relates to a project in China, where mechanical engineering takes precedence over the size of guestrooms. In China, they tend to design huge mechanical shafts in between guestrooms, along with closets that are big enough for the technician to stand in and work. This often ends up taking away space and impacts the overall size of the room. This is of no concern to them. It's just a cultural difference you have to work around.
This article found at:
http://commercialpropertynews.com/cpn/property_type/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002840970&imw=Y
By Eugene Gilligan, Senior Editor
CPN hotel editor Eugene Gilligan spoke with Kay Lang, president & CEO of Kay Lang + Associates, about the latest innovations in hospitality design. The internationally recognized firm specializes in designing four- and five-star hotels, as well as high-end residential and restaurant properties. Its signature projects include the Premier Coex Hotel in Seoul; the Yen Du Hotel in Shijia Zuang, China; and the Fairmont Pacific Rim and Residence Project in Vancouver.
CPNHospitality: Please talk about new trends you are seeing in hotel design.
Lang: The condo hotel trend has recently seen developers rush to sell, or convert part or all of their hotel properties into residential properties, or develop new mixed-use boutique and upscale projects with condominiums that will be returned into the revenue stream for the hotel.
Trends in guestrooms are leaning toward a more personalized room that is more than simply beautiful or functional. Plumbing fixtures, tubs and hardware now have the appearance of works of art rather than simply utilitarian objects, and are used as key design elements. Public areas within the rooms are mixing with more intimate spaces and are now becoming the norm.
There is also more innovative green thinking in hospitality-related product design. For example, I recently came across oxygen tiles, which are actually designed to improve the environment. Unlike porcelain or ordinary floor tiles, they are supposed to contain titanium dioxide, a compound that releases pure oxygen when it is exposed to sunlight (much as foliage releases oxygen during photosynthesis). The pure oxygen then reacts with common air pollutants, such as automotive emissions, and helps to neutralize them. Imagine using these tiles in outdoor restaurants in hotels or on roof-garden restaurants.
CPNHospitality: What amenities are now becoming musts in hotels?
Lang: Wireless high-speed Internet access, residential-style linens, more ease and comfort in guest surroundings and more personalized concierge services.
CPNHospitality: Spending by Generation X travelers is becoming a proportionally larger part of hotels' overall revenues. Do you design with this traveler in mind?
Lang: Yes, we do. This particular group is driven by the allure of entertainment and living combined. W Hotels was the first to pioneer this in our industry, by combining the bar with the lobby area. I've recently read about a property in New York City that has space that operates as a day spa and a bar lounge by night.
CPNHospitality: Do you have any project that you are most proud of, and why?
Lang: No. I always fall in love with the current project that I am working on.
CPNHospitality: With the continuing escalation of construction costs, do these rising costs influence your design plans?
Lang: Yes, rising construction costs set limits as to what the scope of the design concept will entail, and limits the end products. Budgets are always budgets.
CPNHospitality: You have designed hotels worldwide. What are the challenges to designing properties overseas?
Lang: Maintaining the appropriate flow of communication in a timely manner, and understanding the local customs and cultural differences. The Internet has made the information get there sooner, but communicating the design can be a problem. We recently completed a project in Korea where we showed photographs as examples of our design concept to the developer. Somehow, the design we had in mind got lost in translation.
nother example of cultural differences relates to a project in China, where mechanical engineering takes precedence over the size of guestrooms. In China, they tend to design huge mechanical shafts in between guestrooms, along with closets that are big enough for the technician to stand in and work. This often ends up taking away space and impacts the overall size of the room. This is of no concern to them. It's just a cultural difference you have to work around.
This article found at:
http://commercialpropertynews.com/cpn/property_type/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002840970&imw=Y
Marriott Goes 'Smoke-Free' in North America
More than 2,300 Properties and 10 Lodging Brands included in the Program - Lodging Industry's Largest Move Ever to a Smoke-Free Environment
Marriott International, Inc. announced today that all of the Company's lodging brands in the United States and Canada will become 100 percent smoke-free, beginning in September. This represents the industry's largest move to a non-smoking environment, with more than 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments and nearly 400,000 guest rooms under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites and Marriott ExecuStay brands.
"Creating a smoke-free environment demonstrates a new level of service and care for our guests and associates," said J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International. "Our family of brands is united on this important health issue and we anticipate very positive customer feedback."
The new policy includes all guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public space and employee work areas. Currently more than 90 percent of Marriott guest rooms are already non-smoking and smoking is prohibited in many public spaces due to local laws. Demand for non-smoking rooms continues to rise with new information from the Surgeon General on the hazards of secondary smoke.
Marriott International, Inc. announced today that all of the Company's lodging brands in the United States and Canada will become 100 percent smoke-free, beginning in September. This represents the industry's largest move to a non-smoking environment, with more than 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments and nearly 400,000 guest rooms under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites and Marriott ExecuStay brands.
"Creating a smoke-free environment demonstrates a new level of service and care for our guests and associates," said J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International. "Our family of brands is united on this important health issue and we anticipate very positive customer feedback."
The new policy includes all guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public space and employee work areas. Currently more than 90 percent of Marriott guest rooms are already non-smoking and smoking is prohibited in many public spaces due to local laws. Demand for non-smoking rooms continues to rise with new information from the Surgeon General on the hazards of secondary smoke.
Co-op Project Assistance
Pleae click over to the Co-op site for some insight to assist Co-op student's in undertaking the nessecary research and responding to the areas of investigation required in the co-op project. Click on the link to the right of the page to get to this site.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Takin' Off the Ritz - a Tad.
By Peter Sanders
Monday, 17th July 2006
Chain relaxes service "rules" to rely on workers' judgment; no more escorts to restroom
For more than two decades - every "lady and gentleman" patrolling a Ritz-Carlton hotel -- whether on the Bosphorus or the Kapalua beaches -- was secure in the knowledge that they carried in their breast pockets the exact instructions to pamper any guest.
There, laminated between two pieces of plastic, were the 20 rules dubbed the "Ritz-Carlton Basics": Never say "Hello" to a guest; always opt for a more formal greeting like "Good Morning." Never give directions to the restroom; always escort the guest right to the door. And, never, under any circumstances, let a guest carry his own luggage.
This week, all that changes. The name that has defined luxury as a cross between formal elegance and unwavering service bordering on the robotic is scaling back the 20 rules to 12 "service values" and asking employees to think for themselves.
"It's all about staying relevant in a space that has changed dramatically in the last 20 years," says Simon Cooper, Ritz's president and chief operating officer. "Ritz-Carlton has the best and most recognized luxury brand names in the world, and we need to focus on 'relevant luxury.' "
Ritz is struggling with an idea that is confronting many high-end hoteliers: how to define luxury in a crowded and evolving market. No longer is the typical luxury-hotel guest a middle-age male business traveler, or a wealthy jet-setter of a certain age. These days, the 30-year-old in a T-shirt and jeans fiddling with his BlackBerry in the lobby could be worth millions.
So while Ritz's motto has long been "Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," it is coming to grips with the idea that some luxury travelers don't necessarily want to be addressed that way.
"The notion of what our parents wanted in terms of luxury and formality is different from what today's generation wants," says Cathy Enz, professor of strategy at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. "As times change, so does the expectation for the luxury guest who has more choices than ever."
With change, though, comes the risk of alienating loyal guests like Debbie Baumgart, who recently spent time at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Fla. The 51-year-old travel agent from Cleveland thinks "more is always better than less," when it comes to service. "You're paying a lot of money when you're there," she says, "so I am always happy to be catered to and expect a higher caliber of service from the employees than if you were staying somewhere either cheaper or more hip."
For Ritz-Carlton, the key to pleasing travelers is delivering top-drawer service without being so dogmatic about what that means. "In the past we would help a guest with their luggage 100% of the time," says Rainer Burkle, general manager at the Ritz in Berlin and a 15-year employee. "These days, most business travelers don't want us to touch their bags, but our current rules tell our employees they have to."
Though folksy language by employees is still forbidden, the oft-heard catchphrase "Certainly, my pleasure" will be discouraged -- replaced instead by more natural responses depending on the particular situation.
The shift is crucial for Ritz, a wholly owned subsidiary of lodging giant Marriott International Inc. Company officials acknowledge that it needs to reposition itself vis-Ã -vis archrival Four Seasons Hotel Co., which seems to be edging out the Ritz in the hipster zeitgeist of late, even though formal surveys still place Ritz-Carlton at or near the top of the sector.
Ritz-Carlton officials dispute any suggestion that the brand has lost its luster. "We don't agree with that perception and don't think that's what our customers believe or that the survey results and data bear that out," says Bruce Himelstein, senior vice president of sales and marketing.
While the luxury segment represents only a small fraction of the world's hotel rooms, the sector helped drive the booming hotel engine last year. Luxury hotels reported a 3.5% increase in occupancy over 2004. More surprising: PKF Consulting estimates the average nightly rate at a luxury hotel in the U.S. in 2005 was $283.35 -- a nearly 7% increase from 2000, which was a record year in the travel industry. Revenue per available room at luxury hotels -- a key industry indicator -- was up 11.4% from 2004 to $201.98.
For Ritz-Carlton, which began its modern incarnation by carving its niche in the highest end of the hotel industry with one hotel in Atlanta in 1983, the change goes to the very core of what the company is. Every weekday at 9:05 a.m., roughly 75 corporate "ladies and gentlemen" gather in the eighth-floor lobby of a suburban office building here for the company's daily "Lineup." Inspirational quotations are read aloud ("It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart." -- Anonymous); visitors and guests in the room are introduced; and an employee recites one of the new 12 service values (until this week, it had been one of the 20 basic rules). The same ritual is played out at the beginning of each shift in every department for all 32,000 employees at the company's 61 hotels.
The changes were received with some grumbles when presented to the company's general managers at a meeting in Barcelona earlier this year. There were worries expressed about ruining the company's high standards and reputation, according to people who were there.
"Our reputation for service is our Holy Grail, and we didn't want to mess with that," says Ed Staros, who oversees two Ritz resorts in Naples, Fla., and is one of the founding partners of the company. "I was also concerned we would implement these changes in a way that one hotel would be following different rules than another and that would send mixed messages to our guests."
His concerns, however, were allayed when it was decided that the policies would be phased in over the course of no longer than 10 days.
The change comes as Ritz-Carlton has developed a large portion of its business catering to corporate meetings and group events. "The broader spectrum of traveler they're now accommodating may not have the appreciation of that highest level of service," says Mark Woodworth, of PKF Hospitality Research in Atlanta.
Keith Hanks, who often stays at Ritz-Carltons when attending work-related functions, sums up the problem facing the push for a more-relaxed luxury. The 54-year-old manager of a Toyota dealership in Metairie, La., stayed at one of the company's urban hotels in Chicago this spring and then spent the following week at one of its resorts in St. Thomas. "In St. Thomas you really felt like when they said 'my pleasure,' the staff really meant it," he says. "Everywhere else, it felt like they were reading from a cheat sheet in their pocket."
He wouldn't mind seeing the "laid-back attitude" he encountered in the islands translated to other Ritz-Carlton hotels -- as long as the quality of service doesn't suffer.
This article found at:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1468
Monday, 17th July 2006
Chain relaxes service "rules" to rely on workers' judgment; no more escorts to restroom
For more than two decades - every "lady and gentleman" patrolling a Ritz-Carlton hotel -- whether on the Bosphorus or the Kapalua beaches -- was secure in the knowledge that they carried in their breast pockets the exact instructions to pamper any guest.
There, laminated between two pieces of plastic, were the 20 rules dubbed the "Ritz-Carlton Basics": Never say "Hello" to a guest; always opt for a more formal greeting like "Good Morning." Never give directions to the restroom; always escort the guest right to the door. And, never, under any circumstances, let a guest carry his own luggage.
This week, all that changes. The name that has defined luxury as a cross between formal elegance and unwavering service bordering on the robotic is scaling back the 20 rules to 12 "service values" and asking employees to think for themselves.
"It's all about staying relevant in a space that has changed dramatically in the last 20 years," says Simon Cooper, Ritz's president and chief operating officer. "Ritz-Carlton has the best and most recognized luxury brand names in the world, and we need to focus on 'relevant luxury.' "
Ritz is struggling with an idea that is confronting many high-end hoteliers: how to define luxury in a crowded and evolving market. No longer is the typical luxury-hotel guest a middle-age male business traveler, or a wealthy jet-setter of a certain age. These days, the 30-year-old in a T-shirt and jeans fiddling with his BlackBerry in the lobby could be worth millions.
So while Ritz's motto has long been "Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," it is coming to grips with the idea that some luxury travelers don't necessarily want to be addressed that way.
"The notion of what our parents wanted in terms of luxury and formality is different from what today's generation wants," says Cathy Enz, professor of strategy at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. "As times change, so does the expectation for the luxury guest who has more choices than ever."
With change, though, comes the risk of alienating loyal guests like Debbie Baumgart, who recently spent time at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Fla. The 51-year-old travel agent from Cleveland thinks "more is always better than less," when it comes to service. "You're paying a lot of money when you're there," she says, "so I am always happy to be catered to and expect a higher caliber of service from the employees than if you were staying somewhere either cheaper or more hip."
For Ritz-Carlton, the key to pleasing travelers is delivering top-drawer service without being so dogmatic about what that means. "In the past we would help a guest with their luggage 100% of the time," says Rainer Burkle, general manager at the Ritz in Berlin and a 15-year employee. "These days, most business travelers don't want us to touch their bags, but our current rules tell our employees they have to."
Though folksy language by employees is still forbidden, the oft-heard catchphrase "Certainly, my pleasure" will be discouraged -- replaced instead by more natural responses depending on the particular situation.
The shift is crucial for Ritz, a wholly owned subsidiary of lodging giant Marriott International Inc. Company officials acknowledge that it needs to reposition itself vis-Ã -vis archrival Four Seasons Hotel Co., which seems to be edging out the Ritz in the hipster zeitgeist of late, even though formal surveys still place Ritz-Carlton at or near the top of the sector.
Ritz-Carlton officials dispute any suggestion that the brand has lost its luster. "We don't agree with that perception and don't think that's what our customers believe or that the survey results and data bear that out," says Bruce Himelstein, senior vice president of sales and marketing.
While the luxury segment represents only a small fraction of the world's hotel rooms, the sector helped drive the booming hotel engine last year. Luxury hotels reported a 3.5% increase in occupancy over 2004. More surprising: PKF Consulting estimates the average nightly rate at a luxury hotel in the U.S. in 2005 was $283.35 -- a nearly 7% increase from 2000, which was a record year in the travel industry. Revenue per available room at luxury hotels -- a key industry indicator -- was up 11.4% from 2004 to $201.98.
For Ritz-Carlton, which began its modern incarnation by carving its niche in the highest end of the hotel industry with one hotel in Atlanta in 1983, the change goes to the very core of what the company is. Every weekday at 9:05 a.m., roughly 75 corporate "ladies and gentlemen" gather in the eighth-floor lobby of a suburban office building here for the company's daily "Lineup." Inspirational quotations are read aloud ("It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart." -- Anonymous); visitors and guests in the room are introduced; and an employee recites one of the new 12 service values (until this week, it had been one of the 20 basic rules). The same ritual is played out at the beginning of each shift in every department for all 32,000 employees at the company's 61 hotels.
The changes were received with some grumbles when presented to the company's general managers at a meeting in Barcelona earlier this year. There were worries expressed about ruining the company's high standards and reputation, according to people who were there.
"Our reputation for service is our Holy Grail, and we didn't want to mess with that," says Ed Staros, who oversees two Ritz resorts in Naples, Fla., and is one of the founding partners of the company. "I was also concerned we would implement these changes in a way that one hotel would be following different rules than another and that would send mixed messages to our guests."
His concerns, however, were allayed when it was decided that the policies would be phased in over the course of no longer than 10 days.
The change comes as Ritz-Carlton has developed a large portion of its business catering to corporate meetings and group events. "The broader spectrum of traveler they're now accommodating may not have the appreciation of that highest level of service," says Mark Woodworth, of PKF Hospitality Research in Atlanta.
Keith Hanks, who often stays at Ritz-Carltons when attending work-related functions, sums up the problem facing the push for a more-relaxed luxury. The 54-year-old manager of a Toyota dealership in Metairie, La., stayed at one of the company's urban hotels in Chicago this spring and then spent the following week at one of its resorts in St. Thomas. "In St. Thomas you really felt like when they said 'my pleasure,' the staff really meant it," he says. "Everywhere else, it felt like they were reading from a cheat sheet in their pocket."
He wouldn't mind seeing the "laid-back attitude" he encountered in the islands translated to other Ritz-Carlton hotels -- as long as the quality of service doesn't suffer.
This article found at:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1468
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
RM for GMs - What You Don't Know Can Jump Up and Bite You!
General Managers have vastly different levels of understanding the revenue management process. In this year of opportunity, what a general manager doesn't know and understand can jump up and bite him or her you know where.
The levels of understanding tends to range from 'I don't really know what the Revenue Manager does all day' to those GMs whose background was revenue management.If you as a GM fall into the first category or anywhere close (and you know who you are), a speedy ramp up on revenue management is critical to your property maximizing the revenue that ultimately becomes the basis for your bonus or incentive. The gaps in your RM skill set can jump up and bite you in the wallet - how's that for a WIIFM* factor!
There is a feeling on the part of many GMs that Revenue Management is simply the old yield management concept repackaged. Yield management is part of it but it is far more complex than that and advances in the discipline are morphing at light speed.
Revenue Management is more complex than ever and changes in the discipline are morphing at light speed. RM not only manages demand during peak periods but also has a huge impact on stimulating demand in shoulder seasons. RM no longer only applies to room revenue but to managing the potential revenue for all profit centers. It enables a smart Customer Relationship Management strategy that has the potential to stimulate demand from the most valuable guests.
The position of the General Manager is one of juggling competing priorities, keeping the department heads from seriously hurting each other and at the same time trying to produce an exceptional guest experience. What's a GM to do to ramp up the Revenue Management IQ? Below are a few areas to test your RM IQ.
- Understand the Reports. Your Revenue Manager probably produces a plethora of reports and proudly gives them to you during the Revenue Management meeting. (You do have a weekly Revenue Management Committee meeting, don't you?) The reports come from various sources including the PMS, the GDS, the various channels and franchise reports. The Revenue Manager has probably designed a few of their own. Stare at them until they begin to make sense, ask for explanations and don't pretend that you understand them when you don't.
- Daily, Weekly and Monthly Disciplines. This is key to understanding what your Revenue Manager does all day. There is a set of activities that need to be performed at these intervals. Know what they are - how else can you measure how well the Revenue Manager is executing the RM strategy.
- Channel Management. We now refer to channels as all sources of reservations. If you still think this refers only to the Internet travel sites, you need to ramp up. Managing these channels is more than just turning the inventory and rate faucet on and off, it also includes merchant agreements, internet specials, GDS marketing etc, to stimulate demand. This is a critical area for your Revenue Manager.
- Web Site. Especially if you are managing an independent hotel or resort, you as a GM need to understand site design, optimization and Internet marketing. This is critical to the success of any independent. Your Revenue Manager should be intimately involved with the design and functionality of the reservation engine on your site.
- Rate Strategy versus Pricing Strategy. The rate strategy is where you position your rate structure for the year or fiscal period. The pricing strategy includes closing discounts, rates for 'hot dates' etc., in the short term or within the period covered by the rate strategy.
- Revenue Management and Customer Relationship Management. This tends to produce the glazed over 'deer in the headlights' look. The simple explanation is that CRM is about identifying the value of customers, individually or by market segment and then developing relationships with them in order to secure their loyalty or, put simply, repeat business. It can be this simple or much more complex but GMs need to understand what this means and the implications for the future.
The above is a short list of some of the basics that all GMs need to have a grasp of even if their Revenue Manager is supported by a Corporate Revenue Manager - remember it is your hotel's revenue for which you are ultimately responsible and compensated for. For those of you who don't know what the WIIFM factor is it is the acronym for What's In It For Me - I hope we made that case!
Carol Verret is hosting a web cast on revenue management The Revenue Management Accelerator - the Next Level on July 28 for those for those of you who wish to increase your Revenue Management IQ. Click here for details
This article found at
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article23150.html
The levels of understanding tends to range from 'I don't really know what the Revenue Manager does all day' to those GMs whose background was revenue management.If you as a GM fall into the first category or anywhere close (and you know who you are), a speedy ramp up on revenue management is critical to your property maximizing the revenue that ultimately becomes the basis for your bonus or incentive. The gaps in your RM skill set can jump up and bite you in the wallet - how's that for a WIIFM* factor!
There is a feeling on the part of many GMs that Revenue Management is simply the old yield management concept repackaged. Yield management is part of it but it is far more complex than that and advances in the discipline are morphing at light speed.
Revenue Management is more complex than ever and changes in the discipline are morphing at light speed. RM not only manages demand during peak periods but also has a huge impact on stimulating demand in shoulder seasons. RM no longer only applies to room revenue but to managing the potential revenue for all profit centers. It enables a smart Customer Relationship Management strategy that has the potential to stimulate demand from the most valuable guests.
The position of the General Manager is one of juggling competing priorities, keeping the department heads from seriously hurting each other and at the same time trying to produce an exceptional guest experience. What's a GM to do to ramp up the Revenue Management IQ? Below are a few areas to test your RM IQ.
- Understand the Reports. Your Revenue Manager probably produces a plethora of reports and proudly gives them to you during the Revenue Management meeting. (You do have a weekly Revenue Management Committee meeting, don't you?) The reports come from various sources including the PMS, the GDS, the various channels and franchise reports. The Revenue Manager has probably designed a few of their own. Stare at them until they begin to make sense, ask for explanations and don't pretend that you understand them when you don't.
- Daily, Weekly and Monthly Disciplines. This is key to understanding what your Revenue Manager does all day. There is a set of activities that need to be performed at these intervals. Know what they are - how else can you measure how well the Revenue Manager is executing the RM strategy.
- Channel Management. We now refer to channels as all sources of reservations. If you still think this refers only to the Internet travel sites, you need to ramp up. Managing these channels is more than just turning the inventory and rate faucet on and off, it also includes merchant agreements, internet specials, GDS marketing etc, to stimulate demand. This is a critical area for your Revenue Manager.
- Web Site. Especially if you are managing an independent hotel or resort, you as a GM need to understand site design, optimization and Internet marketing. This is critical to the success of any independent. Your Revenue Manager should be intimately involved with the design and functionality of the reservation engine on your site.
- Rate Strategy versus Pricing Strategy. The rate strategy is where you position your rate structure for the year or fiscal period. The pricing strategy includes closing discounts, rates for 'hot dates' etc., in the short term or within the period covered by the rate strategy.
- Revenue Management and Customer Relationship Management. This tends to produce the glazed over 'deer in the headlights' look. The simple explanation is that CRM is about identifying the value of customers, individually or by market segment and then developing relationships with them in order to secure their loyalty or, put simply, repeat business. It can be this simple or much more complex but GMs need to understand what this means and the implications for the future.
The above is a short list of some of the basics that all GMs need to have a grasp of even if their Revenue Manager is supported by a Corporate Revenue Manager - remember it is your hotel's revenue for which you are ultimately responsible and compensated for. For those of you who don't know what the WIIFM factor is it is the acronym for What's In It For Me - I hope we made that case!
Carol Verret is hosting a web cast on revenue management The Revenue Management Accelerator - the Next Level on July 28 for those for those of you who wish to increase your Revenue Management IQ. Click here for details
This article found at
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article23150.html
Monday, July 17, 2006
Nine Essentials You Need to Know to Market Your Business
By Misty Williams
Building your business can be both an exciting and scary endeavor. To be successful, you must understand the most important strategies for marketing and growing your business.
What do you need to know about your industry? How do you know "your next move?" Why will people do business with you? Is there a proven formula for success?
Do you want a good definition of success?
Here it is:Success is making more money that it costs to create your products or services, run your business, and take a reasonable salary. Your chances for business success increase exponentially when you clearly understand the most important essentials for growing your business.
1. Know what you do best. Know what you (will) sell and why it works. Know how you help people most effectively.
2. Know who your customers are. Know what they are looking for. Know where they want to buy your service or products and why.
3. Know how customers find you. Know where they have the potential to hear about you, read about you, see things about you. Make sure they will find you there.
4. Know your "sales process" Understand the process you take a prospect through to persuade them to buy. Identify from start to finish what you do, what others do, and how you're different. Make sure your sales process connects with what your prospect thinks they need, even if your solutions solve the 'real need' they haven't identified!
5. Know where you add the most value. Identify better and more meaningful ways to serve your customer. Understand their key frustrations and solve them. Do what others are unwilling to do to satisfy the customer and help them achieve the results they want! Showcase these "valuable" distinctions in your marketing materials and incorporate them into your sales process.
6. Know your competitive business advantages. Know your competition. Be able to quickly and clearly state why you are different and / or better. Create marketing tools that communicate, emphasize and reinforce your competitive advantages.
7. Know where to spend your money. Does the money you spend produce more money? Before you commit your funds, ask yourself, How will this help me make more money? Invest your money where it will work hard for you. Be aware of the areas where you have a tendency to spend money that doesn't impact your bottom line (excessive administrative expenses, developing new products that you don't have the distribution channels to sell through, etc).
8. Know the most painful and weakest areas of your business. Understand everything you can about why it is painful. Confront the pain with the goal of healing it. Make stronger and better strategic alliances. Build a great team of advisors. Master your sales process. Maximize efficiency. Know your customers and serve them better. Take ownership and responsibility for fixing the painful elements of your products, services, sales process, employees, and ongoing customer relationships.
9. Know when to look for help. If it's not your genius, it's not your job! If you're truly committed to growing in your business, deal with those areas or "weak links" that could sabotage your efforts. Read the best books. Get training where you need it. And when you clearly see the need for outside help, find it! Get a good business coach, get some counseling, hire an expert and develop and incorporate their advice into your decisions. Work smart!
This article found at:
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article23066.html
Building your business can be both an exciting and scary endeavor. To be successful, you must understand the most important strategies for marketing and growing your business.
What do you need to know about your industry? How do you know "your next move?" Why will people do business with you? Is there a proven formula for success?
Do you want a good definition of success?
Here it is:Success is making more money that it costs to create your products or services, run your business, and take a reasonable salary. Your chances for business success increase exponentially when you clearly understand the most important essentials for growing your business.
1. Know what you do best. Know what you (will) sell and why it works. Know how you help people most effectively.
2. Know who your customers are. Know what they are looking for. Know where they want to buy your service or products and why.
3. Know how customers find you. Know where they have the potential to hear about you, read about you, see things about you. Make sure they will find you there.
4. Know your "sales process" Understand the process you take a prospect through to persuade them to buy. Identify from start to finish what you do, what others do, and how you're different. Make sure your sales process connects with what your prospect thinks they need, even if your solutions solve the 'real need' they haven't identified!
5. Know where you add the most value. Identify better and more meaningful ways to serve your customer. Understand their key frustrations and solve them. Do what others are unwilling to do to satisfy the customer and help them achieve the results they want! Showcase these "valuable" distinctions in your marketing materials and incorporate them into your sales process.
6. Know your competitive business advantages. Know your competition. Be able to quickly and clearly state why you are different and / or better. Create marketing tools that communicate, emphasize and reinforce your competitive advantages.
7. Know where to spend your money. Does the money you spend produce more money? Before you commit your funds, ask yourself, How will this help me make more money? Invest your money where it will work hard for you. Be aware of the areas where you have a tendency to spend money that doesn't impact your bottom line (excessive administrative expenses, developing new products that you don't have the distribution channels to sell through, etc).
8. Know the most painful and weakest areas of your business. Understand everything you can about why it is painful. Confront the pain with the goal of healing it. Make stronger and better strategic alliances. Build a great team of advisors. Master your sales process. Maximize efficiency. Know your customers and serve them better. Take ownership and responsibility for fixing the painful elements of your products, services, sales process, employees, and ongoing customer relationships.
9. Know when to look for help. If it's not your genius, it's not your job! If you're truly committed to growing in your business, deal with those areas or "weak links" that could sabotage your efforts. Read the best books. Get training where you need it. And when you clearly see the need for outside help, find it! Get a good business coach, get some counseling, hire an expert and develop and incorporate their advice into your decisions. Work smart!
This article found at:
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article23066.html
Friday, July 14, 2006
The Rise and Decline of Syrah - at the Same Time
By Jim Clarke
The vine looks confused: the leaves have turned red, even though it’s only July. Looking closer, the graft, where the vitis vinifera Syrah is attached to an American, phylloxera-resistant rootstock, is swollen – it looks like an injured knee. Perhaps there’s even a crack or two. The vine is not making good grapes, and will probably die in a few years.
Syrah – or, in its Australian incarnation, Shiraz – has been on the rise since the 90s, gaining popularity with winedrinkers and wine critics alike. Winegrowers in the New World have responded, and new plantings abound; in Washington, for example, the total acreage devoted to Syrah ballooned from 50 acres to approximately 2,000 over one decade. Bottlings of Syrah are also appearing on the shelves from unexpected places like Argentina and South Africa.
But at the same time, a mysterious ailment is attacking Syrah vineyards. The French call it “Syrah Decline;” in California, it goes by “Syrah Disorder.” It’s become a worldwide problem, and the causes remain unclear.
The vine’s appearance is one thing, but Syrah Decline also affects the wine, because the grapes do not ripen properly. The flavors don’t materialize, the sugars remain too low, the acidity drops, and even the color is light. Even if it weren’t Syrah – full-bodied, darkly-colored Syrah – these grapes wouldn’t make a good wine.
How widespread is Syrah Decline? A French report in 2004 said that all French Syrah vineyards 15 years or younger show some signs of the illness, with 1 to 15% of the vines infected in any given vineyard. Some growers in the Languedoc-Roussillon area have resisted government pressure to plant more Syrah, fearing that it could infect their Grenache and Carignane plantings. South Africa, California, and Oregon have also been affected; one expert estimates that in some Central Coast’s vineyards, 25% of the Syrah vines are dying from Syrah disorder each year. Australia remains remarkably unaffected, so perhaps there is something in calling it Shiraz after all.
Growers are mystified. Research has uncovered some common factors in cases of Decline across the world. Water-management is a point of agreement: vines that become stressed by drought, salinity, or lack of appropriate irrigation are more likely to develop symptoms (However, over-irrigation leads to its own drop in wine quality; some water stress leads to a concentration of flavor in the grapes.). Similarly, most agree that vascular function – the flow of liquids within the plant – is involved, especially at the graft union, which sometimes seems to be choking the vine. Syrah is more sensitive than most vines; under drought conditions, its leaves do not close their stomata (the breathing holes on the underside of the leaves), so more evaporation occurs and the vine loses more water.
However, other analyses are more contradictory. South Africa has found substantial differences in the susceptibility of various clones, with French clones succumbing most frequently. But a 2002 UC Davis survey of California Syrah vineyards included a dozen clones, a dozen rootstocks, and seven different field selections, and found no real pattern in the Syrah Disorder occurrences. Californian research is focusing on soil types and nutrients, especially phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. No virus or bacteria has been found in association with the ailment.
While Syrah is not about to disappear from the shelves, the disease has been distressing for winegrowers, some of whom have hoped to jump on the train and take advantage of the grape’s popularity. Keep an eye on prices, though, if the spread of Syrah Disorder accelerates, costs could move up as well…except in Australia, since it doesn’t seem much affected. Hmm…I smell a possible conspiracy theory in the making.
This article found at:
http://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/syrah_sickness/html/
The vine looks confused: the leaves have turned red, even though it’s only July. Looking closer, the graft, where the vitis vinifera Syrah is attached to an American, phylloxera-resistant rootstock, is swollen – it looks like an injured knee. Perhaps there’s even a crack or two. The vine is not making good grapes, and will probably die in a few years.
Syrah – or, in its Australian incarnation, Shiraz – has been on the rise since the 90s, gaining popularity with winedrinkers and wine critics alike. Winegrowers in the New World have responded, and new plantings abound; in Washington, for example, the total acreage devoted to Syrah ballooned from 50 acres to approximately 2,000 over one decade. Bottlings of Syrah are also appearing on the shelves from unexpected places like Argentina and South Africa.
But at the same time, a mysterious ailment is attacking Syrah vineyards. The French call it “Syrah Decline;” in California, it goes by “Syrah Disorder.” It’s become a worldwide problem, and the causes remain unclear.
The vine’s appearance is one thing, but Syrah Decline also affects the wine, because the grapes do not ripen properly. The flavors don’t materialize, the sugars remain too low, the acidity drops, and even the color is light. Even if it weren’t Syrah – full-bodied, darkly-colored Syrah – these grapes wouldn’t make a good wine.
How widespread is Syrah Decline? A French report in 2004 said that all French Syrah vineyards 15 years or younger show some signs of the illness, with 1 to 15% of the vines infected in any given vineyard. Some growers in the Languedoc-Roussillon area have resisted government pressure to plant more Syrah, fearing that it could infect their Grenache and Carignane plantings. South Africa, California, and Oregon have also been affected; one expert estimates that in some Central Coast’s vineyards, 25% of the Syrah vines are dying from Syrah disorder each year. Australia remains remarkably unaffected, so perhaps there is something in calling it Shiraz after all.
Growers are mystified. Research has uncovered some common factors in cases of Decline across the world. Water-management is a point of agreement: vines that become stressed by drought, salinity, or lack of appropriate irrigation are more likely to develop symptoms (However, over-irrigation leads to its own drop in wine quality; some water stress leads to a concentration of flavor in the grapes.). Similarly, most agree that vascular function – the flow of liquids within the plant – is involved, especially at the graft union, which sometimes seems to be choking the vine. Syrah is more sensitive than most vines; under drought conditions, its leaves do not close their stomata (the breathing holes on the underside of the leaves), so more evaporation occurs and the vine loses more water.
However, other analyses are more contradictory. South Africa has found substantial differences in the susceptibility of various clones, with French clones succumbing most frequently. But a 2002 UC Davis survey of California Syrah vineyards included a dozen clones, a dozen rootstocks, and seven different field selections, and found no real pattern in the Syrah Disorder occurrences. Californian research is focusing on soil types and nutrients, especially phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. No virus or bacteria has been found in association with the ailment.
While Syrah is not about to disappear from the shelves, the disease has been distressing for winegrowers, some of whom have hoped to jump on the train and take advantage of the grape’s popularity. Keep an eye on prices, though, if the spread of Syrah Disorder accelerates, costs could move up as well…except in Australia, since it doesn’t seem much affected. Hmm…I smell a possible conspiracy theory in the making.
This article found at:
http://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/syrah_sickness/html/
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Link to Amirault Baby Pictures
Faculty member Michelle Amirault recently celebrated the birth of her new baby. Here is a note from her.
To recap: Lucas James (Luke) arrived on Wednesday morning, July 5 (on his due date!!),weighing in at 8lbs, 8 oz, and 20.5 inches long. Both he and I are doingwell.We arrived home from hospital on Friday evening and are adjusting quite nicely to life at home.I have included a link here to his first web page with 4 pics that were taken in hospital... he wouldn't wake up for his photos so he is asleep in all of them, but perfect just the same. Also on the page is a place to add a message if you'd like. I will be able to print off all messages for his scrap book.The link is (if it doesn't work, just copy and paste it into your addressbar, and it should work):http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?UrlID=9I8S8V4A0K
To recap: Lucas James (Luke) arrived on Wednesday morning, July 5 (on his due date!!),weighing in at 8lbs, 8 oz, and 20.5 inches long. Both he and I are doingwell.We arrived home from hospital on Friday evening and are adjusting quite nicely to life at home.I have included a link here to his first web page with 4 pics that were taken in hospital... he wouldn't wake up for his photos so he is asleep in all of them, but perfect just the same. Also on the page is a place to add a message if you'd like. I will be able to print off all messages for his scrap book.The link is (if it doesn't work, just copy and paste it into your addressbar, and it should work):http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?UrlID=9I8S8V4A0K
Next Step In Revenue Optimization: Train Your Front Desk
By Doug Kennedy , July 2006
For more than a decade hotels have invested heavily in the technology and systems needed for effective revenue management. As a result, we as an industry are better than ever before at forecasting demand, tracking booking pace trends, and adjusting rate availability upward or downward accordingly. Now in order to further optimize the profit potential of each distribution channel, RM professionals are looking at all possible solutions for stratifying their rate structures to ascertain more control of how inventory is priced and distributed.
Certainly this is not a completely new concept. Resorts and upscale hotels have traditionally differentiated the price of their product based on room type (i.e. standard, superior, deluxe, suite) and company/consortia/group affiliation. Likewise, the concepts of varying rate based on day of the week, season, and even length of stay have been around seemingly forever. So it has always been necessary for front desk associates to explain rate differentials and justify them to guests; it’s just that there’s a whole lot more of explaining to do these days!
In today’s highly competitive environment wherein customers can so easily price-shop a large number of hotels at once and can even shop their targeted hotel by more than one of it’s own distribution channels, RM professionals are increasingly innovative at establishing rate differentials (or “fences”) based on the unique opportunities presented by their inventory and market conditions.
For example, the industry is seeing the come-back of the “advance purchase/non-refundable” reservation, which was first established on a wide scale by companies like Marriott International and Hilton in the early 1990’s. This option offers consumers a lower-tiered rate in exchange for booking restrictions that exclude the less price-sensitive business travelers who book late and need the flexibility to change dates.
It is true that these rate-option based pricing plans represent creative ways for hotels to market just the right rate to just the right market segment. Yet explaining all the rules/restrictions surrounding these accommodation types and rate-options can create significant challenges for reservations and front desk agents who have not been property prepared via training. What’s even more challenging is trying to uphold these fences when customers try later to circumvent them by cajoling or complaining.
Besides advance purchase restrictions, here is a list of other examples of rate fences that today’s front desk associates might potentially need to uphold:
For more than a decade hotels have invested heavily in the technology and systems needed for effective revenue management. As a result, we as an industry are better than ever before at forecasting demand, tracking booking pace trends, and adjusting rate availability upward or downward accordingly. Now in order to further optimize the profit potential of each distribution channel, RM professionals are looking at all possible solutions for stratifying their rate structures to ascertain more control of how inventory is priced and distributed.
Certainly this is not a completely new concept. Resorts and upscale hotels have traditionally differentiated the price of their product based on room type (i.e. standard, superior, deluxe, suite) and company/consortia/group affiliation. Likewise, the concepts of varying rate based on day of the week, season, and even length of stay have been around seemingly forever. So it has always been necessary for front desk associates to explain rate differentials and justify them to guests; it’s just that there’s a whole lot more of explaining to do these days!
In today’s highly competitive environment wherein customers can so easily price-shop a large number of hotels at once and can even shop their targeted hotel by more than one of it’s own distribution channels, RM professionals are increasingly innovative at establishing rate differentials (or “fences”) based on the unique opportunities presented by their inventory and market conditions.
For example, the industry is seeing the come-back of the “advance purchase/non-refundable” reservation, which was first established on a wide scale by companies like Marriott International and Hilton in the early 1990’s. This option offers consumers a lower-tiered rate in exchange for booking restrictions that exclude the less price-sensitive business travelers who book late and need the flexibility to change dates.
It is true that these rate-option based pricing plans represent creative ways for hotels to market just the right rate to just the right market segment. Yet explaining all the rules/restrictions surrounding these accommodation types and rate-options can create significant challenges for reservations and front desk agents who have not been property prepared via training. What’s even more challenging is trying to uphold these fences when customers try later to circumvent them by cajoling or complaining.
Besides advance purchase restrictions, here is a list of other examples of rate fences that today’s front desk associates might potentially need to uphold:
- Guests who want room types that are tied to higher rates than they are willing to pay. (i.e. View vs. non-view, standard vs. deluxe, and/or room vs. suite.)
- Day-of-week, length of stay restrictions. (For example, early departure rates charged by convention hotels during city-wide conferences.)
- Advance purchase rates that are non-refundable and cannot be cancelled.
Rates extended to specific membership affiliation groups such as AARP, AAA, Entertainment Card, and military/government. - Negotiated corporate volume discount programs. For example, those offering last-room availability in exchange for a higher rate.
- Special group rates that are of limited and restricted availability.
- Additional guest occupancy fees.
- Resort fees.
- Rate-option packages that include parking, phone, health club, and/or gratuities.
Unfortunately, all too many front desk and reservations agents have not been property prepared to deal with these challenges. When confronted by either a sweet-talking caller on the phone who pleads their case as to why they should get a lower rate, or in person by the red-faced, fist-pounding corporate traveler demanding the same rate they paid last time, it’s challenging to come up with the right answers on your own. Instead, when faced with a question about a lower rate or better rate-option, most of this industry’s associates simply say “that’s not available,” making it sound like we are holding back the “good deals” and thus further inciting a negative response. Or worse yet, having been trained to “be nice to the guests; they pay our salaries,” they voluntarily extend discounts when it’s not necessary to do so.
Depending on factors such as your hotel’s inventory of accommodations, distribution channels, market mixes and property type, here are some strategies and tactics to review with your front desk and reservations agents.
- It’s The Customer’s Job To Ask For The Discount. Never voluntarily mention discounts when the customer hasn’t objected to the initial offer. Perhaps it’s because they themselves aren’t convinced of the price/value proposition, but too many front desk and reservations agents voluntarily offer discount rates/options before it is necessary or appropriate to do so.
- Reference Rates Charged During Peak Demand As Being The ““Normal” Price. When quoting rates during moderate or low demand, mention rates applicable during peak demand (i.e. rack rates) to present lower rates as already being a good value:
“This room normally runs $200 a night, but since you are with the XYZ Company we can extend the $175 group rate.”
- When Necessary, Explain That Rates Are “Sold-out” vs. “Not Available.” “Not available” tells the prospect that we have it but they can’t get it; “Sold-out” simply says the supply has been exhausted.
- Research Before You React. When callers who have already booked ask about lower rates that have since become available, research before you react. If you can’t identify a justifiable reason, offer a room upgrade at the rate already confirmed vs. just lowering their rate. (Note: depending on the terms under which their original reservation was booked, it might sometimes be necessary to simply lower their rate vs. subjecting them to the hassle of having them cancel and re-book at the lower rate anyway.)
- Patiently reiterate the rules of the fences in a positive way: “We had confirmed you at our Super Savers rate, which allows us to offer significant discounts to those that are able to confirm plans in advance and agree to the terms, but unfortunately it was offered as a non-refundable rate.”
“You were confirmed under the special rate plan at Acme Corporation, which guarantees you and your colleagues will have a special rate available anytime we have rooms. At times like this during our slower season it is a bit higher than what you saw online at our website, so it works both ways a little bit.”
“I do have a room on our Concierge Level available for you tonight Mr. Johnson, and the rate on that is just $20 more than the ABC corporate rate.”
“Please note that your advance deposit for the conference has been credited to the last night, reflecting that there is an early departure penalty of one night’s room and tax. So if your plans change, please let us know 21 days in advance so we can help you avoid this fee, okay?”
“Just to let you know Mrs. Perez, we do actually need to see the membership card itself up on check-in, or otherwise the rate would be $(i.e. rate otherwise showing at the time).”
- Remind them of the special value received:
“Yes, your group’s rate is a little higher, but it does include parking, which alone is $12 a day, plus health club admission, and the $1.00 per call phone charge is also waived.”Finally, remind your team that more often than not the consumer is asking for the discounted rate or better terms for one reason and one reason only; to check their reaction. Smart consumers know there’s no harm in asking, and in many cases they get what they ask for.
By covering this subject at your next reservations or front desk meeting, you’ll be giving your agents the tools they need to maintain the fences around the rate plans, allowing your hotel to optimize its revenue while minimizing the negative impact on hospitality and customer service.
This article found at:
http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2006_3rd/Jul06_RateFences.html
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Magnetic Service: Secrets to Creating Passionately Devoted Customers.
By Chip R. Bell and Bilijack R. BellThursday, 6th July 2006
There are people who gleefully pay five bucks for a cup of Starbucks coffee - gratefully pay hundreds of dollars to stay at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and loyally spend twenty-five grand for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle they wait a long time to get! Where's the logic? Customer devotion launches rational economics straight into the stratosphere.
Devotion to Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton or Harley-Davidson is not about a beverage, hotel or transportation. It's about an experience - an experience as profound and unmistakable as a schoolboy smitten for the first time! Granted, the product or outcome must be very good, but not necessarily perfect. Harley devotees grudgingly acknowledge there really are technologically better bikes. But neither Suzuki nor BMW can match the gratification of a Harley owner on a Sunday afternoon ride with other loyalists. Devotion springs from something else.
Customers who are devoted to your unit or organization act very different from customers who are simply loyal. The passionately devoted customer not only forgives you when you err, they help you correct what caused the mistake. They don't just recommend you; they assertively insist their friends do business with you. They vehemently defend you when others are critical. Even if there is a good reason for the criticism, they quickly dismiss it as an aberration or an exception.
And some take devotion even further. Some Starbucks devotees refuse to drink any other coffee. Some devoted customers of Harley-Davidson tattoo the company logo on their bodies. Devoted guests of Ritz-Carlton Hotels proudly wear Ritz-Carlton-logoed clothes…and have the hotel chain's signature cobalt blue accessories in their homes. In these instances, magnetic service has forged a connection that becomes a part of the customer's identity and life expression.
Figuring out how to attract passionate devotion is not a simple process. The discovery of our seven secrets of magnetic service came through intense study of a number of cult-like brands. We studied companies as diverse as USAA Insurance, Universal Studios, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, the Mansion at Turtle Creek Hotel and Restaurant, Sewell Village Cadillac, and Harley-Davidson Motor Company - all organizations that have a very large share of groupies. Our intent was to look for patterns or practices that seemed to yield customer devotion.
Whether posh or penny-pinching, the difference between remarkable and run of the mill lay not with the price the customer was required to pay but rather the value the customer felt privileged to experience. We also found that though these companies used their own vocabulary to describe their approach, their values and practices were quite similar and transferable in principle to many other kinds of organizations. These shared stories led us to seven secrets for creating passionately devoted customers.
Secret # 1: Make Trust a Verb
The rock-bottom basis of magnetic service is trust, but the basis of customer trust is always changing. Every experience the customer has with any service provider alters the standard for every other service provider. Magnetic service is malleable and agile enough to stay up with the customer's evolving requirements for trust. Trust is also multifaceted. It comes in part from a belief that a great service experience was not serendipity. While customers may be infatuated by an enchanting fluke, their ongoing allegiance is anchored to pursuit of experiences they feel can be replicated time and time again.
Trust starts with authenticity -- we trust another when we perceive his or her motives are genuine or credible. Trust emanates from communication that contains crystal clear content as well as empathic "I care about you" consideration. Trust comes from a track record of promises made paralleled with promises kept. Trust is made of demonstrated competence that leaves customers assured they are dealing with someone with the capacity to perform. Magnetic service providers work to honor and demonstrate all these features of trust in their relationships with customers.
Secret # 2: Focus on the Customer's Hopes, Not Just Needs
"The purpose of an organization," wrote management guru Peter Drucker, "is to create and keep a customer." All the financials are just tools for keeping score on how well that purpose is being achieved. "Serving a customer" means the organization must meet customers' needs while at a minimum fulfilling their expectations for what the process will be like for getting that need met. Perform that task adequately and you will probably survive. Perform that task well and you will probably succeed.
Magnetic service goes well beyond the "probably succeed" level. Magnetic service providers know that under the surface of the presented or obvious customer need lies the customer's hopes and wishes for what might happen. With those hopes are also aspirations, dreams, and even unconscious needs. Magnetic service providers know that tapping into this reservoir not only enables them to earn the customer's loyalty, it ensures they solidify that loyalty by anticipating future needs. The goal here is revelation, an enriched dialogue to surface those unspoken customer aims and ambitions so they can become the target of serving.
Secret #3: Add "Charisma" to the Service Mix
Attracting customer devotion requires a stand that calls attention to the experience. It is a position that is exciting, bold, and somewhat daring. One person we interviewed told us his service was magnetic when it had an unexpected spin to it. In other words, it was not just more than the customer expected, it was different from what the customer expected.
There is nothing subtle about the impact of magnetic service. It hits its target in a fashion that leaves behind a positive emotional afterglow. The nature of the engagement is personal and moving. People are favorably attracted to service providers when there is an emotional link. And, when that link is profound without being imprudent, congruent without being presumptuous, and purposeful without being manipulative, it makes doing business with you a treasured relationship.
Secret #4: Engage the Customer's Curiosity
Customers have a huge reservoir of curiosity. Some anthropologists believe the compulsion to learn is a part of the human DNA that explains why humans have evolved so much further than other species. (Perhaps when God inserted a soul in mankind, the substance of that gift was curiosity.) Consequently, when service providers respond to natural "teachable moments" in the delivery of service, they stimulate something very deep in the customer.
One way to appeal to the customer's curiosity is to create a path for participation. The allure of customer participation opportunities is not that customers actually join but that they know they could if they wanted to. It is the potential for inclusion more than the enrollment experience itself that touches the customer's innate curiosity.
There are many forms of emotional membership. The most powerful is to actually engage the customer's energy in delivering the experience. But sometimes simply enabling the customer to feel and value a connection is enough to inspire their devotion.
Secret #5: Give Customers an Occasional Miracle
We have all experienced or heard about those magnetic service moments in which someone pulled out all the stops. Whether recipient or witness, such unexpected out of the box experiences remind us that service miracles can still happen. Such special incidents leave us as enthralled as a table set with candles and champagne on a special date. Miracles cannot be regular fare; otherwise they become plain vanilla instead of Neapolitan. But the once-in-a-while special gesture communicates not only a desire to serve, but also a yearning to enchant.
Magnetic service is something that leaves you more emotionally moved than simply delighted; more blessed than blown away. It is the zenith of the nobility of service - a special gift that is unexpectedly bestowed and distinctively right for a particular customer. Service miracles reflect server imagination; they also are manifestations of a purity and goodness of purpose. They leave the customer uplifted and eager to impart their happening with another. Service miracles are the key components of the most endearing service stories we hear and tell. With each retailing, the storyteller becomes more devoted, the audience more keen to join the fold.
Secret #6: Empower Customers through Comfort
Customers feel empowered when they experience psychological comfort, and magnetic service provides psychological comfort by being reliable and predictable. We can more easily deal with flights that are always late than those that are sometimes on time and sometimes not. Human nature abhors dissonance and the ambiguity and unpredictability that take us out of control. Our aversion to discord and dissonance means for a service moment to be magnetic, it must be in synch with the customer, "congruent" as the psychologists would say - it must fit.
Customers are also empowered when service has physical comfort - the kind that reflects a smooth operation. This means that the experience is not just hassle-free; it is noticeably comfortable, strikingly reliable, and surprisingly seamless. It requires processes and systems that work with the service person to ensure a customer's need is met without anxiety, dissonance or negative surprises. Think of it as service without any drag or resistance.
Secret #7: Reveal Your Character by Unveiling Your Courage
Magnetic service should reflect a deeper purpose or destiny, befitting of the organization's vision and marketplace strategy. Service with character also means a sense of innocence, naturalness, purity - a grounding. We describe someone as grounded when we see them as uncorrupted. We like being charmed by what we do not understand; we do not enjoy being hoodwinked by what we should have understood. Magnetic service need not be completely obvious to the customer in its design, but it must not feel devious to the customer in its execution.
Magnetic service works when it contributes to a sense of natural joy. The anatomy of joy is that it is not only clean and ethical; it is also considerate, kind, and thoughtful. It can be subtle and crafty. But, if it is devoid of a childlike purity the customer will feel they have been the subject of a ruse rather than the target of a reward.
This articel found at:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1449
There are people who gleefully pay five bucks for a cup of Starbucks coffee - gratefully pay hundreds of dollars to stay at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and loyally spend twenty-five grand for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle they wait a long time to get! Where's the logic? Customer devotion launches rational economics straight into the stratosphere.
Devotion to Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton or Harley-Davidson is not about a beverage, hotel or transportation. It's about an experience - an experience as profound and unmistakable as a schoolboy smitten for the first time! Granted, the product or outcome must be very good, but not necessarily perfect. Harley devotees grudgingly acknowledge there really are technologically better bikes. But neither Suzuki nor BMW can match the gratification of a Harley owner on a Sunday afternoon ride with other loyalists. Devotion springs from something else.
Customers who are devoted to your unit or organization act very different from customers who are simply loyal. The passionately devoted customer not only forgives you when you err, they help you correct what caused the mistake. They don't just recommend you; they assertively insist their friends do business with you. They vehemently defend you when others are critical. Even if there is a good reason for the criticism, they quickly dismiss it as an aberration or an exception.
And some take devotion even further. Some Starbucks devotees refuse to drink any other coffee. Some devoted customers of Harley-Davidson tattoo the company logo on their bodies. Devoted guests of Ritz-Carlton Hotels proudly wear Ritz-Carlton-logoed clothes…and have the hotel chain's signature cobalt blue accessories in their homes. In these instances, magnetic service has forged a connection that becomes a part of the customer's identity and life expression.
Figuring out how to attract passionate devotion is not a simple process. The discovery of our seven secrets of magnetic service came through intense study of a number of cult-like brands. We studied companies as diverse as USAA Insurance, Universal Studios, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, the Mansion at Turtle Creek Hotel and Restaurant, Sewell Village Cadillac, and Harley-Davidson Motor Company - all organizations that have a very large share of groupies. Our intent was to look for patterns or practices that seemed to yield customer devotion.
Whether posh or penny-pinching, the difference between remarkable and run of the mill lay not with the price the customer was required to pay but rather the value the customer felt privileged to experience. We also found that though these companies used their own vocabulary to describe their approach, their values and practices were quite similar and transferable in principle to many other kinds of organizations. These shared stories led us to seven secrets for creating passionately devoted customers.
Secret # 1: Make Trust a Verb
The rock-bottom basis of magnetic service is trust, but the basis of customer trust is always changing. Every experience the customer has with any service provider alters the standard for every other service provider. Magnetic service is malleable and agile enough to stay up with the customer's evolving requirements for trust. Trust is also multifaceted. It comes in part from a belief that a great service experience was not serendipity. While customers may be infatuated by an enchanting fluke, their ongoing allegiance is anchored to pursuit of experiences they feel can be replicated time and time again.
Trust starts with authenticity -- we trust another when we perceive his or her motives are genuine or credible. Trust emanates from communication that contains crystal clear content as well as empathic "I care about you" consideration. Trust comes from a track record of promises made paralleled with promises kept. Trust is made of demonstrated competence that leaves customers assured they are dealing with someone with the capacity to perform. Magnetic service providers work to honor and demonstrate all these features of trust in their relationships with customers.
Secret # 2: Focus on the Customer's Hopes, Not Just Needs
"The purpose of an organization," wrote management guru Peter Drucker, "is to create and keep a customer." All the financials are just tools for keeping score on how well that purpose is being achieved. "Serving a customer" means the organization must meet customers' needs while at a minimum fulfilling their expectations for what the process will be like for getting that need met. Perform that task adequately and you will probably survive. Perform that task well and you will probably succeed.
Magnetic service goes well beyond the "probably succeed" level. Magnetic service providers know that under the surface of the presented or obvious customer need lies the customer's hopes and wishes for what might happen. With those hopes are also aspirations, dreams, and even unconscious needs. Magnetic service providers know that tapping into this reservoir not only enables them to earn the customer's loyalty, it ensures they solidify that loyalty by anticipating future needs. The goal here is revelation, an enriched dialogue to surface those unspoken customer aims and ambitions so they can become the target of serving.
Secret #3: Add "Charisma" to the Service Mix
Attracting customer devotion requires a stand that calls attention to the experience. It is a position that is exciting, bold, and somewhat daring. One person we interviewed told us his service was magnetic when it had an unexpected spin to it. In other words, it was not just more than the customer expected, it was different from what the customer expected.
There is nothing subtle about the impact of magnetic service. It hits its target in a fashion that leaves behind a positive emotional afterglow. The nature of the engagement is personal and moving. People are favorably attracted to service providers when there is an emotional link. And, when that link is profound without being imprudent, congruent without being presumptuous, and purposeful without being manipulative, it makes doing business with you a treasured relationship.
Secret #4: Engage the Customer's Curiosity
Customers have a huge reservoir of curiosity. Some anthropologists believe the compulsion to learn is a part of the human DNA that explains why humans have evolved so much further than other species. (Perhaps when God inserted a soul in mankind, the substance of that gift was curiosity.) Consequently, when service providers respond to natural "teachable moments" in the delivery of service, they stimulate something very deep in the customer.
One way to appeal to the customer's curiosity is to create a path for participation. The allure of customer participation opportunities is not that customers actually join but that they know they could if they wanted to. It is the potential for inclusion more than the enrollment experience itself that touches the customer's innate curiosity.
There are many forms of emotional membership. The most powerful is to actually engage the customer's energy in delivering the experience. But sometimes simply enabling the customer to feel and value a connection is enough to inspire their devotion.
Secret #5: Give Customers an Occasional Miracle
We have all experienced or heard about those magnetic service moments in which someone pulled out all the stops. Whether recipient or witness, such unexpected out of the box experiences remind us that service miracles can still happen. Such special incidents leave us as enthralled as a table set with candles and champagne on a special date. Miracles cannot be regular fare; otherwise they become plain vanilla instead of Neapolitan. But the once-in-a-while special gesture communicates not only a desire to serve, but also a yearning to enchant.
Magnetic service is something that leaves you more emotionally moved than simply delighted; more blessed than blown away. It is the zenith of the nobility of service - a special gift that is unexpectedly bestowed and distinctively right for a particular customer. Service miracles reflect server imagination; they also are manifestations of a purity and goodness of purpose. They leave the customer uplifted and eager to impart their happening with another. Service miracles are the key components of the most endearing service stories we hear and tell. With each retailing, the storyteller becomes more devoted, the audience more keen to join the fold.
Secret #6: Empower Customers through Comfort
Customers feel empowered when they experience psychological comfort, and magnetic service provides psychological comfort by being reliable and predictable. We can more easily deal with flights that are always late than those that are sometimes on time and sometimes not. Human nature abhors dissonance and the ambiguity and unpredictability that take us out of control. Our aversion to discord and dissonance means for a service moment to be magnetic, it must be in synch with the customer, "congruent" as the psychologists would say - it must fit.
Customers are also empowered when service has physical comfort - the kind that reflects a smooth operation. This means that the experience is not just hassle-free; it is noticeably comfortable, strikingly reliable, and surprisingly seamless. It requires processes and systems that work with the service person to ensure a customer's need is met without anxiety, dissonance or negative surprises. Think of it as service without any drag or resistance.
Secret #7: Reveal Your Character by Unveiling Your Courage
Magnetic service should reflect a deeper purpose or destiny, befitting of the organization's vision and marketplace strategy. Service with character also means a sense of innocence, naturalness, purity - a grounding. We describe someone as grounded when we see them as uncorrupted. We like being charmed by what we do not understand; we do not enjoy being hoodwinked by what we should have understood. Magnetic service need not be completely obvious to the customer in its design, but it must not feel devious to the customer in its execution.
Magnetic service works when it contributes to a sense of natural joy. The anatomy of joy is that it is not only clean and ethical; it is also considerate, kind, and thoughtful. It can be subtle and crafty. But, if it is devoid of a childlike purity the customer will feel they have been the subject of a ruse rather than the target of a reward.
This articel found at:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1449
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Green Lodging News, a New Web Site and e-Newsletter for the Hotel Industry, Launched by Hasek Communications
CLEVELAND, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Hasek Communications, a Cleveland, Ohio-based consulting and publishing company, has launched Green Lodging News ( http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/ ), a new Web site and e-newsletter. The e-zine features up-to-date, environment-related news and best practices from hotel companies and industry suppliers. The publication also provides trend analysis, a section for guest commentaries, and a Green Product Directory.
"I am excited to launch this new online publication," says Glenn Hasek, president of Hasek Communications and publisher and editor of Green Lodging News. "Even though hotel operators have long been interested in saving energy, water and other resources, no environmental publication has emerged to consistently report this type of industry news."
The Green Lodging News Web site will include numerous sections: news & features, vendor news, publisher's point of view column, and guest columns. Site departments include: energy management, waste management, lighting, water conservation, heating & cooling, cleaning & maintenance, air quality, kitchen & laundry, sustainability, and green design. The site also will feature a list of hotel schools that offer environmental courses, a list of green associations, events, and money-saving tips.
"The goal of the site will be to show hoteliers how they can save energy and resources, cut costs and provide a healthy and safe environment for guests and staff -- all at the same time," Hasek says.
Articles appearing during the launch of the publication feature a hotel powered by solar technology, natural bedbug elimination remedies, green cleaning products, and how laundry personnel at Yellowstone National Park conserve water.
The Green Product Directory will pair product vendors with buyers representing hotels, resorts, motels, inns and lodges.
"It is my goal to make the directory the 'go to' place for hotel operators and owners interested in green products," Hasek says.
Green Lodging News launches with five sponsors: Green Suites International, Upland, Calif.; Sierra Environmental Technologies, Watsonville, Calif.; Cencal Thermal Treatment, Los Osos, Calif.; Ozone Water Technologies, Tryon, N.C.; and Select Amenities Ltd., Hockessin, Del.
This article found at:
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/
Green Lodging News found at:
http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/
"I am excited to launch this new online publication," says Glenn Hasek, president of Hasek Communications and publisher and editor of Green Lodging News. "Even though hotel operators have long been interested in saving energy, water and other resources, no environmental publication has emerged to consistently report this type of industry news."
The Green Lodging News Web site will include numerous sections: news & features, vendor news, publisher's point of view column, and guest columns. Site departments include: energy management, waste management, lighting, water conservation, heating & cooling, cleaning & maintenance, air quality, kitchen & laundry, sustainability, and green design. The site also will feature a list of hotel schools that offer environmental courses, a list of green associations, events, and money-saving tips.
"The goal of the site will be to show hoteliers how they can save energy and resources, cut costs and provide a healthy and safe environment for guests and staff -- all at the same time," Hasek says.
Articles appearing during the launch of the publication feature a hotel powered by solar technology, natural bedbug elimination remedies, green cleaning products, and how laundry personnel at Yellowstone National Park conserve water.
The Green Product Directory will pair product vendors with buyers representing hotels, resorts, motels, inns and lodges.
"It is my goal to make the directory the 'go to' place for hotel operators and owners interested in green products," Hasek says.
Green Lodging News launches with five sponsors: Green Suites International, Upland, Calif.; Sierra Environmental Technologies, Watsonville, Calif.; Cencal Thermal Treatment, Los Osos, Calif.; Ozone Water Technologies, Tryon, N.C.; and Select Amenities Ltd., Hockessin, Del.
This article found at:
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/
Green Lodging News found at:
http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/
Monday, July 10, 2006
Think Your Hotel Has "Caring" Service?
Service at the Level of Creating Truly Memorable Experiences Requires a Completely New Definition and Spirit of Caring Service
By Peter McAlpine, July 2006
By Peter McAlpine, July 2006
This article is about a subject that never seems to be questioned, namely, the depth of caring service that a hotel provides or should be providing, and I think it’s time to do so. It seems that any level of service is labeled caring service nowadays, even if it’s not very caring, and as a result the description “caring service” is losing its credibility. I see that even a pizza company and a stray dogs home are saying that they provide “caring service”!
I think that hotels seriously need to evaluate how caring their service is, and also their understanding of what truly caring service really entails, and what it looks like and feels like because a hotel’s definition of caring service affects in a major way the experience that they create for guests. I find that many 5-star hotels have implemented in their service a very watered down definition of care, and as a result, they will find it very hard to create a high level of truly memorable experiences. This is why I think the subject needs consideration.
Perhaps you think that this isn’t relevant to your hotel or hotel group because “our service is already very caring, just as our PR machine says it is”. I beg to disagree. Care is a spiritual value, and so there is no limit to the level or depth of care that your staff can provide. Care is like an immensely deep ocean. You can choose to dive down a few feet or up to a few kilometers. I think that the level of care in hotels is far less caring that it could be and should be, and it is time that hotels review their understanding of what caring service could be so that they can provide a much deeper level of caring service. It’s a shame that hotels seem to have satisfied themselves with the relatively low level that they have reached.
To quote Michelangelo:
The biggest problem is not that we reach too high and fail to achieve our goal, but rather that we reach too low and achieve it.
I think hotels have “satisfied” themselves with a level of care that is ordinary and far less that what it could be.
First of all, the kind of caring service which I think hotels should be aspiring to is definitely not the normal level of care that one experiences when the staff provide service that follows the operational procedures. Yes, the staff will be friendly to you and may provide you with everything you ask for or need. There’s nothing wrong with this, but why be satisfied with this level of care, which is equivalent to diving down just a few feet in the analogy above?
Hotels should be in the business of creating truly memorable experiences (CTME) that are not only creative, but which are also like a cloth dripping with love, care, warmth and empathy. I rarely experience a dripping cloth when I stay in hotels. Damp, yes, but hardly ever dripping with these core values of service. The spirit of care is at a much lower level than the staff are capable of.
There are many reasons why this I so, but one reason is, I believe, that Corporate Offices and management teams generally don’t have a feeling for the depths (or heights) that truly caring service can reach, which is a great shame. (Perhaps they are embarrassed to discuss such a subject or dismiss it because it’s hard to measure. “I’m sorry, my dear. I can’t show you more love and care because I can’t measure the results properly.”) They will therefore never reach the level of service that CTME will evolve into, namely fulfilling guests’ dreams until they do.
I imagine that some CEOs, Brand Managers, and VPs of HR are reading this with shocked horror and snarling with displeasure, but there’s no point pretending that everything is fine and that the hotel industry can continue with its current definitions of caring service. Of all the obstacles to developing service at the level of CTME, this is the biggest obstacle of them all, in my opinion.
I think that hotel groups that upgrade themselves to a higher definition and spirit of care will end up buying out hotel groups which are simply expanding at breakneck speed for the sake of profit because the nature of the guest experience (which includes the depth of the caring service) will become the battleground of competition, and the occupancy rates of the behemoths will fall in the face of smaller brands that focus on a higher definition of caring service.
Caring service is a combination of several spiritual values (or qualities if you feel more comfortable with this word). It includes compassion, love, warmth, and empathy amongst others. It is far more that just taking care of, anticipating, or meeting a guest’s needs.
Think about the following for a moment. The Dalai Lama once said that compassion is the "wish that others be free of suffering. . . cherishing the well-being of others. . . .True compassion has the intensity and spontaneity of a loving mother caring for her suffering baby. Throughout the day, such a mother's concern for her child affects all her thoughts and actions. This is the attitude we are working to cultivate toward each and every being." [An Open Heart, p. 91-2 and 105] I think that this is the attitude and kind of care that hotels should be cultivating in their staff, and definitely not the operational procedure kind of caring service.
“He’s crazy! This is impossible to achieve in a hotel. It can’t be done!”, I hear people say. It certainly can’t be achieved if you have a Training Department that is focusing on knowledge and skills and not on developing capacity as well. That’s why I’d like to see hotels reorienting their Training Departments to become something like learning, inspiration, and capacity development centres. Besides, why bother with a level of care lower than in the Dalai Lama’s quotation when his standard is achievable? I hope you’re not thinking that it’s unachievable. … Remember Michelangelo! You just have to change the way you do things. That’s all!
“In any case, it’s not our function to provide that depth of caring service. We’re just hotels!” What??? Just hotels?? First of all, the times are changing and people need and want that depth of caring service. To stay in business and not be taken over, I recommend that you provide it. Secondly, hospitality is all about love, care, warmth, and empathy – the more the better. It’s not just about providing good food, drinks, and a nice room. I think that many hotels / hotel groups have got so used to thinking in terms of customer satisfaction or have become so focused on profit and acquisition that they have strayed from the essential meaning, spirit and feeling of genuine hospitality.
The level of caring service that has the same kind of goal as the Dalai Lama is perfectly achievable, but it requires a shift in one’s thinking and in the way that hotels operate. I think that the large hotel groups will find it hard to provide service at this level of care throughout the group because they are just so big and because they impose “one size fits all” programmes throughout their group’s hotels. Perhaps they should create small regional experimental brands that focus on providing service at the level of truly memorable experiences and on applying this spirit of care to their service, and expand from there. It would, of course, require a new set of standards and procedures, and there would be a need to replace the HR Department (Ahh! Those dreaded words!) with an inspirational, experience creation, learning and capacity development centre or network.
Every human being has a great and often unknown gift to care, to be compassionate, to become present to the other, to listen, to hear and to receive. If that gift were developed much more than is normal, set free and made available to the guests in greater and deeper abundance, hotels would transform their guest experience to levels not normally reached by hotels. I would like to see Training Departments revamped and reoriented so that they focus so much more on developing and setting free this gift that we all have, and which is often hidden or suppressed by operational procedures or uninspiring leaders.
If one applies the spirit in the Dalai Lama’s quotation to staff development and to normal hotel service, what might it look like? Firstly, you would see it in the eyes and smiles of the staff; a common area of weakness in the caring service of even top 5-star hotels. The following story shows what I mean.
“The story is about an old man who stood on a Virginia river bank many years ago. He was waiting to cross the river and, since it was bitterly cold and there were no bridges, he would have to "catch a ride" to the other side. After a lengthy wait he spotted a group of horsemen approaching. He let the first one pass, then the second, third, fourth, and fifth. One rider remained. As he drew abreast, the old man looked him in the eye and said, "Sir, would you give me a ride across the river?"
The rider immediately replied, "Certainly." Once across the river, the old man slid to the ground. "Sir," the rider said before leaving. "I could not help but notice that you permitted all the other men to pass without asking for a ride. Then, when I drew abreast, you immediately asked me to carry you across. I am curious as to why you didn't ask them and you did ask me."
The old man quietly responded, "I looked into their eyes and could see no love and knew in my own heart it would be useless to ask for a ride. But, when I looked into your eyes, I saw compassion, love and the willingness to help. I knew you would be glad to give me a ride across the river."
The rider was touched. "I'm grateful for what you are saying," he said. "I appreciate it very much." With that, he turned and rode off.”
Our eyes are the windows of our hearts. If you (or any of your staff) had been the last rider, would the old man have asked you for a ride? If your recruitment system is focusing on recruiting staff with the desired qualities of love, care, warmth, and empathy, then you can increase this warmth in the eyes and smile of your staff and their service.
I’d like to see this spirit and emotional energy in the eyes of all guest-contact staff. It’s not impossible to achieve, but you have to want to achieve this. Think of how you could change your web site’s text!
I realize that it is not normal to say this, but the spirit of your caring service should be like in the following quotations:
“Shed the light of boundless love on every human being whom you meet.”
“Welcome all with the light of oneness. Do not be content with showing friendliness in words alone. Let your heart burn with loving-kindness for all who may cross your path.”
Achievable? Perfectly! So why be satisfied with caring service as stated in the operational manuals written by people who know nothing better than service at the level of customer satisfaction? Human beings are capable of far higher levels of greatness.
When you consider this, doesn’t it make you feel embarrassed now if you are a hotel or hotel group that includes “customer satisfaction” in its vision statement? (I saw a major hotel group recently announcing its levels of customer satisfaction. How embarrassing!... Sorry!)
Staff can’t get a feeling for what the deeper levels of caring service are if one simply tells them what procedures to follow in order to provide caring service. You know … the 10 steps to success style of training. That’s old-fashioned training. Almost Pavlovian! (Oops! I’ve trodden on some toes there, I think.) Hotels should spend much more time in the area of developing capacity, which involves touching the hearts of the staff with stories relating to the core values and other right brain methods. You know when you’ve touched a group of staff’s hearts when you see tears in their eyes. Then you know you’re on the path to creating a new level of caring service.
Certain kinds of quotations help to convey the true spirit of care. Whether you like this or not, I think that the best ones are found in spiritual writings. There is a big difference in the effect between using lists of things you must do to provide caring service and using spiritual quotations. Human beings are essentially spiritual beings and given the chance and encouragement, we respond to them positively. Here’s one you could use after a day of touching your staff’s hearts. Each line has many levels of meaning and can be applied to guest service. Combine the discussion with music, such as by Pachabel (works cross-culturally) for greater effect, and then have them create role plays that reflect the spirit and meaning of the quotation. You may be surprised by what you see.
“Be kind to all peoples; care for every person; do all ye can to purify the hearts and minds of men; strive ye to gladden every soul. To every meadow be a shower of grace, to every tree the water of life; be as sweet musk to the sense of humankind, and to the ailing be a fresh, restoring breeze. Be pleasing waters to all those who thirst, a careful guide to all who have lost their way; be father and mother to the orphan, be loving sons and daughters to the old, be an abundant treasure to the poor.”
One day this depth of caring service will be common in hotels, so why wait until it is before implementing it? If you provide service like this on a continuous basis; if your leaders exemplify the spirit of service and inspire and motivate their teams like a basketball coach does before a game so that they go out “walking on water”; and if you adapt all those time-honoured HR (Ahhh!) systems appropriately, you will be able to implement a much deeper definition of caring service and leave a legacy that is also service to mankind.
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