Hotel Business Review: Week of Feb 23, 2015

Bonnie Knutson
  • Executive Leadership
  • Don’t Leave Your Design Just to a Designer
  • By Bonnie Knutson, Professor, The School of Hospitality Business/MSU

  • I suppose I can blame it on my dad. You see, whereas some people have been given the musical gift of perfect pitch (as was my husband), Dad was given the gift of perfect color tonality. While most people will look at two swatches of the same color and see them as identical, he would look at them and see any infinitesimal difference in their shades or tones as easily as you see the difference between a mountain and a molehill. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been given the same gift. Read on...

Kevin Wihelmsen
  • Human Resources, Recruitment & Training
  • Re-training Your Approach to Talent Procurement and Growth
  • By Kevin Wihelmsen, Dean, University of Phoenix School of Business

  • All employers face challenges when it comes to recruiting and retaining qualified talent, but hospitality workers often enter the field with particularly diverse backgrounds and experience, which can make talent management even more demanding. Ultimately this diversity stands to benefit hospitality employers because it can spur innovation and help companies be more relevant to a diverse customer base. There is no doubt however that procuring and growing talent is often difficult in an industry with so many career paths. In fact, as University of Phoenix was developing its new Hospitality Fundamentals associate degree and certificate curriculum, we spoke with hotel leaders around the country who often expressed the hiring process can feel more like a “casting call.” Read on...

Michelle Wohl
  • Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt
  • Breaking Down Barriers in Guest Data
  • By Michelle Wohl, VP of Marketing & Client Services, Revinate

  • Sharing and communication are good, right? We learned that in kindergarten. Unfortunately, sharing and communication in the hotel industry are sorely lacking, at least when it comes to databases. Most hotels rely on multiple solutions to manage guest communication and feedback; when these solutions can't communicate effectively, the same kinds of confusion and misunderstanding occur as when people can't connect. Read on...

Susan Tinnish

MARCH: Hotel Human Resources 2015: Recruiting and Retaining the Best Employees

Larry Mogelonsky

Social media is evolving. Given how pervasive it now is for any and all hotel marketing efforts, we must change how we utilize these channels for the best results. Namely, we must recognize that social media are advertising vehicles, but with very different calls to action over other, more traditional platforms. Once you understand the passive nature by which social advertising functions, the tactics you employ will be clear as will the path to long-term success. Moreover, knowing that social media works as an advertising vector will hopefully reinvigorate your prospects in using traditional mediums to this end. Read on...

Bronwyn White

Hotel marketing executives should now start viewing social media as a distribution outlet for owned media rather than a stand alone marketing strategy as social media giant Facebook makes you pay more for renting on their own real estate. Read on...

Katelyn Stuart

Social Media starts at the beginning of the consumer buying process. It is imperative to building brand awareness, generating leads, and also retaining customers. Social Media platforms are used as an opportunity to engage with these users and assist in the decision-making process, given that the content is valuable and relevant. As the consumer continues learning about the brand and product through social media, this exposure results in assisted conversions, generating indirect revenue. After experiencing the product, the customer continues engaging with social media, building a sense of loyalty that turns them into a repeat customer. Through a process of trial and error, Paramount Hospitality Management Company (PHM) has learned what engages their fans, and what doesn’t. With a portfolio of three different hotels that have their own individual style and demographic, we have learned that the engagement received on Social Media is not only based on a specific audience, but the specific content you are sharing. Here are 6 key-elements of engaging content that have proved to be successful in the hospitality industry. Read on...

Peter O'Connor

With over nine out of ten of people selecting a hotel now consulting user reviews prior to booking, manage a hotel’s online reputation has become essential. Based on multiple years experience helping hotels develop and implement their social media strategies, this article outlines how hotels can maximize the benefit they can gain from online review sites, offering practical tips and techniques to help maintain and enhance their online reputation. Read on...

Coming Up In The April Online Hotel Business Review


Feature Focus
Guest Service: Customer Service is a Key Business Differentiator
In today's hyper-competitive, hyper-connected global marketplace, customer experience has assumed a major role as a key business differentiator. There is a growing understanding that competition based on products or price alone is no longer a viable strategy. Since feature or function advantages can be quickly duplicated and/or enhanced, product innovation is no longer the differentiator it once was. And competition based on price impairs profitability. On the other hand, research indicates that 86 percent of consumers said they would be willing to pay more for a better customer experience. To protect both market share and margins, hotel companies must provide customers with consistent, compelling experiences - before, during, and after their purchases - across all major channels. There are many things organizations can do to deliver a superior customer experience. Management must align everything a company does with the customer service experience in mind. They must assign high value to anticipation of customers' real needs and desires, and they must incentivize and reward personal initiative in the pursuit of customer satisfaction. They must respond quickly to customer requests. They must ensure that customer interactions are highly personalized, and they must deliver the right information to the right place at the right time. And perhaps most importantly, upper management must create a culture where customer service is valued and esteemed, taught and rewarded. Customer experience leaders who can drive this kind of cultural change will radically affect their companies? competitive position and business performance. The April issue of the Hotel Business Review will document what some leading hotels are doing to cultivate and manage guest satisfaction in their operations.