The philosophy and tangible actions of anyone in a leadership or management role will steer employee behaviors in the direction of service excellence--or quite the opposite. The words, interactions and thoughts reflected in any one leader’s style will rub off and influence all those with whom he or she comes into contact.

The process of identifying, qualifying and acting on a new hotel location does not have to be a daunting or overwhelming task. In fact it can be a fun and exciting process as long as you establish your objectives and fully investigate the opportunities presented to you. Roedel Companies, through its construction management subsidiary, ROK Builders, is in the business of designing, building and renovating nationally branded hotels along the east coast of the United States, both for itself and independent investors. Over the past four years, ROK has completed over 40 major renovation projects along the east coast for independent investors. Learn about the five most crucial points to address when selecting a location for your hotel in this article.

In many ways, 2011 was the year reviews and social media went mainstream within the hotel industry – becoming nearly universally embraced by hotel executives as both a key source of customer insight and a tool to achieve operational and service excellence and to drive revenue growth. From my perspective, as founder and CEO of a company that is leading change in the way hotels leverage and benefit from the social web, I would like to share the top trends I see in this area in 2012.

Since ADA sensitivity is a growing concern in the hospitality industry, a proactive plan for training would seem prudent. Discrimination – especially subtle discrimination – continues to thrive. It is the everyday stereotypes and assumptions about our differences that are the basis for most unintentional discrimination and a lack of training about sensitivity issues that can result in these inadvertent offenses.

The global hotel market is at a tipping point. Booking windows have shrunk from weeks to days, and the increase in mobile bookings is leaving hotels behind who are trying to stick with the old ways of managing distribution channels. If hoteliers are not using the right tools and techniques to maximize bookings across all available platforms, they are risking a fate of continually playing catch-up to those hoteliers who have embraced channel management technology and the advantages that these systems bring. To help hoteliers on the road to a successful channel management program, here are the top five mistakes that are commonly made in this field, and how to avoid them.