Hotel guest rooms are a critical area of focus under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Do not incorrectly assume your hotels are ADA compliant because they have designated "handicap accessible" rooms on a low floor with accessible showers. The standards for guest rooms are detailed and rooms that were formerly ADA compliant may have been rendered inaccessible due to alterations and renovations. Additionally, the new 2010 ADA regulations and standards impose significant requirements affecting guest rooms. Are your hotel rooms accessible and ADA compliant? READ MORE

One of the biggest challenges in hotel pantries and gift shops is that the people who are responsible for making it succeed have little to no retail experience. They are excellent at booking rooms, meeting the needs of guests, managing teams and budgets, but when I ask them how they went about selecting the pantry assortment they offer, they quickly confess that it is arbitrary at best: a combination of brand standards, sourcing availability, and whatever they were hungry for that day as they shopped the aisles of Costco. READ MORE

Another year for hotels has passed where little has happened in terms of the economy, but a lot has evolved in the spheres of marketing, communication, and the world of social media. 2010 marked the year of digital media in hospitality. While the industry was fairly late in adopting social media, hotels thankfully realized its potential and caught up relatively quickly. While I am unsure of specific numbers and statistics, hotels keep joining Facebook and Twitter everyday. And as they learn how to feed these monsters the right information that can make a difference in the guest experience, it's important to keep in mind what trends are forming as the economy picks up, albeit at a slow pace. Read my article on Boutique Hotel Trends for this year. READ MORE

Payroll is likely one of the biggest expenses your hotel incurs - and one that can cause the most headaches. It's one thing to have an unhappy guest, but an unhappy employee - or worse yet, a suspect government office - can have a significant impact on your business. Many of those headaches are avoidable by taking the appropriate steps from day one with the onboarding of a new hire to making changes to an employee's status, position or compensation level all the way through to retiring an employee from service. READ MORE

When it comes to thinking about giving good service, everyone in the hotel business talks about the importance of guest satisfaction. You have to satisfy your guests. You have to conduct surveys asking them, "Are you satisfied with.." Guest satisfaction is your number one goal. Bunk! Baloney! Hogwash! While satisfaction is certainly better than dissatisfaction, in today's competitive lodging environment, satisfaction doesn't cut it. Merely satisfying your guests will not be nearly enough to keep you growing and prospering over the long run. READ MORE