Catering sales in small, boutique hotels can conservatively, represent 50% of the total food and beverage revenues. So achieving catering revenues can make the difference between food and beverage profitability and food and beverage loss, and can significantly impact total GOP. One of the biggest challenges in small hotels is to clearly define catering responsibilities. Does it belong with Food and Beverage or does it belong with Sales? Is it an operations function or a direct sales function? Over the years, customer needs and tastes have evolved, and new competition has emerged with demand for free standing restaurants, lofts and penthouses, and tourist attractions. With the many venue choices for customers, it is important to understand how to drive business into your venue. And with the impact on GOP, it is important to maximize those revenues generated. READ MORE

Where butler departments are established properly, they enjoy varying degrees of success based on their adherence to the basic purpose of butling: the providing of a discreet service that anticipates guest needs. Failed butler departments are caused by violating a few basics: not selecting proven service professionals for butlers; not training them on the persona, mindset, communication skills, and service skills of the butler in a hospitality setting; launching the butler program without bringing the rest of the employees aboard, so it appears as a threat to their income stream; and trying to cut costs by cutting service, resulting in harried butlers providing an irreducible minimum of service to too many guests. What drives these shortcuts? In my experience, it has been one or more of three distinct impulses.. READ MORE

The basic answer to the guest from hell is to focus on educating employees on this kind of personality and then letting them have fun predicting what the guest will do or say next. When employees recognize the characteristics in a guest, they also know why they behave as they do, see them for what they are, and can predict how they will behave. Employees no longer think "mea culpa" and "mea lose my job" when assailed by such guests. One sees through the intensely mean-spirited and unjust smokescreen and confusion to a miserable individual whose only ability to create an effect has been reduced to upsetting others. READ MORE

Nearly two-thirds of affluent travelers surveyed in a Pepperdine study last summer stated they set their sites primarily on being pampered-luxury and premium service being key elements-when deciding where to stay while away from home. This is good news for those hotels and resorts with spas that have invested in the latest industry concept of spa butlers. READ MORE

Hotels offer an array of job opportunities for every level of worker; yet many people aren't aware of the benefits of working at a hotel and the career advancement prospects that exist. As the labor market tightens in the current economic downturn, attracting and capturing the right candidates for your open positions is crucial to your success. Effectively branding your hotel to jobseekers and potential candidates is one of the best tools in your pocket to achieve that success. READ MORE