After years of notoriety, many hospitality ventures have embraced the focus of environmental sustainability. In fact, some are even considered leaders in the movement to combat climate change by engaging stakeholders through education, building certifications, and transparent reporting. With new and unprecedented global volatility and interconnectedness, the marketplace has required a shift to planning for long-term resiliency. Recognizing the relationship between short-term decisions and overall business strategy has never been more important. By proactively engaging stakeholders and combing through trends, the hospitality industry has the opportunity to leverage its influence and create meaningful shifts in its local and global environment. READ MORE

A hotel's energy use is complex and impactful. If not dealt with well, if the moving parts of a hotel's energy-use ecosystem are not recognized and prioritized, if progress is not made on the priority items, if efforts are ad hoc not connected and synergized, then the combined drag on a hotel's success will be substantial. Meeting this challenge well will result in a hotel's energy-use ecosystem become a strength, a competitive advantage for attracting corporate and MICE accounts, talent, and investment (or at least for Owner/investor contentment). The maturity model is a tool to bring about this outcome. READ MORE

We tried unsuccessfully on several occasions over the years to give independent QA providers standards for the butler service being offered by (463) luxury hotels around the world so they could incorporate those standards into their own and help raise butler-service levels in the hospitality industry in a way that our small organization could not, on its own, achieve. All to no avail, but we learned as the years rolled on: Many five-star properties asked us to conduct mystery guest assessments of their butlers, and some even of their whole properties. In doing so, we were asked to assess against internal hotel/chain standards, as well as those of other QA providers. Finding they fell short in various aspects, we were compelled to create our own standards... READ MORE

There's an old story about an economist who found a $100 bill laying on the ground, but didn't bother to bend over and pick it up. When he was asked why, he said that if it had been real, someone would have already picked it up. We find this story similar to the way food waste is treated in the hotel industry, wherein it's usually assumed that those resources are already being optimized. But in reality, most large hotels unfortunately send hundreds of thousands of dollars to the landfill each year. READ MORE

A perfect job description can encourage passive job seekers to become active, drawing out quality candidates and giving a hotel a deeper pool of talent from which to find the ideal new hire. For hotels, job descriptions should go beyond details of what the job will entail to become selling documents that attract quality candidates. However, writing an intro that accomplishes this can be incredibly difficult. Here are six steps that will help a hotel uncover stronger candidates. READ MORE