A cyberattack, a natural disaster, an injured guest - bad things can happen in the hospitality industry. Hospitality industry players should not have their heads in the sand when it comes to bad events. Instead, hospitality industry players should take steps to prepare for the bad event and practice their response to the bad event. This preparation might include training, preparing a response team, and understanding any legal obligations that may apply in light of any such bad event. Aside from risking bad publicity, a failure to prepare may have legal ramifications. Preparation may mitigate those risks. READ MORE

From the perspective of an experienced asset manager, this assessment of brand loyalty programs answers the question of relevance. Do the brand frequent programs still matter to hotel guests? If they do, how can a brand strengthen the customer relationship? If brand loyalty is not pertinent at specific points in the customer hotel experience journey, then how can the hotel secure its guest relationships? Does it matter? READ MORE

For hotels, saving money can also help save the environment. They've done it with water, and now they can do so with another vital resource: food. About a third of all the world's food is lost or wasted, representing huge economic, social, and environmental costs. To help the hotel industry tackle this problem, World Wildlife Fund and the American Hotel and Lodging Association have developed an engagement platform and set of tools on HotelKitchen.org to provide hotels with a step-by-step guide to reduce food waste, cut costs, and enhance relationships with their staff, guests, and community. READ MORE

The story and characters that follow may be fiction but the performance improvement principles shared are very real. Too many managers define the totality of their employees' job roles strictly in terms of job function: possessing adequate job knowledge and demonstrating sufficient job skills. And success is determined by whether or not employees are capable of consistently executing assigned transactions. But little time or attention is paid to employees' job essence: their purpose - their highest priority - at work. Too often, employees are assigned routine tasks to work on, rather than an inspiring purpose to work toward. READ MORE

Working with the HEI Hotels portfolio of hotels to bring life to the brand principles and significant attributes (also called brand pillars), a primary goal is to build confidence in the hotel associates and reinforce the notion that empowerment means taking action any time you can to make guests happy. Equally important, is the associate environment where the correlation of a positive associate experience with a positive guest experience and having the tools, resources, and trust is critical to feeling empowered. The brand pillars must be pulled through internally and externally in order to ring true. This article expands on brand pull through and empowerment in the workplace. READ MORE