The hospitality industry experiences change every single day. Each day sees changes in guests, rates, menus, events and staff. At a higher level, hotels across the globe experience changes in management, brands, job responsibilities, revenue strategy and guest expectations. Sweeping changes in distribution, technology, analytics and merging industry conglomerates also affect nearly every hotel in every region. READ MORE

Corporate culture is critical to ensuring that the experience guests actually receive is representative of the experience that hotel leadership hopes to portray. Culture can be affected in any number of ways, from management implementing employee appreciation programs to maintain top talent, through far less formal interactions like a couple of workers putting together a plan to ensure there's coffee to start a shift together. It can be augmented, strengthened, improved, measured, and yes; culture can be ruined. READ MORE

After a seven-year stagnation, the federal minimum wage is poised to follow the lead of cities and states across the U.S. that have passed measures to raise wages for their lowest-paid workers. Service industry employers who fail to prepare for the higher labor costs that will come with the minimum-wage increase and its subsequent ripple effect on their pay ladder will likely experience a dollar-for-dollar negative impact on their bottom line. To offset the higher labor costs will require organizations to take a hard look at their business model for opportunities to improve productivity. READ MORE

Start discussing a technical topic and watch as people's eyes glaze over, even if those people are fully aware that it's something they should be paying attention to. Embarking on a path toward a more sustainable and energy efficient hotel operation qualifies as one of these 'glazed' subjects, so to eliminate any possibility of eyelid fatigue, let's talk about this extremely important issue in terms of something just a bit more fun - golf. READ MORE

There is an old adage that says, “The only constant is change.” Although attributed to Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived around 500 B.C., apparently that statement is as true now as it has ever been - perhaps even more so. 2016 has proven to be a year of tumultuous change in the hospitality industry, from the dizzying pace of technological advancements and fluctuating global economies to the introduction and adoption of entire new segments of the business. With rapidly advancing technologies in just about every sector of the industry, hospitality has experienced an exponential transformation over the past several years, dramatically changing the face of one of the world's oldest occupations. READ MORE