Satisfying a traveler encapsulates all manner of operations on your property. However, the core of this will always be person-to-person interactions between visitors and members of your staff. Therefore, a prudent exercise to heighten guest satisfaction is to breakdown your guest services into individual interactions then ensure that each and every one culminates toward a positive experience. READ MORE

Staying calm and keeping guests as comfortable and reassured as possible is no easy feat when facing an impending natural disaster. The anxiety and fear felt by our distressed neighbors and guests were also felt by my staff and I. Only through proper crisis planning can one expect to get through an event like this. The treat was coming out of it as champions! What a reinforcing reminder this event was on how much empathy plays such a big role in our industry. To serve our guests and ensure we were taking care of their most basic of needs without power in the hotel and destruction all around. Gladly, we ended up with many new friends and fans. What's the best way to handle the needs of your guests, partners, and team members? Be ready because when the power driving the technology goes away - That is truly, back to basics. Throw the book away and learn how you too, can have one of the most rewarding experiences of your career as I did by staying calm and executing a plan to deliver more than just the basic needs of your guests and team members. READ MORE

Many people are familiar with the service-profit chain concept which stipulates that engaged employees lead to loyal guests. However, the most motivated employee can become frustrated and ineffective when he or she is placed in a system that inhibits service delivery. A national study showed that most hospitality employees are tepid, at best, when offering their opinions about the service climate under which they do their jobs. Problems especially lie in the fact that employees are typically not rewarded for good service, are not empowered to resolve problems without consulting a manager, training is focused more on operations than on guest service, and managers are often out of touch with guest needs. Perhaps most critical is the fact that many hospitality organizations adhere to policies that are not guest-friendly, thereby frustrating customers. The paper offers best practices for creating a positive service climate that will allow employees to do their best to satisfy their customers. READ MORE

'Globalization' has been a buzz word in the hotel sector since the days of Conrad Hilton and his peers. For years now the quest to operate in new markets has seen hotel groups such as Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and Starwood truly become multinational players. Each week it seems one of these chains pronounces an increase to its development pipeline in one of the world's emerging economies. Starwood for example will take its current portfolio of 34 hotels in India and South Asia to over 100 hotels either open or signed up by 2015. Fairmont Raffles Hotels and Resorts will double the number of hotels open in Middle East and Africa by 2016. IHG not only has a robust development pipeline in China but has also developed a China specific brand. READ MORE

The recent economic downturn has lulled many organizations into forgetting that the United States will face a talent shortage as baby boomers approach retirement. This large cohort of employees has started or will be exiting organizations over the next few years. The birth rates of the younger generations means that companies must manage both a loss of organizational memory and implicit knowledge and also find ways to attract new workers. The author creates action-oriented tips for hospitality organizations around a three-pronged approach including attracting, cultivating and configuring to entice the best and brightest of the Millennial workers into their ranks. Rethinking strategies to attract talent will be the difference between organizational success and failure. READ MORE