Hotel Industry Trends - Management

In his new book, The Leader's Checklist, Wharton management professor Michael Useem presents a collection of 15 principles that can help leaders navigate successfully through even the most difficult circumstances. Using such milestone events as the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners in 2010, the collapse of AIG in 2008 and the surrender of the Confederate army at Appomattox in 1865, Useem illustrates the difference between good and bad leadership, and how to achieve one's own personal leadership success.

This month I’ve been working with one of my clients conducting one to one coaching with a number of their managers to help them with conducting their own one to one meetings with their team.

The first 'real' hoteliers I ever worked for owned and operated independent, family-run inns and businesses. They had learned to be frugal, having lived through very hard times in WWII and the subsequent years as the economy grew and recovered in the decade that followed. When recently looking at a client's income statement that was trying to look at all costs for potential savings, I noted a number of things they practiced then that still have merit today. These can be especially valuable in small properties and are offered as ideas for consideration.

Biennial conference focuses on service quality research and concepts

It is better to give than to receive... right? What happens when hoteliers give a complimentary stay or experience, a 'comp', to support a special program or fundraiser and the recipient, the lucky 'comp' winner, shows up to experience their reward?

No one wants to lose. That’s true whether you’re talking about the Super Bowl, a friendly basketball game with the neighbors, or a footrace between eight-year-olds. Yes, the desire to win is embedded in the human psyche. So why is it that in the business world the 'win or (almost) die trying' principle seems to falter?

Behold, the corporate rollercoaster known as 'The Next Big Thing': a concept is launched, buzz is created, momentum is gathered, and like clockwork the idea fizzles and fades into oblivion within months (or - depending on your team's attention span - weeks), quickly replaced by the next big idea. It's a rollercoaster each of us has been on more times than we care to admit, leaving trails of mediocre and, sadly, great ideas behind us.

My hair dresser does it, the vet does it and even my supermarket does it. What am I talking about? They are all great at building a relationship with me, their customer.

Making service sense out of those that manage the dollars and cents of any hospitality business is a key but often overlooked part of any service culture. Hospitality leaders may go out of their way to pay the bills, secure revenue, finance investments and get reimbursements but they need to ensure that the accounting department reimburses service too.

Published by John Wiley, the book, The Cornell School of Hotel Administration on Hospitality: Cutting Edge Thinking and Practice, offers a comprehensive examination of the hospitality industry’s best practices, along with the best research-based concepts from the Cornell faculty.