The Tricycle of Guest Service Excellence: A Perfect Model For Remarkable Experiences
Doug Kennedy | October 4, 2024
The Art of a Great Arrival for Luxury Hotels
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky | May 22, 2024
Guest Experience
Modern Food Service Challenges are Driven by the Modern Guest
Larry Steinberg | September 18, 2017
By Larry Steinberg, Sr. Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Agilysys Consumers want more options. For every practiced chef, there is a collective of guests eager to spend their hard-earned dollars on something exotic and different. They want to experience a bit of culture by way of their next meal, and they want to find it using the latest technology. How do businesses prioritize which technologies to embrace? How do they stay in business in such a saturated, competitive marketplace? How do they keep up with the constantly-expanding demands of consumers? This highly competitive landscape, combined with changing guest expectat...
Tips for When You Become a Semi-Retired Hotel Consultant
Larry Mogelonsky | September 14, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) For financial or a variety of other reasons, many folks in the hotel industry refuse to accept any form of clear-cut retirement, resulting in an incomplete transition from an employee to a semi-retired entrepreneur. This can be a daunting task, but it is nonetheless one that I have taken for myself within the past six months and can therefore offer some advice for them of you considering a similar move. Typically, the higher up you are in any organization, the further away you are from the basic tasks required just to manage your new 'one person' consulting operation. The myriad of ...
Intelity is Helping Hotels Meet Travelers’ Mobile Demands
Intelity | September 13, 2017
Study shows mobile technology is dictating the experience guests expect and demand; Intelity is meeting those demands with mobile check in/out, mobile key and more [Orlando, Fla. – September 13, 2017] — With the 2018 budget season quickly approaching, hoteliers need to evaluate their customers' needs today to identify which technologies will help them engage with guests of tomorrow. Those who are unaware of what their customers will be expecting/demanding in the coming year should reference Hospitality Technology's 2017 Customer Engagement Technology Study. According to the 6th annual report, 57% of hotel guests are expe...
Nominations Open for CustomerCount® Customer Engagement Professional Resort Trades Award
CustomerCount | September 13, 2017
Annual Award Contest Celebrates Resort Managers, General Managers and Assistant Managers INDIANAPOLIS, IN (September 13, 2017) – CustomerCount® and Resort Trades magazine have opened nominations for their annual "Customer Engagement Professional Award (CEP)." The coveted award recognizes outstanding leaders who exemplify customer engagement within the timeshare resort/hospitality industry. Nominations for "CustomerCount/Resort Trades Customer Engagement Professional (CEP)/ Award" opened Monday, September 11th. Nominations will be open until November, 2017 and the winner will be announced in January, 2018. The nomination proce...
What Do Guests Want From a Modern City Hotel?
JLL Real Views | September 11, 2017
By Maggie Nichols If you flip through your grandparents' old photo albums, you'll notice that their vacation pictures look very different to yours. While they may have captured the moment they sat down for a themed dinner in a hotel restaurant, your snapshots are more likely to show off your best food truck finds. It's just one of the many ways that travel and tourism have changed in recent decades. To keep up with those modern trends and preferences, hotels must identify new ways to keep guests checking in year after year. "What guests want during their hotel stay is constantly evolving," notes Geraldine Guichardo, Head of Americas Res...
3 Steps to Positive and Memorable Customer Interactions
Jana Love | September 8, 2017
By Jana Love Our world is built around speed, and because of this, any amount of waiting seems like a complete waste of time and an enormous frustration. We have drive-thru opportunities everywhere- banks, coffee shops, cleaners, and even restaurants will run your take out food to your car. With a quick search on google, just about any question has an instant answer. The responsibility and understanding this brings to all customer service providers is that asking customers to needlessly wait may be the difference between a positive or negative experience. Quick reactions and timely responses should be a part of every company's core ...
Is Room Service Dead?
Chamberlin Public Relations | September 7, 2017
Not yet, but it seems to be on the way out. While plenty of hotels still offer traditional room service, guests' tastes are evolving, and food and beverage programs must change to suit new demands. Many hotels are limiting costly room service, or completely scrapping it in favor of new F&B concepts that give guests more convenience at lower prices, plus opportunities to experience local fare. Hoteliers, here are the newest F&B trends you need to consider now. Special Delivery Room service can take many forms, and while many midscale and upscale hotels already have restaurant space on-site, not every kitchen has time (or staff) t...
ALICE Announces Acquisition of GoConcierge
ALICE | September 6, 2017
Acquisition brings together two of the most innovative concierge and front desk solutions on the market New York, NY, September 7, 2017 – ALICE, an operations platform that empowers hotels to deliver a better guest experience through consistently excellent service, announced today the acquisition of GoConcierge, a leading concierge software platform. As part of the acquisition, ALICE welcomes approximately 1,000 GoConcierge hotel customers to their community, with a promise to continue both companies' tradition of delivering industry-leading service technology. Frank Sena and Justin Hirs from Bentley Associates advised GoConcierge...
Don’t Fear The Word Sorry
Larry Mogelonsky | September 6, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) This is a word you should never have to say, and yet it is one that can have a very powerful effect when used correctly. For most well-run properties, mistakes are a rarity. While this doesn't preclude them from happening entirely (we are human after all and errors are bound to crop up during transition periods or staff turnover), apologizing is not something we do only when we are at fault. This comes down to a debate between logic and emotions. When a guest comes to you with a grievance or compliant, they are probably not in a purely rational state of mind. Regardless of whether i...
Proven Ways to Guarantee Your Hotel Tech Supplier Has Your Back
September 5, 2017
By Jos Schaap, CEO and Founder of StayNTouch The purchase of a hotel system is only the beginning of the journey. More planning is needed to use the software to its full potential. In today's hectic hotel operational environment, the one thing you don't want to worry about is the support of your technology platforms. If you need something fixed, tweaked or replaced, you want to feel secure that your technology supplier has your back. Here are a few ideas to help hoteliers maximize value from their technology investment: Dedicated Champion On-Property: Make sure that you have a dedicated individual who acts as your technology champion ...
How Would You Define Modern Luxury?
Larry Mogelonsky | August 30, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) How many times have you heard the word 'luxury' in a hotel description? It seems to be one of the most abused words in the hoteliers' dictionary! I've seen many hotels claim to be luxurious, when at most they are just slightly better than average. There seems to be no clear definition for luxury. Looking for some clarity in the dictionary, the word 'luxury' come from Old French luxurie and the Latin luxuria or luxus, meaning excess. In other words, something that is luxurious is an inessential – a desirable item that is more than basic but not a necessity. In keeping with this...
8 Steps to Transform the On-Property Guest Experience
August 29, 2017
Free guide from StayNTouch provides hoteliers with actionable tactics to create memorable moments during the guest stay that drive revenue, positive reviews and keep guests coming back Bethesda, MD (August 29, 2017) – Optimizing on-property guest experience is increasingly important. In fact, it frequently sits at the top of priorities for most hoteliers. Today, StayNTouch®, the leading innovator in mobile technology and Property Management Systems (PMS) for the hospitality industry, released a new guide titled, The 8 Steps to Transform Your Hotel's On-Property Guest Experience. Like most things in today's market place, guest ...
Yes—Service is Selling, Too!
Gary Hernbroth | August 24, 2017
By Gary Hernbroth I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear someone say, "I'm not in sales, I'm in customer service." They apparently have not seen the light as to two important tenets that I've learned over my career, being on both sides of the sales and service coin: When you are selling someone something, you are providing a service to them; When you are giving someone customer service, you are in effect selling them something too. Here's why: When you sell a service or product, you are helping the person to get what they want, what they need, what they think they need, etc. The customer's percept...
Using Loyalty Programs as a Tool for Brand Education
Larry Mogelonsky | August 23, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) An old school sales technique that today is considered somewhat exploitative and sleazy may in fact help you shed some light on how to improve your loyalty program. Hot button selling was a colloquial term to describe first the process of qualifying your leads in order to decipher the emotional motivations underpinning their logic-based decisions, and then second using this information to pressure and coerce these leads into closing the sale on the spot. From a psychology standpoint, the proliferation of this technique makes sense because of how often we humans are slaves to our emo...
The Communications Hierarchy in Three Principles and Five Tips
Larry Mogelonsky | August 16, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) For going on a decade now, I've encouraged readers to reexamine their B2B and B2C communications in terms of how the medium impacts the message itself. To help organize my thoughts on the matter, I proposed a heirarchial flowchart outlining 13 different forms of modern communications based on the level of importance conveyed by each. My motivation for tackling this subject was the rise of email and mobile communications, both of which have had sweeping influences on how we behave and socialize. With each passing month, mobile becomes more significant as a channel, thus necessitating...
Service Excellence and the Hotel Industry is in our DNA
August 15, 2017
Jos Schaap, CEO and Founder StayNTouch It is not very often that I write a self-serving article but I think it is important to note that, as a hotel technology company, service excellence is a key element within our DNA. It helps us deliver great technology to our hotel clients and the industry at large. Technology, at its foundation, is developed either to make one's life easier or to enable people to communicate more effectively. The problem with developing technology for technology's sake is that companies become too highly focused on the development of the technology, forgetting to understand its full impact on their end users and a...
7 Trainer’s Tips for Hotel Reservations Sales Success
Doug Kennedy | August 14, 2017
By Doug Kennedy If you're like most hotel managers, chances are you are highly focused on securing more direct bookings and thus reducing the costs of customer acquisition. If so, here are some train-the-trainer style tips for providing your reservations and/or front desk colleagues with the skills they need to covert today's over-informed, channel surfing callers. You can use these at your next departmental meeting or during one-on-one coaching sessions. "Understanding What Caller's Do Before Calling." Walk them through the process of researching hotel options prior to calling. Pick a city or travel destination that is similar to you...
How This Newly-Opened New York Boutique Creates Relationships With Guests Before They Even Arrive On Property
ALICE | August 7, 2017
New York, NY -- Newly opened Life Hotel has selected ALICE's guest text messaging and staff technology to facilitate guest communication and power staff operations. ALICE, the hospitality industry's leading operations platform, connects every department in a hotel with one platform for all staff communication and guest requests. Life Hotel - a 98-room boutique that opened this spring in the original Nomad-neighborhood home of Life Magazine - was initially looking for a guest engagement tool, but chose the multi-purpose ALICE platform over a handful of other vendors, once they saw how ALICE improves staff coordination and request managem...
Eliminating the Offseason
Larry Mogelonsky | August 2, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Consider this your quarterly performance audit, but thinking a bit more ambitiously, it is already time to look ahead to 2018! Now that we have gone through three whole months of 2017, it's the perfect time to reevaluate the goal we proclaimed at the beginning of January, but there's also enough time to plan something bold for next year. A major issue that many hotels confront is the cyclical nature of their revenues and occupancies. Although seasonality affects resorts and rural properties more so than urban hotels, the latter can also suffer from week-to-week or intra-week fluctua...
Rethinking the Bread Basket
Larry Mogelonsky | July 27, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) When we go into a restaurant, a bread basket is all but an expectation. If we must ask for it, then there is a service problem! And for those restaurants who feel as though they can charge extra for this item, be warned that you certainly aren't winning customers over with your penny-pinching approach to F&B. Knowing how profound a role bread has played throughout the course of civilization, still to this day nothing sets the stage for a great meal better than a freshly prepared loaf. The smell of baked bread and the satisfaction of physically handling its chewy texture are both...
Angie Hospitality CEO Tapped by HTNG for Asia-Pacific Conference Panel on Voice Technology
Angie Hospitality | July 24, 2017
San Jose, CA – July 24, 2017 – Angie Hospitality, creator of Angie, the world's first 24-hour interactive guest room assistant, Wi-Fi and room control technology solution built for hotels and resorts, has been selected to participate in a panel discussion at the HTNG Asia-Pacific Conference, taking place July 25 to July 27 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. Angie Hospitality's CEO, Ted Helvey, will serve as a key panelist on the "Hello Alexa...New Voices in the Guestroom Experience" session on Wednesday, July 26 from 11:20 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Tower B of the hotel. During this informative session, conference attendees wi...
July is the Month for Bourbon
Larry Mogelonsky | July 19, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) With the 4th of July come and gone, it seems only apt for this libation-centric article to discuss the spirit that is perhaps the quintessential American contribution to the world. Even though California and Oregon produce some spectacular wines and local craft beers that have taken the nation by storm, no other country on the planet makes bourbon. Yes, it is comparable to scotch, Irish whisky or Canadian ryes in all but the primary ingredient – maize instead of malted barley or wheat – but no other country has even a remotely sophisticated corn whiskey culture or variet...
Concierge Technology Replaces a Shared Outlook Calendar at this Award-Winning Colorado Resort
ALICE | July 17, 2017
Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa selects ALICE's concierge software to help its concierge team organize its extensive roster of on-property activities for guests. New York, NY -- Colorado destination Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa has selected ALICE's concierge technology, ALICE Concierge, to help the resort's concierge team manage guest activities at the 6,000 acre property, which is part of the Noble House Hotels & Resorts collection. Scheduling activities for resort guests is no small feat. As one journalist noted in a recent Forbes article, "If you stand at the epicenter of Gateway Canyons Resort, it's a fair statement that t...
Using Tech to Enhance Housekeeper Training
Larry Mogelonsky | July 12, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Having just attended the annual HITEC tradeshow, I can accurately say that while hoteliers are aware of the benefits in broad strokes of the benefits of online, electronic staff instruction, few have gone through the necessary steps to make it a reality. Hopefully this will convince you of its merits in one of the most affected parts of your operations – your housekeeping team. First among the benefits of modern online training advances is what's paid forward to your guests – improved compliance with SOPs, faster service, better staff demeanor and, ultimately, better cus...
