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
Reinvent Your Customer Service to Make it Fun
Katie Scheer | March 30, 2016
By Katie Scheer Let's make customer service fun. Why? Because you do better when it's fun, and if you aren't having fun, it's time to evaluate why. Now the "why" could be for a lot of reasons outside of customer service, but I just want to focus on service. How exactly do you do better when you are having fun? Many reasons, but the biggest are that it leaves a lasting impression on your customers so that they want to return for more, and you feel so good doing it that you want to do it more! How can you have fun with customer service? Here are some examples that will help to inspire you to take strides at ad...
Intrapreneurs are the Lifeblood of a Hotel
Larry Mogelonsky | March 23, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Up until Julius Caesar reformed the calendar that would become the one we use today, the Roman year began in the month of March, named after their god of war, Mars. And to do their god proud, March was a time for preparations, for movement and for action. With spring now upon us, it is time for you too to embark upon a grand adventure. As a senior manager, though, it's often hard to find the time for such ventures. Instead, what I propose you focus on this year is team empowerment and imbuing your team with a refreshed sense of ambition. What you need is a corporate culture that nurtures it...
Hotel Loyalty – What’s Driving Customer Loyalty for Today’s Hotel Brands? A PwC Report
PwC | March 16, 2016
What do travelers find to be the most compelling aspect of hotel loyalty programs? Are the loyalty behaviors of Millennial travelers unique to this age group? How can traditional loyalty programs compete with the increased presence of sharing economy travel options? In an age where price comparisons can be done on the fly and the sharing economy is the new normal, hotels have to continuously push their boundaries to retain customer stickiness. This report explores the competitive world of hotel loyalty, both from an age perspective and from the mindset of leisure vs. business travelers. To do this, we sampled over 1,000 U.S. consumers v...
Four Horsemen of the Hotel POST-Apocalypse
Larry Mogelonsky | March 16, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Last year, I wrote a sensationalist article playing off the common religious story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Giving each a hotel inference, the four became: PLAGUE (red horse) – The OTAs WAR (white horse) – Airbnb FAMINE (black horse) – Too Many Brands DEATH (pale horse) – Lack of Entrepreneurship While there was some disagreement over what the four hospitality horsemen actually were, one truly insightful complaint was that I only identified and explained the issues without offering any clear and present solutions. Thus, this sequel article is wha...
Attitude is Everything
Jana Love | March 16, 2016
By Jana Love Everyone has good days and not so good days, right? It's when the not so good days start to pile up that we need to remind ourselves that those days can become the greatest teacher with the greatest lesson, unless we get in the way of the lesson. How many times did you learn the lesson the hard way or miss the lesson completely? Yeah, me too. When I start having a slew of not so good days, it really helps me to check my attitude at the door. "A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don't change it, you'll never go anywhere." Unknown I have lived long enough to know that if I am feeling challenged, ...
Second Assurances
Larry Mogelonsky | March 9, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The funny and scary thing about first impressions is that you only get one. One chance to nail that perfect handshake at the start of a job interview. One chance to set the mood for an outstanding hospitality experience upon guest arrival. I've long argued that in the hospitality space, first impressions are first assurances – subconscious cues for the guests that they will be safe within the confines of your property, that their needs will tended to and that they are about to experience something great. There are many aspects involved in a first impression, from cleanliness and strik...
Duetto to Integrate TravelClick’s Demand Hotel Business Intelligence Data into its Market-Leading Revenue Strategy Solution
TravelClick, Inc. | March 3, 2016
Combined Offering Expected During First Half of 2016 NEW YORK – March 3, 2016 – TravelClick, a global provider of innovative cloud-based solutions that enable hotels to grow revenue, and Duetto, a market leader in hotel and casino profit optimization technology, have joined forces to integrate TravelClick's Demand360® data into Duetto's GameChanger revenue strategy application to make Open Pricing an even more powerful tool in today's complex distribution landscape. Hoteliers can further leverage Duetto's core functionality that enables hoteliers to independently yield all segments, channels, offers and room types in rea...
I Heard It Through The Greece Vine
Larry Mogelonsky | March 2, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Maybe it's cheesy to borrow from a Marvin Gaye song, but while the snow beats down against my window pane, all I can think of is sunny, hot days against calm, azure water. And if a nation like Greece happens to have a god of wine its pantheon (Dionysus), then you know the grapes are good. In fact, Greece's wine culture goes all the way back to its time as Mycenae (Greece before it was called even that) when our modern pedigree of grape vine was developed and perfected for growth in the dry summers, ample sunlight and mild winters of Southern Europe. While the country fails behind three big ...
Enhancing Your Voice Channel Sales with ‘Moments in Time’
Larry Mogelonsky | February 24, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) In this era of electronic communication, where faceless automated RFPs prevail, the challenge of booking corporate groups has exploded. With the advent of the electronic RFP, the number of actual submissions has increased exponentially, making it incredibly difficult for a single property to standout. This article is specifically addressed to your sales team members. In particular, those individuals who are charged with the daunting task of continually filling in your meetings space for group events. How do sales team members differentiate your property from competitors? How do they express...
Get Your Logo In The Background
Larry Mogelonsky | February 17, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Firstly, a definition is in order. A photobomb is when photograph is ruined by someone unexpectedly appearing in the background, distracting from what was originally intended for the image's framing. Typically, photobombs occur in crowded areas frequented by oblivious or harried passersby, or interlopers commonly spoil pictures as a practical joke. Definitions aside, photobombs seem like something for drunken college students. What do they have to do with hotels? Photobomb marketing is a very niche tactic housed under the greater banner of experiential marketing, and it harks back to the re...
Gourmet Hot Chocolate – A Marketing Boon
Larry Mogelonsky | February 10, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The harsh cold winds and blizzards demand a hot F&B counterattack. Soup is a good start. But what about beverages? To me, nothing solves the challenge of delivering immediate warmth better than a hot chocolate beverage. Too many restaurants consider hot chocolate to be nothing more than a powdery mix from a pouch, perhaps adding milk instead of hot water. These are probably the same folks who take a generic tea bag and serve it to you with a metal pot of tepid water. As is the way most any other food product, quality goes a long way. Remember the way your mom or grandma used to make hot...
Take the Service Elevator to the Top Floor
Roberta Nedry | February 6, 2016
Get the C-Suite Ready for Customer Experiences by Roberta Nedry Customer experience management is increasingly critical as a top investment area and skill essential for C-suite executives (some firms even have a CXO). What does that mean exactly and what do leaders need to do to ensure they are ready? How will they proactively acquire these skills and mindset when there is no single or even clear roadmap as to exactly what to do or how to do it? On top of that, the new science of customer emotions is inspiring even more considerations and most CEO's don't like to 'get emotional' about their business strategies! Some are ...
Get Yourself Back to School!
Larry Mogelonsky | February 3, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Attending the last Cornell Hospitality Research Summit in 2014 was a fantastic experience and one that is well worth the trek for any who can make it. As a think tank on the industry at large, there was much learning to be had and I'd recommend the conference to anyone looking for a worthwhile networking event or to catch up on some of the latest research hitting the hospitality airwaves. However, this being held at a hotel school had an unintended effect. It put me face to face with many young, bright minds who will soon enter the workforce, most likely in the hospitality field. Meeting st...
Travel Across the Generations
Larry Mogelonsky | January 27, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) People talk. Word of mouth about hotels both good and bad will inevitably percolate up and down through the generations – daughters talking to mothers, granddads chatting with grandsons, uncles conversing with nieces and so on. The central observation was that we, as hoteliers and marketers, tend to compartmentalize our target demographics, oftentimes failing to see them as an interconnected web of nuclear families, extended families, workplace colleagues, neighbors and social circles of like-minded peers. Thinking cross-generationally about word of mouth will help you design better p...
Think F&B for 2016: Ten Thoughts To Consider
Larry Mogelonsky | January 20, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) "Everyone eats!" is the motto I cite far too often to express the importance of having stellar F&B operations, both in terms of service delivery as well as the ingenuity of your cuisine. Fine these days does not cut it anymore, and unless you are constantly attempting to improve your operations, you run the risk of instilling complacency and a tired brand perception. With new restaurants opening daily with fresh menus and concepts sourced from across the world, your job as a manager and restaurateur is only getting harder. Here's what I've learned from my travels in the past quarter whi...
4 Ways Luxury Hotels Can Use Technology To Provide Better Customer Service
Alex Shashou | January 16, 2016
By Alex Shashou For some luxury hoteliers, the idea of mobile technology in hospitality is fraught. When customer service is understood as face-to-face interaction, the introduction of mobile technology is seen as an ill-suited replacement, an encroach on the time-honored traditions of hospitality. And when construed as such, there is also research that backs up these misgivings. A recent study by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration shows that using automation - in this case self-serve check-in technology - as a replacement for in-person customer service "can impede development of employee-guest rapport and lead t...
Apéritif or Digestif
Larry Mogelonsky | January 13, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The holiday season is behind us, and for many it was a time of alcoholic gifts, and the drinking of said gifts with friends and family. Now it's back to crunch time at the office as we all try to plan meetings for 2016 and recover from the many office parties. My typical day nowadays consists of two hundred emails, back-to-back meetings, and a constant barrage of phone calls to interrupt any and all down time. By the time I dredge myself off the office floor around 6pm, I'm loopy, hungry and in need of a stiff drink. Sound familiar? While some call this 'mandatory pre-dinner throat and brai...
Service Excellence: 5 Ways to Elevate Your Personal Brand in 2016
Bryan K. Williams | January 12, 2016
Something is different when YOU are at work. It's up to you to determine if that "something" is positive or negative...it is never neutral. On this webinar, Bryan will discuss five ways to serve with excellence and become even more valuable in 2016! Use this opportunity to recharge and launch into this new year! This online event will be led by Dr. Bryan K. Williams. He is a keynote speaker, author and service consultant. Bryan is very passionate about helping companies reach high levels of service and organizational excellence. He travels globally to work with companies in various industries, and is the creator of the pop...
Angry Guests Can Still Become Loyal!
Larry Mogelonsky | January 6, 2016
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Angry guests with insurmountable problems; we've all encountered them. Rivalry, opposition, antagonism, conflict or whatever other synonym you deploy to convey obstacles in the workplace like this would be better viewed as helping your business goals instead of detracting. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? When applying this adage to guest-staff interactions, it's all too easy to deem livid, annoying, testy, arrogant, needy, rude or whining guests as enemies to your organizational goals which are likely to be high guest satisfaction scores and the pursuit of higher occupancie...
DNA-Based Wellness Programs at Your Hotel
Larry Mogelonsky | December 23, 2015
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The 20th century was filled with prominent science fiction writers constantly throwing wild and prophetic ideas out to the world. The 21st century is where (some of) those ideas become reality. We've already seen the rise of smart phones, smart watches and tablets – all predicted in some way or shape long before their mass market acceptance – and many more useful devices will reach our consumerist in due time. Now it is time for hotels and smart hoteliers to be the true benefactors and incubators for all these emergent technologies. Those that survive and thrive tend to be those...
Is Your Hotel Addictive?
Larry Mogelonsky | December 16, 2015
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) To give you a new perspective on your guest service operations, let's reframe a person's hotel experience in terms of chemicals – specifically, how a brain responds to micro- and macro-interactions by releasing certain neurotransmitters. For those of us lacking a medical degree, neurotransmitters are the molecules your nervous system releases to dictate further bodily actions and emotional states of mind. (If you want to learn some more about how and where they work, consult a Wikipedia page near you.) Although there are dozens of these brain chemicals that have been identified, we're...
For a Local Experience, Look to Brooklyn
Larry Mogelonsky | December 9, 2015
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Buzz terms and urbane business jargon are all the rage these days. More specific to hotels, we are also living in an age of embracing the trending phrase that is the 'local authentic experience' and all that that infers. To this end, we arrive at the word 'Brooklynization' which has recently been making waves in the more erudite presses. This catch-all can mean a lot of different things depending on the context, so let's make sure we are on the same page with regard to its meaning for hospitality. To start, why Brooklyn? It's less about the historical relevance of this two-and-a-half-millio...
Technology and Data Hold the Key to Elusive Guest Loyalty and Fuel Competitive Edge for Hotels
Sabre | December 9, 2015
Sabre commissioned study finds guests are increasingly willing to share data in exchange for personalized hotel service SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Dec. 9, 2015 – While most travelers hold no loyalty to a particular hotel brand, hoteliers can change that reality by offering a more personalized guest experience, according to a November 2015 study commissioned by Sabre Hospitality Solutions and conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study demonstrates that hoteliers who rely on data and technology to power personalization and an outstanding customer experience will hold a competitive edge to differentiate and win travelers' hearts and ...
Housekeeping Excellence at the Luxury Level
Larry Mogelonsky | December 2, 2015
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Upon completing an intensive, three-week Pacific hotel tour filled with fine wine and beachfront dawdling (pouvre moi!), my report to hoteliers is this: no matter what your brand or luxury status, housekeeping remains a prickly beast and a constant challenge. Eighteen nights on the road in luxury hotels and one would think that the results are all coming up like daisies. Well, I wish I could report perfection but alas this is not so! In all five properties that I surveyed, housekeeping errors topped the list. Where others see shortcomings, however, I see opportunities for growth. While my a...
