Siegel Sez: Not Your Father’s Power Socket
September 3rd, 2021
The Most Important Hotel “Salesperson” Right Now Is Working Behind Your Front Desk
Doug Kennedy | July 22nd, 2020
He Who Transmits the Legacy of Knowledge Continues to Live, Otherwise he Dies
Georges Panayotis | February 4, 2016
by Georges Panayotis In sports, politics or business, knowing how to decide not to run one race too many, not to take on one too many mandates, not to do one exercise too many is evidence of having a good understanding of the outside world and the need to renew teams. Undoubtedly, it is easier to know one's limits in sports, but this must not stop managers from regularly examining their abilities to keep up with the flow, to anticipate trends rather than be subject to them, to not see themselves as the sole holders of the truth of their experience, but so they may benefit from what younger generations have to offer while preparing t...
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...
Luck Only Shines on Prepared Spirits
Georges Panayotis | January 28, 2016
by Georges Panayotis A first glimpse at the news offers: social unrest, a prolonged state of emergency, ongoing unemployment, increased refugee numbers, moroseness of entrepreneurs, mounting debt and new terrorist threats… one might get caught up in the pessimism and despondently imagine the future of our economy in general, and of our tourism industry in particular, which is very sensitive to all these elements. But, paradoxically, we are not so bad off, provided we know how to benefit from the other conditions that encourage international travel. Many factors encourage a return to, and even intensification of, travel: the price...
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...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 155: Hotel History: The Willard Hotel (1901), Washington, D.C.*; Hot Off The Press: My New Book
Stanley Turkel | January 25, 2016
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: The Willard Hotel (335 rooms) The National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior describe the history of the Willard Hotel as follows: American author Nathaniel Hawthorne observed in the 1860s that "the Willard Hotel more justly could be called the center of Washington than either the Capitol or the White House or the State Department." From 1847 when the enterprising Willard brothers, Henry and Edwin, first set up as innkeepers on the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Willard has occupied a unique niche in the history of Washington and the nation&hellip...
The World is Our Limit
Georges Panayotis | January 22, 2016
by Georges Panayotis That the State can be backhanded is nothing new. It is capable of simultaneously multiplying restrictive measures against smokers and alerting the population as to the dangers of smoking, while it greedily garners tax revenues generated by the sale of each pack of cigarettes. In the same vein, it is not the last to congratulate itself on the results of our tourist industry, while regularly thrashing it. Doubling the VAT across a three-year period, lowering contributions to tourism promotion, and multiplying strict regulations are all measures that go hand in hand with official discourse on the need to transform our ...
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...
Innovation is a Careful Dance Between Failure and Daring
Georges Panayotis | January 14, 2016
by Georges Panayotis Semantics show when an assessment is not so exciting. It is common to oppose the New World and the Old Continent, to incessantly speak of new frontiers and new barriers that rise up in a Europe that protects itself. Unfortunately there is a great deal of truth behind what should only be a cliché. Ironically, as the United States celebrated the innovative vision of the movie "Back to the Future" on October 21, 2015, in France, the exhibition "The King is Dead" was about to open at the Château de Versailles, in a celebration of that nation's great past. And yet, it is from Europe t...
Hotel Sales In The Age Of Technology: A Doug Kennedy Podcast On Hospitality Academy
Doug Kennedy | January 14, 2016
Being in the hotel training business, my company Kennedy Training Network frequently receives requests from individuals looking to advance their career education and from managers who are looking for resources for the professional development of their individual staff members. Although our company only provides private training workshops and webinars for the existing staff, not individuals, I am always interested in staying on top of what is out there so I can refer those who inquire as a courtesy. Recently, I learned about what I think is an exciting new resource launched just last year by Susan Pannozzo which is called Hospitality Aca...
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...
Knowledge is Vanishing with Those Who Neglect its Transmission
Georges Panayotis | January 7, 2016
by Georges Panayotis A year comes to an end -painfully for many- raising doubts and questions about the future. A new year begins that should cause us to reflect on what we want to make of it. Events are accelerating at such a rate that we are constantly reacting, whether superficially or passionately, while losing sight of the interest of a more long term goal, while forgetting to analyze the positive or negative transformations we undergo. My first consideration bears on one of the very reasons for our existence, be it personal or professional. The will to transmit is undoubtedly what characterizes us the best with respect to other sp...
Guest Engagement and Its Impact on Top Line Revenues
Alan E. Young | January 6, 2016
By Alan E. Young A savvy hotelier knows that the difference between an engaged guest and a disengaged guest could mean the difference between meeting the bottom line and not. Engaged guests feel loyalty to their hotel based on some sort of emotional connection. There are plenty of easy and cheap ways to create this connection, and doing so might mean a difference of $185 per customer per stay. According to a recent study by Gallup, guests spent $457 on average per stay at their most frequently visited hotel over the course of 12 months, while engaged guests spent $588 per stay on average. Meanwhile, actively disengaged guests spent $403...
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...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 154: Hotel History: The Jefferson Hotel (1895), Richmond, Virginia*
Stanley Turkel | January 4, 2016
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: The Jefferson Hotel (155 rooms) Tobacco baron Lewis Ginter began building the hotel in 1892 and opened it in 1895. Designed by Carrère and Hastings, the same architecture firm that designed the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, the Ponce de Leon Hotel (St. Augustine), Flagler's Whitehall Mansion (Palm Beach), the House and Senate Office Buildings (Washington, D.C.) and many more. As a centerpiece for the upper lobby, Ginter commissioned Richmond sculptor Edward V. Valentine to create a life-size image of Thomas Jefferson from Carrara marble. Ginter imported exotic palm trees fr...
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...
EB-5 Immigrant Visa Program Extension Signed Into Law — Without Any Changes
Jim Butler | December 22, 2015
EB-5 financing continues for new development projects. By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® December 2015 Hotel lawyer with great news for developers: the EB-5 immigrant visa financing program has been renewed — approved by Congress and signed by the President. It is being continued without change through September 30, 2016. A funny thing happened on the way to the 2016 Federal budget approval last week. One of the "riders" to the omnibus appropriations bill was the EB-5 legislation sponsored by Senators Leahy and Grassley. For months preceding the scheduled Congressional action, many stakeholders in the EB-5 indust...
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...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 153: Hotel History: The Sagamore Hotel (1883), Bolton Landing, New York*
Stanley Turkel | December 14, 2015
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: The Sagamore Hotel (375 rooms) More than 132 years ago, hotel operator Myron O. Brown, manager of the Mohican House Hotel in Bolton Landing, convinced four millionaires, who were summer residents on Lake George, to build an exclusive resort community. Together they bought Green Island and opened the Sagamore Hotel in 1883 with luxurious accommodations. They were later joined by John Boulton Simpson of New York City who was named company president. The architects were the Wilson Brothers from Philadelphia under the supervision of M.O. Brown who became its manager until 1905. A Glens Falls photogr...
Even Cinderella Needs a Ballgown
Georges Panayotis | December 10, 2015
Think back on the 90s, it's not so long ago! It was a time when hotels proudly displayed the cable company's name on their door, alongside their name because not everyone had it at home. Wide-eyed travelers discovered fully equipped bathrooms, quality bedding and sophisticated decoration that wafted them away from their everyday banality. It was a time when the hotel product itself still constituted a real-life modern, or even futurist, experience. Hotel brands gradually established themselves through standardization, proved reassuring and innovative with respect to the diverse, somewhat incongruous, "independent" hote...
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...
Outlook 2016: New Rules for Developers Raising Inexpensive Capital with EB-5 Financing for Hotels
Jim Butler | December 9, 2015
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® December 2015 Hotel Lawyer preview of the new EB-5 financing rules. Although minor tweaks and adjustments continue to be made to legislation in the final hours before Congress votes, it looks like we have a pretty good idea of what the new rules will be for EB-5 financing. Top takeaways for developers are: The EB-5 regional center program will be extended for 5 years Developers will be able to raise 60% more EB-5 capital on the same number of jobs Minimum investment will be raised to $800,000 (not expected to deter investors) TEAs will be forced into a "modified California model" ...
Checking Out? PLEASE Give Me Your “But!”
Doug Kennedy | December 8, 2015
By Doug Kennedy December 8, 2015 As the old axiom goes, "The worst complaint is the one that is never mentioned." That's why in my hospitality training workshops I always try to shift the paradigm of my participants into seeing guest complaints as second chance opportunities. As I often say, we should encourage guests to voice their concerns and celebrate negative feedback. Better that a guest shares their issues and complaints with us while they are in-house rather than waiting until they leave and going online to post a negative guest review. Of course all hotel managers would prefer that a guest bring a service gap issue to our atten...
Resistance is Another Way to Reconquer
Georges Panayotis | December 3, 2015
by Georges Panayotis With the tidal wave of service providers, partners, suppliers come to the rescue of hoteliers to help them do their job, a new battle becomes necessary: reconquer the entire value of the business that had been dispersed and grappled over by well-meaning outsiders. As they focused on problems with operational management and the volume of investment necessary to guarantee surveillance of commercial distribution, control over the eReputation and satisfaction client, hoteliers progressively allowed themselves onto the slippery slope of generalized externalization. Sometimes unbeknownst to themselves, business goodwill t...
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...
