court williams
Hospitality at a Crossroads: Is a Remote Work Model Essential to Retain Talent?
Court Williams | February 8, 2024
By Court Williams At one time, the concept of remote work simply didn’t fit into the hospitality paradigm. After all, the very idea of hospitality required a physical presence to facilitate the customer experience. The onset of COVID-19 changed everything, compelling this traditionally in-person sector to reimagine its operational models. In the aftermath of the pandemic, remote work has burgeoned into a significant trend in hospitality. This raises a crucial question for the industry: Is the adoption of remote or hybrid work models essential for attracting and retaining top talent, particularly among younger leaders, or does it present ...
Breakfast Is King: Elevating the Guest Experience through F&B Innovations
Court Williams | August 14, 2023
By Court Williams Food and beverage (F&B) services are now integral to the hotel guest experience, extending beyond mere sustenance to create memorable moments and elevate the overall stay. Gone are the days when hotel restaurants were loss leaders, primarily serving the needs of in-house guests. F&B has emerged as a profit center, with proactive and innovative approaches driving its success. The Power of Innovative F&B Today’s hotel guests expect more than just a place to rest. They want intriguing and Instagrammable moments extending to the dining table, community spaces, and overall experience. Hotels recognize the power...
First to the Finish Line: How to Attract Top Talent to Your Hospitality Organization
Court Williams | February 11, 2022
By Court Williams The hospitality industry experienced thousands of positions eliminated during the past two years, due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, organizations are embroiled in an executive hiring frenzy as they try to fill the gaps in their executive teams ahead of the post-pandemic recovery. The reasons for this “employees’ market" are complex, but companies are increasingly introducing innovative solutions that will, in many cases, change the face of the hospitality industry forever. Here are some ways to make sure you attract the best executive candidates for your organization. Facing the Recruitm...
How to Resolve the Current State of Emergency in Hospitality Employment
Court Williams | July 27, 2021
By Court Williams All tides ebb and flow, and since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way most of the world works, we’re seeing a distinct turning of the tide from being in favor of the employer to holding firm for the employee. This situation is especially apparent in the hospitality industry, where historical talent shortages are being exacerbated by staff quitting in droves as the world returns to work. At the same time, recruiting new talent is becoming even more challenging, just as the industry is trying to recover and reopen. Why Hospitality Workers Are Quitting For many people employed in hospitality, what s...
COVID-19 Recovery HVS Global Hospitality Employer Survey
Court Williams | June 10, 2021
By Court Williams, Bhavna Bhatia, Florian Kittler, Jens Busch The COVID-19 crisis brought the hospitality business to a grinding halt last year. As the Hospitality industry prepares for a resurgence globally in the foreseeable future, our team at HVS Executive Search reached out to industry employers and leaders to understand, sense, and address what could be a unified response code across the globe. This presentation summarises the “HVS Global Employer Survey” findings carried out across the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The objective of the survey was to understand current employer sentiment, obj...
How Hotel F&B Pivoted in Response to COVID-19, and What the Future Holds
Court Williams | August 12, 2020
By Court Williams Global tourism has been expanding rapidly over the past few decades, and this was a primary factor driving the hospitality industry before the coronavirus outbreak. Growth projected by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), set the expected number of tourist arrivals across the globe at more than 1.5 billion by 2020. Covid-19 had other ideas, however, and 2020 has turned out to be the year everything changed. Hotel food and beverage (F&B) operations are among some of the most-affected industries. Key Hotel F&B Trends Before Covid-19 Change is inevitable, and the whirlwind arrival of Covid-19 proved once agai...
The Impact of Technology on Hotel Sales and Marketing
Court Williams | July 8, 2019
By Court Williams and Rachel H. Levitt Gone are the days when travelers sought accommodations using the local newspaper or telephone directory, picked up the phone and called to make a reservation. Hospitality sales and marketing in the 21st century is a much more vibrant, complex activity, populated by multifaceted stakeholders at every level of the industry. This is complemented by a proliferation of new brands, ever-increasing rivalry, and a race to introduce new tools before competitors do. The Simplicity of the Past Achieving proper exposure was fairly simple in the past, although at the time it was considered as much of a sc...
Generation Z: What Do They Want From Their Hotel Stay Experience?
Court Williams | July 1, 2019
By Court Williams "The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers." Attributed to Socrates in 470 BC, this popular quote sums up how humanity has felt about its younger generation since the beginning of time. Generation Z is no exception. Born between 1995 and 2010, these digital natives have become an important influence on people of all ages and incomes, according to a McKinsey report...
