Mentoring The Next-Gen Hospitality Superstars
Lessons learned from my first hotel job still ring true As I write my monthly article for CoStar today, I find myself back at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort, in Lexington, Kentucky. This time as a guest at the place where my hotel career began 45 years ago, when I was a college student randomly […]
Hotels Need Leaders With A Passion For Generativity
The next generation of hoteliers is hungry to learn from mentors There’s no doubt that today’s hotel leaders have to be technophiles, embracing the ever-changing world of the business ecosystem and somehow managing to get all their API- connected tech to work in unison. Unfortunately, the required attention on the tech stack comes at the […]
The Promised Use of AI For ‘Personalization’ Is Being Oversold: True Personalization Requires A Person
Personalization is a term used loosely these days, especially in the hospitality industry, and perhaps a better phrase for how it’s actually being used so far might be “contextualized marketing.” Huge investments are being driven by questionable “survey results” showing that guests want AI-powered automation, often with few details on the survey population or methodology. […]
Guests Have Far Fewer Staff Interactions, Therefore Each One is That Much More Important!
As technology has crept into the cycle of guest service, today’s guests have far fewer conversations with hotel staff. In the past, the hotel staff had a multitude of opportunities to wow guests with personalized, memorable, hospitality encounters. Let’s take a trip down memory lane. First, guests would call directly to book their room, or […]
Generational Bias Of Marketing Leaders Is Restricting Voice Channel Success In Hotels
“The only people who still call to book a reservation are older folks who are not good with technology.” “Millennials and Gen-Zers prefer self-service booking options because they grew up with tech and hate making phone calls.” How many times have you heard or read comments such as these from conference speakers or in lodging […]
What Personalized Hospitality Is and What It Isn’t
As a hotel conference speaker opinion writer, I always try to stay up on the very latest innovations and tech solutions, and so I start each day by reading at least a half dozen lodging industry eNewsletters. Being a provider of training in the topic areas of hospitality, sales, and guest service excellence, my eyes […]
It’s Time To Eliminate Generationalism in the Hotel Workplace: Myth of Generational Differences Has Been Busted by Research
As my frequent readers know, I have been bemoaning the myths that are thrown out as facts at conferences, podcasts, and in books and blogs that, at best, mislead hospitality leaders and at worst, lead to discrimination based on birth year. Generationism is harmful, just like racism and sexism. Worse yet, many of those spewing […]
Overcoming The Huge Disconnect Between Service Mottos and What Guests Actually Experience
I have always been a huge fan of articles written by Alan Young, CEO of Puzzle Partner, but I was super happy to read his most recent article entitled Has the ‘New’ Service Culture Become the ‘No’ Service Culture? In this publication. I definitely suggest that my readers click and read the full article wherein Alan calls […]
Merriam-Webster’s Word Of the Year For 2023 Is “Authentic”: Is Being So More Important Than Ever Before To Our Guests
As the final days of this year slip away, how interesting it is that Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Year” for 2023 is “Authentic,” meaning it was the “most searched” on their site. Because I failed miserably at learning a second language, I have become somewhat of an Etymologist, so I was eager to see how Merriam Webster […]
Missionize Your Mission Statement
For decades now, it has been fashionable for companies from all industries to craft a mission statement to not only summarize its purpose, but also to give work more purpose. Over the years, the original concept has evolved into creating “values” or “vision” statements. In my job as a hospitality industry trainer, I familiarize myself […]