By: Tommy Beyer In today’s 24/7 work cycle, is there still such a thing as balance, or is it more important to find ways to seamlessly blend work and life together? I would argue that blending is not the right direction to head in from a personal and professional perspective. To illustrate why this isRead more
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By: Tommy Beyer Hoteliers are constantly pulled in countless different directions on a daily basis. Just think of all of the demands you have of your time. On second thought, don’t think of them; it will only stress you out! All the meetings and the persistent distractions can do a number on your concentration. YouRead more
By Larry Mogelonsky The hospitality industry will always be fraught with challenges that we must overcome if we are to stay afloat. But as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. I’ve always stressed that hospitality is, at its core, a business of people interacting with people. If you areRead more
By Josh Rigsby and Tommy Beyer Hotels in college towns mean big business. Hoteliers salivate over the numerous high-demand events such as graduations, football games, parent weekends and freshman orientation. Capitalizing on these lucrative peak periods has resulted in many small, university-centric municipalities that now have booming hospitality industries with a significant increase in supply.Read more
By Tommy Beyer You’ve likely heard the titular phrase in one shape or another. The concept is that the people who are the best at what they do will get all of the assigned tasks done while those who are not as good can’t seem to find the time. What is it about these so-calledRead more
By Tommy Beyer It is a perfectly valid question. No matter what organization you are in, there are layers. In hotels, there are line level associates, middle managers or department heads and senior executives. I am not here to debate who the lifeline of the property is, but rather to discuss the importance of middleRead more
By Andrew Carey All of us in the hospitality industry have a simple responsibility: Be a great and gracious host. We are not building dams or designing software. We are providing a sanctuary for weary travelers, a home away from home for road warriors or a luxurious escape for vacationing families. The problem is thatRead more
By: Tommy Beyer For those of you who are currently enrolled in school and pursuing a degree in hospitality management, I’ll let you in on a secret. You are being lied to! “Not surprising” you might say, as we all already knew that. I should preface this by saying that I think attending a reputableRead more
By: Lizz Chambers, CHA/CHE Are you the person in your organization who seems to inspire trust? Are you known as the empathic and trustworthy person who associates come to with workplace issues that may be sensitive in nature? Do you pride yourself in keeping a confidence while facilitating corporate change? Usually your associates will come beggingRead more
By: Tommy Beyer Flowing your role is a very simple mantra for a hotelier to adopt, but first you must wholeheartedly understand the concept of Flex and Flow. This applies to the Profit and Loss Statement generated for your property each month, usually from the accounting department. When your property is in a flow position,Read more
By: Lizz Chambers You show up at 8am for a training workshop, dreading it all week. Right as you are about to step inside, you stop and the question pops into your mind, “Why am I here? Will this be worth my ever-so-fleeting time? And if they make me play games, I think I mayRead more
By: Tommy Beyer I often tell the story to my team of my experience as a bright-eyed, 22-year-old kid walking into a property for the first time as its newly minted general manager. It was a job that I took rather hastily – who wouldn’t at that age – as I had yet to inspectRead more
By: Lizz Chambers, CHA/CHE “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” That’s a quote by Tom Brokaw and it’s one of my favorite quotes. I trained myself to keep it in mind when I start my day, and then in late afternoon or evening I reflect on itRead more
By: Greg Johnson The word ‘hospitality’ might as well be another name for Murphy’s Law because everything that can go wrong in a hotel will and at the worst possible time! Having spent the past two decades working up the ladder of the hospitality sales and revenue management departments, I’ve seen a lot of crazyRead more
By: Andrew Carey A successful hotel needs to be more than a box with bedrooms. It needs to inspire. It needs to educate. It needs to have a soul. To be clear, I am not just talking about a brand or fancy name and all accompanying brand standards or loyalty program benefits. Those are niceRead more
By: Greg Johnson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Group sales and all other manners of hospitality ‘selling’ are in dire need of a 21st century upgrade because, frankly, the classical model is broken. Specifically, the one-size-fits-all approach to sales no longer works, especially for the hotel industry where our customers’ needs are increasingly complex.Read more
By: Lizz Chambers It’s a new year; a clean slate. Time to put those old myths about being a sales manager to bed. You are a ‘sales leader’, and that is the way you should be perceived by your hotel team. Becoming a sales leader means having the vision to look beyond the status quoRead more
By: Andrew Carey Delivering consistently high guest experiences depends on employing the most enthusiastic associates. We can build the fanciest, most modern hotels, but without exceptional employees, guest loyalty remains elusive. Fortunately, building great associate teams is easier than building great hotels. Most importantly, developing a great team depends on having a great leader. TheRead more
By: Lizz Chambers It can take an exhaustive amount of time to recruit, complete the interview process and properly train new associates. It should not be easy in the slightest to let them go. Once associates are a part of your team, you are, whether you like it or not, financially and emotionally invested inRead more
By: Andrew Carey Hotels are highly visible members of their local cities and towns, providing great economic benefits, valuable jobs and necessary services. Most importantly, though, hotels can have a profoundly positive impact on their local communities through a wide variety of service and outreach activities. At its core, the hospitality industry is about improvingRead more
By: Wayne West Fortune has shined brightly on my career in hospitality as I’ve had the pleasure of working for several excellent management companies as well as some truly great owners. Direct mentorship from these industry leaders has each in their own way made me a better hotelier and a better person overall. My currentRead more
By: Tania Ghanem There is an old adage in sales, ‘Book the dream, service the nightmare’. I had heard rumblings of this a couple of times early in my hotel sales career, but I didn’t take it seriously. That is, until one hot August day in the midst of wedding season when the unthinkable happened.Read more
By: Andrew Carey One of the most challenging aspects of hotel development or major rebranding is deciding whether or not to take on a franchise partner. This decision has extensive ramifications affecting every aspect of the hotel operations as well as investment performance. Choose poorly and your investment could be lost due to excessive feesRead more
By: Bud Nolan When management companies seek to add hotels to their portfolio there are many considerations. Do you own or third-party manage? What are the current financials and how can they be improved? What is the physical condition and location of the asset compared to the comp set? How do the guest satisfaction scoresRead more
By: Lizz Chambers Lisa sat down in my office, fidgeting and anxiously squirming in her chair. This once confident, driven and passionate operations person was disappearing before my eyes. It was only two months ago that we had promoted her to Director of Sales for a select-service hotel. Since then her performance had slipped. HerRead more
