Happy Hotel Employees and the Quantifiable Effect on Guest Satisfaction Happy employees equals happy guests. This principle is as well-known as the idea that happy employees directly affect all the drivers that impact guest satisfaction. This makes sense, especially in the hospitality industry, where employees have prolonged contact with guests....
Gone are the days of traditional, Mad Men-esque business travel – no more chain smoking on airplanes, hired car services, or flavorless hotels booked by the secretary. With a simple swipe of the screen, our nation’s Millennials have transformed business travel. They’re now the biggest portion of America’s Labor...
From gleaming state-of-the-art gyms to tiny spaces that are little more than a re-purposed guest room, a hotel fitness center presses plenty of hot buttons around guest expectations. And when the facilities don’t fit the wide-angle photos, the glossy collateral and the hype, the guest let down trumps the...
Hotel weddings in Florida properties have always been big business. And now, they’re bigger business. A January 6, 2015 ruling made the Sunshine State 36th in the nation to rule in favor of same-sex marriages, sweeping away a ban like footprints in the sand. Talk about pent-up demand…within days...
In five years or less, China will overtake the U.K. as the number one source of overseas visitors to the USA at nearly 5 million annually, according to a forecast by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Are we ready? Travel industry consultant Bob Gilbert recently pointed out that we’ve...
“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien Hotel chains have shown they can be awfully good at providing a sense of sameness. Assurances were enthusiastically delivered to travelers that waking up anywhere from Boston to Beijing would mean the same check-in procedures, the same guest room...
What hotel trends are shaping the customer experience in 2015? No doubt, mobile and Millennials loom large. But, baby boomers are refusing to become couch potatoes. Furthermore, the U.S. and China have just agreed a deal to extend multiple entry short-term tourist and business visas to 10 years from...
With the year not yet out, the top 20 international source markets for inbound US tourism is seeing big changes in 2014. The National Travel and Tourism Office has published their semi-annual “Forecast of International Travel to the United States,” and both Russia and Venezuela are dropping like flies,...
During a recent stay, a breakfast queue of 20 or 30 guests formed most mornings. As each guest or party reached the hostess desk, the greeter requested a room number. She then ticked that off a list and announced the guest’s name, looking up for an acknowledgement. Grrr.
What’s got a double hyphen in its name to represent Peacock Alley, Cole Porter’s own Steinway piano, a famous salad named after it and a price tag of $1.4 million per room with a “SOLD” sign on it. The Waldorf=Astoria.
