Bed and Breakfast Industry Trends - Management

This is the story of a runaway cat that helped me make a point in a customer service seminar I was presenting to a client company. We were talking about how easy it is to make false assumptions and how they can lead you astray when you're supporting customers. - More

The past decade has been unprecedented in the hotel industry. All success indicators (occupancy, average rate, and RevPAR) have climbed steadily year after year and owners have enjoyed record profits. So what were your sales people doing? During those 'feast' periods in full service hotels, it is likely that the sales person was turning away mor... - More

For a business, losing a customer can feel a little like getting dumped. Questions linger: What did I do wrong? What does that other business have that I don't? How can I ever compete in such a cutthroat market? Well, maybe you do have too many competitors. Maybe there is something you need to improve. Or maybe the customer simply has personal p... - More

Financial innovation is often blamed for having landed the global economy in a mess, but it has also been said that innovation will get us out of the present downturn. Still, companies can be forgiven for feeling that spending time and money thinking about the "next big thing" is a frivolous exercise. After all, every dollar counts these days, a... - More

Now that luxury is a bad word, hotels everywhere are scrambling to find ways to reinvent themselves without spending a whack of money. The quick fix? Simply delete all references to 'luxury' in marketing materials and replace them with 'lifestyle'. - More

Because hotels run on the promise of comfort and rest, an onsite construction project can be particularly challenging to manage. Rather than risk sending guests fleeing to competitors, hotels often choose to keep silent about construction activity, hoping guests won't notice the jack-hammering in the lobby. - More

The good news is that when faced with lower levels of business in 2008, U.S. hotel managers cut operating costs by 0.3 percent. Unfortunately, total hotel revenues dropped 1.3 percent, resulting in a 3.8 percent decline in net operating income for the average U.S. hotel according to findings released today by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) i... - More

Leadership is brutally tested by economic challenge. If you aren't prepared, if you have no plan, things can become extremely difficult. Planning carefully prevents knee jerk decisions. The point is this, if you haven't done any planning beyond what you are going to do for lunch - Now is the time to start. - More

The primary focus of your company's operations should always be on having uniformly excellent customer service. However, service excellence is mandatory during turbulent economic times. - More

Revenues are down, or flat at best, and you're now looking for ways to cut expenses. For some reason, this is where the minds of hoteliers turn from driving profit to basic survival. Having been there, I understand how difficult it is to operate a hotel in times like this. Making those decisions, what to cut, what to keep, is one of the hardest... - More