This Christmas, my wife decided to go all out and really make this year special. She decorated the tree to make it look department store ready! She took pride and care to ensure each package was carefully wrapped and with beautiful ribbons. Needless to say, the tree looked amazing and the presents to the kids were carefully wrapped and beautifully arranged. It looked like an something from a Martha Stewart show. My kids were very impressed with this display and gave my wife many compliments on the tree and the presents! After a half hour my son pulled me aside in and asked the question, “OK Pops, what’s in the boxes?”

When you think sales, does this guy pop in your head? Salespeople tend to get a bad rap because we’ve all experienced THAT guy. I’m here to tell you, you don’t have to be “that guy”.

All the conditions were right for a great trip and some great golf. I had been practicing exclusively on my home course, which was not hard in terms of layout. The greens at my course were very flat and there were no blind shots! I had boosted my confidence and was ready for the challenges of the California West Coast course. How hard could they be? I had my swing, I had my putting stroke, and I had my confidence.

In today’s electronic world, there are so many missed hospitality opportunities when I stay in your hotel.   I can completely avoid the front desk by checking in online.  When you send a text to welcome me, I can respond by text and even request extra towels if needed by text or app.  I can easily avoid the front desk and I might not even stop by during my stay.  Another easy day for both of us.  That’s just how things go now.

In the vast world of the hotel industry are loyalty programs as important today as they used to be?

I have been familiar with Signature Worldwide for the past 23 years – 4 as a Hospitality Client and 19 as a Training Account Manager for the company.

On-site training, virtual classrooms, instructor-led or self-paced training programs are all effective ways to achieve your training goals.  Combine these proven behavioral change and development options with three important metrics…accountability, measurability, and reinforce-ability and you have created a great plan for training success.

In years past you called a hotel and, unless you were a savvy traveler and knew to ask for specific rooms or amenities upfront, you got what you got. Today, technology has made it a lot easier to reserve rooms and see exactly what amenities are available before you even get to the hotel. Making reservations, checking in and requesting service is as easy as opening an app.

Sometimes I’m embarrassed to admit this; I’m a NCIS fan. I never used to be. I’m not even sure how it happened. I don’t even particularly like the lead actor, Mark Harmon.  Somehow, I still got hooked a few years back. I always try to catch the current season’s offerings, along with all the reruns, all the time, no matter how many times the episode’s been on. 

Which leads me to talking about Gibbs. Not about Mark Harmon.

It’s official: I’ve been named the Duke of (Hot)Dog.