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?”

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 love to travel.  It’s surprising since I travel extensively for work, that I also chose it as my hobby for leisure.  However, because I still work, I have limited time to vacation.  This means that when I plan a trip, it is going to be a special one.  In the past 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Patagonia, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, France, Italy again, Peru, Croatia, The Azores, Costa Rica, Nova Scotia, and of course Italy again.  I’ve also managed to fit in some great places in the US in between all those international flights!

So often we think about the don’t haves vs. do haves. I used to say this all the time, “If I had this __________ I could compete so much better in the marketplace.”   Both personally and professionally we’ve all worked hard and sacrificed to get that “I don’t have” thing, just to find out that once you have gotten it, there’s an entire new set of challenges.

LinkedIn is the king of social selling for most industries and hospitality is no exception. However, you may be missing some opportunities if you spent all social selling time there.

People always ask me for the ROI of training a front desk staff and I am always a little stumped. It’s a logical question. If you are spending money on training, it only seems fair that you would expect some sort of return, but quantifying that return becomes the tricky part.