It’s a rough reality. Over the past two weeks, I focused a majority of my time in search of a national account manager specializing in guestroom amenities. The position would be based out of the competitive market of Southern California read more...
I have a dream. My dream is that the numbers – the numbers that so many managers agonize over in our industry – are just as accessible as guest service and employee engagement. Let me put this another way for read more...
The General Manager flanked by the Front Office Manager started my suitability assessment for the post of Guest Services Agent …..Mr. Arunajith, you are seeking career opportunities in a prestigious Hotel. A hotel with a colorful history and we expect read more...
What is EVA or Economic Value Addition? Simplified definition being, EVA is a measure of a business unit manager performance. It measures true profitability. EVA = After Tax Operating Profit – After Tax Cost of Capital EVA, measures the true economic profit for read more...
The problem of attracting and retaining qualified workers is increasingly becoming a global challenge. Negative perceptions of the industry, wage levels, failure to adequately address, worker satisfaction and a reputation for long hours and low pay are all cited as read more...
You read the description of a job opening that you’re interested in. You think, “Hey! That looks interesting, let me apply for that”. So you send an application - along with a copy of your most recent resume. And then read more...
As a passionate trainer, I would like to share with you my reasons for strongly advocating ‘on the job training.’ I have personally experienced the numerous benefits of ‘on the job training’ in hotels, which ultimately increases staff moral and business read more...
This scenario must be familiar to many. Whilst conducting a special projects meeting which has stretched beyond the stipulated time, someone from HR calls us to remind us that the scheduled interviews will be held in 15 minutes. Frantically, we up read more...
The hospitality industry in Sri Lanka has just begun to come of age as a mainstream socio-economic sector, with recognition of its job creating importance. What is relevant today however is the fact that our industry needs to adapt and read more...
The other day I went to pay my monthly electricity bill. Payments are made to the cashier housed at the 5th floor of the CEB building. It has always made me wonder why the Electricity Board could not arrange for read more...
Australia has a vibrant tourism industry. It is no surprise that Australia is a dream destination for tourists, it has a buzzing entertainment scene, attracts an array of sporting activities and its heart has the most spectacular natural beauty, including read more...
An evening at a restaurant, like a night at the cinema is invariably followed by a post-visit debate at home. Like any film or play, restaurants can evoke strong opinions. However, unlike film or theatre producers who do a lot read more...
Don’t design menus that are beyond the skills of your cooks:
Essentially the kitchen staff must have the culinary potential to, at minimum, satisfy the discerning diner who orders any of the listed items on offer. Merely stacking everything on the read more...
Fire kills, and it usually takes victims of negligence and chaos. But if you apply sufficient fire safety measures in your hotel, you can prevent tragedy. One important fire safety measure is evacuating your guests and everyone else as quickly read more...
A well crafted Induction and Orientation programme is more a bare necessity than a best practice and the prelude to a healthy beginning of a long relationship.
The words ‘Induction’ and ‘Orientation’, though used synonymously, has somewhat different meanings. Induction is read more...
Interviews are the most human, the most interesting and the least automated part of the hiring process. In the hiring process which flows like a funnel - you receive a lot of applications, you separate the promising from the unwanted, you read more...
A friend and former colleague is looking to return to the hospitality industry after a two-year break. She shared her resume with me, and while she is an incredible employee, her resume did not read nearly as well as it read more...
The hospitality sector is experiencing labour shortages worldwide. For Sri Lanka, these labour shortages have temporarily ceased after the 21st April terror attacks drastically reduced business activity and employment. Hoteliers are scrubbing their businesses for ways to cut costs. Now, read more...
An often-asked question in the hospitality industry is whether graduates of hospitality education programs possess the competencies that the hospitality industry believes students should possess. In an industry as dynamic and diverse as hospitality, where new trends and changes are read more...
Earlier this year, my son returned from India and remarked that he had observed hotels checking all bags of ‘arriving’ guests. I recall telling him that this was after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that included the Taj Mahal read more...
Young people looking to enter the hospitality industry need to know there are two sides of it, one is the operational side and the other side is corporate. When one thinks of food or catering, guest services and banqueting functions, read more...
The global shortage of 10-15 million workers in this industry will result in hotels having insufficient workers to operate, staff wars, exploding salaries and eroding profits. So, where does that leave Sri Lanka? It’s not as if our youth are read more...
During my time as Head of Branding for a hotel conglomerate, I used to send out my team to carry out regular audits to verify the level of brand standard compliance. While most audits were announced in advance, there were read more...
The idea of generous staff-to-room ratio sounds outstanding, an arrangement where you’re every need is catered to because there are more people on hand to deliver the goods. So, is saying “we have a high staff-to-room ratio so each guest read more...
We’ve all heard the saying “ one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch”. Yes, it does happen with some fruit like apples . As they ripen apples produce a gaseous hormone called ethylene, which is among other things, a read more...
Guided more by a ‘me’ than a ‘we’ attitude, we Sri Lankans find ourselves surrounded nowadays by bad manners everywhere. And in a hotel or restaurant, not only are bad manners deplorable, they also translate into poor customer experience. Many read more...
Reading industry trade publications is a critical aspect for on-the-job learning and career advancement, not to mention helping guide any business in a healthy direction. And yet we seldom hold our immediate subordinates accountable to this task, instead letting their read more...
As mentioned in my first blog, my personal objective is to help the hospitality industry to transform itself and embrace project management as a strategic competence. One fundamental component of achieving this transformation is to educate future generations of hospitality managers read more...
All process have steps…and some of these steps may be a waste of time, and money. Talking steps reminded me of the electrician who came by to fit a new ceiling fan. During his work, he needed a tester, screwdriver, read more...
During a recent stay in a resort hotel I found that my room TV was not working. Here I was, lying comfortably in bed and getting increasingly frustrated as I couldn’t turn the TV on, despite repeatedly pressing the button read more...
Although I recognise the fact that there are several educational institutes that are doing remarkably well, I am also made to understand, that there are many other providers of hospitality training who offer sub-standard and inconsistent training. I am also read more...
We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift nor lie at anchor. In my article titled ‘Time to tackle manpower dearth in the hospitality industry’ published way back in April read more...
Like they say, showing up is half the job. Another acquaintance from my last hotel saw me in the cafeteria one afternoon after one of my lunch shifts. She asked me how it was going. I told her it was read more...
As the hotel industry changes, so do positions, roles and titles. There’s the traditional valet, bellman, front desk attendant, concierge, housekeeper, chef and operations roles. But the effort to offer refreshed guest experiences and services are swaying hotels to recruit read more...
The big picture is getting somewhat clearer.
However, what has always been clear is that when businesses are faced with increased costs of any kind they will always search for ways and means to remain profitable. And that can mean raising read more...
Government restrictions and ‘stay at home’ measures have stopped people from leaving their homes. In the wake of these unprecedented changes, hoteliers need to look ahead to how people will restart travelling once the coronavirus outbreak is behind us.
As the read more...
Hospitality college students are also highly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic which has fractured their learning experience, making it unsustainable and chaotic. In an unexpected turn of events, the learning environment has rapidly changed from in-person and classroom sessions to read more...
A manager of a four-star resort hotel located down south recently expressed a key concern associated with the re-opening of hotels. This is what he wrote when seeking advice.
Quote “… A lot has been said on COVID-19 safety and hygiene read more...
Coaching people around the financials in hotels is what I do. I accomplish this by one-on-one coaching, usually on the phone or through Skype, or in workshops where as a group we explore and debunk the mystery around the numbers. read more...
Every corner of the hotel industry has done its part to stay viable in the many meaningful, creative ways that it does during crises. One of our pillars is the hospitality ethos – delivered by people dedicated to service and read more...
I was watching the TV series ‘Blue Bloods’, where, in one episode, the character portraying Chico, a demobilized army soldier who had served in Iran, now wishing to join the Police force, was asked by the interviewing Police Commissioner “So, read more...
'A picture is worth a thousand words’. Who, it was, that married ‘ten thousand words' with 'picture'… isn't known, but what is known, especially by those in the human resources business is that when hiring; ‘words count more than looks’.
Looks read more...
With most hotels around the globe requiring guests to wear facemasks in all public areas these days, it has fallen upon the frontline hospitality staff to enforce this policy, which in many cases is also municipal ordinance or decree. Although read more...
Guests who complain are everywhere and that includes the hospitality trade as well. In most instances it is for a good reason. Some encounter problems associated with attitudes – such as staff being impolite, indifferent or displaying unprofessional behaviour. Other read more...
A famous quote by Former Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon states “Reading Maketh a Full Man”. Truthfully, that is an incomplete version of the quote that actually says “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact read more...
Much has been written about the three types of employees most businesses carry. They include:-
ENGAGED employees who work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They consistently perform above expectations, are innovative and drive the organisation to read more...
When reading the headlines in lodging industry trade publications these days, nearly every new post seems to be about how a new app for guest communications is going to revolutionize the hotel industry in the post-COVID-19 era. Certainly, some of read more...
I was watching the TV series ‘Blue Bloods’, where the character portraying a demobilized army soldier who had served in Iran, now wishing to join the Police force, was asked by the interviewing Police Commissioner “So, what did the army read more...
I have been thinking about this topic for some time. Especially now in 2020 with the social unrest in this country and elsewhere in our world I think it’s time to speak up. For me, that means offering what I read more...
COVID-19 at the beginning, banished everyone from going to work. A combination of lockdowns, curfews, quarantines and self-isolations compelled millions of employees worldwide to work from home. Millions more who couldn’t do that - simply had no choice but stay read more...
Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group has some interesting hospitality quotes to his name. One is that hospitality is impossible to teach, and that it’s all about hiring the right people. I’d like to disagree with him in read more...
One of the ongoing debates among faculty is when to prohibit use of tablets, phones and laptops during in-person lectures writes Donna Quadri-Felitti - Marvin Ashner director and associate professor, school of Hospitality Management, Pennsylvania State University. Admitting that are read more...
Anyone who cares about meeting workplace objectives should seriously value human resources, especially today. But why is it that for years HR professionals have been at the butt-end of never-ending humour- that seriously belittles the profession? Go on, just do read more...
In 1939, British intelligence agency MI6 recruited Cambridge mathematics wizard Alan Turing to decipher the Nazi ‘Enigma’ codes which were considered unbreakable. He advertised to put together a cryptography team of experts to decipher the codes. There were no interviews, read more...
Say you are working as a front desk executive in a full service hotel with 250 keys. Assume the hotel is running full. Studies have revealed that on average you may have over 100 guest interactions every day. What this read more...
Why do militaries continue to hold physical training sessions, strategy formulation meetings and practice drills in times of peace? Surely, it’s a waste of time and money you may think. Not so. Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “You cannot read more...
In his book titled “the Richest Man in Town” Author V.J. Smith (VJS), wanted to write about leaders who changed the course of history. He wished to understand what made their lives great and what might be missing in his. read more...
A few weeks ago, Hospitality Sri Lanka featured an article written by Ashraaq Wahab, titled ‘Have you encountered these types of difficult customers? In it, he identifies eight main types of customers that workers in the tourism trade – especially read more...
Picture by KJ
The number of times history is allowed to ‘repeats itself’, is in the hospitality industry. Whenever the same issue surfaces, we hardly take any notice or action. Some of us prefer to sweep it under the carpet, while read more...
Let’s use a classic scene from a ‘Pink Panther’ movie.
Inspector Clouseau: “Does your dog bite?”
Hotel Receptionist: “No.”
Clouseau (bowing down to pet the dog): “Nice doggie”.
(The dog bites Clouseau’s hand.)
Clouseau: “Ouch…I thought you said your dog did not bite!”
Wait for it…up read more...
Picture by KJ
‘The right person in the right job’ is considered important for success in any business, and, it is no different for hospitality operations.
Many hotel HR personnel hire staff – particularly for entry or supervisory level vacancies rely on read more...
'While all of the staff I encountered was polite and efficient, their service style was overall reactive and not proactive'.
At the time of this writing, I'm on a plane ride back from attending four lodging industry conferences in 10 days, read more...
'While all of the staff I encountered was polite and efficient, their service style was overall reactive and not proactive'.
At the time of this writing, I'm on a plane ride back from attending four lodging industry conferences in 10 days, read more...
The Hospitality Industry is in peril. Yes, COVID-19 shut down the world’s economy almost overnight and confronted the hospitality industry with unprecedented challenges. And yet, even if we sooner or later overcome the pandemic, trouble lies ahead.
As recovery from the read more...
Three words can make or break a hotel – Standard Operating Procedures. The importance of SOPs is universally recognized and big chain and branded hotels seem to have an SOP for almost everything. Most Standards of Operations (SOPs) include certain read more...
I do not wish to be negative but I believe hoteliers in Sri Lanka have a massive challenge ahead. They need to come up with lasting solutions to convince people to join the hospitality industry whilst halting the exodus of read more...
I’ve always been somewhat intrigued as to why over 95% of the jobs that are listed in various media platforms do not carry that all important ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’. I don’t mean details about medical insurance, vacation leave or career prospects– which read more...
You’ve been called for an interview at a hotel. Finally it seems you’ve got that opportunity to get into the hotel you want to work at. Once you’ve completed your interview preparation which includes dressing smart; meaning wearing attire appropriate read more...
What is hospitality? The age-old Oxford dictionary defines it as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers”. In fact, if you ask most non-industry personnel what hospitality is, they will probably define it in various read more...
A manager admonishing an employee and saying “leave your baggage at the door when you come to work”, is something many of us have heard at some time or another during our work life. That’s easier said than done, because read more...
As the hospitality industry recovers slowly from the impact of COVID, a recent hotel guest satisfaction survey relating to product and service standards encountered during guest stays, done over a specific period, reveals that the overall level of satisfaction was read more...
Despite the efforts of brand leaders to create meaningful differentiation of hotel flags, when I speak with both professional and social meeting planners, they generally express seeing very little difference, at least within any given market segment. In other words, read more...
No matter what you call it – beer o’clock, social hour, discount drinks, 2 for 1 cocktails – ‘Happy Hour’ is that magical time of day when drinks and appetizers are discounted at many restaurants and bars. What you don’t read more...
I was managing a Wendy's in Florida.
Unlike today, staffing was never a real problem. I was searching for someone to work three hours a day at lunch. I went thru all my applications and most were all looking for full read more...
Why record numbers of hospitality workers are quitting the industry for good. About 3.5 million people have at least temporarily left the U.S. workforce since March 2020. Over one-third of them – 1.2 million – are in the leisure and hospitality industry. This has created read more...
In recent years I have become increasingly fascinated with the language used by business people.
In my youth, listening skills did not come natural for me. I soon realised that the fault was mine. Instead of being an active listener and read more...
The global job market continues to plummet, with millions of workers continuing to leave their jobs each month. Worker disengagement and unhappiness is also booming - according to a Gallup poll. Remote work options and schedule flexibility, although providing some read more...
A business traveler once asked an airline stewardess when she was handing over meal trays from the food cart to her colleague “Why aren’t you smiling?” She paused, looked him in the eye, and replied, “I’ll tell you why, if read more...
For as long as I can remember, it has been common to refer to people as having a particular type of 'energy' such as by saying, 'Oh, she has such good energy!' or 'He is such a negative person’. Yet read more...
Dress code policies have swung to the extreme in recent years. Companies either maintain no guidelines at all or establish such rigid policies that they almost appear to be a joke. For example UBS bank’s edict of over a decade read more...
When a major crisis (recession, terrorism, natural disaster, etc.) occurs, the first reaction by companies is to fire employees, and after the dust has settled, the last measure taken is to hire anyone. Even during normal times, where the hotel read more...
Deciding who to hire is part science, part art – even if you actually are a scientist.
Take Thomas Edison. When he interviewed candidates for research assistant positions, he offered them a bowl of soup. Why? He wanted to see whether read more...
Ever since the phrase “customer is king” was coined, most companies began placing ‘keeping their customers happy’, at the top of their agenda. However, many forgot and others still forget, about another set of people to whom happiness is very read more...
Application process proves frustrating for hotels, applicants.
Somehow in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was invited to become a member of a Facebook group called Hospitality Family, which currently counts nearly 60,000 hoteliers as members.
It has been both read more...
Hear me out. I know talking about cutting down on staff is a prickly issue. It’s people’s jobs, after all. But, is there something as too much staff? A few experiences over the past month had me thinking, can you read more...
Several years ago, a hotelier friend of mine bemoaned of an interview the hotel held, where out of fifteen applicants called, only eight turned up. Most of the follow-up calls went unanswered with one saying he was on the way...only read more...
A central problem with the hospitality industry’s current labor crisis is that by framing it as a ‘crisis’ we are presuming that the shortage will naturally pass by and labor conditions will eventually return to how they were in 2019. read more...
During COVID-19, the operating workforce of hundreds of businesses plunged to near zero. This upheaval has caused a material shift in how the hospitality industry approaches recruitment and retention - post-pandemic.
Securing and retaining frontline workers has always been a challenge. read more...
“At the end of the day our bottom-line is at the hands of the frontline”
Over the years, traditional business practices have been progressively disrupted by technology and innovation – leading to a constant reconfiguring of the business landscape. Today’s business read more...
“Without people the hospitality industry is unsustainable.”
Hoteliers all say they want to hire and retain people who will do what it takes to succeed. Perfectly reasonable - but until they confront the many elephants in the room…they should not count read more...
As a hospitality industry trainer specific to the lodging industry, I am always interested to learn what the word itself means to people across the spectrum of culture, language and other human demographics. When I started out years ago, I read more...
Like the rest of the world, the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka is facing a shortage of skilled staff. According to its Hotels Association, the industry is losing 20% to 25% of its staff annually since the pandemic and other read more...
The success of the hospitality industry has always been entrenched in the provision of service and the continued fostering of relationships. At its core, the role of hospitality was, and still is, to hook up the different essentials of a read more...
EPIC - Empathy, Patience, Intuition and Compassion. Most guest service training focuses only on interpersonal communications, yet when you only teach politeness and obsess on overly scripting conversations, the result often is fake, disingenuous service.
Most hoteliers I speak with clearly read more...