The truth is that good public relations and social media come from the same place: relevant, insightful and actionable content. What does that really mean though? Simply put, both are about talking WITH people, not at them. Think about the best conversations you've had in your life. Chances are that you were talking with someone that listened to you and also offered something worth your time. It was likely about something that mattered to you, that you were curious about, or that benefited you in some way. You probably learned something from the conversation, whether about the topic itself, the people influencing the topic, or the person with whom you were having the conversation. READ MORE

I've worked in social media for almost a decade, and from the beginning I've watched many debates about which discipline social media belongs to. Interactive Marketing? Advertising? Customer Service? Public Relations? Social platforms were built by techies for techies, so perhaps developers own social media. Here's the reality: No one discipline owns social media. The platforms and the code were released to the people and it is the people, who mixed the web and added their own flavors, so in the end it is the people who own social media. That said, if you have to pick one business discipline, for most people, Public Relations seems to be the obvious answer. READ MORE

Profitability is not merely the excess of revenues over expenses. It also has an impact in related areas that cost the hotel money. Inventories are one such area. Owners are constantly seeking in hotel managements, a prudent, holistic approach to profitability which includes conserving precious hotel resources like cash flow, inventories and so on. Stakeholders do not take lightly any wastage of resources while running the operation. It will be a good thing if hotel managements realize that over and above earning revenues, managing costs, they keep an eye out for how inventories are managed. This is not just something nice to have but may have an impact on their reputations and continued survival. It is entirely up to hotel establishments whether they will turn inventories into their allies or adversaries. READ MORE

There are a record number of graduates arriving from Hospitality and Culinary schools yearly; universities in Miami alone will have graduates in the thousands this year. But as Harry Truman said, “The buck stops with me” and the current roster of hotel general managers and human resources directors in 2015 have a responsibility to their business to recruit, align, develop and retain the best talent in the marketplace: Human Capital. READ MORE

It used to be that a bad customer experience would be shared with 10 people, on average. Now it is quickly and easily shared with tens of thousands. What you do in the real world will have a big impact on that online sharing. If it's bad, it can send you into a death spin. How can hotels deal with that reality effectively? READ MORE

The time will come when Corporate Offices have to accept that the SOP-Customer Satisfaction guest experience concept is obsolete, however much technology they embellish it with. The energetic guest experience will replace it because it fulfills the unspoken emotional needs and wishes of guests. Corporate Offices will inevitably reject or resist such a change, and because of this the hotel industry landscape will change radically in the future. The future belongs to independent hotels and small hotel groups, which ignore the Sirens of Tradition, and which create an energetic guest experience, Heart-Based Hospitality, which has no limits. READ MORE

Social media is a multi-faceted and sometimes confusing marketing channel, especially when it comes to how it can be applied to hotels. In this article, I'll cover the history of social media, how it's evolved, how fits into the world of hospitality and the best things hoteliers can do to take advantage. READ MORE

We are living in a world of exponential data growth. Recent research from IBM claims that 90% of all data created since the dawn of humanity have been created in the past few years. Think about that for a minute… In the digital space, the volume and speed of data generation is so great it has created a multitude of challenges for businesses around the globe. How can your marketing efforts keep up? READ MORE

Is your property ranking okay, but not tops, for critical hotel search keywords? Learn how to optimize hotel search keywords to boost your visibility, traffic and bookings. Is your property ranking in key search results just below the positions you really need to be in? Are you in position five for that key search term your prospective guests use often? If so, you know you're missing more than half the revenues you could be earning from that search phrase. But how do you identify which search phrase to pursue, and how to do you get it to rank two to three positions higher? READ MORE

They're as ubiquitous as Boomers, and they're on the road. The Millennial cohort, now as large a segment of the U.S. population as the Baby Boom, is the fastest-growing travel segment, according to American Express Business Insights, and Millennials will soon comprise the majority of travelers worldwide. While Millennials are like everyone else in a lot of ways, there are some strong differences in their affinities and desires that make it imperative that hoteliers change their ways. Understanding how to please this group of more than 1.7 billion members is critical to the hospitality industry. READ MORE

What is the most important question hoteliers should be asking themselves as they weigh how to differentiate in a sea of sameness? Most would think it's about customer satisfaction. Many would drill down into issues related to their NPS (net promoter score). But new research from CEB has shown that the key question to ask is: How effortless is it to do business with your hotel? The predictive power of customer effort has proven to be strong. CEB found that of the customers who reported low effort, 94% expressed an intention to repurchase, and 88% said they would increase their spending. Only 1% said they would speak negatively about the company. Conversely, 81% of the customers who had a hard time solving their problems reported an intention to spread negative word of mouth. Today, effortless trumps “wow.” READ MORE

There is much said today about the importance of business savvy strategy—that constant stream of new platforms, plans, and programs. Well strategy is certainly important, but as Peter Drucker said, “Culture will eat strategy for lunch.” We believe the right culture executing on the right strategy is what will deliver the key results organizations are chasing. It is culture that should take the lead. Culture that delivers strategy to your guests. And culture that produces results. In this piece we deal with that mandatory marriage of culture and strategy and how a consciously managed culture begins with leadership. READ MORE

The mobile eCommerce space in the hotel industry is growing and changing rapidly. With the massive influx of new distribution apps and mobile sites, it is vitally important that hoteliers stay educated and able to make informed decisions about their hotel participating (or not) in these new channels. Hoteliers must be able to take a pragmatic view of both their hotel(s) and these channels, with their specific customer profiles and compensation structures, to determine if they will be able to benefit from their participation. READ MORE

In the past 20 or more years, the striving for an attainable and visible goal, or a successful career, as we know it, has been in decline. Humanity is on the verge of a huge awakening and psychological advancement. As result of this paradigm shift there is great change of the traditional work environment and fundamental adjustments on the economic landscape. This shift has affected the lives of millions of people, families and companies around the world. More and more people ask themselves why they should do what they currently do and what would the benefit of their doing be if the products they produced and the service they have offered will be no longer useful, applicable or required, by tomorrow. For most people this circumstance conditional change has become a struggle for identity. READ MORE

In today's lean hotel industry, managers can't afford to be desk-bound. They need mobile tools that allow them to manage operational issues immediately and efficiently from any location as they engage with guests and staff. Other factors that will drive demand for mobile in 2015 are regulatory compliance and the rise of app-savvy millennials as a key and growing segment of the labor force. The tech world is responding with mobile solutions that promise to transform the way hotels manage their employees while empowering those employees with the tools to better control their own schedules. READ MORE