Sure you promise your guests a great experience at your hotel. But do you deliver it? And if not, what's getting in the way? There's no question that most hotel managers want to provide a happy, memorable guest experience, but wanting and doing it are two very different things. To provide outstanding guest experiences you need the right combination of core values, great staff and effective processes to back them up. Here are some thoughts on how to get there. READ MORE

Service is at the core of a hotel business. Notwithstanding a grand lobby, spanking new guest rooms and sparkling restaurant outlets, customers are drawn to a hotel principally based on the service quality and standards they experience. It is almost an emotional experience to feel at home in your hotel and this triggers repeat patronage. Without a customer focused training strategy effectively executed, a hotel cannot survive for long. But utilizing training dollars in your budget to produce a sharply focused service culture is a totally different kettle of fish. READ MORE

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Not just for our bodies, but for our business. A satisfying breakfast is the fuel that sets the stage for a day ahead. Likewise, breakfast has proven to be one of the most important brand pillars of Hilton Garden Inn. An unsatisfying food and beverage experience at breakfast will tarnish everything else that follows during a guest's stay. Getting breakfast service just right is considered one of the most crucial elements to defining a positive identity for a hotel brand. READ MORE

Collecting feedback won't help much unless it's tied to reporting and action. When feedback is combined with follow-up, loyalty, referrals, and reputation are significantly impacted. The only way to do this is through a feedback program that is built around the experiences of your customers and is mapped to fit your organization. Too many voice-of-customer programs don't provide feedback about the complete customer experience, are often based on metrics that are not relevant to business needs, fail to get the right information to the right people, and don't capitalize on feedback. The result -- misdirected resources and opportunities lost. READ MORE

The day has just started, congratulations! We have yet another opportunity to do something great. In the amount of time it just took someone to read that first sentence, they may have received eight emails, three text messages, and missed two calls - and it's only 7:30am. They are debating if they will make it to the gym this morning or this evening, whether they should go to dinner with friends, or just disregard the invite so they can catch up on work. Decisions, decisions, decisions. . . They seem to be more difficult the older we get. Not difficult in the sense that we do not know what we want to do, but difficult in the sense of finding the 25th hour in the day. READ MORE

Beginning preparations for event or meeting planning virtually starts with a few clicks. These days, a potential guest goes on their computer and searches various sites. Perhaps it is a Google search, or using a search engine specifically for wedding venues. But one thing is certain - finding the best venue for your event is critical to executing a productive program. In our business, it truly is all in the details. In addition to site selection, confidence in the on-site team and quality and consistency in service and product delivery are of paramount importance, and contribute vastly to executing a successful event. Success can be measured in a number of ways, but the most critical is the value attendees received given their time and money invested in participating. Hosting an event, you want to leave feeling that you executed an outstanding day or evening, and that your guests' left with a memorable experience that they won't soon forget. READ MORE

The Kessler Collection - a portfolio of 12 artistically inspired boutique hotels and restaurants in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Carolina - celebrates artistic expression throughout the collection, not only with hand-selected, one-of-a-kind artwork, custom-created music, rich designs and bold architecture, but also through its inspiring culinary passion - catering to all generations, with specific offerings ideal for the millennial traveler. READ MORE

In recent years both the residential and commercial real-estate sectors have resembled more of a roller-coaster ride than a sensible place to invest for capital growth. The same can be said specifically about hospitality. Increasing levels of competition have led to a near oversupply of rooms and decreasing levels of ongoing customer loyalty. Hotel owners and investors alike have also faced major challenges around how to best manage their hotel assets to increase the value of their properties and maximize ROI. Technology moves quickly, and while keeping up with these constant changes can be difficult; owners should still understand the role technology can play in their business strategy. In the past, many hotel investors and owners have viewed revenue management technologies and strategies, for example, as a discipline that is too 'micro-level,' this could not be further from the truth in today's dynamic and technology-driven industry. READ MORE

The prevalence of workplace violence poses alarming concerns. Consider the statistics: OSHA reports nearly 2 million workers annually claim they are victims of workplace violence, with homicides as the fourth-leading cause of workplace fatalities and the leading cause of death for women in the workplace; Justice Department statistics show non-fatal incidents are even far more prevalent with approximately 1.7 million workplace violence incidents between 1993-1999; and in a 2012 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 36% of the entities responding experienced incidents of workplace violence. The good news is there are measures to curb these risks. READ MORE

Given the current state of the economy and the need for both hotel franchisors and franchisee owners to protect their respective interests and maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace, one of the most active areas in hospitality industry today is the enforcement of restrictive covenants. A restrictive covenant is a contractual provision entered into between contracting parties that prevents one or both parties from engaging in certain conduct during and after the business relationship READ MORE

Trends in the beverage scene -- they are a changing. To keep pace with a rapidly evolving industry, the availability of resources, patrons' requests, and guests' preferences, beverage connoisseurs and mixologists are experimenting with unique and innovative ways to maximize profits while serving up quality concoctions. READ MORE

It seems common sense, that to improve customer service, you should give customers what they say they want. Yet a common frustration in hospitality and service firms is that this often does not work. One reason for this is that customers actually do not remember their experiences accurately, and it is actually quite difficult for people to predict what they will remember. To facilitate better service design, service producers must create experiences that will “stick” with the customer. READ MORE

Over the past several years, the term revenue management has become a buzzword in the hospitality industry that is all-to-freely bantered about. This is most likely due to the fact that the application of revenue management principles can have a very positive impact, but in many cases, the liberal use of the term is due to lack of understanding as to what the scope of the revenue management discipline truly consists of. In this article, we explore best practices associated with the application of revenue management that any lodging operator - regardless of size, location or resources - should consider. READ MORE

An upscale hotel spent a considerable sum of money to renovate its F&B last year. The renovations include a new lounge with a jazz program, a beer focus, and a new sushi bar. The renovation might not have happened at all without the benefit of analysis of social (media) reviews, also referred to as Social Intelligence. If the renovation had happened without the analysis, there would be no jazz bar, fewer beers on tap and perhaps no sushi. Many hotel companies rely on guest rating surveys to rate their guests' satisfaction levels. These surveys are helpful and important, but are rating systems able to shed a bright enough light on the Guest Experience? In the example above, the guest surveys told management that the bar should be improved. But they didn't tell management how to improve it. Surveys like this are important, but tell just one part of the story. READ MORE

When people think of the Caribbean it's often the crystal clear, turquoise blue waters and powdery white sand beaches that come to mind first. For most, the culinary options are not at the forefront when booking a Caribbean getaway, but this perception is changing and the Caribbean Food & Wine Festival has led the way in making Turks and Caicos an international destination for sophisticated epicurean travelers over the past few years. Our award-winning team at Grace Bay Resorts, in partnership with the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board and The Wine Cellar, is proudly going into its fourth year hosting the annual Caribbean Food & Wine Festival in Providenciales on November 6 - 8, 2014. The festival brings together international chefs and winemakers who partner with local chefs to create a truly memorable, and always sold-out, event focused on the local food and flavors of the island. READ MORE