The best service any hotel can offer is the ability to serve guests high quality food in their hotel room in a timely manner with excellent service. The mark setting standard from a three star hotel to a four star hotel is complimentary amenities for guest checking or upon turndown. A simple glass of fresh lemonade upon check in can make the all the difference for a customer and a customer for life. READ MORE

Farm to table programs continue to be a growing trend as customers are demanding more and more healthy and flavorful options. While the impact of a local produce program on a menu is easy to define, understanding how to navigate a relationship with a local purveyor to meet the needs of customers can be uncharted territory. Understand your customers and define your needs and clearly define your requests with a purveyor for a successful farm to table program that will be good for the environment, good for the community, good for business and good for customers' stomachs. READ MORE

As Chef de Cuisine of the award-winning deep blu seafood grille at the new Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek, I have had the opportunity to utilize my creativity with a passion for providing diners with a fresh spin on sustainable sourced seafood and local produce. Maintaining a menu that is not only exciting to our diners (a mix of resort guests, Orlando park goers and the local crowd) but is also accessible to an array of palates is a challenge I have whole-heartedly, and successfully, taken on. READ MORE

Call them what you'd like, but mystery shops, inspections, and surprise evaluations can help you keep your team on their toes and your property at the top. Clean sheets and appropriate coffee cups aside, how great hotels take those reports - and a few tricks - to forge a path to success in the eyes of both the brand and the guest. READ MORE

Some lodging companies have employees whose primary responsibility is to promote and incorporate sustainability into their business practices. At the same time, more and more hospitality educational programs are teaching about sustainability, because educators and executives alike believe that sustainability will someday become “a norm”. As it does become “the norm”, it will become increasingly important for lodging companies to employ those that are knowledgeable about the practice. And since potential new employees will be learning about it in school or elsewhere, why not take advantage of that knowledge? What are we waiting for? READ MORE

Who is winning at social media? Take a look at some best practices we have gathered to help your social media strategy garner some positive results. While social media can appear daunting because of the ever changing landscape, the properties who are experiencing some successes are following some of the same rules. Hitting a homerun in the social media arena may not be in your immediate future, but a series of base hits can help bring you home just the same. READ MORE

Keeping hotel staff educated on the latest food and beverage offerings for guests is no easy task. Add in the high turnover rate in the service industry, and keeping new staff educated on an ongoing basis seems nearly impossible. At the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, we work with staff collaboratively to ensure employees are not only educated, but also interested. By offering multiple opportunities to not just food and beverage staff, but to all staff across the hotel, we create a richer guest experience and the potential for employees to gain experience outside of their normal tasks. READ MORE

How Mehdi Eftekari, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills and his team created a destination restaurant concept, with the addition of Culina, Modern Italian. This is the newest trend and Culina was a pioneer concept for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, which has proven successful and already won several awards. READ MORE

How does an historic hotel maintain its relevance in an ever changing world? From physical attributes worth preserving, to the traditions and customs that have made the hotel unique, to even the food and beverage service, this is a question that restaurants in many of our country's “elevated cuisine” cities, like New York, San Francisco and Miami, have to constantly answer to stay current in the minds of their guests. READ MORE

Noble House Hotels & Resorts - a privately held hotel ownership and management company - utilizes interactive applications and digital integration for food and beverage marketing, as with many of its initiatives and marketing efforts. From social media applications and website marketing, to e-marketing and guerrilla marketing, Noble House reaches its guests with information and news regarding all F&B efforts, including banquets, restaurants and events. READ MORE

Buying local has become more than just a way to support nearby farmers and fishermen; it has become a criterion for meeting the expectations of the bespoke traveler. The guests staying at our hotel demand the most authentic experience when they are discovering new places and in particular new cuisine, so that is why The Lodge at Doonbeg, which was recently named the Best Hotel Restaurant in Ireland at the Irish Restaurant Awards, has cultivated a network of local artisans whose meats, fish and cheeses which are featured everyday on our menus. READ MORE

In the age of “green” building, property owners have become aware of the savings in energy costs that can be realized by building and renovating for energy efficiency. What you may not know is that there are potentially significant tax benefits available to hotel property owners who follow the sustainability trend. Find out how one Arizona resort sought the advice of energy efficiency professionals to successfully cut their HVAC operating expenses, and how you can develop a strategy that may result in a tax deduction for improvements to your lighting system, HVAC system or building envelope. READ MORE

At first glance, OTA direct connections seem like a good idea to many hoteliers. They save time, reduce labor and provide the opportunity to drive better margins. Choosing this type of deal might not be the best solution in every situation depending on a number of factors that different hotels face. Learn when direct connects work for your property and when to think twice or should reconsider for a future date. READ MORE

Educating your hospitality employee and placing the ones that you feel are truly ready and able to wanting to grow within your hospitality brand, is by far of the best practices you should be applying in your company. As you read further into this article, you will find some examples that I have suggested, as well as experienced a growing hospitality professional, which have afforded opportunities of developing some of the best and brightest. READ MORE

We all feel the driving force to buy local from community advocates and locavores. With food and beverage costs increasing dramatically over the past five years, we are searching for the perfect balance of sound economics and customer satisfaction for healthful, nutritious and flavorful foods. As we face this challenge, it makes sense to reach out to our local resources for products that serve these ongoing demands. Meeting these diverse expectations is like Olympic hurdling in a 400-meter race for achievement. Limitations of availability from supply and demand, invoicing and transportation are the keys factors. The future of our success weighs heavily on our supportive buy-in. READ MORE