Luxury hospitality begins with a signature property, but a well-situated, beautifully designed hotel is only a start. Stellar service, driven by devoted hotel staff, is what makes a great property come alive. As one general manager (GM) of a luxury hotel told us in an interview, 'Our facility is our stage, and guests are paying for a performance.'
Criticism is never easy to take, but at some point in your professional life, you will receive it and may also have to give it. Although it might not feel like it at the time, receiving criticism can be a positive and enriching experience. It can help you identify gaps in your knowledge and enable you to see certain situations in a different way. Constructive criticism, by its nature, aims to support growth and improvement, making it an invaluable tool for personal and professional development.
A crisis can hit any business at any time. It could start as negative news that snowballs, terrible online reviews, or even an ill-advised foray into social media. This type of event can tarnish your brand, harm your relationship with your customers, and have a damaging effect on key business outcomes.
Pollution, overtourism, and local residents displaced by tourists. These are just some of the concerns that have plagued destinations such as Venice, Barcelona, and Hat Maya, the bay made famous by the film, The Beach, in Thailand. But it doesn't have to be this way.
In a world where corporate greed and profiteering have been cited as two of the primary drivers behind the ongoing cost-of-living crisis that’s increasing financial hardship across Europe, the idea that businesses could exist for any reason other than profit seems hard to fathom. However, there’s a school of thought, called the triple bottom line (TBL), which suggests that businesses should be just as committed to improving the lives of people and the planet as they are to boosting their profits.
Breaking down big work goals into smaller components can enhance long-term success significantly, Wharton research shows.
The hospitality industry is all about relationships. Relationships between co-workers, guests, those in positions of prominence, and those cementing their place are of paramount concern. Without the relationships that are the bedrock of our industry, we would be nothing more than those who work in a building where people sleep in rooms.
Imagine a luxury hotel where front desk staff greet you warmly, housekeepers meticulously prepare your room, and servers delight you with their attentive service. Now imagine the opposite: a hotel where staff seem unhappy in their roles and indifferent to your needs. The contrast is stark, and it underscores a fundamental truth about hospitality - employee engagement and customer experience are powerfully intertwined.
An interview with Gianluca Guarino, Revenue Manager at CampusX (CX). Founded in 2011, the company aims to revolutionize the student campus offer in Italy, following the most evolved Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon models and re-thinking them for the eco-sustainable, connected, smart world of today.
In the last several weeks, I've been chatting with many people about the hotel industry's continued decline in guest service. The consensus seems to be that the downturn is due to factors such as the need for passionate hospitality workers, insufficient training initiatives for frontline employees, and the fact that, in some instances, management is more focused on data than on developing a culture of excellent service.