[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-aJ7bxrUg8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL]
Videos from AHLEI which highlights the seven elements that show employees how to achieve a new standard of exceptional guest service:
AUTHENTICITY, INTUITION, EMPATHY, CHAMPION, DELIGHT, DELIVERY AND INITIATIVE
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eieu7b5W1hE&list=ULkGHmSs0DNBQ&playnext=1]
Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Guest Satisfaction: Hotel Management Must Instill “Standards Of Excellence” In Guest Service (Video)
Filed under Guest Issues, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Training
Comments Off on Hotel Industry Risk Management: “GuestChecker.com” And Its “Twitter” Site Represent A Trend In Current And Future Web-Based Solutions To Guest Security Issues
Filed under Guest Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Technology
Make reputation management a priority. Whether your property is a five-star resort or a one-star motel, your guests are evaluating you on how well you communicate and deliver on your brand 
promise. Subscribe to a social media monitoring tool and start tracking your Market Share of Guest Satisfaction; in the age of social networking, it’s as important as your revPAR index. Formulate a strategy for optimizing your online reputation, set goals, and meet regularly with your social media team to review progress.
Speak up. We would never ignore a guest ranting in our lobby, so why do so few negative reviews receive a response? (7%, according to TripAdvisor). It’s our chance to show the world we care, to thank the guest for feedback, to apologize and explain, and to clear up any misconceptions. On TripAdvisor reviewers can’t reply to hotel responses, so effectively we get the last word. Use it.
Engage. Hotels used to hire mystery shoppers to tell us what we were doing wrong; now our guests do it and pay us for the privilege. User reviews keep us in touch with guests and allow us to reach a mass market we could never hope to reach through our own marketing efforts. Be grateful. Wherever possible, engage writers of negative reviews and try to make amends. With expert handling, our harshest critics can become our most powerful advocates.
Take the high road. If the review is petty or vindictive, there’s no need to stoop to that level; travelers are smart enough to read between the lines. If allegations are false and defamatory, dispute the review with the host site, post a diplomatic response to set the record straight, and let it go. If your property’s reputation is so fragile that one or two bad reviews will devastate your business, you’ve got more issues than bad reviews. Read on.
Create a cycle of positivity. Use guest feedback to justify investments in training, labor, capital upgrades and communications. Improvements will generate positive reviews, which will attract more travelers and in turn will generate incremental revenue, thereby funding more improvements, and so on. The alternative? Ignore feedback and create a cycle of negativity, with the opposite results.
Prevent escalation. If you listen closely, bad reviews are often less about the issue itself than how staff responded when it was brought to their attention. Train employees to prevent on-property issues from escalating to online complaints by listening, empathizing, offering solutions and following up to ensure guests are satisfied. Some issues take time and money to fix; in the meantime, ensure staff are minimizing fallout by expertly managing complaints.
For more:Â http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article50511.html
Comments Off on Hotel Industry Guest Relations: Hotel Owners Must Invest In Employee Training To Create A “Positive And Egaged” Environment To Retain Guest Satisfation
Filed under Guest Issues, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Training
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9DhCXcL0A4]
Here is an interesting video describing some of the future trends of the hospitality industry, and more specificly hotels and restaurants.Â
Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Trends: How Will Hotels And Restaurants Of The Future Improve Their Operations And Profitability? (Video)
Filed under Green Lodging, Guest Issues, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Technology, Training
Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Sustainability Initiatives: Hotel “Green Initiatives” Are Being Implemented And Maintained Through Training And Management In Spite Of Economic Downturn
Filed under Green Lodging, Guest Issues, Management And Ownership, Technology, Training
The recent surge in bed bugs has created an uptick in litigation against motel owners and landlords alike. duLac’s article focuses on a Maryland attorney who is filing a series
Bed Beg infestations at hotels can result in guilty verdicts against hotel owners if conscious and deliberate behavior led to infestations going untreated.
of bed bug liability suits.  The typical compensatory damages claim is $200,000, and many of the suits claim punies.  Bed bug suits, in Maryland and elsewhere, generally face three major issues.
First, plaintiff will have to prove notice on the part of the motel owner or landlord. Actual notice is best, but constructive notice should suffice. For constructive notice, the focus will be the length of time the condition (bed bugs) has been in place. The Maryland suits contain mostly conclusory allegations, so discovery will be important.
Second, plaintiff will have to establish compensatory damages. Bed bugs are nasty creatures, and I have a lot of sympathy for people impacted by them. Plaintiffs in Mathias got a jury verdict for compensatory damages of $5,000. A Florida attorney quoted in duLac’s article is leaving the bed bug liability field because the damages are too small. He noted that he settled one case for $4,000 and another for $10,000.
Finally, a fairly standard punies regime requires a plaintiff to prove some type of conscious and deliberate behavior on the part of the defendant. In Mathias, the hotel owners were informed about the bed bugs. Instead of paying for a $500 extermination, the owners allowed the bed bug situation to fester for nearly two years. It was widely known the hotel had bed bugs. There were certain rooms that employees were not supposed to rent out because of the bugs, yet the rooms were rented if there were not enough other rooms available. Guests were informed the bugs were ticks (as if that’s better!). Under these circumstances, the court upheld a punies verdict of $186,000.  If proving notice in the Maryland cases will require the discovery of significant facts, for punies the bar is even higher.
For more:Â http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2010/11/bed-bug-liability.html
Comments Off on Hotel Industry Liability Issues: “Bed Bug” Court Verdicts Have Recently Found Hotel Owners Liable When “Conscious And Deliberate Behavior” Allowed Infestations To Proliferate
Filed under Claims, Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.“It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when it’s going to happen,” said John Sileo, a Denver resident who had his credit card information stolen on a recent business trip. “The Driskill Hotel had an entire database of customer information stolen. Mine was one of them.”
“Because of the downturn in the economy, a lot of industries have stopped upgrading their software,” he said. “So they’re very open for being hacked at any point.”
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.
Ryan Jones, a data-security consultant with Trustwave, has been watching a steady increase in hotel hacking.
Trustwave found that out of all the hacking cases they investigated last year, 38 percent involved hotels, well ahead of financial services (banks) at 19 percent and retail at 14 percent.
Destination Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Englewood, is just one of the major chains that got hacked.
This summer, they told guests at 21 hotels across the country that their credit cards might be compromised.”Because of the downturn in the economy, a lot of industries have stopped upgrading their software,” he said. “So they’re very open for being hacked at any point.”
A recent study shows the hotel industry is especially open for being hacked.
Ryan Jones, a data-security consultant with Trustwave, has been watching a steady increase in hotel hacking.
“The main reason is they’re such a central hub for where people run their cards,” Jones said.
Trustwave found that out of all the hacking cases they investigated last year, 38 percent involved hotels, well ahead of financial services (banks) at 19 percent and retail at 14 percent.
Destination Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Englewood, is just one of the major chains that got hacked.
This summer, they told guests at 21 hotels across the country that their credit cards might be compromised.
For more:Â http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/25881609/detail.html
Comments Off on Hotel Industry Cyber-Crime Risks: Hotels Are #1 Target For Credit Card Data Theft As Centralized Processing And Economic Downturn Delay Encryption Software Upgrades
Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAEavqJS9eI]
Prior to World War I, nearly 30 percent of all homes were infested with bed bugs. Widespread use of pesticides such as DDT all but eradicated bed bugs for nearly 50 years. But with declining use of pesticides and the elimination of DDT, bed bugs have staged a comeback and are reported in all 50 states. There is even an iPhone app that allows users to track bed bug sightings. Dr. Jeffrey Levin of the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler discusses bed bugs in this post to the U.T. Health Science Center at Tyler’s YouTube Channel.
Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training
was contained in the mist produced by the hotel’s hot tub. After the men became gravely ill from the disease, department investigators went to the hotel to examine the hot tub…”It took the jury less than an hour to reach the verdict in a civil lawsuit against Devi LLC, an Oxford-based company that owns the Oxford Fairfield Inn and Suites and Courtyard by Marriot. The Fairfield Inn, which was previously named Wingate Inn in 2008, was where the incident occurred.
The lawsuit was filed by Rodney Handley and Emanuel Howard, who alleged they contracted Legionnaires’ disease after using a Wingate hot tub in May 2008. Both men worked for Jefferson County and were in the area to assist in cleanup efforts after a tornado hit Heflin. The hot tub has since been removed from the building.
Handley died of a heart attack in January of this year at age 44, but his brother, Brent Handley, continued on with the lawsuit, said plaintiffs’ attorney Todd Wheeles.
“They told the hotel to close the hot tub and lock it up,†Wheeles said. “However, the next morning, the staff goes in and cleans and disinfects the area … so when the ADPH gets back to get samples, the evidence was destroyed.â€
Wheeles added that evidence showed hotel management provided incorrect maintenance records about the hot tub to the ADPH.
Read more: Anniston Star – Jury verdict nets 4 5 million from hotel owners
Comments Off on Hotel Spa Health Risks: Hotel Owners Found Liable In Death Of Man Who Contracted Legionnaire’s Disease In Hotel Hot Tub
Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Pool And Spa, Risk Management, Training
Spas and Salons across the Country have demonstrated increasing evidence of illnesses 
affecting employees, customers, and even children due to the presence of Volatile Organic Compounds (“VOC”) emitted by a variety of hair, nail and other personal grooming treatments, in many instances with little or no air purification whatsoever provided.
Restaurants generally prove vulnerable to poor indoor air quality, particularly with respect to the use of cleaning solvents in the dining room and bar areas, as well as the possibility for odors, mold and mildew that can plague food preparation areas.
In the personal grooming arena, Spas and Salons across the Country have demonstrated increasing evidence of illnesses affecting employees, customers, and even children due to the presence of Volatile Organic Compounds (“VOC”) emitted by a variety of hair, nail and other personal grooming treatments, in many instances with little or no air purification whatsoever provided.
“There are serious ramifications building across the Country due to the lack of education on how damaging these contaminants are to the long term health of the people that are breathing them on a regular basis,” said Jack Lennon, President of UV Flu Technologies. “We are contacted on a weekly basis by parents, as well as workers and customers, who have experienced symptoms of illness themselves, or whose children have experienced negative effects while certain treatments were underway with no air purification in evidence, or with non-functioning air purifiers being used.”
“A particularly troubling aspect is that many of these individuals breathing these VOC’s are at young ages critical to the development of their heart and lungs,” continues Mr. Lennon, “Some of these popular hair treatments have been shown recently to contain up to 20% formaldehyde, while acetone and benzene are being used for nails. These contaminants are known carcinogens, and salons who are not addressing the concerns of their employees and customers are not only facing a loss of business, but the risk of litigation, as well as potential legislation.”
Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Health Risks: Hotel Spas And Restaurants Must Review And Improve Air Quality And Purification Systems To Limit “Volatile Organic Compound” (VOC) Health Risks To Guests And Employees
Filed under Food Illnesses, Guest Issues, Health, Injuries, Insurance, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Pool And Spa, Risk Management, Training
