allnicksalvatore

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12 years and still going strong as ever. Love this guy! (at Clarence Center, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx-nlPzhJQYy7pSpgbVOKHlezS40Vc64VCCrOE0/?igshid=1vc1ct4muiw0o

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It’s always cool to see the little touches hotels do in design and guest satisfaction. This outside elevator at the Hilton Toronto and their breakfast in their executive lounge are a great way of thinking of guest experience when creating and opperating a hotel.

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Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife! Each day you do everything for our family, today (hopefully) you get to relax. https://www.instagram.com/p/BvTzPy8h9VjLBX6FOP4MLJj_z8_aqr7OIU6qes0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4oujf2tonare

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Habits

Just finished a really great book Atomic Habits.  

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to find keys to behavioral science that can influence the way you live. 

Two of the main takeaways that I got from the from the book. 

1) You never have to do anything, if you frame your mind to that you get to do something it will change your mindset to be positive. 

2) Every habit should be no more than 2 minutes and that 2 minute habit is what will trigger you to doing the action you want to happen. 

If you want a quick read that will make you think of how you live day to day, Atomic Habits is a good one!

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Price vs. Rewards Program

I have been polling a lot of people lately on Facebook and Linkedin about what would be more important to them when booking a hotel room.  Price or a good rewards program.  My finding was ambiguous to say the least. 

Looking at the data it broke down into three segments of guest, two of them being really familiar and a new segment that I found.  The two that are common were business and leisure guests, but the third is travel managers.  

Business persons who are traveling on their companies dime seem always pick the rewards system.  The leisure guest or business guests who are traveling on their own expense mostly pick price.  

It is the Travel Managers that are the unique ones.  Travel Managers are hired by a company to have their best interest in mind for partnering with hotels.  They are suppose to shop price & quality and negotiate with the hotels on behalf of their client.  This segment I am finding to be one that is skewed towards rewards more than price.  Travel managers are able to receive points for their room nights booked with companies.  I am NOT saying this is the case for all Travel Managers.  Many of them have the greatest code of ethics you will find. 

Our hotels are independent properties and we always found it hard to get in with certain corporations to bid on their travel needs.  In our findings from meeting with them, we could not find out why some were so loyal to Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, etc.  I found two reasons for this.  1, they know the brand will have constant quality and 2, some get kickbacks from these companies to ensure they are loyal to their brand/hotel/resort etc.

The question I cannot seem to figure out is how they get away with this?  This normally happens in a very large company where finding someone to report anything to is almost impossible.  Being ethical and looking out for the best interests of your client is not something unique but it is incredible how this gets missed so much.  

Realizing now that this had taken a huge tangent, we have decided to go with creating our own rewards software.  Something that will be in the works for about 6 months to create but hopefully will help us give a better value to all of our guests that stay with us.  

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Find out really why your customer is mad

I had a customer upset the other day at one of our hotels with an issue that her debit card was charged when it was not suppose to have been.  We had quickly reversed off the charge and apologized for what had happened and that is where my staff had stopped.  

To me this is a 100% valid complaint, although I do not appreciate the way she was speaking to our staff it was something that was done on our end.  And as always there is more to the situation than was told to me or to our front desk staff right away and we could not figure out why she was so upset.  After she had repeatedly called my front desk staff and myself expletives for about 5 minutes (felt like an hour).  I did what I feel every manager should do and politely ask her not to raise her voice and talk about what is going on or she would have to leave.  

Turns out she was using a debit card and the charge that we revered her bank was saying that she would not the money back til the following day.  Now finding the true problem I was able to have my front office manager call the bank on her behalf and get this straightened out for her.  

This happened about a week ago and just last night I had a desk agent who was on that day wondering why I was so nice to someone who was so rude.  It was simple, she was not mad at me, she was not mad at the hotel, she was not mad at the my staff.  She was mad at the situation as a whole and she needed help in getting it resolved quickly.  

To many times people in customer service take the guest complaint personal, and it is really easy to do.  It is so important to take yourself out of picture.  If you can look at it this way it will help you in solving problems quickly and objectively.  

Talking with friends this goes into almost every business/life problem.  There is always more to what is on the face of the situation.  The people who take the time to dig deeper into it are the issues are the ones that will build the longest lasting relationships. 

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Even in times of crazy weather, some people find a way to catch something really cool on camera.  This guy is really crazy for being out in this weather but got an awesome video! 

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Nothing like cooking lunch with this guy! Waiting on mommy to come and help us clean.. https://www.instagram.com/p/BuRUlFjB-Q7L6OdfXzysvO3-9Wb46yaDNc7JB40/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2yas2t50sk5f

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Don't tell someone how to do something.  Tell them what to do and be surprised by the results

General George S Patton

This is something I have up in my office everyday for when I walk in the door.  Really helps focus me on not micro managing people and to trust them to do the job I have hired to do. 

This is a mistake I use to make a lot, it demoralized my staff and made them think that I thought they were not competent.  Do not make the same mistake I did.  Hire right, trust your staff and verify they did the correct action after.  

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How To Get The Best Hotel Rate

So many hoteliers are either going to be happy or be upset with me on this one.  But it is a double edge sword for me as well.  I am a manager of two hotels and I travel as well.  Everywhere I go I want to make sure my family and I get the best possiable deal.  

First, Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) such as Expedia, Booking.com, Hotwire (there are to many to name them all) take anywhere from 16% - 40% of the room rate from the hotel in commissions.  So in the hotel industry we do everything possiable to get people not to book using these sites.  

The smart managers train their staff and have discounts available for when guests call to get them to book the best rate possiable.  Think of it from their perspective if you are giving an OTA 20% of the business, why would you not want to give 5% - 15% to someone calling you directly.  Guest and the hotel is happy. 

The hotel industry has something called Rate Pairty.  This was designed by the OTA’s so that you give the same rate across any platform.  If you are our of pairty, the hotel get pushed by getting the listing pushed down on the websites page.   Bottom line is if you want to save the most money on your next vacation, call the hotel directly.  Ask them if they have any promotional rates going on or even just asking for the AAA rate will normally get you 5% - 10% off right there.  

Look for any promotional packages they may offer.  Out hotels combine a hotel stay and dinner for two at our hotel in a hotel package.  This is not propriety to us but most hotels that have some food and beverage on site want to keep you on property and getting the full experience of that property.  

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The power of a name

Recently I have moved homes and had to hire some movers.  When researching who to choose I did what most people do and go to Google and start to look.  

One company stood out more than the others due to their customer service reviews.  

After hiring them, I got a phone call from a person at the company who greeted me by stating their name and that they would be the one handling my move. Upon arriving to my house everyone who was helping for the day came up told me their name and then shook my hand.  I instantly had a relationship with each of these people.  

Sitting in bed that night, I was still in awe of the level of service this company had given to my family.  This simple thing most people in the hotel and restaurant industry do not do.  

Sure you hear it from a server when they greet your table, but what about your desk agent at checkin, your housekeeper at your room or your server assistant in the dining room.  It is funny because it is not the point of the guest remembering the name of each person as much as the act of actually doing it.  

Using your name with your customers is huge and is something that each of us should do more and preach to everyone in our businesses.  Not just the people who are the first to have an interaction but everyone up and down the ladder. 

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Automation of Hospitality

Increasing costs of doing business has all industries looking to new technologies to increase the bottom line and guest experience.  

Seems crazy but two years ago people did not think that McDonalds would be able to automate their service counter.  But look what they are doing in NYC!  

I just read an article about a vacuum that will clean your open guest rooms and then give data back of how dirty the carpets are.  Just google maidbot and check it out! 

The hotel industry has everything from mobile checkin to a robot butler that can bring you items to your room already working on many properties. 

The challenge I see is where is the breakeven on the guest experience?  From an ownership standpoint this looks great, but on the mid to high level properties where can this play into?

Automation is the future and I am excited to see it progress.  It just goes to show how when external pressures come on an industry new ways of thinking are in order to maintain ROI and guest experience.