Tag Archives: Hotel Management

by | January 3, 2011 · 4:54 pm

Hotel Industry Trends: Technological Advances Will Be "Among The Most Important Forces Driving Hotel Industry"

The Fraunhofer Institute believes that technological advances with be among the most important forces driving the hotel industry, leading to some major changes over the next ten years.

  • The hotel room is decorated to meet guests’ particular tastes
  • The bath water is just how they like it
  • The minibar is stocked with their preferred range of drinks
  • Their favourite music is playing in the background.
  • Guests will be checked in by robots, which will also provide a first class range of services for the duration of their stay.
  • Automated ‘smart’ rooms will be fully equipped to meet the needs of guests.
  • Guests will have their own profiles, which they can either enter via a PIN on a smart phone or which are transmitted by means of biometric authentification.

This data can then be used to individually adapt the lighting, air conditioning and even the colour of the room. In the hotel rooms of the future the entire infrastructure will be designed to aid relaxation:

  • Gentle curves instead of sharp edges
  • Smart ‘energy beds’
  • Wall displays with giant screens, serving as an interactive interface to all the different communication channels and providing a workspace for business travellers.

However, technological innovation is not the only topic under consideration in planning the hotels of the future, and ecological aspects will play an increasingly important role in meeting the needs of guests.

For more:  http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/Internet/Internet/www.itb-berlin/englisch/Media_Centre/Press_Releases_and_News/index.jsp?lang=1&newslang=en&newssys_id=31619&source_oid=550&year=2011

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by | December 17, 2010 · 2:13 am

Hotel Industry Employee Management: Hotel Housekeepers Are “Vital To Success Of Any Hotel” And Refined Practices Will Improve Productivity While Reducing Budget

Housekeeping is vital to the success of any hotel. It will be worth the extra time and attention it takes to refine practices and enhance productivity. Improved housekeeping makes for a tighter overall operation, along with relief to your hotel’s budget.

  • Hire the right housekeepers.  People with certain personality types will not stay and clean rooms for long periods of time – not because they can’t or will do a poor job, but because they get bored. The housekeeping job can be monotonous. Use a personality test of some sort to hire the right people.
  • Have the chemical dispensers checked by your chemical company every time the company is on property. In addition to improving how the chemicals are dispensed, this will allow for cleaner linen as well as less discoloration (in case too much chlorine or other detergent is being used).
  • Combine job responsibilities within the housekeeping department to maximize productivity and avoid downtime.
  • Make sure that time allocated to clean rooms is respected. Be creative with long-term stays – maybe wash linens every three days, and provide a very quick (five-minute) service: change towels, empty trash cans, and move on.
  • Folding within the laundry department can be a time-consuming burden. The trick is to fold as little as possible since a housekeeper will immediately undo the work diligently done by the laundry attendant anyway. Sheets and large items can be laid down flat on a rolling cart and sent to a holding area for the next day.
  • Spend a great deal of time with this important department and become a mentor. A closer collaboration between management and housekeeping will have significant benefits for your hotel.

For more:  http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article50864.html

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by | December 14, 2010 · 6:36 am

Hotel Industry Employee Risks: Texas Hotel Owners “Failed To Carry Workers’ Comp Insurance And Enforce Safety Procedures” Says Suit Brought By Banquet Service Employee Who Was Injured On Job

On or about August 13, 2009, Plaintiff suffered an injury to her right shoulder area when a co-worker, Banquet Manager, Gus Garza, suddenly and without warning struck her while opening a door which was intended to be an exit door instead of an entrance door as he was using it,” the suit filed Dec. 7 in Jefferson County District Court states.

She claims the defendant companies — HTL Operating doing business as Elegante Hotel and Investment Corporation of America — did not carry workers’ compensation insurance at the time of the incident. As a result, Howard claims she should be entitled to all common-law damages.

A Beaumont woman has filed suit against the owners of a hotel where she claims she was injured while working as a banquet server. Sharon Howard alleges she was performing her duties as a banquet server at MCM Elegante Hotel in Beaumont on Aug. 13, 2009, when she sustained injuries to her shoulder.

Because of the incident, Howard suffered a severe and permanently disabling injury to her right shoulder and has not been able to work, according to the complaint.

She blames the hotel for causing her injury and for the pain and suffering she endured, as well as the medical costs she incurred.

The hotel’s owners negligently failed to enforce proper safety procedure and failed to properly equip doors, according to the complaint.

In her suit, Howard is seeking a judgment in excess of the minimum jurisdictional limits of Jefferson County District Court, plus pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, attorney’s fees and other relief the court deems just.

John Werner of Reaud, Morgan and Quinn in Beaumont will be representing her.

For more:  http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/231951-hotel-server-sues-over-shoulder-injuries

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by | December 8, 2010 · 4:21 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance Issues: Santa Cruz Hotel Owners Negotiate Successful Contract With Union Employees Saving Substantial Benefits And Expenses

 In negotiating the new contract the owners and operator initially hoped to slash more than $500,000 from their operating costs; the union, meanwhile, sought to guard employees’ insurance, eight-hour workday and paid vacation.

“It was very, very challenging because the owners were spending more than a million dollars a year in benefits,” says Jane Howard, Chief People Officer for Joie de Vivre Hospitality. “We needed to work together to get the cost of that down some, and we were able to do that.” The hotel ultimately accepted an insurance plan proposed by the labor union that is expected to save it $130,000 annually.

The owners and operators of Santa Cruz’s Dream Inn can rest easy now that the unionized employees at the hotel have finally ratified a contract following nearly a year of negotiations and union demonstrations. The employees, represented by UNITE HERE Local 483, voted to accept a new four-year contract last Tuesday, Nov. 30. 

The Dream Inn is jointly owned by the Southern California real estate developer Ensemble Investments and AEW Capital Management and operated by Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which manages a number of other properties around the state.

The final agreement, which will allow employees to keep their insurance and eight-hour work day but not their paid vacation time, was reached in arbitration with an outside mediator that took place at the hotel on Nov. 23. A week later, the employees voted with a 91 percent majority to accept the contract; had they failed to ratify, the union would have moved to strike.

“I think we made some progress,” Michael Roberts, a bartender at the Dream Inn’s Aquarius restaurant, said. “We definitely got a reasonable contract, but for me, a lot of it came down to the fact that I didn’t feel like the membership would have supported a strike if it came down to that. They were willing to do certain actions, but I don’t think a strike would have been supported.”

The new contract covers 85 workers at the hotel, who, under its terms, will keep a generous benefits package that includes health, dental, vision and life insurance—all free—for the employee’s entire family. “It was very, very challenging because the owners were spending more than a million dollars a year in benefits,” says Jane Howard, Chief People Officer for Joie de Vivre Hospitality. “We needed to work together to get the cost of that down some, and we were able to do that.” The hotel ultimately accepted an insurance plan proposed by the labor union that is expected to save it $130,000 annually.

The insurance policy was ultimately the most important factor for Roberts, although he sympathized with longtime employees who, under the new contract, will lose paid vacation time accrued over many years of service. “I’ve only worked there for three and a half years, but we have employees who have worked there for almost 20 years who are taking hits for vacation—like losing a week or more days—so it was a very big deal for them.”

“That was painful for us, we really didn’t want to have to move on vacation,” says Lizzie Keegan, a representative for UNITE HERE who was present throughout negotiations. “There were some things that obviously stung a little bit, but overall we ratified with over that 90 percent because everybody feels that, in this economic recession, we will have to [make some concessions] and it will be hard, but we’re really proud that we have really good insurance and it covers us and covers our families.”

For more:  http://news.santacruz.com/2010/12/07/dream_inn_hotel_workers_keep_bennies

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by | November 29, 2010 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Sustainability Initiatives: Hotel “Green Initiatives” Are Being Implemented And Maintained Through Training And Management In Spite Of Economic Downturn

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by | November 18, 2010 · 6:06 pm

Hospitality Industry Profile: “Growth Of Loyalty Programs” Is Central To Hotel Websites Ability To Improve Brand

“The growth in loyalty program membership has had a more positive impact than many hospitality brands would have imagined in a mature market,” said Claude Guay, President and CEO of iPerceptions. “Loyalty programs have taken on a life of their own, not only stimulating visitor’s intent to return to the website, but in also keeping brands at the top of mind when making travel plans.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/18/prweb8007565.DTL#ixzz15gpY2Z5u

CLICK ON "HOSPITALITY" TO VIEW ENTIRE REPORT

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by | November 3, 2010 · 7:56 am

Hotel Industry Employee Wage Issues: Employee Unions Plan To Use Threat Of Strikes To Put Pressure On Hotel Management To Negotiate Wage Contracts Acceptable To Both Sides As Industry Recovers

The scene looks much the same among union hotel workers: bold employers, drawn-out bargaining, and unions launching intermittent short strikes to keep up pressure. Hilton is now UNITE HERE’s target because the union judges that company most likely to move—a shift in strategy after months of rolling strikes and pickets against the Hyatt chain.

The union hopes to establish a pattern at the bargaining table with Hilton that other hotels will follow.

Chicago hotel workers authorized strikes at four Hilton-owned or -operated properties. They struck the Hilton Chicago for three days in October, coordinating with Hilton workers in Honolulu and San Francisco. Those strikes ended October 19, but more may be on the way.

Workers in Toronto took advantage of the Toronto International Film Festival in September to gain visibility for their struggle. Rolling one-day strikes at three hotels, including festival headquarters, caused actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez to join the boisterous picket line. The blare of vuvuzelas added to picket-line noise.

Workers rolled out a red carpet and offered passersby the opportunity to have their photo taken with a hotel worker. Inside, workers spotted the housekeeping manager doing bell work.

Six additional one-day strikes have cascaded through Toronto hotels since the film festival. And 500 workers walked out of the Delta Chelsea, a large downtown conference hotel, on October 28. Delta Chelsea workers say they’ll stay out for two weeks.

Cristal Cruz-Haicken of UNITE HERE Local 75 said the two-week strike was necessary because “they weren’t even taking us seriously” at the bargaining table.

Unstable work schedules and job security are a serious problem. Feliz Serrano, a server, said he has worked there 30 years and still usually only gets 30 hours of work a week, but only if he works six days in a row.

Room attendant Jian Ying Liu said the hotel has tried to get rid of her three times because of injuries she received in her 18 years of work there.

Several conferences immediately moved because of the strike.

LOCKING IN THE RECESSION

In the U.S., Hilton workers have been working without a new contract since August 2009. They charge their employer with trying to lock the recession into their wages and workloads even as the hotel industry recovers profitability.

Blackstone, the private equity group that controls Hilton, upped third-quarter profits by 23 percent, to $340 million. This April, the New York Federal Reserve wrote off $180 million of Blackstone’s debt, allegedly to create jobs.

But the hotel chain is trying to squeeze more work from the existing staff. Hilton is proposing that workers who currently clean 14 rooms a day clean 20, with the result that some workers will be laid off.

UNITE HERE members call Hilton’s push to increase their workload the “dirty rooms” program, pointing out that Hilton is reassuring workers they won’t have to meet the same high standards of cleanliness when they’re required to clean 40 percent more rooms.

The average Local 2 member in San Francisco makes $30,000 a year, and if Hilton gets its way workers will soon be paying $173 a month for family health care coverage.

According to Local 2 staffer Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer in San Francisco, workers have foregone raises over the years, preferring to maintain affordable health coverage. The new $173 per month amounts to a huge takeaway.

Hilton is resisting the union’s proposal that the company put aside an extra 12 cents per hour for pensions, which, UNITE HERE calculates, would mean the difference between a $900 and a $1,200 monthly pension.

Meanwhile, management’s pay is up. According to a Wall Street Journal survey, Blackstone’s executive team got a 12 percent pay increase this year.

For more:  http://labornotes.org/2010/11/unions-reach-short-strikes-stop-concessions

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by | October 20, 2010 · 3:20 pm

Hotel Industry Guest Issues: Hotel Guest Databases Such As “GuestChecker.com” Can Assist Hotel Management In Avoiding “Problem Guests”

“Many hotels now refuse guests based on their perceived or real behavior,” the story says. “For example many hotels in Florida and the Caribbean will not accept reservations for “Spring Break” groups. In Europe, hotels shy away from groups of British Soccer fans.”

Hotels are increasingly interested in swapping information with each other about “bad” guests, just like guests do with “bad” hotels using TripAdvisor, according to Hospitality Business News.

Most hotel guests, naturally, are good.

But when hotels do encounter guests who, for instance, call their credit card company to reverse a charge, assault another guest or even smoke in a non-smoking area, they just might wind up in the type of database maintained by GuestChecker.com.

  • What private information is kept on me?: The database contains a guest’s name, address, and phone number only, as opposed to more personal information such as credit-card number, race or religion. The information is kept in a database with “bank-level security” and is not available to the public.
  • Can hotel managers see the full list?: Hotel managers can’t scroll through the database to see who’s on it. They can only search for specific names and receive a “Match” or “No Match” result.
  • Is this a blacklist?: The company doesn’t call the database a “blacklist” because members “do not have the ability to advise other accommodation providers to refuse service for a guest.” It’s designed to help the next hotel “make an informed decision on how to best prepare for that guests arrival.”
  • What offenses land me on the list?: The company tracks five categories of behavior, with the worst being stealing, assault and non-payment. Lesser offenses would include actions such as smoking in non-smoking areas or using facilities such as the swimming pool or tennis court after hours. “Someone who accidentally knocks over a lamp and offers to pay for it should not be placed in the same category as someone who purposefully trashes a hotel room,” the company says.
  • Who reports me? One person per company or hotel can report a guest for an offense, and GuestChecker.com requires that person be a senior manager. “This stops any malicious reporting by the night watchman, for example,” the company tells Hospitality Business News.
  • How long will I be on the database?: A person could stay on the database for as long as four years.

    • For more:   http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2010/10/hotel-blacklist-how-do-hotels-define-a-bad-hotel-guest/127726/1

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