7 STAR HOTELIERS BLOG - The Seventh Star Group

Successful Opening in Uruguay: Playa VIK (Member of Vik Hotels)

2011-01-02T20:53:00.004-03:00

A sister property to the ranch-like Estancia Vik, Playa Vik opened in 2010 in the oceanfront resort town of José Ignacio, Uruguay, a calmer alternative to the nearby city of Punta del Este, which is about 15 minutes away by car.

A strikingly contemporary property that incorporates natural elements, Playa Vik José Ignacio is instantly recognizable from a distance, thanks to its so-called “living roof” planted with Uruguayan wild flowers, setting a unique architectural tone created by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, who has also worked on the Paris Opera House, the National Bank of Dubai and the Carlos Curbelo airport in Punta del Este.

Unlike its sister property, Playa Vik sits in a village, providing a relaxed, small-town ambiance where it’s easy to go for strolls through the neighborhood and along the beach. With its distinctive style, Playa Vik is ideal for travelers who appreciate contemporary architecture and art, in the form of a quiet, relaxed oceanfront getaway with casas that feel something like chic urban apartments.

Contemporary artwork from Uruguay and beyond (by artists including Zaha Hadid, Anselm Kiefer and James Turrell) graces the walls of the central building, which has a dramatic, 55-foot inclined façade, a giant, sculpted bronze door, and wide expanses of glass that maximize the ocean view. Indeed, the architectural style appears to be designed as a work of art in its own right, complementing the original pieces that hang inside (the central building, in fact, has been dubbed “the Sculpture”).

The Sculpture building is divided into several public areas, including a living room furnished with sofas, semi-precious stone tables and offbeat sculptural pieces, a formal dining room, and a library furnished with a small selection of books.

The property’s six casas are divided into several sizes, ranging from two to three bedrooms in size. Each casa is distinct in layout and design, but the décor is consistently contemporary, and they all have a fireplace, original artwork and hand-painted floors. The largest, the Valentina Suite, is located within the Sculpture building, with eye-catching red, black and white theme, while original photography and interesting paintings characterize the other casas.

You may swim in the ocean at Playa Mansa, a beach with gentle waves that lies just in front of the property, or make use of the 75-foot cantilevered swimming pool, a strikingly minimalist structure made of Uruguayan black granite that juts out toward the ocean, giving you the impression you just might make it all the way to the Atlantic if you make it to the very end of the pool. A fiber optic celestial map of the southern hemisphere on the pool’s floor brings additional drama to the setting.

Cuisine is similar to that served at the sister Estancia Vik property, with a heavy focus on expertly prepared, freshly caught seafood, locally grown vegetables, and plenty of Uruguayan beef. The property’s indoor dining room has large glass windows that look out on the beach, as well as a bold painting called “The Secret Life of Plants” that envelops one entire wall. The parillero dining room, which is designed for meals centered around Uruguay’s famed beef dishes, features an attractive stone wall made of shiny Agatha stones, and Lapacho wood floors that run outside to the adjacent outdoor terrace. In this outdoor area is plenty of barbecue space, a 14-foot dining table and a fire pit surrounded by comfortable seating, ideal for warming up on chilly evenings. A 40-foot wine cellar that stretches beneath the casas, housing some 5,000 bottles, provides liquid refreshment.

The staff recruitment process, training and trial actions; and on site HR consultancy, are conducted by The Seventh Star Group for both properties (Playa VIK and Estancia VIK).

How to give the perfect telephone interview

2010-09-12T19:11:00.002-03:00

You may be a whizz at the stove, or fabulous front of house, but if you have a terrible telephone manner you might never even get to interview stage never mind get the chance to show off your skills. That’s because at some point in your job-hunt you will probably be invited to give a telephone interview.

Why? Well, as you know, there’s a lot of competition for hospitality jobs abroad, particularly in tourist hotspots such as Dubai or growth areas such as China. On top of that, there’s the logistical difficulty of arranging interviews across the globe. It’s no wonder, then, that many employers abroad now view phone interviews as a practical method of screening UK applicants before investing in one-on-one interviews.

The first thing to remember is that telephone interviews can work in your favour. For a start, they can speed up the hiring cycle. They’re also your chance to show you’re worth inviting to a face-to-face interview.
That said, there’s evidence that 80% of jobs are won or lost during the first five minutes of the conversation, so you need to prepare thoroughly. Keep reading for advice on how to polish up your telephone skills, organise your ideas, deal with tricky questions and practise useful techniques to raise your chances of success.

Preparation

Rule number one is to make sure you’ve put the correct contact details on your CV. Needless to say, employers won’t waste time trying to contact you if you’ve changed your phone number or moved house.

In fact, you need to be on the ball from the moment you start applying for your job abroad, because a recruiter might call at any point to ask if you have a few minutes to talk. The key is to stay cool. If it isn't convenient, ask if you could talk at another time - and suggest some alternatives.
For this reason, it’s also important that you make sure your answer phone greeting is professional. An HR manager is unlikely to be inspired to leave a message regarding that high-powered executive chef role if they hear “I’m either out fishing, playing golf or at the bar… so leave a message”...

Last but not least, prepare for a phone interview just as you would for a regular interview. Compile a list of your strengths and weaknesses, skills and achievements. Another smart move is to draw up a list of answers to typical interview questions and rehearse them…read on for examples...

Typical interview questions

· "What can you offer this company?" Use this as a chance to tell the employer about your relevant skills - but remember to keep your answer short and succinct. If you are applying for a general manager role at a new hotel in India, you might tell them: "I have strong financial acumen, previous experience in opening hotels and am keen to be involved in the new markets you are developing in Asia."
· What do you know about this hotel/restaurant? Make sure you have done your research using the internet and by flicking through industry publications such as Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Find out about the hotel or restaurant’s size, type of customer, style of cuisine and so on.

· Tell me a bit about yourself Don’t wax lyrical about your love-life, stay professional. They are assessing your communication skills and ability to think fast as much as your personality, so impress them by preparing a list of your responsibilities in your most recent job, your skills, and a summary of your career and how your experience will benefit the job you’ve applied for.
· Why have you applied for this job? They really want to hear why you want to work for the company, so do some research on the internet and re-emphasise your suitability for the position.
· What do you enjoy about your current job? The knack is to link what you enjoy with the key skills needed for the role you are applying for. Go one better and mention that you want to expand your experience in these areas.
· Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? This time-honoured question requires a well-thought-out answer. Demonstrate that your long term goals are a natural progression from the position they are offering – and underline your commitment to them.

Watch out for tricky questions
· Why did you leave your last job? Always respond positively along the lines of: “I wanted to advance my career,” or I am looking for better opportunities for promotion,” or “I want more responsibility and variety in my job."

· What would you say were your weaknesses? Everyone knows that this is an opportunity to turn the question into a positive. Think of something that relates to your experience of work that is plausible as a weakness but is not really a negative point. For instance, "Some people think I am too obsessed about giving perfect service", or "I get too absorbed in sourcing seasonal produce for new menus".

· A request for confidential information about your previous employer Never get drawn into this as your discretion and professionalism will then be under question. You can always lightly point out that they would expect you to be equally discreet about them.

· Describe how you have dealt with conflict in the workplace This type of question aims to find out how you behave under pressure. Describe a difficult experience from a past job, but keep it professional and positive – try to illustrate how you learned from the experience

· Were you forced to leave your last job? If you’ve had a bad experience such as redundancy, sexual harassment, or clashes with colleagues, you will be asked about them either at the telephone interview stage or later in the formal interview. Always be honest, positive, and avoid criticising former employers or expressing grudges.

Prepare your own questions
Remember, the interview is a two-way process so you are entitled to ask a few questions at the end. It also underlines your interest in the job and gives you a chance to demonstrate that you’ve done some research on the position and the company. To this end, you could ask them to confirm your understanding of a particular operation at the hotel or restaurant.

Other questions could include:

•Could you confirm what is the main focus of this role? •Will the position also involve liaising with the kitchen brigade/front of house team/sales team? •What level of budget is allocated to the department and how is it controlled?

Practise your telephone skills

It doesn’t matter whether you work back-of-house or front-of-house, employers in the hospitality industry want staff with personality who can communicate confidently and comfortably. So, you can bet they are going to be assessing your interpersonal skills. It’s crucial, therefore, to assess your telephone style and correct bad speech habits. Either get a friend to ring and ask mock interview questions or tape yourself giving answers.

So what to watch out for? Well, don’t fall into the trap of thinking a telephone interview is casual. It’s important that you sound professional and confident throughout the call. It’s also crucial that you don’t start waffling; neither should you just give yes or no answers. And watch out for those dreaded ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. You don’t have to speak like the Queen, but you do need to enunciate clearly and avoid using slang or fillers such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’.
What you do need to do is to project a positive attitude - which admittedly is a bit difficult as the interviewer can’t see your body language. Ironically, a foolproof technique is to smile while you talk as it helps to convey enthusiasm.

The interview

For the interview itself, you need to be comfortable. Research shows that people often sound more professional when standing up, but if you feel less stressed sitting down then go with that. Either way, you need to sort it out before the interview itself.

Strange as it sounds, it’s also a good idea to dress smartly. Obviously the telephone interviewer can’t see you, but it’s harder to feel - and therefore sound - professional if you’re wearing your gym kit.

If you are being interviewed over your landline, don’t forget to switch off your mobile phone and disable the call-waiting feature on your telephone. Never use speaker-phone. If you use a cordless phone make sure the batteries are charged but always avoid using a mobile phone as poor reception can ruin what might otherwise have been a good interview. It’s also important that you choose a room that is free of distractions.

At the start of the phone interview, confirm the caller’s name and company and jot down their telephone number. It’s a good idea to create a phone interview log as a record and keep a notebook handy. Only use first names if they ask you to.

In short:

•Smile because it makes you sound more positive
•Give short, clear answers and never interrupt
•Don’t use a mobile phone and never put the interviewer on hold or speaker phone
•Find a comfortable area away from distractions

Use notes

Of course, the great advantage of the interviewer not being able to see you is that you can spread out your notes and pull up the hotel or resort website. Use memory aids such as flashcards to remind you of key achievements, questions, and so on. Jot down some short phrases in bullet point form to remind you of a particular challenge. Make sure you can talk about how you dealt with it and what results you achieved. It’s not a good idea to rehearse too much, though, as you will sound unnatural.

Keep a copy of your CV close, too, so you can look up details of past employment, training or work experience.

In short: Pull up the company website on your computer in advance of the call and spread your notes around you – including your CV

Dealing with tricky moments

Perhaps the most uncomfortable telephone moments are silences. If you’ve finished answering a question, but the interviewer hasn’t asked you another one, don’t be tempted to fill the gap with garbled chatter. If it does drag on, you could always ask the interviewer a related question about the job.

Try not to cough or sneeze during the interview. If it’s unavoidable, say ‘excuse me’. It goes without saying that you don’t eat during the interview and if you need water, sip it silently.

In short: Keep your answers concise and relevant – don’t fill in awkward silences with waffle

If you are hearing impaired
You need to email the employer beforehand if you are hard of hearing. Most interviewers will be happy to make alternative arrangements to accommodate your condition.

At the end…

Don’t forget to ask what the next step in the process is and thank the interviewer by name. It’s also a good idea to follow up with a thank you letter, to confirm your interest in the job.

Another handy tip is to quickly job down some notes about what you were asked and how you answered as soon as you put the phone down. That way, you can learn how to improve your telephone interview technique.

If you follow this advice and stay calm, you will sail through even the toughest phone interview.

Interview tips and advice

How to handle an interview

It’s what you’ve been working towards - you’ve written the perfect CV and cover letter and you’ve made it through to interview stage.

Now what?

Well, now is your chance to show your prospective employer exactly why they should give you the job. Obviously, as you are applying for a job abroad the stakes are high. It could be that the employer has flown over to the UK to do a series of interviews. Or maybe they have flown you over to meet them. Either way, there is a lot riding on how well you conduct yourself, so read on for some useful tips on what to do – and what not to do…

Dealing with nerves

Unless you are a stunningly cool person, you will inevitably feel nervous before an interview. Unfortunately, none of us perform naturally or creatively when we are anxious, but the good news is that there are techniques you can use before and during the interview to combat nerves.

Just before the interview, clench your left fist for 30 seconds or more. This activates circuits in the brain's right hemisphere that enhance your ability to reach decisions and calm unpleasant emotions.

Then, visualise what you want to achieve in two years' time. This will help you to crystallise what your ambitions are and you’ll find that your anxiety will lessen and your confidence will increase.

It also helps if you rehearse giving answers to questions that relate to your attributes, limitations, preferences and values – but visualise the person asking the questions as being someone you trust and like.

Get your body language under control

Yes, it’s true. Actions speak louder than words. If you gesticulate wildly, twitch, avoid eye contact, jut your chin or behave in any other exaggerated way you will undoubtedly create an unattractive – and possibly unfair – image of your self.

Body language is used to express both conscious and subconscious thoughts, and can be as warm as a friendly glance - or as rude as turning your back on someone. It’s crucial, therefore, that you understand how to use your body language to positive effect.

One trick is to ask a friend to identify any peculiar habits you might have – watch out for tapping feet, drumming fingers or playing with your hair. If you’ve got time, get your friend to video you giving a mock interview. That way you will see how your body language changes when you are under pressure or answering tricky questions.

Confident people tend to have an open, friendly manner so another technique is to observe their behaviour – and then emulate it. Usually this method helps you to avoid sending mixed messages, too.

During the interview, you can create rapport with the interviewer by maintaining good eye contact and looking interested and alert. Don’t stare, though, as you will end up coming across as mad, bad or dangerous to know. Some experts also advise mirroring the way your interviewer is sitting and breathing but you need to be careful that you don’t get caught out.

Above all, don’t sway, tap your feet or hands, or touch your face, and avoid playing with pens, paper or anything else unnecessary as these all betray your nerves.

Last but not least, practise your handshake. You need to aim for a cool hand, firm grasp and good eye contact to create the best impression.

In short:

•Smile when you enter the interview room and maintain lots of eye contact throughout the interview
•Give a firm handshake as this shows you are confident
•Wait to be offered a seat and allow your interviewer to sit first
•If you are offered a drink it is wise to accept water as you can sip it if you dry up and it’s less fiddly than tea or coffee
•Look and sound enthusiastic and alert
•Maintain an open upright sitting position and lean forward slightly
•Speak clearly and loudly
•Think before answering questions. Listen carefully and don’t talk too much
•Keep a comfortable distance from your interviewer
•Do not slouch, fidget, scratch you ears or cover your mouth with your hands or fingers - or cross your arms in front of you

Dress to impress
Although the interviewer is assessing you on your CV, experience and skills they will nevertheless form an opinion almost immediately based on your dress and body language. We’ve already shown you how to improve your body language, but it’s crucial if you are going for a job in the hospitality industry that you are well presented with crisply ironed clothes, combed hair, polished shoes, clean nails and so on. If the journey to the interview is likely to be long and sticky, check out in advance if there is a public facility nearby where you can wash and change before the interview.

Take note that no matter how casual the operation is, you should always dress smartly and professionally for the interview. If you dress to show respect you will be respected in turn.

In short
•Dress professionally. An interviewer will respond more positively to you and an employer is more likely to recruit someone who will best represent their company
•Ensure you have clean shoes, hair, nails and so on

Plan your Journey
You really don’t want to arrive late for your interview. If you are nervous beforehand, just imagine how stressed you’ll be if you can’t find the address or miss that vital train – which is quite likely in an unfamiliar country or city. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to make sure no such disaster occurs.

The main thing is to get clear directions either from checking the hotel or restaurant’s details on the internet or from the HR department. Then plan your route, factoring in extra time for any potential delays.

It will also help if you aim to arrive at the interview 10 minutes early, this will prove your punctuality and time-keeping skills, as well as giving you time to freshen up and gather your thoughts.

Make sure you have the name and contact number of the person you are reporting to for interview. This avoids any unprofessional confusion when you arrive and also means that if for some unforeseen reason you are delayed, you can immediately ring to apologise and explain. Should it be obvious that you will arrive very late, you may need to reconfirm that they still want you to keep the appointment. If they don’t, suggest other dates and times when you are available.

The interviewIt would be very unusual if the interviewer didn’t spend a few minutes asking you about your journey, the traffic, the weather or other pleasantries before kicking into the formal interview. Be aware that although it helps you both to relax, this informal chat is still part of the interview and you will be assessed on the way you answer.

A big mistake many people make at this stage is to become over familiar or over friendly. You’ll also get off to a bad start if you they ramble on about how you got lost or stuck in terrible traffic. It’s much better to give short, friendly answers that hint at how well organized you are. For instance, by all means mention that the traffic was bad, but add that you had already factored that into planning your journey so it worked out well.

As you are applying for an international job, it is likely that you are being interviewed for a senior position. In that case, it is not unreasonable to address the interviewer by their first name if they use yours – or at least ask them how they would like to be addressed. If in doubt, don’t address your interviewer by their first name even if they use yours. The culture in many countries outside the UK - not to mention in large hotel groups – is formal, so it can be safer to use Mr, Mrs or Ms or any other relevant title depending on the nationality of your interviewer.

Be reassured that an interview isn't all about giving the right answers - in many cases there isn't a one. What’s more important is that you come across as confident, genuine and, of course, talented.

In short

•Be confident and sell yourself without being arrogant
•Let the interviewer lead the interview
•Remember to switch off your mobile

Typical interview questions

No matter how senior you are, it pays to do some preparation before the interview. To help you consolidate what you can offer your prospective employer, compile a list of your strengths and weaknesses, skills and achievements. Another smart move is to draw up a list of answers to typical interview questions and rehearse them.

If you don’t understand a question, ask them to rephrase it - most interviewers understand this. If you are asked a question you do not know the answer to, or if you don’t have experience in that area you could explain that it is an area where you are developing your skills. Usually the interviewer will respect your honesty.

Those of you applying for decision-making role may be asked your opinion on relevant issues. For instance, a hotel may have a policy about being environmentally sound, while a restaurant may have policies on sourcing local produce or using Freetrade suppliers. This is where your company research and interview preparation will save the day.

Read on for examples of questions they might ask and how you could best answer...

•What can you offer this company?Use this as a chance to tell the employer about your relevant skills - but remember to keep your answer short and succinct. If you are applying for a sales director role for a hotel group expanding in Asia, for instance, you might tell them: "I have a proven record in sales and considerable experience of developing new business for luxury hotels, so I am looking forward to bringing my expertise to Asia.”

•What do you know about this hotel/restaurant? Make sure you have done your research using the internet and by reading industry publications such as Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Find out about the hotel or restaurant’s size, type of customer, style of cuisine and so on.

•Tell me a bit about yourself
Don’t wax lyrical about your views on US foreign policy, stay professional. They are assessing your communication skills and ability to think fast as much as your personality, so impress them by preparing a list of your responsibilities in your most recent job, your skills, and a summary of your career and how your experience will benefit the job you’ve applied for. Don't be limited by the information you provided in your CV. There may be things that you didn't include but could be relevant to the role.

Why have you applied for this job? They really want to hear what value you can add to the role and why you want to work for the company, so do some research on the internet and re-emphasise your suitability for the position.
· What do you enjoy about your current job? The knack is to link what you enjoy with the key skills needed for the role you are applying for. Go one better and mention that you want to expand your experience in these areas.

· Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? This time-honoured question requires a well-thought-out answer. Demonstrate that your long term goals are a natural progression from the position they are offering – and underline your commitment to them.

Other questions you may be asked include:
•Why do you want to pursue an international career?
•Have you experience of living and working away from home?
•How do you respond to working under pressure?
•Do you like to work in a team or by yourself?
•What are you looking for in a company?
•What do you do in your spare time?
•How did you get on with your other colleagues
•What do you think you will do if you do not get this job
•What other jobs are you applying for and why those jobs
•What makes you tick
•What motivates you

Watch out for tricky questions

The key with difficult questions is to put a positive spin on your answers – and to be honest but discreet. Remember that many countries don’t have the same laws on equal opportunities so you may also be asked about your age, family life or other personal details. Here are some commonly asked questions:

•Why did you leave your last job? Always respond positively along the lines of: “I wanted to advance my career,” or I am looking for better opportunities for promotion,” or “I want more responsibility and variety in my job." Make sure that you can give positive explanations for any gaps in employment or where you have only stayed in a job for a short time
· What would you say were your weaknesses? Everyone knows that this is an opportunity to turn the question into a positive. Think of something that relates to your experience of work that is plausible as a weakness but is not really a negative point. For instance, "Some people think I am too obsessed about giving perfect service", or "I get too absorbed in sourcing seasonal produce for new menus".

· A request for confidential information about your previous employer Never get drawn into this as your discretion and professionalism will then be under question. You can always lightly point out that they would expect you to be equally discreet about them.

· Describe how you have dealt with conflict in the workplace This type of question aims to find out how you behave under pressure. Describe a difficult experience from a past job, but keep it professional and positive – try to illustrate how you learned from the experience

· Were you forced to leave your last job? If you’ve had a bad experience such as redundancy, sexual harassment, or clashes with colleagues, you will be asked about them either at the telephone interview stage or later in the formal interview. Always be honest, positive, and avoid criticising former employers or expressing grudges.

Prepare your own questions
Remember, the interview is a two-way process. This is your chance to find out if the company and job is the right fit for you, so you are entitled to ask a few questions at the end. It also underlines that you are taking the interview seriously and confirms your interest in the job.

Now is a good time to mention any relevant strengths that you feel have not been revealed through the interviewer’s questions. You could, for instance, ask if it would it be helpful to expand on, say, your knowledge of wine if you are applying for an F&B role. Use the time to show that you have researched the company.

It is a good idea, therefore, to have a few questions prepared. If the interviewer has already covered areas that you were going to ask questions about, you can ask for confirmation on certain points – which at least shows you are interested and paying attention.

To help you, here’s a list of possible questions:
•Could you confirm my understanding of the main focus of this role?
•Will the position also involve liaising with the kitchen brigade/front of house team/sales team?
•What level of budget is allocated to the department and how is it controlled?
•How does the department fit into the company as a whole?
•How long was the last post-holder in the position?
•Can you tell me more about the company culture?
•What sort of training or career development is on offer?
•When will I become eligible for further training
•What opportunities are there for promotion?
•How long has the interviewer been with the company?
•Why is this such a good company to work for?

Questions to avoid

· Don’t ask about the salary, benefits or holidays at the first interview but be ready to discuss these if your interviewer brings them up.

In short

•Be prepared. Research the company and prepare some questions
•Give clear and concise answers
•Think about the question before answering
Red alerts
It is important that you don’t:

•Arrive late
•Lead the interview
•Show a lack of knowledge about the company and the role
•Start to waffle if there are periods of silence
•Lie or exaggerate about your experience and qualifications
•Be vague in any of your answers incase it makes you look shifty
•Give over-long answers - if you feel the interviewer is not satisfied with your answer ask them if they want you to expand
•Discuss the salary at your first interview unless it is specifically discussed with you
•Criticise previous employers or jobs
•Get into an argument with the interviewer
•Give answers to questions that are not asked
•Lose concentration or fidget
•Leave your mobile phone switched on

Telephone Interviews
Telephone interviews are frequently used when applying for jobs abroad as they can help to eliminate people in the early stages before arranging potentially costly face-to-face interviews. For detailed advice, click through to XXX

Panel Interviews
This might sound daunting if you haven’t experienced one before, but if you remember a few key points you will be fine.

On the whole, it isn’t much different to a one-to-one interview. When you are introduced to everyone, make a mental note of their roles and identify who you would be working for. Then just remember to try to address everyone when answering each question. Stay calm, answer clearly and honestly and don’t forget to include illustrations of your skills in your answers.

After the interview

It’s clearly up to the interviewer to wrap up the interview but don’t forget to ask what the next stage is and when you can expect a decision.

Hospitality is a small world so if you decide you do not want the job it is important either to let the interviewer know during the interview or to write immediately afterwards.

Similarly, if you are still interested in the job you should send a note explaining that you enjoyed the interview and confirm your interest. Incidentally, this is a good opportunity to draw attention to any skills that perhaps you forgot to mention in the interview. So, you could say: “I have given some thought to what you said about handling budgets and …”

If you haven’t heard within a few weeks, by all means make a follow-up phone call to check progress - but don’t seem to be pestering.

In short:

•Allow the interviewer to wrap up the interview
•Thank the interviewer and confirm your interest in the company and the role
•Alternatively, thank the interviewer and politely explain that you don’t feel the position is right for you

If you don’t get the job

It’s hard to believe that you won’t get the job if you’ve got the right skills and you follow this advice. If the unthinkable happens, however, use the experience to assess where you could improve your interview technique.

Try to identify any factors that may have contributed to the outcome, such as lack of preparation or nerves. You can ask the interviewer for feedback and use any tips they give in future interviews.

If you would still like to work for the hotel, restaurant or contract caterer there is no harm in sending them a letter explaining that although you have not been successful on this occasion you would like to be considered for other related roles.

What you mustn’t do is become depressed or take it personally – let’s face it, there’s a lot of competition for international hospitality jobs so you have done very well to get to interview stage.

If you don't want the job

You might be in the happy position of getting several job offers, you might be given a job offer that you decide you don’t want, or you might change your mind about the company before you hear back from them. In each case, it is important that you get in touch immediately, ideally by telephone or email, explaining politely and professionally that you won’t be able to accept the position.

Top tip
If you get called to second interview or accept a job offer, it might be useful to ask some questions about your colleagues during the process. This will help to prepare you for the first few days in the job when you will need to be sensitive to who does what in the department and be aware of other issues.

You could, for instance, find out how long each team member has been at the company, what positions they’ve held, where they’ve worked in the past and what the hierarchy is. If you are at managerial level, you may also want to know if there is any romance or bad feeling between members of the team. Try to be subtle by slipping questions into the conversation rather than sounding that you are launching an inquest.

Good luck …

Source: Caterer Global

Reinventing the Grand Hotel—Fairmont Style

2010-08-23T22:48:00.006-03:00

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

Parent Company: Fairmont Raffles Hotels International

Headquarters: Toronto, Canada

Holding companies: Kingdom Holdings, Colony Capital and Voyager Partners Limited

President: Thomas Storey

Director of Global Accounts, Consortia, Retail Leisure & Luxury Sales: Leslie Dodson

Hotel Portfolio: Fairmont has 60 hotels in its global portfolio with many more on the way.

Website: www.fairmont.com

When is The Savoy going to open and what exactly is Fairmont doing with it? These are two questions receiving a bit of buzz in the luxury travel industry these days. The iconic London hotel has been shuttered for more than two years for renovations, longer than originally anticipated, thanks to a number of unforeseen construction issues that are bound to come up with a 121-year-old property.

That there should be such concern over a hotel’s reopening may seem odd, but in the case of The Savoy, like so many other hotels in Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ portfolio, many guests have an emotional investment in the place, having enjoyed an important family event or a memorable date there.

Fairmont executives are ensuring they protect such emotional assets by remaining true to the hotel’s history while making the product even more modern and luxurious. It’s a practice they follow with all of their iconic hotels. In fact, Tom Storey, president of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, says the real challenge in reopening a grand hotel is maintaining the loyalty of those in its community, “because many people have had the most important times of their lives in these places.”

The Fairmont portfolio is filled with iconic historical hotels that have served generations. Consider the stately Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, which opened in 1893 in Quebec, and its sibling fortress hotels in Banff Springs; New York’s Plaza hotel, which once again carries the Fairmont flag; the Fairmont Copley Plaza, which has been at the heart of Boston society since it opened in 1912; and the Fairmont San Francisco towering dramatically over the city atop Nob Hill.

But Fairmont is also about the new; by 2013, 40 percent of its inventory will be less than 10 years old. The company’s portfolio has grown from 35 in 2001 to 60 today and its pipeline is extremely robust (see sidebar).

The goal, however, is not to be big, Storey says, but about taking the company’s unique method of providing customer service and finding more places to do it.

“Of course, the physical aspect of the hotels upon first arrival can be very inspiring but it’s actually how the individual colleagues interact with our guests that really builds loyalty of the brand,” says Storey, who has held his position since 2008. That flows from a specific behind-the-scenes strategy. “At Fairmont, our colleagues don’t look down on the guest and they don’t look up to the guest, they look the guest right in the eye,” says Storey. “That’s the spirit of the relationship we want our colleagues to have with our guests.”

Fairmont employees are selected and trained to provide personalized service, he explains. “We really encourage our colleagues to find ways to surprise the guests in a way that’s authentic to them, but to do that, you have to have colleagues that really know their job, the hotel and the community they are in.”

So, who is the Fairmont guest? Research shows that it is likely someone in their mid-40s, making $150,000-$200,000 a year and married with kids. They’re usually a business professional or an entrepreneur, a doctor, lawyer or consultant.

“Our customer is probably a little less than the CEO, who has a particular persona and approach to the business,” says Storey, who likes the fact that “you can come into a Fairmont in jeans and a T-shirt and still get luxury service and feel comfortable.”

Which brings it all back to intuitive service and recognizing that luxury isn’t always about the finest clothes and the nicest car, rather, “about attention to detail, responsiveness and anticipating guest needs,” says Storey, who holds the view that the word “luxury” is often misinterpreted.

“A lot of people think about luxury as being about price, but what we have learned over the years is that luxury is in the eye of the beholder. More than anything it’s about recognizing the individuality of the person,” he notes. For example, someone coming from a secondary city to the Le Chateau Frontenac may not be staying in one of the top suites, but the experience of simply being at a grand hotel defines luxury to them. The hotel company recognizes this and operates with the simple mission to “turn moments into memories for our guests because at the end of the day, what’s a greater luxury than a fantastic memory?” asks Storey.

Those moments can be created by staff who recognize that guests travel for different reasons, hence, their luxury needs are constantly changing.

“For example, I go on a trip with my family and we are getting up for breakfast for a big day out. Luxury for me is how quickly I get the food on the table and feed my kids because they’re soon going to get cranky and start the day off badly. If I’m on a personal golf trip, however, and I come in after a round of golf, I don’t want someone rushing me through my experience. I want somebody to take their time, bring me a beer and chat me up on my golf game.”

Being able to read the guest can create luxury moments that can’t be scripted, says Storey, and that takes personal initiative from a hotel staffer. The hotel company’s commitment to service is fierce; in 2009, even during the recession, it rolled out the Fairmont Service Promise program, the most comprehensive service training program in its history.

When Storey asks guests for their definition of luxury, he says they never mention “consistency,” rather, it’s always “scarcity” and “surprise.” He goes on, “So, if you ever homogenize or commoditize what you are offering, by definition, it can’t be luxury.”

Fairmont has other important standards of luxury; its Fairmont Gold floors provide a “luxury lifestyle offering” where Gold Managers become virtual personal assistants for guests; they are usually members of Clefs d’Or. Of note, Clarence McLeod, the Gold Manager at Fairmont Washington, D.C., actually got ordained so that he could marry a couple; he also secretly tracked down and framed a photo of a guest’s son in his Halloween costume because he couldn’t be home in time for trick-or-treating. Some concierges have even gotten calls from guests who were staying with another hotel in another city, but knew they could be counted on for assistance.

Tom Storey is a true hotelier, enjoying 10 years thus far at Fairmont Raffles Hotels International. He previously enjoyed high-level positions at Marriott, Radisson, Doubletree and Hilton.

“For a company that is still relatively small in the grand scheme of things, it’s really been an exciting place to work,” he says of Fairmont. “There’s a little bit of a mentality in the company which I like. It’s little bit David and Goliath. We like being who we are; we like being small.”

Top Suites

There is also a physical side to Fairmont’s luxury offerings that comes in the form of its iconic suites. In the newly restored century-old Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, which opens this spring on the Bund, there are nine Nations Suites, with names such as the China Suite, the Canadian Suite and the American Suite. Each is designed to evoke the spirit of the respective country.

At The Savoy, there will be nine suites named and themed after personalities who have stayed there, including Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn. Likewise, The Fairmont Copley Plaza has a Boston Pops Suite and a Kennedy Suite. “You can almost go hotel by hotel throughout our system and a significant number of them have that touch and that makes Fairmont, Fairmont,” says Storey.

Community Pillars

Because Fairmont hotels, as in the case of The Savoy, often draw from the community, hosting major society events, celebrations and weddings, the general manager plays an especially important role in each hotel. As a result, a general manager’s tenure in each property averages about eight-and-a-half years, which isn’t bad for an industry where turnover can be high.

“It takes very skilled seasoned general managers to be able to operate and interpret the Fairmont value system of turning moments into memories, and doing it in a way where our guests can go from hotel to hotel and say, ‘I know I’m in a Fairmont but I also know that here I’m in San Francisco, and in New York and in Shanghai,’” says Storey.

Fairmont, whose parent company Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, is owned by Kingdom Holding Company, Colony Capital and Voyager Partners Limited, has evolved its business model over the years; where it used to own about 85 percent of its hotels, it today owns fewer than five and manages the bulk of its portfolio. At the same time, the company still is involved from the beginning of a hotel’s development, such as assessing its location.

Fairmont seems to be finding success in its partnerships; the seven hotels it’s adding to its portfolio of 60 this year represent significant growth. Its pipeline remains strong with five to 10 hotels expected to be added annually. “They’ll likely be new-builds,” Storey says, “because there are not as many existing hotels out there that make good Fairmonts.”

The Savoy is apparently an exception to that rule and, so, Luxury Travel Advisor couldn’t resist asking that burning question, “When is The Savoy going to open and what is Fairmont doing with it?”

The grand reopening is currently set for late summer/early fall of this year, says Storey. The hotel, which Fairmont has invested in along with owner Kingdom Hotels and the Halifax Bank of Scotland, has literally been under wraps as it’s undergone a two-year-plus, $100-million-plus restoration program.

Leading the design team is Pierre-Yves Rochon, the man behind the refurbished Four Seasons George V in Paris. Everything has been redone from top to bottom; its 268 guest rooms and suites, its public spaces, including its courtyard and the famed American Bar. New will be a Royal Suite and a completely remodeled River Restaurant. The Savoy Grill, which opened in 1890 with one of the first-ever celebrity chefs, Auguste Escoffier, now returns under the operation of Gordon Ramsay. A glass-domed winter garden gazebo will serve as the venue for afternoon tea.

An Art Deco Guest Room at The Savoy, which reopens later this year after an intensive restoration project.

Delays have stemmed from the historical nature of the building. “When you start making one change you realize that it affects something else and that affects something else,” says Storey. Nevertheless, it has to be done right, since all eyes will be assessing what has become of the iconic Savoy.

“We can never lose sight of the fact that in the minds of the people in London, it’s their hotel,” says Storey, adding that the situation is the same with New York’s Plaza hotel and Shanghai’s Peace Hotel.

“As far as they are concerned, if you had your wedding at The Savoy and 25 years later you are a prominent person in British society and The Savoy has not been renovated in a way that you are comfortable with, that can be very challenging,” says Storey, who believes Fairmont is definitely striving to do the right thing with all the various components of the hotel.

The obstacle with The Savoy in particular is that it originally wasn’t one grand hotel, rather, it’s a structure that came up in bits and pieces over its 121-year history. Original room sizes varied widely because larger suites were built for the traveler and much smaller units were meant for the traveler’s attendants. So, the structural changes have included reconfiguring the entire hotel. Engineering overhauls were necessary because the hotel at one point had added bathrooms onto the outside of the guest rooms overlooking the Thames River. Bathrooms have since been moved back into the guest rooms for unobstructed views of the river.

Moving all the plumbing and risers from the outside to the inside was complex enough, but things got even more challenging. “When we started moving the bathrooms, we realized that they had essentially built the rooms on girders that stuck out like a balcony, that were buttressed,” says Storey. “Over the years all of those beams were essentially compromised, so we had to re-buttress the entire facade at the front of the hotel.”

The prolonged construction process has actually allowed Fairmont the luxury of extra time to re-staff the property up to high-end standards.

“The great thing is that we have some senior Fairmont people who are from London, so they were trained there. They’ve gone back and re-energized their network,” says Storey. “So, we have a team there which is a great blend of Fairmont expertise as well as the cultural sensitivity of what it means to be operating The Savoy.” As a result, under the direction of General Manager Kiaran MacDonald, Fairmont has already signed contracts with a number of key people who will be brought in when the hotel is ready to begin its reopening process. Determined to run the hotel at a high luxury standard, the management has also resurrected its Training Academy (The Savoy was the first hotel to actually train professionals when it opened in 1889). All rooms at The Savoy will have access to butler service, and the head butler, Sean Davoren, will be brought over from The Lanesborough.

Luxury service will be key, since The Savoy’s competitive set will be The Dorchester, the InterContinental Park Lane and The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.

An equally important iconic hotel for Fairmont is the landmark The Plaza in New York. The hotel company regained management of the now 360-room hotel portion of the century-old property following a three-year, $350 million renovation that turned a good portion of its inventory into condo units. Storey says the refurbishment created some of the best hotel rooms in the city in terms of size and quality of materials used. The hotel’s famous Oak Room has reopened (often a venue where boldface names are spyed celebrating), and so has the Palm Court, which just reopened in April. It now sports a re-creation of the original 1907 stained-glass lay light, which was covered up during the Conrad Hilton years in the 1950s. Also back is its classy Afternoon Tea service; it’s also serving breakfast and lunch.

The Plaza’s Royal Plaza Suite is accessed via a private elevator and has views over Central Park South.

The executive management of The Plaza has people from some of the top Fairmont hotels around the world as well as from other world-class properties, says Storey. “It’s an interesting mix of people and, from a guest perspective, they have a challenge because the type of person who goes to The Plaza is like the person who goes to The Savoy. They are extremely demanding. They have a very high definition of what luxury means to them. Our team at The Plaza has to meet that standard.” That guest could be either, for example, Saudi royalty or an extremely successful entrepreneur from the United States—each demanding, with very different expectations of luxury service.

Defining Luxury

“We have to please some of the most demanding guests in the world but we have to do it in a manner which isn’t intimidating to many other people who view luxury differently,” says Storey, noting that Fairmont looks at luxury service differently from its competitive set.

For example, he says, that those at other luxury brands “might be more oriented toward saying, ‘I know that this fork is supposed to be this far from this fork.’ In their minds, if that doesn’t happen then that isn’t luxury. Whereas for us, whether one fork is the right distance from the fork next to it is not as important as whether we smiled at the guest and asked them how their stay was so that we could understand how to enhance their experience. Those are two very different definitions of excellence.”

Therein lies the Fairmont culture, which is deeply entrenched in its Canadian roots, says Storey. In fact, Fairmont was recently named one of the top 10 corporate cultures in Canada. “Our investment in service is really about helping people develop their brand loyalty with us based not on what we say, but what they experience,” Storey says. “And that’s very Canadian; it’s a culture that under-promises and over-delivers. It’s understated and that’s the way we do luxury. It’s not flashy. It’s scarce, it’s personal and it’s important to you. It’s not so that somebody else can look at it and say, ‘wow look at that, aren’t they driving around in a nice car?’ People don’t care about that.”

In The Pipeline

This year, Fairmont opens seven hotels worldwide. The Savoy in London reopens in early fall (see story) and the century-old Fairmont Peace Hotel, in the heart of Shanghai, has a soft reopening in May. This historical hotel has been resurrected to recapture the glamour it enjoyed during its heyday.

The remaining five properties are new, and include the 858-room Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel in Saudi Arabia, opening late summer/fall. The focal point of the Abraj Al Bait Complex, it has seven towers and is adjacent to the Masjid al Haram, Islam’s holiest site. The 76-story hotel tower will be among the world’s tallest and features a 130-foot tall clock, which will announce daily prayers to the Muslim world.

Fairmont Pacific Rim has opened in Vancouver. The oceanfront hotel is adjacent to the Vancouver Conference Center expansion. Fairmont Pittsburgh is open and is housed in Three PNC Plaza—a mixed-use building complex, which has applied for the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification. Fairmont Beijing is in its soft-opening phase. It’s set near the city’s major cultural, shopping and business areas, including The Forbidden City, the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Fairmont Zimbali Resort, on South Africa’s east coast, sits between a forest reserve and the Indian Ocean. It’s expected to open in time for the World Cup in South Africa, which runs from June 11 to July 11.

Fairmont’s pipeline is also robust for 2011, with two hotels opening on The Palm in Dubai; Hyderabad, India; the Philippines; Muscat, Oman; Al Fajer, United Arab Emirates; Sanya, China; and Marrakech, Morocco. Planned for 2012-13 are Vail, CO; Palm Desert and Monterey Bay, CA; Roco Ki, Dominican Republic; Corfu, Greece; and another hotel on The Palm in Dubai.

Fairmont Famous Agents

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has a long-term commitment to the travel advisor community, particularly in the form of its Famous Agents education and recognition program. The educational aspect of the program involves a short online lesson module and multiple-choice questions. After submitting an online application form, agents receive a personalized membership number, which can be used immediately to track client reservations and earn points that can later be redeemed for free room nights for themselves. Points are earned for reservations in all room categories and for wholesale bookings. Those involved in the program also have access to discounted agent rates, starting at $69.

Fairmont is connected to the luxury travel advisor industry in many other ways. Leslie Dodson is Fairmont Raffles Hotels International’s director of global accounts, consortia, retail leisure & luxury sales. She has been with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts for 10 years, managing accounts that include Virtuoso, Signature, American Express, and Ensemble. Dodson’s team also includes individuals who service VIP accounts.

As part of an effort to learn and develop a better understanding of travel professionals around the country, Fairmont’s entire North American sales team has completed specialized training with the Travel Institute to become Certified Travel Associates (CTAs). The team will continue to enhance their knowledge with additional accreditation through The Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) program this year and the Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) program in 2011.

Source:

Luxury Travel Advisor

www.luxuryta.com

Generation Y’s Green Hotel Demands

2010-08-12T14:26:00.002-03:00

Generation Y’s Green Hotel Demands

A new study of the workplace preferences of Generation Y (people born between 1981 and 2000) reveals some striking information - and provides an important heads up for green hotels that hope to attract this up-and-coming demographic.

Not surprisingly, Gen Y'ers want their workplace to have the latest technology and to be set up to allow for greater teamwork, creativity and multi-tasking. But an overwhelming number also expect their employers to provide an eco-friendly work environment that not just meets but exceeds minimum compliance standards.

For example, 96% of those surveyed said they demand an "environmentally-aware or friendly workplace," and close to 60% said they expect their employer to go above and beyond the regulatory requirements. They want more than just strategically-placed recycle bins - they want real water conservation efforts and the highest level of energy efficiency to be standard operations at work.

The report recommends that employers bring their green initiatives front and center, and that they make sustainability policies a meaningful part of day-to-day operations, because the eco-savvy Gen Y'ers are clearly on the lookout for environmental-friendliness in all aspects of their daily lives.

"[Gen Y] preferences for an environmentally focused working environment are very strong; not only in the physical aspects of the workplace, but also in their way of working: flexible working, travel patterns, etc.," said the report.

Are you listening, green hotels? Clearly, if the members of Gen Y are that determined to make eco-friendliness an integral part of their work-lives, they're probably equally determined to exercise that same level of sensitivity when making travel and lodging decisions.

And there will be no fooling this knowledgeable bunch. They've grown up alongside the environmental movement. They know green-washing and lax or phony eco-standards when they see them.

Source: Ehotelier.com

RECLUTAMIENTO EN ROSARIO - MIERCOLES 30/06

2010-06-28T00:44:00.003-03:00

Estimados candidatos de la Ciudad de Rosario, Santa Fe,

El día 30/06 en el horario de 10hs a 19hs, el equipo de The Seventh Star Group va a estar realizando un RECLUTAMIENTO ABIERTO, en la ciudad de Rosario, Santa Fe; con el fin de seleccionar candidatos para Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts.

Dichas entrevistas se realizarán en el Plaza Real Hotel, ubicado en la calle Santa Fe 1632, Rosario, Santa Fe.

Este RECLUTAMIENTO ABIERTO, no requiere pre-acreditación, por lo que los candidatos interesados pueden presentarse directamente ese día en el lugar sugerido, con su CV en inglés.

Les recordamos que The Seventh Star Group no solicita ningún tipo de tasa de entrevista por participar del proceso de reclutamiento.

Por otro lado, continuamos hasta el día 9 de Julio con las entrevistas regulares en BUENOS AIRES, MENDOZA y MONTEVIDEO.

Cualquier consulta quedamos a su disposición.

Saludos Cordiales,

The Seventh Star Group :: Hospitality is Changing
www.seventhstargroup.com
cv@seventhstargroup.com

RECLUTAMIENTO DE JUMEIRAH EN ARGENTINA

2010-06-12T20:39:00.005-03:00

Estimados Colegas,

Tenemos el agrado de comentarles que en el mes de Julio visitará Argentina, el equipo de Reclutamiento de Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts, con el fin de realizar un reclutamiento masivo para todas sus propiedades en Dubai (UAE), incluído el mítico hotel 7 estrellas, Burj Al Arab.

The Seventh Star Group es el agente de reclutamiento oficial de Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts en Latinoamérica.

Por este motivo desde The Seventh Star Group estamos coordinando las entrevistas previas para definir los candidatos finales que van a participar de dichas jornadas de reclutamiento con Jumeirah.

Les enviamos el listado de las posiciones a seleccionar:

F&B

Assistant Outlet Manager
Team Leader (F&B)
Waiter/ Waitress
Bartender
Restaurant Hostess

Front Desk + Otros

Guest Services Manager
Guest Services Assistant Manager
Guest Services Executive (Receptionist)
Team Leader (Guest Services)
Butler
Spa Therapist
Fitness Professional

Kitchen

Sous Chef
Chef de Partie
Demi Chef de Partie
Commis

Todas las vacantes ofrecen atractivas propuestas salariales + Paquete de Beneficios + Alojamiento incluído.

En nuestro site, se encuentran alojados los descriptivos de puesto de las distintas posiciones.

Vías para postularse:

www.seventhstargroup.com/starmaker
cv@seventhstargroup.com

Es importante aclarar que The Seventh Star Group no solicita bajo ningún concepto una tasa de reclutamiento o derecho de entrevista a los candidatos.

Saludos Cordiales,

The Seventh Star Group :: Hospitality is Changing

Más Información; www.seventhstargroup.com

Vatel lanza curso corto en Gestión Hotelera

2010-05-03T12:03:00.003-03:00

Vatel Buenos Aires, la escuela líder en Administración Hotelera, ha realizado el lanzamiento de un curso corto que profundiza la temática de Gestión Hotelera.

“CURSO CORTO DE GESTIÓN HOTELERA”

Objetivo General:

· Facilitar las herramientas teórico - prácticas para potenciar los conocimientos y

aptitudes de los participantes en todas las actividades de la gestión hotelera.

· Ampliar sus conocimientos de gerencia hotelera, optimizar su inversión y

conocer las nuevas herramientas utilizadas en el sector hotelero.

Metodología de la clase:

Clases teórico – prácticas complementadas con análisis de casos reales, experiencias laborales concretas, debates y trabajos de aplicación que permitan desempeñarse con

idoneidad en el puesto de gerente de todo emprendimiento hotelero.

Contenido temático:

Módulo 1: Operaciones Hoteleras: Front Office, Housekeeping. Administración

Hotelera: Recursos Humanos, Marketing de Servicios y Gestión de Calidad.

Módulo 2: Administración de Alimentos y Bebidas. Gestión de Servicios

Gastronómicos. Compras y Abastecimiento. Sistemas Informáticos de Administración.

Marketing para Alimentos y Bebidas.

Módulo 3: Finanzas, Costos y Presupuestos. Contabilidad y Costos Hoteleros.

Management de Proyectos e Inversiones Hoteleras.

ENTRENADORES

Reconocidos profesionales con amplia trayectoria en la industria hotelera.

Especificaciones del Entrenamiento:

Día y Hora

Sábado de 09:00 a 13:00 horas

Inicio

15 de Mayo de 2010

Cantidad de Encuentros: 12 (Doce)

Inversión :$ 1400 - Incluye material

Se entregará certificado de asistencia.

Contacto:

E-mail: cursos@vatel.edu.ar

Teléfono: 4813-0015

Web: www.vatel.edu.ar

Vatel - Worldwide Hospitality Award en la categoría “Mejor Programa de Formación”

Demand Turns the Corner in Central/South America

2010-04-21T19:56:00.001-03:00

London: Demand has returned to key Central and South American destination during the first two months of this year, according to data from STR Global, the leading provider of market information for the world's hotel industry.

Improvement in hotel demand, in terms of occupancy, tends to precede changes in average daily rate (ADR). This is good news for the region's hoteliers who shared tough market conditions during the last year as the global recession, the H1N1 (swine flu) virus and the recent Chilean earthquake dominated the headlines.

"We are predicting a year of recovery rather than growth", said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. "This is especially true for Brazil, which is ramping up for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics."

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the only city of the seven reviewed cities to report monthly demand growth last year. Buenos Aires, Argentina (October 2009), Mexico City, Mexico (November 2009), and Sao Paulo, Brazil (December 2009), started to report demand growth during the last quarter of 2009. Panama City, Panama, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Santiago, Chile, saw demand improving only during the first two months this year.

Demand (occupied hotel rooms, percentage change year-on-year)

Source: STR Global

The returning demand boosted occupancy levels in most destinations. Only Panama City (-3 percent) and San Jose (-2 percent) reported occupancy declines compared with the first two months last year. The increasing supply of hotel rooms in these two markets partly influenced this trend. Panama City (+8 percent) and San Jose (+5 percent) showed the highest supply increases of the seven cities for the first two months of 2010.

ADR continue to be under pressure with only Rio de Janeiro (+17 percent) and Sao Paulo (+28 percent) reporting growth in terms of U.S. Dollar. The appreciating Brazilian Real influenced the ADR growth as the exchange rate altered (e.g. from 2.37 Real to the Dollar in February 2009 to 1.86 Real to the Dollar in February 2010 (Source: Oanda.com)).

RevPAR percentage change year to February 2010

Source: STR Global ( www.strglobal.com)

Rogério Fasano: O Bom é ser clássico

2010-03-29T19:10:00.003-03:00

Entrevista: Rogério Fasano

O bom é ser clássico

A estrela do clã que mudou o padrão da gastronomia brasileira critica os modismos na cozinha e diz por que alguns restaurantes morrem, enquanto outros nunca envelhecem.

A história da alta gastronomia brasileira é a história do grupo Fasano, fundado em 1902. E a história do grupo Fasano, nos últimos trinta anos, é a história de Rogério Fasano, de 47, ex-punk, ex-estudante de cinema e atual nome por trás de nove entre dez empreendimentos retumbantes no universo dos hotéis e restaurantes do país. Devem-se a ele tanto a expansão do império da família, pelos mais caros metros quadrados do Brasil (e agora também do Uruguai – o próximo hotel será em Punta del Este), quanto a preservação do espírito da estirpe. Os prédios erguidos sob a iniciativa de Rogério Fasano não emulam o formato de bichos nem de frutas: são clássicos e elegantes, assim como o são os cardápios dos restaurantes que ele administra com obcecada dedicação. Lá, espumas e outros "modismos de estação" jamais terão lugar. A VEJA, o empresário falou da mudança de hábitos dos brasileiros à mesa, de comidas que vêm com iPod e explicou por que um pãozinho com manteiga pode, sim, custar 27 reais.

Desde os anos 80, o senhor abriu ou participou da abertura de quinze restaurantes de luxo no Brasil. No que diz respeito aos hábitos e gostos do brasileiro mais abastado, o que mudou?
Muita coisa. Na década de 80, quando abri meu primeiro restaurante em São Paulo, o hábito de reservar uma mesa, por exemplo, era visto como frescura, esnobismo. Os clientes também mandavam no cardápio. Diziam ao garçom: "Pede para fazer um filé à parmigiana". E o garçom não podia responder: "Desculpe, senhor, não fazemos isso". O cliente não estava perguntando se a casa fazia ou não. Ele queria comer aquele prato e pronto. Hoje, os cardápios dos restaurantes se impuseram. Outra diferença: 70% dos meus clientes jantavam com uma garrafa de uísque na mesa e, agora, 90% jantam com vinho. São Paulo, claro, já era uma metrópole, mas não tinha mais do que cinco ou seis restaurantes frequentados por pessoas de poder aquisitivo alto – entre eles, precursores como o Ca’d’Oro, que teve a ousadia de fazer uma culinária do norte da Itália nos anos 50 e, infelizmente, fechou no mês passado.

"O problema é o sujeito que pensa, como naquele lema do cinema novo, que basta ter uma ideia na cabeça e um sifão na mão para ser um grande chef. Para ser um grande chef, não basta ser considerado ‘moderno’"

Quando uma culinária deixa de ser clássica para ficar velha?
É uma linha tênue. E não foi o caso do Ca’d’Oro: ele não fechou porque a culinária envelheceu, mas porque foi engolido pela dinâmica da cidade e acabou ficando no lugar errado. Aliás, o mesmo ocorreu com o meu avô – nos anos 50, ele concentrou todos os negócios no centro paulistano, uma área que entrou em decadência no fim da década de 60. Para uma culinária se manter clássica sem ficar velha, é preciso que o preparo de certos clássicos seja atualizado. Nós mudamos a maneira como fazíamos os nossos risotos, por exemplo. Hoje, eles praticamente não levam manteiga nem parmesão. São servidos mais molhados, estão mais delicados. Continuamos dentro do clássico, mas de uma forma mais contemporânea. Agora, se um dia eu tiver de fazer espumas, como aqueles europeus, vou me sentir um derrotado.

O senhor se refere à "cozinha molecular".
Cozinha para banguelas, como diz o (escritor e colunista de VEJA) Diogo Mainardi. Mas nós ainda temos dentes! Eu costumo comparar esse assunto ao rock: você tem um David Bowie, um Talking Heads, que seriam os equivalentes à cozinha clássica. Aí aparece a música eletrônica, que eu comparo às espumas, e as melodias com letras passam a ser consideradas antigas, tolas. Mas chega um Radiohead, e o que ele faz? Faz uma música que consegue ser um rock clássico, com letra, só que mais atual e moderno do que o que era feito nos anos 80. Ou seja, assim como a música eletrônica não tem futuro, as espumas vão desaparecer sem deixar vestígios – ou saudade.

Os chefs de cozinha hoje têm status de celebridade. Isso é melhor para eles do que para os donos de restaurante?
O problema não é esse, e sim quando o sujeito pensa, como naquele lema do cinema novo, que basta ter uma ideia na cabeça e um sifão na mão para ser um grande chef. Para ser um grande chef, não basta ser considerado "moderno".

Até que ponto o sucesso de um restaurante está atrelado ao chef?
Olhe, pelo Fasano já passaram quatro chefs. Pelo (parisiense) La Tour d’Argent passaram dez...

O senhor já declarou que Claude Terrail, o proprietário já morto do La Tour d’Argent, é um de seus ídolos. O que o senhor admirava nele?
Passei três aniversários lá quando ele ainda era vivo. Quando entrava no salão, eu me arrepiava. Um sujeito que criou um ícone como o La Tour d’Argent! Sem contar aquela história de como ele escondeu, durante a II Guerra, mais da metade da adega do restaurante para que os alemães não achassem as garrafas. Emparedou tudo e passou noites com os empregados colando teias de aranha nos tijolos para parecer que elas estavam lá havia muito tempo, caso fossem encontradas. Até morrer, ele continuava indo de mesa em mesa, com a bengalinha: "Vous avez bien mangé?". Os três degraus que eu mandei construir no salão do Fasano, em São Paulo, são uma homenagem a Terrail. São como os do Tour d’Argent. Mas são uma inspiração, não uma cópia. Cópia, eu acho o fim. Um restaurante não é um comedouro. Tem propriedade intelectual por trás. Copiar é menosprezar o trabalho de quem concebeu aquilo.

"Nunca entendi esse termo ‘cozinha honesta’. O que é isso? O bifinho estava duro, mas o preço era bom? Comida é boa ou é ruim. Em relação aos bons ingredientes, não há milagre: custam caro"

Diversos ex-funcionários do Fasano abriram restaurantes que são muito parecidos com os seus. O senhor considera isso uma cópia?
Eu fico orgulhoso por saber que o Fasano é uma grande escola, mas acho que muitos desses ex-funcionários poderiam ter dado um toque pessoal às suas casas. O sujeito se apropria até do meu passado, chega a falar "buon giorno", ‘buona sera", como se tivesse origem italiana! Uma coisa é você ter tido uma escola, outra é sair de lá e copiar até a cestinha de pão. Tem proprietário por aí que apresenta o restaurante dele dizendo que é um "Gero 30% mais barato" (um dos restaurantes de Fasano). O que é isso? Inclusive porque ninguém faz nada 30% mais barato impunemente. Aliás, se existe um termo que eu nunca entendi é esse da "cozinha honesta". O que significa? O bifinho estava duro, mas o preço era bom? Em comida, isso não funciona. Comida ou é boa ou é ruim. E uma boa cozinha depende muito de bons ingredientes. Em relação a eles, não há milagre: custam caro.

Mas um couvert no Fasano custa 27 reais e é só um pãozinho com manteiga. O que justifica esse preço?
Isso é uma coisa que eu gostaria de esclarecer, porque ninguém no Brasil sabe o que é couvert. A palavra francesa vem do italiano coperto, que quer dizer, literalmente, "cobertura". É aquilo que o restaurante cobra para garantir a reposição do que ele considera importante oferecer ao cliente. No meu caso, o copo de cristal Riedel que custa 30 dólares e que cedo ou tarde vai se quebrar, a porcelana importada, a toalha de linho egípcio etc.

Mas isso já não está embutido nos preços do cardápio?
Não, o que está no preço da comida é o custo da comida. Couvert é diferente. É o valor cobrado para que o restaurante mantenha sempre a categoria do material oferecido. E esse valor vai depender se os talheres são de prata de lei ou de inox, se o guardanapo mede 60 por 60 centímetros ou 20 por 20 centímetros. Couvert não tem nada a ver com pão de queijo, manteiga, parmesão... Por isso é um erro essa recomendação que certa crítica gastronômica instituiu no Brasil: a de não pedir couvert. É um absurdo. Na Itália, não existe "não pedir couvert". Se você não quiser comer grissini, não come, mas o coperto está lá e custa, sei lá, 10 euros. E vem só grissini, nem manteiga vem, porque italiano come três pratos e é contra empurrar antes para o cliente uma porção de coisas que só vão desvalorizar a comida a ser servida.

O que faz de alguém um grande maître ou um garçom perfeito?
Sobretudo, o timing: a hora de saber chegar e a hora de saber sair. Nós somos um pouco contra o excesso de serviço.

Um exemplo de excesso de serviço.
Você pedir um café e a pessoa trazer uma carta de café. Você tem de parar, olhar, perguntar. Aí, sua conversa foi para o vinagre. A gastronomia é o ponto número 1 de um restaurante, mas você não pode esquecer que é lá também que as pessoas pedem as outras em casamento, se conhecem, fecham negócios, põem a vida em dia. O garçom que a toda hora pergunta se está tudo bem é infernal. Eu estive recentemente num restaurante considerado muito moderno na Inglaterra em que cada prato vinha com cinco minutos de explicação. Quer dizer, parece que você vai lá com um único propósito: aplaudir o chef – isso se você gostar da comida. Nesse restaurante, eu não consegui comer sorvete de bacon, entre várias outras coisas. Chegaram a me dar um iPod entre um prato e outro para que eu ouvisse música durante a degustação. São exageros que me dão ataques de riso. Não gosto desse excesso de modismos. Mas pior do que sorvete de bacon é o que eles chamam de fusion food. Cozinha tem fronteiras, sim. Espaguete italiano com molho asiático? Estou fora.

Que ingrediente jamais entrará num restaurante Fasano?
Azeite de trufas. Simplesmente porque não tem trufa. Eu amo trufas, mas as de verdade. O azeite de trufas é um dos modismos mais idiotas da gastronomia e tem gosto de petróleo. Outra coisa que não farei jamais é trazer chefes modernistas para fazer um jantar autointitulado "jantar do século". É muita pretensão.

O que você acha dos chefs ultrapopulares que fazem sucesso na TV, como o inglês Jamie Oliver?
Eu tenho resistência a programas de TV que mostram um crítico provando uma comida e dizendo: "Vocês não sabem como isso está bom". Acho um completo despropósito. Agora, quando ensinam a fazer comida, acho bárbaro. E ninguém tem o ritmo de televisão, a simpatia e o carisma do Jamie Oliver. Eu me identifico muito com a forma como ele vê a gastronomia. Para ele, um sanduíche pode ser de rara categoria, não é só a alta gastronomia que é interessante.

Alguns críticos dizem que ele não sabe o que é alta gastronomia.
Os críticos dizem também que o restaurante dele é muito ruim. Amigos meus que foram me disseram o mesmo. Nunca fui, inclusive porque não quero desgostar dele. Acho que o Jamie Oliver não deveria ter um restaurante: ele deveria concentrar-se em falar sobre gastronomia. Já eu jamais saberia fazer um programa de TV, até porque sou gago.

Qual é o grande prazer de ser um restaurateur?
Bom, antes de ter o prazer, vem a parte ruim: você não tem horário para chegar em casa, não tem fim de semana e sua vida familiar é complicada – tanto assim que os donos de restaurante que conseguem manter um casamento são raríssimos. Eu mesmo já me separei algumas vezes. Meu maior prazer é jantar às 2 da manhã no meu restaurante, abrir a última garrafa de vinho da noite com o salão absolutamente vazio, sabendo que esteve abarrotado até pouco tempo atrás. Há um quê de teatral nessa cena, é como se eu tivesse participado de um espetáculo ao vivo. Quando vejo que tudo deu certo, a noite foi bárbara e todo mundo saiu contente, o prazer é muito grande. Quase sempre fico até a última mesa se esvaziar e sei pelo "tchau" que me dão se foi tudo ótimo. Quando passo quatro, cinco dias sem isso, começo a ficar nervoso. Eu preciso desse último "tchau".

Source:

Revista Veja

Edição 2146 / 6 de janeiro de 2010

Can we trust hotel reviews on TripAdvisor?

2010-03-17T12:22:00.007-03:00

Can we trust hotel reviews on TripAdvisor?

If websites like TripAdvisor are riddled with fake reviews, where will the traveller go for authentic advice, asks Charles Starmer-Smith.

By Charles Starmer-Smith
Published: 4:49PM GMT 01 Feb 2010
The Telegraph (London,UK)
www.telegraph.co.uk

I used to wax lyrical about TripAdvisor. It represented citizen journalism at its best. Instead of glossy brochures and toned-down guidebook reviews, travellers suddenly had access to real warts’n’all accounts, from real people, paying real money. It certainly shook up the hotel industry. Hoteliers no longer had only to impress the undercover columnist, AA inspector or health and safety officer that would come knocking once or twice a year, but everyday visitors, every day. It worked – it really did.

Some alarming photos had warned me off a dodgy hotel in Brighton that seemed desirable on first appearance. It had helped drastically narrow my selection of hotels for a holiday in Nice and I had even consulted it to ensure that my choice of honeymoon resort had been given the public seal of approval.

But TripAdvisor is in real danger of becoming a victim of its own success. With some 25 million-plus users a month, it wields enormous power and the hotel industry knows it. Many within the industry are now doing all they can to manipulate its anonymous reviews. And who can blame them? A series of bad TripAdvisor reviews can ruin a hotel’s business. No wonder then that European hoteliers are seeking to persuade the EU Commission to overhaul the rules governing website reviews to ensure that they have been posted by genuine guests.

A report by the travel website, Travolution, this month, confirmed my suspicions that hoteliers are being approached by companies promising to post positive reviews on websites in return for monthly fees. The report claims that such companies can avoid the protection measures that websites have put in place, by posting the reviews from different locations around the world. The report even claimed that one hotel had received a number of reviews before it had even opened.

TripAdvisor says all reviews go through a screening process prior to posting, adding that it has installed technology aimed at detecting those who try to circumvent this process, as well as receiving regular reports from the TripAdvisor community alerting them to any suspicious activity.

We can all spot the obvious “fakes”: from the gushing “to die for, paradise revisited, greatest, most romantic” hyperbole to the liberal use of the exclamation mark and the minute details about every in-room furnishing. But do we ever report them? Who has the time?

To be fair to TripAdvisor it has already begun imposing disclaimers – in bold red type above the name of the property concerned – when reviews have come under suspicion of being fake. It admits that it is aware of several companies offering paid-for positive reviews and claims that they have been penalised appropriately.

But I fear that if it was possible to unearth all the fake reviews, there might not be enough red pen to go around. Like drug users in sport, the people committing the offences are nearly always one step ahead of those trying to catch them.

Ed Hasbrouck, the US journalist, reported that at the PhoCusWright marketing conference in 2006, one leading advertising agency was already boasting that it had an entire division “devoted to seeding online forums and bulletin boards with targeted content”, adding that its employees would spend months creating profiles and posting “neutral” messages to establish a credible background from which to post their "paid-for" messages. That was four years ago, you expect that the game will have moved on and up a level since then.

If that is the case, who can you really trust? Are some hotels being wrongly maligned or even going out of business at the hands of a few miscreant posters?

The key to TripAdvisor’s success is that it appeals to the average Joe who does not necessarily trust what he reads in brochures or guide books. But if people lose faith in the authenticity of TripAdvisor reviews then surely that would take away its raison-d’etre.

Arthur Frommer, the guide book publisher, may have had a rather big axe to grind when he claimed that TripAdvisor “contains within itself the germs of its own undoing”, but he might just have a point.

Please, Give us your opinion.

Support Disaster Relief in Chile

2010-03-03T14:39:00.004-03:00

On February 27, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile. Join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donation will help disaster victims rebuild their lives and their communities.

Ways to help:

http://www.google.com/relief/chileearthquake/

Getting the Best from your Employees

2010-02-06T19:30:00.004-03:00

Getting the Best from your Employees

By Enda Larkin

An interesting incident occurred during a workshop which I recently delivered for employees working in a busy hotel. During an ideas session on how to improve business performance, one talented, but extremely de-motivated employee, surprisingly suggested several positive things which would make a difference. When later asked why he had not previously told his manager about these ideas, his response was fairly blunt, but very revealing: "I don't get paid from the neck up".

Here was a guy who was so disengaged that he saw his role as being to do, but not to think. You might wonder why he stayed, or even why he was allowed to stay, but the fact was, he was there and was not contributing as much as he could to the hotel. Although an extreme case, he is far from alone; respected national and international research commonly shows that as few as 30% of employees are actively engaged in the companies they work for. It is a disturbing thought and not something to be ignored; lack of employee engagement is a hidden cost and it is simply not possible to achieve business goals or deliver excellence unless employees roll in behind that ambition.

Employee engagement has emerged as an important issue in recent years and whilst it might be a current ‘in' term, it's not necessarily a totally original concept. Issues like teambuilding, motivation, and empowerment have always been important and engagement is essentially an umbrella concept which pulls all these strands together. An engaged employee is not only happy in their job though, but translates that satisfaction into higher productivity. They believe in what the business is trying to achieve, are eager to help realise those goals and play an active role in making the company a success. Their job has meaning for them and they see a real purpose in what they do. As such, employee engagement involves addressing any issue which impacts on an individual's ability or willingness to give their all and concerns a range of factors such as individual motivation and commitment, team effectiveness, overall employee satisfaction and productivity. But what can be practically done to more fully engage employees?

This is perhaps one of the most commons questions that I get asked; in fact, it has arisen in one shape or form on every leadership course that I have ever delivered. So much so that it has become something of a personal quest to try and define what the key drivers of engagement are. There is no magic pill of course, but from comparing best practices seen in companies where engagement is high, I have come up with a list of twelve factors which all leaders need to be concerned with:

It should be obvious that no one thing will, on its own, fully address the engagement issue, but I have noticed that when leadership is strong, engagement levels tend to be higher, so effective leadership is certainly the most critical first step. As well as their own capabilities, to really engage their people, leaders also need to consider the remaining drivers:

Culture - Culture is intangible for sure but it has a major impact on the feel or climate in any organization. Whilst there is no ‘right' culture, there are certain environments which build engagement, whereas others do the opposite and leaders can play an important role in building a culture which draws employees in rather than pushes them away.

Composition - relates to the make-up of teams and all leaders need to pay close attention to how they recruit people into existing teams. Employees do not necessarily all have to like each other, nor will they, but there must be a general ‘fit' between all members; otherwise it is hard to engage them because who wants to work alongside a bunch of people with whom you have little or nothing in common.

Clarity - in this context means ensuring that employees understand both aspirations and expectations. Aspirations relate to the big picture and, as a basic building block of engagement, leaders need to help employees to fully understand where the organization is going and how they can contribute to that. Clarity is also required as to what is expected of employees, as nothing will destroy engagement faster than conflicting directions or shifting roles and responsibilities.

Competence - contributes to engagement in a number of ways. First, most employees want to build their skills and talents at work, so to increase engagement, leaders need to ensure that there are relevant and regular opportunities for personal development. Equally, all employees should be similarly competent at what they are expected to do. If not, others in the team have to take up the slack and this creates resentment, or worse still conflict, which can chip away at engagement.

Cooperation - levels of cooperation in teams are both a driver of engagement and a reflection of it. When people work well together they build bonds and trust increases and this in turn improves general engagement levels because most people prefer to work in collaborative environments.

Control - controlling how individuals behave within teams is critical to engagement because when certain team members are allowed to step out of line without consequence, this serves as a de-motivating factor for engaged employees as they question why they should bother. Equally, too controlling an environment stifles engagement because people sense a lack of freedom and autonomy.

Communication - is always key to the levels of engagement seen and where communication is regular, open, two-way and more importantly effective, employees tend to be more engaged.

Challenge - for most employees having a sense of challenge in their work is vital to how engaged they feel with the hotel. When work feels repetitive or mundane, employees naturally feel less engaged so leaders need to find ways to introduce a sense of challenge for employees.

Conflict - the manner in which conflict is managed can have a major impact on how engaged employees are likely to be. Constructive conflict, which leads to new ideas and better solutions, should be encouraged, but well managed, so that employees feel that they can speak their minds or contribute in an appropriate manner. Destructive conflict, on the other hand, which adds no value should be dealt with promptly by the leader; a failure to do so will impact engagement levels as most people hate to work in a poisoned atmosphere.

Compensation - in the broadest sense is about people feeling rewarded for the contribution they make. Pay and conditions of course an important element in this, but things like constructive feedback and positive recognition when deserved are just as powerful in terms of building engagement.

Change - how change is managed can also impact on the levels of engagement seen. Too little change can result in stagnation which destroys engagement, yet too much of it, or too much meaningless change can simply frustrate employees and causes them to disengage.

Apart from raising their own game, the best leaders also pay close attention to these factors because they know that in doing so they will not only build engagement levels but more importantly that this will in turn lead to greater productivity and ultimately better results. They understand that nothing can ever truly be achieved if employees do not buy into the hotel's aims and that lifting each individual's level of engagement, even by a small amount, can make a big difference; they really believe in the value of individual contributions or as Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, once said, ‘If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito'.

About the Autor:

Enda Larkin has over 25 years experience in the hotel industry having held a number of senior management positions in Ireland, UK and the US.

In 1994 he founded HTC Consulting, a Geneva based firm, which specialises in working with enterprises in hospitality and tourism. Since that time, he has led numerous consulting projects for public and private sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East.

He is author of Ready to Lead? (Pearson/Prentice Hall) and How to Run a Great Hotel (How to Books) which expands on the themes highlighted in this article.

Source: ehotelier.com

The Impostor Leaders

2010-01-26T15:25:00.003-03:00

The Impostor Leaders.
By Enda Larkin

'My boss really hates me' - Those were his opening words and then, clearly unhappy, this likeable and competent if somewhat timid young manager proceeded to describe the catalogue of abuse he suffered every day from his boss.

It wasn’t just the constant sarcasm and snide remarks. Nor was it the frequent personal attacks on him in front of others. It wasn’t even the unnecessary denigration of his work just to show him who was in charge which got to him. No, he could struggle through all of that and the rest. It was, he said, the sense of helplessness which was hardest to take. That and the loss of self-esteem he was feeling because of his inability to stand up to his boss.

Now, maybe your first reaction is that this guy should have been a bit more assertive and stood up for himself. And yes, he probably should have done so. You might also be thinking that he could have just jumped ship, but with small kids and a big mortgage his mobility was somewhat restricted. He might even have reported his boss; although ambition and the fear of being labelled a troublemaker meant that doing so would only ever be a last resort. In fact, it would be easy to blame him for his own circumstances.

And that is usually what happens because there is still a tendency to fault the victim, not the aggressor. Too often, the undertone of the message sent out to people like him is, ‘have you no backbone?’ This completely and utterly misses the point and that sort of attitude only shifts the blame away from where it belongs. It is the failings of the leader which should warrant the attention, not the other way around.

Working for a boss from hell can be soul destroying. They wreak havoc as they demoralise and dishearten, intimidate and insult or criticise and coerce. Left unchecked, they stifle rather than stimulate employee engagement causing untold, if at times hidden, damage to organizational and individual performance. Nobody deserves to suffer under a lousy leader, yet for many people it is a daily reality.

Let’s be very clear about something from the start. I am not, repeat not, talking here about managers who get it wrong occasionally, lose their cool every now and again, or lack some of the required qualities and skills to lead effectively. That is natural and indeed only human; nobody is perfect after all and everyone gets it wrong from time to time. What I am referring to though are those individuals who fail the leadership challenge, not just occasionally but continuously. I am talking about the Impostor Leaders.

Calling them Impostors might seem a bit on the dramatic side. But if you really think about it, that is precisely what they are. They are fakes, pure and simple; wolves in sheep’s clothing, you might even say, so the label is actually very well suited. Sure, they may pose as authentic leaders, holding the right titles and saying all the right things, yet they are far from the real deal. In reality they are living a lie, often without even realising it, because the way they think and act much of the time is the antithesis of genuine leadership.

Not all Impostors harm to the same degree of course. Some merely frustrate by their incompetence or negativity, whereas others inflict real and prolonged pain on those who report to them. Regardless of their severity, what distinguishes an Impostor Leader is that their poor performance is unremitting, not intermittent. For them, getting it wrong is the rule, not the exception.

The Good, the bad and the downright nasty

It goes without saying that there are many great leaders to be found at all levels throughout the hospitality industry. But, let’s be honest with ourselves too, there are a lot of Impostor Leaders hanging around in hotels and restaurants. Who are they anyway and what do they do that is so wrong?

Separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the leaders in our industry is no easy task as clearly none of them get it all right, or indeed all wrong; every leader’s performance is subject to peaks and troughs of some kind. But when judged over the long term, certain leaders do continually outperform others, and at times, by a significant margin.

Truly effective leaders are those who make a positive and lasting impact on business life; they are manaleaders, so to speak, because they can balance the management and leadership roles. They are so, because more times than not, they can find the right mix between three important dimensions of work – People, Process and Performance. The best leaders continually do two things well:

Sticking with this engage to achieve concept, I have seen over the years how it is possible to distinguish true leaders from Impostors based on how well they cope with this interrelationship and have defined eight leader types into a new framework which I call The Leadership Wheel.

The Wheel, shown below, identifies four broad categories of leaders according to their ability to intertwine the leadership (engage) and management (achieve) roles. I do not intend The Wheel to be viewed as a personality profile of leaders, but it does describe the general types commonly found, based on how they consistently perform and behave over the long term.

Where a leader sits on the Wheel most of the time results from their capacity to engage or alienate their people plotted against their propensity to achieve or underachieve when it comes to results. The center of the Wheel shows the four categories of leaders:

Genuine Leaders
Nearly Leaders
Deflating Impostors
Toxic Impostors

The Wheel highlights that there are two groupings of what are deemed positive leaders – Genuine and Nearly – with two classes of Impostors – Deflating and Toxic – those who underperform with regard to engaging employees, achieving results or indeed both. The inner ring of the wheel shows the most common type of leader found in each category whilst the outer ring shows the minority, which, in the case of the Genuine Leaders, means that Nurturers are the most prevalent whereas Stars are less often seen.

The Impostors Leaders do not necessarily ‘fail’ as such, for outright failure would not be tolerated for very long in any hotel today. What they do though is consistently underperform in different ways and for different reasons. They are designated Impostors not because of infrequent lapses; instead, they are repeat offenders and frequently display negative behaviors which cause them problems. More of the time than not, they are stuck in Impostor mode.

The Leadership Wheel - © Enda Larkin

The Wheel shows four general types of leaders found in any industry, based on how they consistently perform over the long term. Where a leader sits on the Wheel results from their capacity to engage or alienate their people plotted against their propensity to achieve or underachieve when it comes to results. The center of the Wheel shows the four categories of leaders:

Genuine Leaders

In my experience Genuine Leaders are those who possess the required talents to lead effectively. Far from perfect or infallible by any means, these leaders do however make a concerted effort to apply positive leadership approaches based on the notion that employees are partners, not followers. What impresses me about the Genuine Leaders I have met is that they consistently get the leadership-management balance right by focusing on the needs of their employees without taking their eyes off organizational goals; they are relationship orientated, but results driven. Generally, I have come across two types of leaders within this category over the years:

Nurturers

On first hearing this description, you would be forgiven for thinking that I am promoting these leaders are some sort of ‘mother-hens’, but that is not the case at all. Yes, Nurturers are balanced and team oriented individuals who show real concern for the well-being of their employees; they truly value their people. But when you interact with them, you also quickly notice that they are very determined to achieve high quality results and are never prepared to accept second best or shoddy performance. So, they do like to help their people grow and develop, but they also expect a lot in return.

Stars

Stars are always in the minority within organisations for they are the truly exceptional leaders. Stars have the same desire to engage with their teams as Nurturers do, but what sets them apart is that they also possess a strongly inspirational quality about them; they are those special few individuals who have a natural gift of being able to really lift others.

Nearly Leaders

Nearly Leaders are generally individuals who are doing their best to apply effective leadership approaches; they should, at the very least, be credited for that. I have found that, like the Genuine Leaders, they believe in engaging their employees and tend to succeed in that regard, albeit this can be short-lived sometimes. Unfortunately, due to a number of important failings, these leaders underachieve in terms of the results they deliver for the organisation. Again, I have seen two types of Nearly Leaders over the years:

Befrienders

Befrienders make the mistake in believing that if they ‘get on well’ with their employees then they will respond to this and that the work will be done to the standard required. Whilst this might seem like an approach that should work, it doesn’t in many cases because these leaders over rely on the bonds they have with their employees as their source of power and authority.

False Prophets

False Prophets have similar personality traits to Stars in the sense that they too are usually charismatic figures who have high energy levels and a natural enthusiasm for life; they are also extroverts who are energised by being around other people. False Prophets love the idea of a challenge and are good at getting people to buy into change and new ideas.

Unfortunately, unlike Stars, they cannot sustain those high levels of engagement with their teams because they suffer from the major shortcoming of lacking follow through, which reduces their ability to actually get things done. These leaders may be great at raising expectations but are not so good at delivering results consistently over the long term.

Deflating Impostors

These guys are not all bad of course and generally they are not completely malicious characters. But their behaviors, intentionally and otherwise, tend to sap the enthusiasm and passion out of employees over time. Ultimately, they are not so good for people, process, or performance because they create a highly controlled, or at times stifling, working environment which increasingly alienates some or all of those who work for them.

This in turn means they have a greater propensity to underachieve in terms of the results they generate. Again you will frequently see two types of these leaders:

Damp Squibs

Damp Squibs are insecure and passive individuals who lack the self-assurance to fully empower their employees. Instead of creating a working environment founded upon autonomy and empowerment, they tend to over rely on direction and control. These Impostors, I have noticed, have a propensity to micro-manage their people to such an extent that they eventually become frustrated with the lack of freedom. They are the type of leaders who will who will ‘delegate’ a task to an employee but will then essentially stand over their shoulder while they do it, driving them around the twist with their finicky behaviour.

Dark Clouds

In my experience, these Impostors are predominantly unhappy characters who are dissatisfied with where their life is going, or indeed has ended up. They secretly harbour dreams of doing something completely different, or for the lazy ones, nothing at all. Unfortunately, their lack of drive and obsessive fear of risk prevents them acting on their desires; although, to listen to them the fault for their personal circumstances usually lies elsewhere.

As a result they are often glum and moody and are frequently the cynics in the organisation who have a tendency to wallow in self-pity. You rarely find these characters surviving in the Private sector, but have a look in the Public Sector and you will find a fair few of them.

Toxic Impostors

These leaders are a dangerous bunch. They can, and do, achieve positive results within the business but it is in how they do so that creates the problems. Toxic Impostors not only alienate their people but can inflict a fair degree of pain on some of them too, emotionally speaking of course. The Toxic Impostors that I have met broadly fall into two types:

Egotists

Egotists believe themselves to be charismatic individuals but that’s because they have usually mistaken charisma for arrogance; they use their misguided self-image and forceful natures as weapons to control those around them. Totally self-centred individuals, they may well be intelligent but are never as bright as they like to think they are.

Egotists are also strongly opinionated and will speak frequently and forcefully regardless of whether they actually have something of value to contribute. In fact, that’s often a secondary concern to them as being heard is generally more important than being right. There is no other opinion in the room of equivalent status as theirs, except that is, when the boss is around when they can turn into downright sycophants.

Bullies

Bullies are the worst of the Impostor Leaders. They can be bitter, angry and even unstable characters who dominate others through their threatening and intimating behaviours. Often mildly, if not severely paranoid, Bullies are overtly aggressive individuals who view work life as a constant battle, one which must be won at all costs. They seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others and sometimes it appears that they build themselves up by having someone else to knock down.

The goal of any business in the hospitality industry should of course be to seek to maximise the number of Genuine Leaders and weed out the Impostors over time. Sadly, this doesn’t happen to the extent it should particularly in small and medium enterprises.

The damage done by the Impostors is often overlooked but they are far from inconsequential when you factor in the cumulative expense of reduced engagement, lost productivity, higher employee turnover (particularly the talented ones), increased recruitment costs and so on.

If only more owners and managers would go to the bother of trying to assess the damage.

This article is an extract from Enda Larkin’s forthcoming book, entitled The Impostor Leaders, to be published later in 2010.

About the Author

Enda Larkin has over 25 years experience in the hotel industry having held a number of senior management positions in Ireland, UK and the US.

In 1994 he founded HTC Consulting, a Geneva based firm, which specialises in working with enterprises in hospitality and tourism. Since that time, he has led numerous consulting projects for public and private sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East.

He is author of Ready to Lead? (Pearson/Prentice Hall) and How to Run a Great Hotel (How to Books) which expands on the themes highlighted in this article. He may be contacted via www.htc-consult.com or at info@htc-consult.com

The Right Way To Sell Yourself At Work

2010-01-18T16:40:00.005-03:00

The Right Way To Sell Yourself At Work

How to self-promote without sounding like a braggart.

Growing up, my parents taught me not to brag. We rolled our eyes at the longwinded Christmas letters that chronicled other families' accomplishments. We bit our tongues when a neighbor compared her son to Tom Cruise. My mother would hang good report cards on the refrigerator, but stash them in a drawer when we had company. "No one likes a braggart," she would say. "Just keep your head down and work hard, and people will notice."

Well, not quite. The more time I spend in the workforce, the more I realize that my aversion to self-promotion can limit my career. I can't assume that people will notice when I do my job well. It's a career version of the old tree-forest expression: If a girl pulls an all-nighter and lands a big account, and there's no one there to see it, does she get promoted?

Like it or not, self-promotion is part of responsible career management. People who tout their own achievements land plum assignments and promotions. Actions don't always speak louder than words. (See also: "Why Men Don't Promote Women More," by Shaun Rein.)

Peggy Klaus, a communications and leadership coach and the author of Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, blames my squeamishness on "bragging myths"--the social, cultural and familial things that prevent us from talking about our accomplishments. People often fall into either of two equally unappealing camps: self-aggrandizing and boorish, or humble and ineffectual. It's hard to find a middle ground. But Klaus says that with the right form of communication, you can share your accomplishments without feeling like a thicker-haired version of Donald Trump.

To start, Klaus recommends perfecting a "bragalogue"--a short, pithy story that incorporates a few bits of information about who you are and what you've done. Use it as an introduction when you meet people for the first time. When I flinched at the suggestion, she offered a convincing counter. "If you were asked to describe someone you care about, you could wax poetic," she said. "Why can't you do the same thing for yourself?" She encouraged me to think of a few positive things that I could say about my work, and be prepared to share them during fly-by encounters with my boss.

William Arruda, the president of Reach Personal Branding, says that the first step in artful self-promotion is performance. "Building a strong personal brand isn't about telling people how great you are," he says. "It's about showing people how great you are." He adds that employees should understand where they can contribute the greatest value, and then demonstrate those things that make them exceptional. If you're creative, then draw on that creativity in team meetings. If you organize spreadsheets for every aspect of your personal life, then share your Type-A habits with your colleagues and become the office Excel whiz. Take on your organization's biggest problem. No one else wants to do it, so if you embrace that responsibility and succeed at it, people will notice.

If you're an introvert, enlist other people to toot your horn. "Rather than tell everyone what you did, find other people who are comfortable describing your role," says Arruda. The strategy works both ways. If you spread the word about your colleagues' accomplishments, they should do the same for you.

Accept recognition. When someone compliments your work, don't belittle your achievement by replying, "It wasn't that hard" or "It only took me a few hours." Instead, practice saying, "Thank you." Even better, show that you appreciate the recognition by saying, "Thank you. That's nice of you to notice."

Create a Word document to keep track of your achievements. Every time you accomplish something, jot down an entry. Include what you did and why it was important. When possible, show how that achievement helped your company. Include positive comments that other people have made about your work. Review your "brag bag" before sitting down for your performance review. In doing so, you may actually be helping your boss. "At this time of absolute chaos in the workforce, bosses are often doing two or three jobs instead of one," says Peggy Klaus. "They don't have the bandwidth to remember what you do every day." Plus, bosses like good news. Klaus says that when you have a great success at work, you should send your boss a short, enthusiastic e-mail with the news.

If you work hard, you need to make sure that people notice. Be proud of yourself, even if you don't look like Tom Cruise.

Source:

Helen Coster

Forbes (www.forbes.com)

Disaster in Haiti : Ways to Help

2010-01-16T23:05:00.003-03:00

On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donation will help disaster victims rebuild their lives and their communities. Google will also donate $1 million to help organizations provide relief.

Ways to Help:

www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake

130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010

2010-01-10T16:51:00.003-03:00

To help you prepare for the upcoming year, I’ve assembled my annual list of hotel marketing ideas.

They say 80% of results come from 20% of work. It’s more like 95% from 5%. I spend several hours blogging each day, yet my “120 Marketing Ideas for 2009″ was many times more popular than any other post I published this year. Thousands of people found this blog each month through this list of marketing strategies.

Well, today I’m going to create an all-new version for 2010…with even more ideas. I’m proud to present:

130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010

Strategy

90% of purchasing decisions begin online (Forrester)
Educated buyers now solve problems through Google searches
Marketing goals in the past: create brand awareness, target mass media, interrupt and repeat. Marketing now: create behavior change, create conversation, communicate directly
New goal: 100% engagement (not 2% conversion)
What should you publish online? Anything that saves people time and gives info that positions you as a good source. Understand what your customers need to know, and deliver it in a compelling way
What online channels does your demographic spend time in? Find out, then develop a strong presence there. Don’t make people come to you – put content where they already are online.
Think like a “content DJ”: use and reuse your content in many different formats: blog posts, email, newsletters, articles, PDFs, press releases, case studies, video, and social media updates
Spend the large majority of your time trying to reach the most likely buyers instead of the entire market. “The smaller the target, the bigger the bulls eye.”
If you’re small, you can be quick & nimble. Capitalize on that.
We have 3 jobs as marketers: obtain profitable customers, keep them, and expand their lifetime value
People admire complexity, but reward simplicity
Don’t do something unless you’re the best in the world at it. If someone else does something better, use their services. Focus only on what you do best, and outsource everything else.

Planning

The #1 failure in marketing plans: no clear measures of success
You must differentiate to avoid becoming a price-driven commodity
Not a lot of hotels know where their market position is. Define and position yourself.
On metasearch sites, hotels should move away from price commoditization by providing product-level custom messages to differentiate their offers
To find differentiating factors, thoroughly study the service you offer and interview the people that provide it
If you spend your resources like everyone else, you’ll get results like everyone else. Breakthrough campaigns often require unusual approaches.
Selling to your best guests is the best way to maximize profits. Setup systems for recognizing and rewarding these people.
Identify and test the key strategies your marketing plan hinges upon. The more facts and research you can include in your plans, the better. Hard data is far more valuable than guesswork.
Decide what success means to you. It’s different for everyone.

Website

Give visual priority to the most important elements of your site
Put your offer front and center – make it extremely clear (”What do you want me to do?”)
Booking modules should be prominent and above the fold
Create guest personas to help you develop content for each target audience
People scan web pages, and probably won’t take a long time to read all the text.
Include stunning visuals. People buy travel on emotion.
Write page content from the mindset of the customer. Use their language.
Publish guest comments, reviews, and feedback directly on your website
Leverage social proof. Everyone likes what everyone likes.
First impressions make or break landing page conversion rates
Provide “next steps” for all web content
Organic traffic provides you with a low level of control, so make sure these pages appeal to everyone. With paid search & advertising campaign traffic you have a higher level of control. Create landing pages that match the ad creative for higher conversions.
Use video to convey emotion or compelling visuals that are hard to show through written words
View your main website not as the final destination, but a hub to refer people elsewhere in your online network

Search Marketing

The top 3 results on a search results page gets 79% of the clicks
Result #10 only gets 3%…and appearing on page #2 and onwards means you are practically invisible
Travel queries have increased 40% in 2009 (over 2008)
SEO (organic search) can give much better returns than SEM (paid inclusion). According to Yen Lee of Uptake, 86% of travel sales leads are generated by organic search listings.
Don’t worry about how search engines work as much as how customers use web search
When someone types in a search query, they’re giving you the opportunity to solve their problem
The search funnel typically follows this pattern: Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase
Identify keywords that are relevant to your hotel, and popular with searchers. Use research tools so you don’t get mislead.
Consider targeting 2-3 word phrases that are more targeted and obtainable
Blogs can be your #1 tool for building search visibility
Organizations that blog get 97% more inbound links to their website, and 55% more website visitors according to Hubspot research
Reciprocal links less valuable than one-way, because it tells Google that you’ve arranged it, rather than earned the link through creating great content
The best incoming links are earned by merit. Create content people can’t help linking to.
“See SEO as a profit center, not a cost center” – Yen Lee, Uptake
“You cannot have a ’set it and forget it’ approach to SEO. Constantly create fresh content.” – Microsoft
Be diligent – search marketing is an ongoing process

Reputation Management

Your online reputation plays a huge role in the level of success you achieve
The majority of travelers today use the internet to make travel plans, and say the reviews they read from other guests influence their buying decision
Reputation management begins by listening to what people are saying about you online
Use tools like Google Alerts, Technorati, and Radian 6 to track praise and criticism
Monitor all important terms: your hotel name, any old hotel names, your restaurants, the names of your manager and concierge
Review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Qype allow management responses, and this is a good chance to participate in the conversation.
A recent survey by TripAdvisor/Market Metrix found that 85% of hotels have no guidelines on how to handle negative guest reviews published online
Develop your response policy ahead of time, and make an effort to followup with all feedback
Complaints can be an excellent opportunity to improve your hotel
If you get legitimate negative feedback, thank the reviewer for pointing it out…and explain the steps you’re taking to ensure it never happens again
TripAdvisor: The most important thing a hotel can do to improve rankings is provide a great experience for their guests
Effective online reputation management is more than just playing defense – it’s all about proactively building a positive buzz. Social media is a great way to begin doing this.

Social Media

The conversation about you will go on with or without you. It’s better to be involved.
Serve as a concierge of the organization – “how may I help?”
Start by figuring out your social media goals. Is it education? sharing? community?
Present your blog and social media presence as a way for people to connect with their peers, not just receive your marketing messages
Embrace a light branding approach – let your customers tell the story and build the brand.
“Guestsourcing” is the technique savvy hotels are using to involve their guests in the content production process. It’s the combination of user-generated content and crowdsourcing.
Guestsourcing can build loyalty and raise your online visibility. Active participation in content production creates a sense of brand ownership.
If you’re small, people may not be talking about your business by name….but they’re probably talking about your region and issues you care about.
Monitor who writes about the topics you care about. Build relationships with them.
If your online content sucks, you’re wasting your money and my time. Make something remarkable.
People love to look at pictures…are you giving people lots of pictures online? Encourage your fans to take & upload their own photos.
Add photos of your hotel’s design to the Hotel Design Blog
Hosting your hotel photos on Flickr increases your web presence, building awareness among potential guests
Use Creative Commons licensing on all Flickr photos to increase distribution
Introduce your staff with video interviews, and post to YouTube
Viral video is for generating buzz and awareness…but it’s not the best way to generate sales
Hyatt Hotels launched @HyattConcierge to provide 24/7 global concierge services via Twitter. Could you do the same?
Use Twitter search to locate people searching for solutions
Facebook marketing is all about “transitive trust” – reaching people through people. Helping your fans tell their friends.
Facebook isn’t about answers. It’s friends sharing with friends.
This makes Facebook a poor platform for direct marketing.
Facebook adds new features fairly rapidly, so take the time to educate your readers about how they can use the new tools.
Encourage people to like and comment on your Facebook content as much as possible to raise visibility.
Get a “vanity” personalized Facebook URL as soon as you can for search optimization purposes (you need 25 fans first)
Employee blogging is more powerful than executive blogging. According to Edelman research, readers find them five times more credible. Get your team involved.
Consider using multiple sites/blogs for each of the niche audiences you’re trying to reach
Use destination blogs to attract corporate and leisure travel planners. Especially in rural or remote areas, your biggest competition is not the hotel down the street but another location.
Get your social media fans to meet up offline as much as possible. “Tweetups” are a popular way to do this.
Create a social media management routine to ensure consistent participation
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

Advertising

Present a realistic picture of what people can expect at your hotel. (There is nothing worse than a disappointed guest)
Test advertising messages in low-cost online channels before investing in big-budget media
Monmouth Plantation shifted focus from low rates to selling their lavish experiences using “sensory overload” and enjoyed a 30-40% increase in response rate.
Test using feedback from your guests in your advertising. It’s more credible, and makes your ad stand out. Stories sell.
Educational-based advertising works best in today’s environment of empowered buyers
Audit your advertising performance frequently. Ineffective advertising must be stopped immediately.
OTAs offer international distribution and significant marketing budgets that can supplement hotels’ budgets when times are lean. Small & independent hotels should ride the backs of OTAs for these benefits.
OTAs get first-time consumers in the door for new brands. They may book later directly & become brand loyalists. According to Expedia research, for every booking made on their site, they send the supplier two extra direct bookings.

Email

Email may have taken a backseat role to social media hype, but it’s still a very powerful tool when used correctly. It is the cornerstone of permission-based relationship marketing.
Email usually has higher psychological value than other types of online communication.
Email is an effective branding tool for creating top-of-mind awareness
Email drives action and profits
Messages don’t always have to be sent to your guests and customers. Build systems to nurture partner relationships. Fairmont Hotels sends nearly half of their newsletters for other business partners.
You must create your lists organically with the explicit permission of your prospects.
Always provide a strong benefit for the person signing up for your list. Receiving updates (marketing messages) alone isn’t usually a very strong offer. Exclusive discounts and preferred service are more compelling.
Choose a publishing frequency that works for you. Too often, and people will unsubscribe; not enough, and they will forget. If possible, ask your subscribers how often they want to hear from you.
Test, test, test. Email marketing success comes through continual testing…and making changes based on what you learn.
Ideas for testing email campaigns include: sending day and time, frequency, personalization, subject and contents, prices, and call to action.
Segment your list as much as possible to deliver relevant messages.
Kimpton Hotels built lists around affinity groups for subjects like wine, pets, and dining – and increased average revenue generated by a customer email campaign from $70,000-80,000 to $350,000-750,000.

Press & Media

Traditional PR assumes media editors & journalists are gatekeepers
New PR understands consumers will decide for themselves what to view
Savvy “PR 2.0″ organizations are using social media to communicate with journalists and increase their media coverage.
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a 3 times daily email newsletter with dozens of ‘expert source’ requests from journalists
Involve your fans and customers in your PR distribution – get them to pass information along
Social Medial Press Release Builder can help you create stories to share via the social web
Linkedin and Jigsaw can be used to find reporter contact info and start conversations
Media on Twitter is a more focused directory of journalists on Twitter
Web analytics more important in consumer-directed PR than traditional PR measures of success

Customer Service

Getting a new customer costs approximately five times what it costs to keep an existing one
Make collecting guest feedback a top priority. Make sure employees understand the value of this.
Biggest operational challenge for hotels today is showing staff how company values look in action [Christoph Schmidt]
Never ask a guest “Have you stayed with us before?” Build a great recognition system so you know that answer already.
Collect as much information as you can about your guests. The more details you know, the higher level of service you can provide.
Offer free WiFi. As Rajul points out, it makes for happier guests, and just might help you rank higher in TripAdvisor.
Understand the power of consistency. This is crucial for building loyalty, and there is nothing worse than letting a customer down after they have a good experience. Use operating procedures and training to provide consistent excellence.
Build loyalty through offering unique amenities, not just slashing prices [New York Times]
Get inspiration from Ritz Carlton, which permits each employee to spend up to $2,000 to “move heaven and earth” to satisfy a guest – without obtaining prior permission

Going Global

60% of online searches are conducted in a language other than English (Forrester)
Potential guests from abroad prefer information about your hotel in their own language… even if they speak English
The best translator translates into his/her native language (watch for dialects)
On your website, don’t use flags to link to alternate language versions. Use text links in the top right corner.
Alternatively, present a one-time landing page when someone first visits the site that says “Welcome” in different languages. Use coding to remember the guest’s preference.
SEO optimize each page on your local sites for the local language.
Make sure to promote local content online (social media, etc) as well as the English version.

Measurement & Metrics

What is measured gets improved
Metrics can (and should) determine the direction you take your internet marketing campaign
New technology requires new metrics. Create new, insightful measures of success.
Metrics need to be put in context to make any sense. Raw data is useless unless it’s viewed in relation to something else.
Top email marketing metrics: open rate, clickthrough rate, and conversion rate (people taking the next step)
Top website metrics: average page views per visit, average time on site, booking engine abandonment rate
Use Analytics to show which keywords are most important to your website (by time on site, bounce rate, etc)
Determine which keywords produce the most conversions (sales), and build your search marketing plan around that
Always ask guests, “How did you hear about us?”
Build a statistics dashboard that shows the money. You must know which tactics are actually providing revenue.

Source:
By Josiah Mackenzie
Hotel Marketing Strategies

Best Hotels of the Decade

2010-01-04T18:58:00.003-03:00

If industries have good decades, for hotels the Aughties was no Nineties. The go-go Nineties gave us the rise of Ian Schrager and Amanresorts and W and exotic fantasies like Rajvilas and Singita and Las Ventanas al Paraíso. The Aughties, on the other hand, were defined by the contraction of development after 9/11; the growth of Asian and Middle Eastern cities requiring high-rise hotels that broke new ground but were far from groundbreaking; and a real-estate boom that fueled an endless stream of dull, mixed-use compounds in which hotels played second-fiddle to luxury residences.

All of which makes a list of the decade’s most important new hotels actually more interesting. For if the decade didn’t give us many new icons — and it’s worth noting that perhaps its most photographed hotel, the fan-shaped Burj Al Arab in Dubai, had its debut in 1999 — it was awash in micro-trends, most of which are still playing out. Herewith, a subjective take on the decade’s most influential new hotels.

Wheatleigh, Lenox, Mass. (2000) On sheer quality, the reborn Wheatleigh was probably the best hotel to open in America in the 2000s. It translated a concept common in Europe — thoughtful design, excellent food and cosseting service wrapped into a pedigreed country house — for Stateside sensibilities.

Mii Amo, Sedona, Ariz. (2001) The mainstreaming of spas was one of the most important trends of the decade, with every resort adding ever larger and more elaborate facilities. None was more successful than the spa master Sylvia Sepielli’s Mii Amo at Enchantment Resort, a kind of resort within a resort (itself an Aughties trend) that blended modern design, New Age philosphies and good old-fashioned pampering.

Viceroy Santa Monica (2002) Kelly Wearstler’s breakout hit not only launched a brand and a new star in the decorating firmament but also a design trend — a brightly colored, busy, eclectic mix with a heavy dose of Hollywood Regency — that turned the dominant minimalist hotel aesthetic on its head.

Dana Allen/Wlderness Safaris North Island Seychelles brought the eco-resort to new heights.

North Island, Seychelles (2003) The Naughties ushered in a host of new eco-resorts that spoke to our increasing desire to play castaway (while doing no harm), and this particularly stylish one took the trend to its apotheosis in seclusion (private island), conservation (reintroduction of species) and exclusivity (from 1,745 euros per person per night!).

3rooms, Milan (2003) This decade saw the emergence of the minuscule “anti-hotel” — properties with fewer than half a dozen rooms, discreetly serviced, but exceptionally luxurious and expensive — and none became more sought-after than this one. It is affiliated with the cult boutique 10CorsoComo and is emblematic of the increasing intersection of fashion and hotels (Bulgari, Missoni, et al); Azzedine Alaïa later designed the 3rooms outpost in Paris.

Amankora & Uma Paro, Bhutan (2004) Two different properties from two different companies (Aman and Como resorts, respectively), their influence was nonetheless collective: both opened within months of each other, and both marked the introduction of modern, intimate luxury to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, simultaneously putting a destination on the map and further expanding the range of the decade’s destination-collecting adventurers.

Rafael Vargas The Hotel Puerta America represented the pinnacle of starchitect hotels, yet was something of a flop.

Hotel Puerta America, Madrid (2005) Remember this one? The greatest expression of the decade’s obsession with starchitecture, this ambitious folly — each floor designed by a different blue-chip architect, from Zaha Hadid to Ron Arad — set the travel world on fire and then faded away (thanks to an odd location and uneven guest experience), proving that a hotel can be hugely significant and also something of a flop.

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Ky. (2006) The intersection of hotels and art in the Aughties is no surprise given the rise of contemporary art in public consciousness; this 90-room boutique hotel-art museum hybrid in a decidedly unlikely location represents one of the most compelling and thought-provoking fusions of the two worlds — and there’s another one on the way (in Cincinnati).

Courtesy of Ace Hotel The Ace Hotel in Portland, Ore., perfected the eclectic Americana style that continues to dominate.

Ace Hotel Portland, Ore. (2007) Although not the first Ace, the burgeoning brand’s second property was the first full expression of an aesthetic and philosophy — eclectic Americana, accessible prices, the cult of local, handmade, vintage, curated — that continues its reign in the worlds of design, fashion and culture.

Peter Hebeisen The Dolder Grand in Zurich was one of the most inventive redesigns of the decade.

The Dolder Grand, Zurich (2008) Lots of grand old hotels tried to reinvent themselves in this decade, but few did so as inventively as this one, wrapping a 21st-century addition by Norman Foster around the original 1899 building and achieving a delicate balance between traditional Swiss hospitality and modern amenities and services like a Zen spa.

Source: New York Times Style Magazine

2010 Lodging Report and Forecast

2009-12-15T23:58:00.003-03:00

REVPAR GURU’s Hotel Industry Predications for the Coming Year

By Bruno Perez and Jean Francois Mourier

It's almost time to close the door on 2009 and for most hoteliers, not a moment too soon.

2009 will be forgettable - at best - for many of the nation's hoteliers, from a disastrous first quarter to what is shaping up to be a less-than-robust recovery as 2010 fast approaches. Although we aren't pessimistic about the future state of the hotel industry, we also don't believe that the New Year will bring immediate relief. There is no miracle cure; hotels and resorts will likely grapple with depressed demand, lower rates, and anemic revPAR and occupancy figures for some time to come.

We do believe, however, that 2010 will present at least as many opportunities as challenges. The recovery will lean favorably on innovators. Forward thinkers, cautious optimists and those lodging enterprises that embrace a progressive philosophy will be well positioned for ongoing success. If we've learned one thing from this year, it is time to move from traditional methods used in our industry to more effective, more efficient ways. That is the only way the hotel industry can move forward.

In the absence of a crystal ball, below are our predictions for 2010 based on how we see the state of the industry at the end of 2009. These reflect a cautious optimism for the year, and highlight some areas we see as being very important as we begin a new decade and a new dawn for hotel operations.

Less is sometimes... less

Despite the recovery, hoteliers should be prepared to do more with less this coming year. Guests are likely to be stubbornly slow to return, at least not at the same rate enjoyed by the industry following the early-00's recession. Occupancy levels for the 4^th quarter of 2009 are projected to come in below 2008 levels, according to PriceWaterhouse Coopers, setting the stage for a lackluster start to 2010 in terms of occupancy (the report estimates a 55.2% occupancy rate for the 2009 fiscal year, well below 2008's 60.3%).

Considering these occupancy figures and the current credit environment, working capital (both operational cash flow and from borrowing activity) will be constrained, as demand and commercial lending continue to be elusive. Hotels and resorts will have to optimize what they already have in 2010; in terms of guests, this means putting a premium on incremental revenue derived from existing clientele; in terms of capital and infrastructure, it means maximizing revenue per existing square foot.

Though high unemployment suggesting a strong pool of applicants, hotels' staffing levels will probably remain well below what would have been considered normal just a few years ago. This will put pressure on managers to improve their systems, to relieve the operational burden on short staffs.

Auto, Automate, Automation

The staffing situation will highlight the importance of automation in key hotel systems. Though hotels may be cautious about investing in systems and software in this environment, automation in specific departments - particularly the revenue management department - can increase revenue per available room and ADR, and free up revenue management staff for proactive revenue management planning. Automation is a winning strategy for 2010.

RevPAR Resurgence

2009 was the year of salvaging occupancy, a trend best embodied by substantial discounts and rate cuts by the major chains. In 2010, as occupancy slowly picks back up (PwC predicts a rise in occupancy across the US to 55.8% for 2010), the emphasis will be more on revPAR, than lose-lose price wars. This follows the logic of doing more with less; the demand in the 2010 market will be such that artificial occupancy optimization measures (like deep discounting) will be unsustainable, making revPAR the metric that matters. And with revPAR off more than 16% off last year, this will happen not a moment too soon. Look for hotels to do all they can to bolster their revPAR figures, from improving or updating their revenue management systems to offering new ancillary services.

Building for a Recovery

Hotels should get back to making what investments they can in revenue-generating initiatives in the New Year. 2009 was a mixed bag in terms of capital expenditures for hotels. A slight surge in fitness center construction and renovation occurred at the end of 2008, which was both a response to guests' desires and created the potential for increased incremental revenues in the next 1-5 years. On the other hand, Starwood scaled back its capex for the whole of 2009. For many hotels, however, the recession-created lull in occupancy created an opportunity for development for the future. Look for this trend to continue into next year.

Supply Pipeline

Lodging supply actually grew in the third quarter of 2009 (again according to PwC, which revised its room supply prediction to 3.2% growth for 2009). While this indicates a trend upward, there is not likely to be a substantial upsurge in new hotel construction as 2010 opens. The pipeline of new room inventory, according to Smith Travel Research, is still intact, but only producing a trickle of new rooms coming online. This is actually trending up, but only slowly, and it is doubtful that 2010 will see a sudden influx of new hotels (the availability of financing for new construction is unlikely to improve until the latter half of 2010 at best, further limiting inventory increases in many markets).

ADR Rising

US average daily rates are, as might be expected from the published occupancy and revPAR predictions, forecast to increase slightly in 2010. Business travel, hit particularly hard by the recession, is poised to make a comeback in 2010, though probably not to 2007 levels. This, coupled with hotels' decreasing reliance on deep discounting to boost occupancy, will lead to higher average daily rates. Higher ADRs, along with occupancy optimization through effective revenue management, will in turn lead to improved revPAR and a recovery for the industry as a whole.

Information is King

Efficiency seems to be the watchword of every year, but for 2010 it is an imperative, and the only way to the type of industry-wide recovery we mentioned above. Efficiency in the internet age is particularly crucial to the effective leveraging of available information, particularly to improve rate setting and establish a competitive edge in any given market.

Revenue management systems that use information on competitors' rates- in a geographical area, not just within a comp set- as a basis for optimal rate adjustment will continue to gain favor. These systems will help hotels use available information to the greatest possible advantage, and help separate the leaders from the laggards in 2010.

Bit by Bit

In terms of revenue management - particularly over multiple online channels - the smallest variations in the offered rate can make the difference between optimized occupancy and revPAR and leaving money on the table. In a slow-recovering 2010, hotels will become increasingly attuned to the benefits of real-time rate adjustment, and invest in automated systems that can optimize rates on a moment-to-moment basis. This sort of incremental revenue enhancement will be the hallmark of innovative, efficient hotel operations that will thrive in the next 12 to 18 months, and allow them to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the only way that matters. On the P&L.

As with all forecasts, our predictions for 2010 may be end up being different to reality. There is still so much uncertainly pervading the global marketplace, and the lodging industry is no exception. We may yet enter a double-dip recession, or the so-called jobless recovery may prove too tenuous to support many hotels. We maintain, however, that the New Year will be dominated by revenue management optimization, a return to healthier occupancy and revPAR levels, and weak but not nonexistent demand.

More than anything, we think that innovative properties and chains will eke out a considerable competitive advantage over their lagging peers. There are always opportunities, after all. In 2010, the key will be seizing them when they present themselves.

Source:

www.ehotelier.com

www.revparguru.com

Vatel Buenos Aires :: Excelencia en Capacitación Hotelera

2009-12-04T15:52:00.005-03:00

Vatel Buenos Aires está ubicada en el Barrio Norte de Buenos Aires, zona muy segura, a 500 metros del barrio de la Recoleta y a menos de 500 metros de la conocida avenida 9 de Julio, famosa por su obelisco. Estamos dentro de un "Petit Hotel" clásico totalmente renovado.

Vatel es la única Escuela Hotelera que tiene un restaurante de aplicación, lo que permite un acercamiento màs efectivo al mundo laboral.

En promedio un 40% de los estudiantes son de origen extranjero, provenientes de más de 15 países diferentes.

Vatel es el primer grupo mundial de escuelas hoteleras y prepara a sus alumnos para acceder a posiciones gerenciales en la industria de la hospitalidad o en otras industrias por ser una verdadera Business School con especialización en Administración hotelera.

En su concepto de enseñanza Vatel ha desarrollado una estrategia que se apoya en la idea de que todo conocimiento teórico debe inmediatamente ser aplicado por la experiencia práctica.

La aplicación de los conocimientos teóricos en el terreno participa activamente en la formación de los estudiantes permitiéndoles enfrentarse a la realidad, prepararse mejor para su profesión y adquirir una experiencia esencial para aquellos que se orientan hacia una carrera internacional.

Frente a la evolución del sector de la Hotelería, Vatel propone dos programas complementarios adaptados a las ambiciones de cada estudiante y a los nuevos requerimientos del sector laboral. El estudiante de Vatel tendrá una salida laboral con cada diploma obtenido: a partir del tercer año con la Tecnicatura Superior y el Bachelor degree, en el cuarto año con el Master Degree ( y la Licenciatura actualmente en tramite con articulación Universitaria) y para los profesionales un executive MBA.

Esta doble valorización de sus conocimientos permite a los alumnos obtener el reconocimiento internacional de su nivel de formación en un sector que propone empleos en el mundo entero.

La Escuela Superior Vatel invita a los futuros estudiantes a descubrir la institución, sus carreras, su reconocimiento mundial y conocer las numerosas ventajas que le ofrece el grupo Vatel.

Informes: www.vatel.edu.ar // info@vatel.edu.ar

The Burj Al Arab is celebrating its 10th birthday today.

2009-12-01T19:51:00.002-03:00

The iconic sail shaped hotel officially opened its opulent doors on December 1, 1999 after five years of construction.

Standing at 321m, it was at the time the tallest hotel in the world, although that record has since been taken by the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea and the Rose Tower in Dubai (although this has yet to officially open).

The hotel, which was built on a man made island in front of the old Chicago Beach Hotel, boasts 202 suites and claimed to be the world’s first seven star hotel.

Since it’s opening, the hotel has been a byword for luxury and it’s famous outline has helped plant Dubai firmly on the world map.

It also featured heavily in one of the most iconic sporting photo shoots in history, when Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played tennis on the Burj’s helipad to help publicise the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 m (920 ft) offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40 m (130 ft) long concrete piles into the sand.

Engineers created a surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, but less than three years to construct the building itself. The building contains over 70,000 m³ (2,500,000 cu ft) of concrete and 9,000 tonnes of steel.

Source: gulfnews.com

Cornell cases in Innovative Practices in Hospitality

2009-11-26T18:16:00.004-03:00

Cornell Center for Hospitality Research
Cornell University - School of Hotel Administration

Vol 9 No 17

By: Judy Siguaw D.B.A., Cathy A. Enz Ph.D., Sheryl E. Kimes Ph.D., Rohit Verma Ph.D., and Kate Walsh Ph.D.

Executive Summary:

The first ten of a total of fifty cases of hospitality innovators presents a diverse group of concepts and companies, all of which have used novel thinking to meet marketplace needs, regardless of whether those needs are newly identified or longstanding. Although most of the innovations have been made possible by relatively new technology, all of them rest on a core concept of focusing on customers’ desires. Whether the innovations were developed by extending existing concepts or through discontinuous inspiration, they have been generally accepted by customers. The implications and lessons from these ten cases, Aqua by Grandstand, Brand Karma, Capella Hotels & Resorts, EnTrip, Hotels.com Visualiser, Luggage Club, Royal Plaza on Scots, Tastings, Tune Hotels, and VisitBritain.com, are valuable for all segments of the hospitality industry.

Download The Report
To view the whole report, please click on the link below

Cases in Innovative Practices in Hospitality and Related Services: Set 1 By: Judy Siguaw D.B.A., Cathy A. Enz Ph.D., Sheryl E. Kimes Ph.D., Rohit Verma Ph.D., and Kate Walsh Ph.D.

Sir Rocco Forte :: Hotelier of the Year

2009-11-23T14:37:00.006-03:00

Sir Rocco Forte.

For the 28th year, HOTELS magazine presents its Hotelier of the World award winners, as chosen by readers around the world. This year, HOTELS reaches across the pond for both its corporate and independent winners: Sir Rocco Forte of The Rocco Forte Collection

One could argue that for Sir Rocco Forte, the hotel industry runs through his blood. The son of a legendary British hotelier, he has carried on the family tradition. However, when forced to rebuild his legacy from the ground up, it is evident that Forte isn’t riding on anyone’s coat tails.

Several aspects combine to make a hotel stay memorable experience. Size matters, of course. The bigger the room, the bed and hydro-massage whirlpool bathtub—the better. The view, the restaurant and (for ambitious patrons) the gym all factor into how one responds on the comment card left on the bedside table—particularly when your clientèle is willing to drop several thousand dollars a night. Sir Rocco Forte must consider all this on a daily basis, and as one of Europe’s premier hoteliers, he has dedicated himself to the art of hospitality. Last year, he was inducted into the Hospitality Industry Hall of Honor at Conrad N. Hilton College in Houston.

He owns London-based Rocco Forte Collection, a group of 11 five-star hotels in Europe. While most European luxury establishments are smaller business ventures, typically owned by families or small regional groups, Forte established luxurious destinations in major cities across the continent. From the Brown’s Hotel in London to Hotel Astoria in St. Petersburg and The Charles in Munich, each property touts a stylized atmosphere, central location, and countless jaw-dropping amenities. However, in Forte’s opinion, the most important part of running a luxury hotel is the service. “I don’t think [the amenities are] so important,” Forte tells Brilliant. “Innovations come in the niceties of the service we deliver. [We] take a slightly different approach to each guest.”

Bebel Suite Bathroom at Hotel de Rome, Berlin. Photo by The Rocco Forte Collection.

Forte was knighted by the Queen of England in 1994 for his service to the United Kingdom Tourism Industry. With the exception of a brief acting stint as a teenager, he has worked a lifetime in the hospitality industry. Like many teenagers, summers and holidays were spent working for the family business. What made Forte’s childhood job exceptional was that his father owned a multi-billion pound hotel and restaurant company.

Italian-born, Lord Charles Forte founded the Forte Company in 1935, which, at the time, merely consisted of a milk bar in London. His business had grown to a chain of eight by 1940 and later merged with Trust Houses Group to become the massive Trust House Forte in 1970. “I worked very closely with [my father] for many years,” Sir Rocco recalls. “I learned a lot from him. He was a man of very high integrity. He was someone who had huge determination. He was extremely charming and polite and, at times, very tough. These are all things I think I’ve absorbed.”

In the early 90s, Trust House Forte owned more than 800 hotels and 400 restaurants, serving everything from fast-food to five-star dining. CEO since 1982, the younger Forte became chairman of his father’s empire in 1992, but soon lost the company in hostile takeover by the British conglomerate Granada. Rather than sit on a fortune and enjoy an early retirement, Forte opened his own chain of luxury hotels. “I was 50 when the Trust House Forte business was sold,” Forte explains. “I didn’t feel like retiring. I needed to be stimulated, and the stimulation I get is from business.” In 1997, Forte acquired the majestic Balmoral in Edinburgh, Scotland, a move that quickly launched him to get back in the game.

Landscape Suite at Vendura Golf and Spa Resort. Photo by The Rocco Forte Collection.

Though now only in its 12th year, the new Forte empire has re-established the luster once held by its predecessor. They are slated to open five new luxury hotels within the next three years, including one in Marrakech, Morocco, and two in the Middle East. Verdura in Sicily, named for the river that runs through the city, will open this year and introduce a new business venture for Forte: golf resorts. Set on 560 acres of breathtaking landscape and 1.3 miles of Mediterranean coastline, the resort will boast two championship golf courses, as well as a state-of-the-art hydrotheraphy spa.

The Verdura project has involved the restoration of existing buildings as well as the construction of several new ones. Like all other Forte hotels, the décor will prove a contemporary reflection of the history and character of its environment—largely due to Forte’s sister, Olga Polizzi. Like his father, Forte keeps the company a family affair. Polizzi serves as the interior design director for the company, and has collaborated with her brother on both new construction and restoration projects. “I try to build hotels that relate to the local environment, which is becoming more important to international clientèle,” he shares. “When I started my company, I had no sort of decoration for the hotel, but [Olga] had very clear ideas.”

Today, Forte plays an integral part in nearly every aspect of his ever-expanding company. He hopes to one day establish his brand of luxury in every major European city from Paris to Moscow and even venture to New York. Although an 800-strong hotel empire may be little more than family history, losing his father’s company resulted not, he confesses, without a silver lining. “Working in a big company, you have people doing everything,” he divulges. “With a small business, you’ve got to do a lot more yourself. I’ve always survived—I’ve absorbed things I didn’t even know … I’ve learned my trade, as it were.” A trade, it seems, for which he was born.

Source:

The Rocco Forte Collection (www.roccofortecollection.com)

Brilliant Magazine (www.brilliantmagazine.com)

Hotels Magazine (www.hotelsmag.com)

Latin American Hotel Construction Pipeline

2009-11-19T19:09:00.008-03:00

LE's Construction Pipeline - Executive Summary

LODGING REAL ESTATE OVERVIEW

As of the end of Q3 2009, the Latin America Construction Pipeline has a total of 482 projects and 83,291 guest rooms. After 6 consecutive quarters of declines, the Pipeline is at the lowest level yet for the current cycle and is expected to trend even lower.

Developer sentiment continues to be weighed down by the lackluster global economy, causing a fall off in leisure travel. Guest room demand is affected. There are big declines in room rates as well. Difficulty sourcing financing for new projects is also a problem. Consequently, New Project Announcements into the Pipeline are at a cyclical low and will likely continue in a low channel for some time to come. Conversely, Cancellations and Postponements are at a cyclical high at 74 projects, 25 of which were already Under Construction. Meanwhile, New Hotel Openings are forecasted to be at near peak levels for the next two years. All this points to a more deeply diminished Pipeline in 2012 and beyond.

LE NOTES THAT:

For Latin America as a whole, total Pipeline projects are down 10% QoQ and 29% from the peak in Q1 2008.
52% of all Latin America Pipeline projects and 54% of total rooms are already Under Construction.
Out of all world regions, South America has the largest share, 63% of all projects, of its Pipeline Under Construction.
50% of all Pipeline projects in the region are in South America. 140 projects/24,378 rooms, or 58% of projects, are in Brazil. With its recent selection as host country for the 2016 Olympics, Brazil may see uninterrupted lodging development growth well into the middle of the next decade.
Mexico has the second largest Pipeline in Latin America, with 111 projects/17,483 rooms, followed distantly by Argentina, with 39 projects/5,173 rooms, and Panama, with 19 projects/4,600 rooms.
InterContinental, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham have strong Pipeline counts with their high-end brands in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, particularly in the resort destinations and large urban areas. In South America, where the emphasis is more on upscale and midmarket brands, InterContinental, Wyndham and ACCOR are leading development there.

LE'S FORECAST FOR NEW HOTEL OPENINGS

New Hotel Openings peaked in Latin America in 2008, with 144 new hotels/24,237 guest rooms. New Openings are set to tail off temporarily in 2009, with 131 projects/ 18,620 rooms expected to enter as new supply. Room counts will then rebound, as the high number of New Project Announcements from 2008 and early 2009 come through the Pipeline as New Openings. LE's Forecast for New Hotel Openings calls for 133 projects/20,617 rooms to open in 2010, then 119 projects/21,986 rooms in 2011. The pace of New Hotel Openings will then dramatically taper off in 2012, reflecting falling Pipeline project counts.

Source: Lodging Econometrics (www.lodging-econometrics.com)
Ehotelier (www.ehotelier.com)

How Top London Hotels Recruit & Train their Staff

2009-11-10T15:31:00.008-03:00

How Top London Hotels Recruit Talented Staff?

What sort of staff do you want serving you at your London hotel?

As one hotelier once put it to me, the hotel business is simply “people serving people”.

So the quality and training of staff, particularly at the luxury end, is absolutely critical.

Different hotels have subtly different philosophies in how they recruit. Why should you care about this when you choose a hotel?

Because attentive and friendly staff are more likely to leave a positive imprint on your memory than any other aspect of your hotel stay.

Here’s a capsule summary of the findings from speaking to some of London’s leading hoteliers about staff recruitment:

One Aldwych. This iconic 5 star hotel believes that good service comes from the heart. When hiring people, they combine a rigorous assessment system with a significant dose of intuition. People are recruited as much for emotional intelligence as technical ability and, according to founder Gordon Campbell Gray, the ability to be “kind”. More about One Aldwych here.

Claridge’s (Maybourne Hotel Group). Service at Claridge’s is like “performance” as they need to excel constantly to excite guests. They look for staff with “exceptional energy, passion, dedication and professionalism” who are trained to “over-deliver” as consistently as possible. I also met the HR and Marketing Directors at Maybourne’s HQ, who told me that recruiting and retaining excellent staff was their number one priority.

InterContinental Hotels Group. People are hired according to the profile of each of their various brands. For example, for Holiday Inn they look for staff with a very different personality to those they’d recruit for InterContinental. There’s a lot of emphasis on their employees speaking the specific brand’s “language”.

Rocco Forte Collection (Brown’s in London). Sir Rocco Forte emphasised to me how he feels each individual has an innate sense of hospitality. He and his General Managers try to provide a positive example by coaching and training the right behaviours. Staff are key to the service philosophy, which aims above all to make each customer feel like an individual.

Le Meridien. I met the CEO of this group before the takeover by Starwood, though they still operate as Le Meridien in their Piccadilly hotel. The emphasis is on hiring people with the right attitude: those who enjoy the company of others and who can “engage”. The ability to anticipate the needs of guests is seen as critical.

Myhotels. The Chairman of this boutique hotel group (with hotels in Bloomsbury and Chelsea) believes you should recruit people who already have a certain warmth, as this is not something which can be instilled. They aim to create a “family” atmosphere among their staff.

YOTEL. They look for staff with good service skills generally, not necessarily with a hotel background. Indeed, the wording of their job vacancies makes them sound like airline jobs (”cabin crew”) rather than typical hotel jobs! YOTEL trains its people to serve customers in a friendly manner with the ability to work quickly under pressure, since fast turnaround is vital to their business model.

Hilton. I’ve visited the company’s corporate headquarters in Watford and have also met GMs at various Hiltons. They all have an enlightened, long-term approach towards training and developing their 100,000 “team members”. Hilton invest a lot of time and effort both in recruitment and skills development through “Hilton University” and other initiatives.

The Grove (5 star hotel near Watford). This luxury hotel recruits mainly for attitude, since they believe that everything else can be trained. They also focus a lot on staff retention and provide their people with benefits and facilities that will make them say “wow”.

Malmaison (4 star boutique chain). They aim to recruit people with a sense of fun and with potential for rapid advancement. The CEO believes in fast-tracking “stars” and in providing the best training in the industry. They invest a lot in their graduate scheme. More on Malmaison here.

The Lanesborough (5 star London hotel near Hyde Park). They recruit butlers whose sole role is to serve customers and to “create work for themselves”. The hotel’s Managing Director Mr Gelardi told me that this is an unusual attitude requiring very special qualities. He also believes strongly in highlighting staff behind the scenes, the people who often work hardest at a hotel whom the guest may never see.

How Top London Hotels Train and Retain Staff?

In an earlier article we compared how leading London hotels recruit talented staff and in this follow-up, we share research on how the same hospitality leaders go about training, motivating and retaining their best people.

There are big differences between various London hotels' people management policies

Here’s a review of findings from a set of personal interviews with hoteliers:

Rocco Forte Collection (Brown’s in London).

Sir Rocco Forte’s hotels have good staff retention but he told me there’s “no magic answer” to explain this.

The emphasis is on good training, direct communication, making jobs interesting, providing good remuneration and fostering a sense of belonging as well as a pleasant working environment.

Intercontinental Hotels Group.

This company follows some creative approaches e.g. “Learning Maps” to encourage staff to make a journey through the hotel in the customer’s shoes. Since staff must follow each brand’s tone and style, training (like recruitment) is very brand-driven. Their global scale allows them to offer international career opportunities.

They have an “Employee Room Benefit Programme” to allow staff to stay at any of their hotels worldwide at heavily-discounted rates.

InterContinental Hotels Group instils a universal set of behaviours called “Winning Ways” which build on the individual's natural personality

Claridge’s (Maybourne Hotel Group).

Their competitive edge is the ability to recognise returning guests and provide personalised service. A lot of hard work and preparation goes into this.

Staff feel motivated to nurture a bond with regular guests and are expected to have “the ability to create a magical experience” as the company puts it. Training is often based on feedback from mystery shopping. Exceptional team members are used as “role models” to mentor new recruits.

A Claridge’s employee told me that working there is a little bit like performing in a top London show.

Hilton.

A large part of Hilton’s famous consistency springs from a global approach to training – with the online “Hilton University” a prime example. This promotes a set of shared values which in turn creates a feeling of pride in working for the company.

A lot of emphasis is placed on coaching General Managers to act as good role models for their staff. Further evidence is provided in our review of the best Hiltons in London.

The Lanesborough (exclusive luxury hotel with free hi-tech amenities).

Managing Director Geoffrey Gelardi puts emphasis on “leadership by example” and says “training has to be something people do every day”. This pragmatic approach is reinforced by regular meetings where all are encouraged to come up with new ideas.

Mr Gelardi has been in the job for a remarkable 18 years: no wonder there is strong loyalty among his staff.

Red Carnation Hotel Collection (independent chain).

This group has an impressive 4 hotels in the current top 6 London hotels on TripAdvisor. Guest comments consistently highlight the friendly and enthusiastic staff. The Group’s CEO recently told me they recruit individuals with a certain flair and then train them tirelessly.

On the first day of induction for example, each staff member is served their favourite drink at lunch having only revealed this information an hour or two earlier – these are just the types of nice surprise they want to spring on their guests. The core management team is very stable, itself setting a great example to retain staff.

With most of its London hotels in TripAdvisor's top 10, Red Carnation Hotel Collection is clearly doing something right in how it trains and motivates its staff

Malmaison (4 star boutique chain).

A cheeky sense of fun is strongly emphasised at Malmaison. As the CEO himself puts it: “If it’s not fun we’ll make it fun!”

This is reflected in the service experience delivered to guests and also creates a culture in which staff are encouraged to enjoy their everyday jobs. The company strongly emphasises product-oriented training in partnership with suppliers (e.g. bar staff might go to the Macallan Distillery in Scotland to learn about malt whiskey): an innovative approach.

The Grove (5 star hotel near Watford).

This hotel encourages technical excellence to promote a sense of pride at work. They believe that good guest service comes from treating staff well and instilling a common set of values.

I’ve visited the hotel a number of times and saw first-hand its outstanding work environment (helped by the fact that it’s surrounded by lovely green space). The company has invested significantly to go the extra mile in accommodating staff concerns like housing, wellbeing and childcare.

One Aldwych (iconic 5 star hotel).

Founder Gordon Campbell-Gray believes that the key to running a good hotel is: “love your staff”. Staff are encouraged to serve in their own natural way with “kindness” and “from the heart”. There are no stale service scripts at One Aldwych. Another bedrock of their philosophy is to encourage open communication between team members.

There’s also an overriding ethos of equality at the hotel. This translates into an informal and unpretentious style of service or as Mr Campbell-Gray himself puts it: “a snob-free zone”. There’s a great anecdote about “silent ice” in our earlier blog feature on One Aldwych.

Staff at One Aldwych’s are trained to empathise with guests and get to work in a beautiful hotel, often called a “modern classic”

It’s clear from the above that there’s no single “formula” for retaining hotel staff and keeping them happy and motivated.

Indeed it is these distinctive people management policies and staff profiles which give each hotel its own very individual “DNA”.

Source: London Hotel Insight (www.londonhotelsinsight.com)
© 2009 Positive Partnerships Ltd - All rights reserved.

7* Leaders: Gabriela Otto - Directora Regional de Ventas

2009-11-09T11:51:00.011-03:00

Segunda entrega del Ciclo 7 Star Leaders con una profesional de amplia trayectoria en la industria de la hospitalidad.

En este caso tuvimos el gusto de mantener una charla con Gabriela Otto, Directora Regional de Ventas y Distribuición en Sudamérica para Sofitel Luxury Hotels (www.sofitel.com.br)

Gabriela Otto reside en Sao Paulo (Brasil) ,donde además se desempeña como Profesora en las siguientes reconocidas y prestigiosas instituciones:

* Senac - Strategic Planning and Hotel Marketing
* URM - MBA Gestión de Hotelería de Lujo
* Rio Branco - MBA de Marketing

También participa como columnista en los siguientes medios especializados de Hotelería, Turismo y Marketing de Lujo, para los siguientes medios de prensa de Brasil:

* Hotelería - Hôtelier News - www.hoteliernews.com.br
* Lujo - Gestão de Luxo - www.gestaodeluxo.com.br
* Marketing - Cidade Marketing - www.cidademarketing.com.br

Gabriela Otto, además realiza un importante aporte a la industria de la hospitalidad, mediante su propio blog (http://gabrielaotto.blogspot.com) en donde trata temáticas como Marketing, Lujo y Hotelería.

Los invitamos a visitar el mismo, ya que realmente el material aportado por Gabriela transmite toda su trayectoria y amplio conocimiento de nuestra industria.

Emanuel Da Silva: ¿Qué aspectos considera que son los más gratificantes de trabajar en la industria de la hospitalidad?

Gabriela Otto: Formar parte de un segmento de mercado tan dinámico y creciente, observar la profesionalización de las personas y disfrutar del orgullo de los profesionales hoteleros, ya son puntos importantes.

Pero en el día al día, lo más gratificante es el conocimiento de nuevas culturas, la experiencia con la gente que nos enseña el "espíritu de servir" todos los días y, todo esto, sin la rutina de una oficina normal. Podemos ver un ejemplo de lo fascinante que es este mercado,, en todos aquellos colegas que se "atrevieron" a tener una experiencia laboral fuera del segmento hotelero y, después de algún tiempo, volvieron a “su casa".

Pensando específicamente en mi área, las ventas, nada se compara a la satisfacción que nos dá cuando el cliente, que siempre se resistía a trabajar con nuestro hotel, hace la primera reserva. Por supuesto que esto se logra después de mucha persistencia (característica importante de un vendedor). Y cuando todo funciona a la perfección y la "promesa" del servicio es cumplida por la operación, se convierte en un cliente fiel. Sensación increíble!

EDS: ¿Cómo fueron sus inicios en esta industria?

GO: Comencé en hotelería sin ningún planeamiento. Estaba casi formada en Relaciones Públicas y quería empezar a trabajar.

Iba camino a una entrevista de trabajo (aún en Porto Alegre, mi ciudad natal en Brasil), cuando, casualmente, pasé frente al único hotel de 5 estrellas de la ciudad, en ese momento. Me encantó el ambiente, entré... y no salí más.

Por supuesto, el ascenso profesional requiere algo más que audacia juvenil (con equilibrio y límites, por supuesto). Experiencia en el exterior, posgrado en Marketing, clases de Inglés y Español, MBA y el gran deseo de aprender, también me ayudaron mucho.

Cuando me mudé a Sao Paulo, trabajé en grandes redes hoteleras, como Inter Continental y Caesar Park. En 2001, decidí aprender más sobre el mercado de “Leisure” y ampliar mis conocimientos. Para eso no hay ningún lugar mejor que Río de Janeiro. Entonces, me incorporé a la cadena Sofitel, donde estoy hace ya casi 9 años.

EDS: ¿Cómo logró superar los primeros obstáculos laborales que se plantearon en su carrera?

GO: Nunca tuve dudas sobre lo que quería y, con certeza, sabía que los obstáculos serian efímeros.

Pero dos cosas que ayudaron (y continúan ayudando) a pasar los momentos de crisis, es la capacidad de no llevar las cosas para el lado personal. Profesionalismo y ética arriba de todo.

En segundo lugar, el desarrollo de la capacidad de escuchar, que hace toda la diferencia en las situaciones más difíciles. Pero no pongo eso como un consejo, porque creo que es una de esas cosas que aprendemos con el tiempo. Aún estoy aprendiendo...

EDS: Según su opinión: ¿Qué diferencia existe entre el talento humano latinoamericano en la hotelería y el del resto del mundo?

GO: Podemos encontrar la mejor tecnología hotelera en los Estados Unidos y el refinamiento europeo en otras partes del mundo.

Sin embargo, en ninguna otra región, el huésped recibe una sonrisa tan espontánea como en Latinoamérica. La sensación es que realmente estamos recibiendo al turista en "nuestra casa". Esa diferencia hace que la experiencia del huésped se convierta en un momento único. Este "bien recibir" natural es exclusivo de nuestra tierra. Debemos estar orgullosos y destacar eso siempre que sea posible.

La creciente profesionalización de nuestra fuerza laboral, combinada con esta característica única y una increíble capacidad de trabajo en equipo, justifican la cantidad de hoteleros latinoamericanos que han sido invitados a trabajar en otras regiones del mundo.

EDS: ¿En qué aspectos y áreas se debería trabajar con el potencial humano de la región, para lograr mejores prácticas?

GO: Ya hemos mejorado mucho, pero todavía es necesaria una fuerte inversión en la formación de profesionales (técnicos y directivos).

Para demostrar que es verdad la necesidad de educación, muchos profesionales que ya han alcanzado altas posiciones en los hoteles están regresando a las aulas. Ellos han ascendido a posiciones por su experiencia, comenzando de abajo en las operaciones de los hoteles y hoy, sienten la necesidad de ampliar sus conocimientos.

Después de todo, las nuevas generaciones de hoteleros están conectados con el mundo, conociendo la distribución electrónica, sabiendo como utilizar la Web 2.0 para aumentar los ingresos de su hotel y muy conscientes de la competitividad del mercado.

El gerente/director que no acompañe esta "ola", talvez no podrá utilizar todo el potencial de este “nuevo” equipo que tiene a su disposición.

EDS: ¿Qué cualidades debe tener un líder para realizar una excelente gestión al frente de un hotel o equipo de trabajo?

GO: Creo mucho en el "liderazgo natural", en el líder y no en el “jefe”. Esa persona que puede hacer que los demás lo sigan para lograr un objetivo común, con plena conciencia de la importancia de su papel en el desarrollo de la empresa.

En segundo lugar, tener una visión amplia de los negocios ayuda a encontrar y aprovechar oportunidades donde nadie más puede ver. En este momento de crisis, por ejemplo, los grandes líderes se destacaron, porque sabían transmitir tranquilidad a su equipo y revertir las dificultades.

Por último y, en particular, lo que más aprecio en un líder, es la confianza en sí mismo y en su equipo. De hecho, la palabra "confianza" debe estar presente en cualquier acción de un gran líder.

EDS: ¿Qué desafíos plantea liderar un departamento de ventas regional?

GO: Mismo estando en la misma región, el idioma (especialmente los términos regionales) y la cultura de cada país, muchas veces, requieren atención.

Por supuesto la superación de objetivos, como en cualquier Departamento de Ventas, sigue siendo nuestro "pilar " más importante de gestión.

Sin embargo, entrenamientos sobre el mercado de lujo, un programa coherente de “cross selling” y un nuevo proceso de contratación de personal de ventas, basado en “performance” y en el perfil de "empresario" nos ha ayudado mucho para tener éxito en ventas.

EDS: ¿Considera que la crisis mundial fue una oportunidad para aplicar nuevas estrategias de venta efectivas, que de otra manera no hubieran sido consideradas en el pasado?

GO: Absolutamente. En general, la crisis cambió el “timing” de los hoteleros.

La venta "pasiva" prácticamente ha desaparecido. Muchas redes aprovecharon el momento (con razón) para invertir en formación, monitorear más de cerca la conversión de los negocios y mantener altos bonos por el buen desempeño, para su equipo.

Otro hecho importante fue la búsqueda de nuevos canales de distribución. Los hoteles que aún estaban "ensayando" un estudio más profundo o aún seguían cuestionando algunos “fees” para ganar presencia “online”, dejaron de lado todos los viejos paradigmas e invirtieron para estar, cada vez, más disponibles para sus clientes.

En síntesis, se ha beneficiado de la crisis quién no tuvo "miedo", quien se centró en su estrategia de distribución, mantuvo los precios, invirtió en marketing y valoró su producto / servicio.

EDS: ¿Qué desafíos presenta para la hotelería de Brasil la organización del mundial de Fútbol del 2014 y de las olimpíadas 2016?

GO: Según Luis Barreto, Ministro de Turismo de Brasil, la hotelería es una de las cuatro prioridades para la Copa del Mundo. Las otras tres son: la promoción, la capacitación de personal y la infraestructura.

Acerca de la capacidad hotelera, la pregunta que surge ahora es si habrá una sobreoferta de hoteles después de estos eventos. Aunque el mercado es optimista sobre el futuro de la demanda (que seguramente aumentará), tenemos que trabajar mucho de aquí en adelante para mantenerla consistente en el futuro.

Sobre la cuestión de la promoción, he escuchado muchos clientes internacionales que dudan del envío de grupos a Brasil (por la imagen del país en la prensa, que no siempre es buena), y que cambian por completo su opinión cuando visitan personalmente el país.

En otras palabras, tengo mucha confianza que, recibiendo aquí tantos "líderes de opinión”, la imagen de nuestro país cambiará definitivamente.

La inversión en la calificación de personas, en particular, me preocupa. La inversión del gobierno no es suficiente. Los hoteles necesitan implementar programas de formación y planificación de carrera con visión en el mediano y largo plazo, de forma consistente.

Sobre la infraestructura, se podría escribir páginas sobre lo que necesitamos, pero si se resuelve el problema de las rutas aéreas y aeropuertos, ya va ser un excelente comienzo..

En general, tenemos que felicitar al país! Necesitábamos de este estímulo. Como brasileña, estoy muy orgullosa de mí país por ser la sede de dos de los eventos deportivos más importantes del mundo. Como dije anteriormente, ahora es el momento de trabajar para superar las expectativas de todos… y mucho!

EDS: A su opinión, ¿Qué medidas debería adoptar UNASUR / MERCOSUR para fomentar integralmente al turismo de la región , las ventas de los destinos y la generación de empleos en la industria?

Entre los objetivos culturales, sociales, políticos y económicos de UNASUR / MERCOSUR, creo que la capacitación de profesionales y la promoción conjunta de los destinos podrían liderar las inversiones para incrementar nuestro turismo.

EDS: ¿Qué mensaje final le gustaría transmitir a las nuevas generaciones de hoteliers de Latinoamérica?

GO: Mi mensaje final no podría dejar de estar relacionado con la educación.

Como comenté anteriormente, aconsejo a los jóvenes hoteleros que no paren de estudiar y actualizarse...nunca!

A las cadenas hoteleras, que incentiven el desarrollo de sus profesionales. Y no estoy hablando de iniciativas aisladas, sino de un programa consistente de entrenamiento en conjunto con escuelas y universidades, por ejemplo. Todos van salir ganando.

Es la oportunidad para el turismo de Sudamérica! Y debemos aprovecharla!

Entrevista realizada por Emanuel Da Silva para 7 Star Hoteliers.

World's Largest Hotel Companies Ranking

2009-11-04T23:14:00.005-03:00

HOTELS magazine's annual ranking of the 300 largest hotel companies across the globe.

By Derek Gale, Senior Editor --HOTELS -- Restaurants and Institutions

While the world’s 10 largest hotel companies remain the same for the third year in a row, a few of these top 10 hotel giants marked significant milestones in 2008 and the first half of 2009.

For example, while 2008 seems to have been a relatively standard year of growth for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (No. 8 for the second year in a row), this year Starwood expects to add a total of between 80 and 100 hotels across its nine brands—giving it more than 1,000 hotels total—while broadening its geographic base to include hotels in more than 100 countries. “You can argue that the economic meltdown is a detour—and I would concede this changes our trajectory, at least in the near term—but the fundamental picture of our ability to grow around our brands is in place,” says Starwood President and CEO Frits van Paasschen.

Click here for complete coverage of the rankings.

Source: Hotels Magazine

USA Job Fair en Vatel Buenos Aires

2009-11-03T15:42:00.009-03:00

Estimados Hoteliers,

El gerente de RRHH del Grand Hotel Resort ubicado en la isla de Michigan’s Mackinac ( ver fotos) llega en Buenos Aires los 05 y 06 de Noviembre para un reclutamiento MASIVO en nuestro país. Esta feria es una real oportunidad en término de oferta laboral para todos los estudiantes en Hotelería y Gastronomía. además, tendrán prioridad y exclusividad sobre el reclutamiento para asegurarse un puesto para abril 2010.
Las respuestas se otorgaran en el momento.

Posiciones Vacantes:

Food & Beverage: Servers - Assistant Servers - Hostess
Rooms Division: Guest Services (Front Office - Reservations - PBX)
Security
Culinary
Landscaping
Recreations
Retail

* El sueldo base es de 8.49$ / hora con posibilidades de recibir propinas. Alimentación y vivienda son ofrecidos por el Hotel a un precio accesible.

Todas las entrevistas profesionales con el gerente de RRHH del Resort tendrán lugar en la escuela VATEL de Buenos Aires ubicada en Paraguay 1583.

Jueves 05/11/2009 de las 09:00 a las 18:00
Viernes 06/11/2009 de las 09:00 a las 18:00

Requisitos Obligatorios:

*Para participar, pedimos inscribirse en la lista de entrevista (costo USD10)
*Ser estudiante avanzado o recientemente graduado de hotelería gastronomía o turismo
*Poseer conocimientos avanzados del idioma ingles
*Redactar un curriculum actualizado en Inglés.

Contacto e Inscripción:

Vatel Buenos Aires - Escuela Internacional en Administración Hotelera & Turística

4813-0015

info@vatel.edu.ar

(Importante: Marcar como referencia de contacto a The Seventh Star Group)

7* Leaders : Mario Carricondo - Director de RRHH

2009-11-02T12:15:00.010-03:00

Se inicia el ciclo 7 star Leaders con un referente regional en RRHH dentro de la industria de la hospitalidad: Mario Carricondo.

Mario Carricondo se desempeñó en el pasado dirigiendo los departamentos de RRHH del Hotel Emperador y del Sofitel Arroyo (Ambos hoteles 5* de lujo de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Actualmente se desempeña como Director de RRHH para el nuevo proyecto del prestigioso grupo Accor en la región: El Hotel Pullman de la Ciudad de Rosario (Argentina), situado en un complejo que comparte con el Casino más grande de Sudamérica.

Se trata de un profesional reconocido por sus pares por los logros alcanzados en sus distintas gestiones, quién tuvo la amabilidad de transmitir su pensamiento reflejado en la siguiente conversación.

Emanuel Da Silva : ¿Qué aspectos considera que son los más gratificantes de trabajar en la industria de la hospitalidad?

Mario Carridondo: En líneas generales el aspecto más gratificante es el feedback recibido de los huéspedes por un servicio de calidad.

Respecto a mi trabajo como profesional de Recursos Humanos, la mayor satisfacción consiste en prestar un servicio concreto, desde el rol de facilitador, en la capacitación y desarrollo de los colaboradores, acrecentando desde esa responsabilidad el mayor y mas valioso “activo” del Hotel: sus equipos

EDS: ¿Cómo fueron sus inicios en esta industria?

MC: Mi primer trabajo en la hotelería fue en el Pre Opening del Hotel Emperador, de Buenos Aires, en el año 2000, un hotel 5 estrellas de socios argentinos y españoles.

Tuve la suerte de unirme a un equipo de profesionales provenientes de hoteles de cadena internacional, quienes fueron auténticos maestros de la hospitalidad. No puedo dejar de mencionar a Pablo D’Onofrio quien me transmitió, a través de sus conversaciones, la pasión por el arte de recibir.

Debo confesar que desde entonces, y cada vez más, estoy convencido que la industria de la hospitalidad es una de las actividades en donde la gestión de recursos humanos reviste un carácter absolutamente fundamental e irremplazable. Los Recursos Humanos son la “materia prima” de la hotelería, y es en esta industria del servicio en donde mejor se puede desarrollar una gestión de recursos humanos integral, completa y de gran riqueza de contenidos, métodos y resultados.

EDS: ¿Cómo logró superar los primeros obstáculos laborales que se plantearon en su carrera?

MC: Creo que los primeros obstáculos pude superarlos con reflexión. Hacer un análisis profundo del entorno, del escollo planteado, de sus causas, de las consecuencias de una inadecuada o errónea resolución y de los medios concretos y reales para subsanarlo constituyen el primer paso en el proceso.

Dar un a priori positivo, es decir, no subjetivar en esa primera etapa de la dificultad, esto es no buscar “culpables” constituye también un elemento esencial para avanzar en la resolución. Sólo después de haber encontrado la solución al obstáculo analizar las responsabilidades y aplicar las medicinas del caso (soy un convencido que la inmensa mayoría de los errores u obstáculos que encontramos se deben a ignorancia, falta de práctica o no aplicación del menos común de los sentidos que es justamente el sentido común y sólo en contados casos a mala voluntad).

EDS: Según su opinión: ¿Qué diferencia existe, dentro de la hotelería, entre el talento humano latinoamericano frente al del resto del mundo?

MC: Bien, la verdad es que después de tener tanto contacto con colegas (hoteleros y de recursos humanos) de diversos orígenes y de gestionar personas, las diferencias que noto son fundamentalmente de formación y actitud.

Francamente creo es muy positivo que en Latinoamérica (con las diferencias y salvedades particulares por supuesto) las personas son amigables, receptivas, hospitalarias por naturaleza. Es decir, el sustrato básico sobre el cual construir la industria está más que presente y muy desarrollado. Nuestros pueblos latinoamericanos son receptivos, amables, simpáticos y sensibles de un modo no visto en otros continentes como Europa o países como los Estados Unidos.

Es justo mencionar, a favor de estas últimas regiones que menciono, que poseen una formación intelectual más desarrollada que en América Latina (mayor acceso a la tecnología, mejor y mas frecuente manejo de segundas y terceras lenguas, acceso a bienes culturales patrimonio de la identidad occidental, etc.).

Alguna vez, en una entrevista con otro medio especializado, expresé que si bien es importante encontrar personal formado para el servicio, es mucho más elemental e indispensable encontrar personal con vocación de servicio, que disfrute recibir a otras personas y que valore el servicio de hospitalidad como su camino de realización personal. La formación (técnica, idiomas, ciencias, etc.) se puede impartir, lo actitudinal, lo vocacional en cambio no es transmisible si no se posee al menos en germen dentro de la propia persona.

EDS: ¿En qué aspectos y áreas se debería trabajar con el potencial humano de la región, para lograr mejores prácticas?

MC: Sin dudas en la formación técnica, jerarquizando la carrera hotelera como una real oportunidad de desarrollo. Es notable como, en la mayoría de los casos, la formación académica destinada a hotelería es llamada “carrera de corta duración” y alcanza niveles de tecnicatura solamente.

Afortunadamente de unos pocos a años a esta parte esta tendencia parece haber comenzado a revertirse con la aparición de carreras de grado y postgrados universitarios destinados a la actividad, aunque para mi gusto aun estas nuevas oportunidades todavía están demasiado focalizadas u orientadas hacia la administración y no tanto hacia el servicio.

En segundo lugar, y sobre todo en algunos países de Latinoamérica, se debe fortalecer la enseñanza de idiomas extranjeros, en primer término los usados en nuestro continente (español, portugués, inglés y francés) aunque no limitándose a ellos sino también a lenguas de países que cada vez más se constituyen como grandes oportunidades de negocio (pienso en el idioma chino, árabe y otros).

Creo que, también y sin detrimento de lo anterior, es muy necesario capacitar a nuestros recursos (los internos que ya están trabajando pero también aquellos que un día serán nuevos colaboradores) en conceptos tales como servicio, lujo, atención al detalle, calidad, respeto y apego a estándares,encauzamiento de la creatividad, elegancia, etc.

Estos conceptos, tan intangibles, pero tan observables en quienes lo poseen y en quienes carecen completamente de ellos, son cada vez más imprescindibles en nuestra industria y en un mundo globalizado como el nuestro.

EDS: ¿Qué cualidades debe tener un líder para realizar una excelente gestión al frente de un hotel o equipo de trabajo?

MC: Son muchas las que se pueden mencionar: creatividad, organización, visión del negocio, rápida adaptabilidad a nuevos entornos, ser un gran motivador, un buen comunicador, facilitador y gestor de un auténtico empowerment y del desarrollo de sus colaboradores.

Creo que el mejor líder de un hotel es aquel que consigue hacer que su unidad de negocios actúe exitosamente en su competitive set: llevar a su hotel a estar entre los mejores de su segmento, llevar a sus colaboradores a ser cada vez mejores profesionales y mejores personas, integrar al hotel y sus equipos en su ambiente (en sentido amplio y no restrictivo de la palabra) de un modo armónico y sereno, aún en medio de las turbulencias a la que todos estamos expuestos (crisis de los mercados, etc.)

EDS: Accor realiza a nivel mundial importantes inversiones en Training & Desarrollo ¿Qué opinión le merece que ciertas empresas de la hospitalidad consideren a este tipo de políticas como un “gasto”?

MC: Tengo la suerte de trabajar en una gran organización, Accor, en la cual nunca escuche a ningún responsable sostener tal consideración. Por el contrario, la gestión de Capacitación y Desarrollo es tan asumida y valorada por todas las personas del Grupo que realmente no es una responsabilidad que recaiga en una sola función (si bien como Gerente de Recursos Humanos una de mis principales responsabilidades es garantizar, favorecer y promover dichas acciones), sino que todos, desde el propio colaborador en adelante, todos somos responsables del crecimiento de las personas de la organización.

Lamentablemente existen empresas en las cuales el desarrollo es visto como un “gasto”, aunque creo que estas empresas son cada vez menos y tienden a desaparecer, justamente o desaparece ese concepto del entrenamiento como “gasto” o desaparece la empresa que así lo concibe, ya que en un mercado altamente competitivo y con clientes cada vez más conscientes de sus derechos y deseos, la capacitación es una de las acciones que más valor agregan al resultado del negocio.

Tuve la fortuna, en mi camino de formación y de ganar experiencia, de trabajar en alguna empresa que así “pensaba” y fue sumamente rico para mi, justamente por el camino de enseñanza “por vía negativa”. Reafirmó las razones por las cuales elegí desarrollarme en el área de Recursos Humanos.

EDS: ¿Considera que la crisis mundial fue una oportunidad para aplicar nuevas estrategias de Recursos Humanos, que de otra manera no hubieran sido consideradas en el pasado?

MC: Quizás en otras latitudes haya sido de esa manera, creo que en Argentina estamos tan acostumbrados (¿o mal acostumbrados?) a gestionar las cíclicas crisis del entorno, que no resultó tan novedoso afrontar la situación. Los gestores argentinos tenemos desarrolladas, creo y lo digo un poco jocosamente, unas extraordinarias competencias de “callosidad” para afrontar situaciones críticas.

Esto constituye sin dudas un factor diferenciador a nuestro favor frente a colegas de otros países, aunque también como contracara constituye una peligrosa situación de stress profesional que atenta contra nuestra armonía general como personas integradas.

EDS: Según su opinión: ¿Cuál es el impacto que generó la Generación 2.0 en las políticas de RRHH de empresas referidas a la industria de la hospitalidad?

MC: El impacto ha sido muy importante y cada vez más su dimensión se hace notoria. Sin duda alguna, el crecimiento de las redes sociales y su penetración en diversas fajas etarias, culturales y socioeconómicas constituye un factor que, como Gestores de RRHH y Empresas, no podemos darnos el lujo de soslayar.

Y esto no únicamente por la utilidad de las redes para el reclutamiento de talentos, sino también para otras áreas de trabajo dentro de Recursos Humanos: la capacitación, el Desarrollo, la Comunicación, la transmisión de Valores, la creación y difusión de la imagen e identidad corporativa, etc.

Es esencial que como empresas estemos presentes en las redes sociales, pero no solamente como actores “de reparto”, sino como polos de atracción. Debemos ser vistos y notados, a través de nuestra Identidad, Valores y prestigio, como “el” lugar en el cual es bueno y necesario “estar”.

Crear el deseo de pertenencia y de “enamoramiento” de quienes interactúen en las redes respecto de nuestra Industria de Hospitalidad constituye una necesidad competitiva si queremos aumentar nuestra participación en los resultados de la economía local y global y ser espacio de realización para los individuos y las sociedades.

EDS: ¿Cuál sería su consejo para las nuevas generaciones de hoteliers que están comenzando a dar sus primeros pasos en la industria?

MC: Simplemente dos cosas: que amen lo que hacen, que sientan pasión por servir, que se inicien en nuestra actividad absolutamente seguros de su vocación. Sólo así encontrarán su lugar en el mundo profesional, la realización de su vida.

En segundo término: que busquen ser personas integradas, dentro de sí y también con su entorno (familia, amigos, colegas, ciudad, medioambiente). En ningún caso, pero en nuestro trabajo menos que en ningún otro, tener compartimentos estancos e incomunicados (como personas y como equipos) garantiza otra cosa que el fracaso y la frustración. Ser una persona, un equipo integrado, por el contrario, constituye la garantía cierta de éxito profesional y felicidad personal.

Entrevista realizada por Emanuel Da Silva para 7 Star Hoteliers

1000 Miembros /// 1000 members Thanks to You

2009-10-30T19:12:00.003-03:00

1000 Miembros Gracias a Ustedes

Estimados Hoteliers,

7 Star Hoteliers se enorgullece en anunciar que el grupo ha superado los 1000 miembros específicos de la industria de la hospitalidad. Debido a este logro, queremos proponerles el desafío de duplicar la cantidad integrantes.

Si logramos una mayor difusión, obtendremos más ofertas laborales -locales e internacionales- y mejores contenidos específicos de nuestra industria. Es por eso que queremos invitarlos a sugerir esta red a todos los hoteliers que conozcan, para que juntos ampliemos nuestras posibilidades.

Por otro lado, a modo de festejo por los mil miembros, el próximo lunes 2 de noviembre, lanzaremos dentro de nuestras redes y blog, el ciclo 7 star Leaders, en el cual entrevistaremos a Líderes regionales en RRHH, Ventas y Management de la industria hotelera.

Muchas gracias por su apoyo y vamos por mil miembros más!

The Seventh Star Group :: Hospitality is Changing

www.seventhstargroup.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1000 members Thanks to You

Dear Hoteliers,

7 Star Hoteliers is proud to announce that the group has conquered over a 1000 members specific from the hospitality industry. Because of this achievement, we want to propose the challenge of doubling the amount connections.

A more widely diffusion, will get us more local and international job offers, and the best content specific from our industry. This is why we invite you to suggest this network to any hoteliers you might know, so we can broaden our possibilities together.

Furthermore, as a celebration for a thousand members, next Monday November the 2^nd, we will launch within our blog and network the 7 star Leaders cycle, in which we will interview regional leaders in HR, Sales and Management from the hospitality industry.

Thank you very much for your support and let’s get to a thousand more members!

The Seventh Star Group:: Hospitality is Changing

www.seventhstargroup.com

W Hotels Worldwide Makes Debut in South America

2009-10-27T19:46:00.008-03:00

W Hotels Worldwide unveils its first ever hotel in South America, W Santiago and The Residences at W Santiago. The W brand's 33rd hotel, W Santiago is the cornerstone of a larger, mixed-use complex, Isidora 3000, which includes a convention center, boutique office space, and high-end retail shops in addition to the W Hotel and W-branded residences. Developed by the Territoria Group, W Santiago is located in the heart of the fashionable El Golf district of the Chilean capital city and surrounded by the magnificent peaks of the Andes.

For W Santiago, renowned New York designer Tony Chi partnered with native Chilean designer Sergio Echeverria and his studio Echeverria Edwards & CIA to create cutting edge interiors for the hotel and residences that are a cool, contemporary take on the varied Chilean landscape. Their interior design approach sets the stage for W's signature programming, including Whiskey Blue, an amped-up hotspot on the fourth floor of the hotel, Red2 One, a breathtaking rooftop bar, and W Lounge (W's take on the traditional hotel lobby), all from famed nightlife entrepreneurs Rande and Scott Gerber of the Gerber Group; Osaka, the Zen-inspired restaurant featuring Peruvian-Asian cuisine by Chef Ciro Watanabe; NoSo and Terraza, two Modern French restaurants by renowned chef Jean-Paul Bondoux; an intimate Tea Library, managed by the talented French chef Sebastien Fontes; a lively Wine Bar; and W Hotels The Store, W's twist on the hotel gift shop. In addition, hotel guests have access to the adjacent O2 Balance & Wellness Club, which offers 2,000 square meters of high-end equipment for physical training and spa treatment rooms.

W Santiago marks a milestone for the W brand in South America as well as in our continued global expansion into the world's most vibrant destinations,' said Eva Ziegler, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide and Le Méridien. 'The hotel provides guests and locals alike with W's unique signature programming set in a cool design environment that gives a contemporary and playful nod to the breathtaking Chilean landscape and culture.'

'We're delighted to celebrate the grand opening of this world-class hotel and residences, which now stands as an iconic landmark in this city' said Francisco Rencoret, CEO of Territoria. 'We've created an exceptional lifestyle destination. Isidora 3000 was designed to bring the best in each category offices, retail, residences, hotel- through experiences, design and services for the 21st century.'

'We are excited to strengthen our presence in Chile as we unveil the new W Santiago, a great addition to our existing Starwood portfolio,' said Osvaldo Librizzi, President of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Latin America. 'W is a worldwide brand already present in many important cities around the globe. We chose Santiago because of the need for outstanding hotels and for the importance Santiago has as a financial and cultural center in South America.'

Contemporary Design Rooted in Chilean Culture

Beginning with a private garden entrance flanked by 50-foot trees cultivated from southern Chile, the design of W Santiago honors the country's cultural traditions while incorporating the modern design elements for which the W brand is known. Interior designer Tony Chi was inspired by the colors, textures and sounds of Chile, elements that can be seen, felt and heard throughout the hotel. The color palette of all public spaces and guestrooms includes oranges, blues, and other vibrant shades that are found in the mountains and deserts of South America, and many of the hotel's design elements beckon to be touched, such as the sheepskin walls used in the W lounge. To craft and execute this conceptual design throughout the building, Chi worked in collaboration with the international company Handel Architects of the United States, the Brazilian landscape designer Gilberto Elkis, and renowned Chilean designer Sergio Echeverria. Together, they went to great lengths to use natural design materials found in or inspired by South America, including copper (Chile's biggest export), sheepskin, Brazilian woods, and contemporary Indian tapestries. In using these natural elements, this team of designers has intended for every guest's experience at W Santiago to be unique, as the natural materials will change with time, aging beautifully, and constantly evolving the look and feel of the hotel.

'When designing, you have to start with the location and its people, and what I noticed here is that friends and family congregate frequently and in large groups,' said Tony Chi. 'Chilean culture is about crossing generations and bridging differences, and as a collective sentiment, it is what ultimately inspired W Santiago.'

Mix, Mingle and Sip in Style at W Santiago

W Santiago features an assorted mix of modern lounges, bars, and restaurants in which W's jet set guests and Santiago's fashionable locals can mix and mingle. Whiskey Blue, which marks the South American debut of nightlife entrepreneurs Rande and Scott Gerber, features a modern bar with leather, felt and wood paneling and floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Two additional venues by the Gerber Group, the signature W lounge and Red2 One, the 21st floor rooftop bar, offer guests, residents and locals a menu of sophisticated cocktails and light fare in distinctively designed spaces.

Restaurants at W Santiago include NoSo and Terraza, where famed chef Jean-Paul Bondoux puts his own unique spin on modern French cuisine, and Osaka restaurant, featuring an innovative fusion of Asian and Peruvian flavors by renowned chef Ciro Watanabe. At Osaka, typical Peruvian ingredients are combined with Oriental cooking techniques, resulting in innovative dishes, such as Ceviche Osaka, Tai Scallops, Teriyaki Balsamic Sirloin, and Nippon Confit Duck. NoSo, a more formal dining experience, features a contemporary twist on French classics such as foie gras and escargot as well as fresh Chilean seafood. NoSo features chocolate-colored walls, a wine cave, marble seafood display, and an impressive chef's table, where the chef prepares the freshest ingredients from the local market. Adjacent to NoSo, a private dining room seats up to 25 people, with blue glass chandeliers hanging above massive tables surrounded by plush red chairs. With a brasserie-style concept, Terraza is a more casual restaurant with quick and agile service, ideal for local executives or relaxed outdoor dining. A signature Tea Library and a modern Wine Bar round out the scene at W Santiago.

Escape the Hustle and Bustle of Chile's Dynamic Capital City

W Santiago features 196 stylish guestrooms, including 20 suites, 16 Cool Corner Rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, three WOW suites, and the signature Extreme WOW Suite (W Hotels' reinterpretation of the Presidential Suite), offering stunning views of Santiago and the Andes Mountains. Rooms and suites, which serve as a personal escape for guests, feature black and white images of Chile, modern and stylish furniture, high ceilings, and, in many cases, spacious terraces with incredible views. All guestrooms feature W beds with goose down duvets and 350 thread-count sheets, flat-screen LCD TVs, broadband Wi-Fi Internet, docking stations for MP3 players, and a fully stocked Munchie Box (W Hotels' take on of the traditional hotel mini bar).

W Santiago is also home to South America's first W Hotels The Store, a WIRED 24-hour business center, and the heated WET(R) rooftop pool on the 21st floor, which offers unparalleled views of the city and mountains. The perfect backdrop for creative business meetings or unforgettable celebrations, W Santiago also boasts more than 1,800 square meters of ultra-modern meeting and event space, with 10 fully equipped meeting rooms featuring new generation technologies. The hotel offers a contemporary Great Room (W's version of a ballroom), which can seat up to 1,400 guests.

Providing the ultimate in urban living, W Santiago includes 46 W-branded residences, in sizes ranging from 65 to 325 square meters with a contemporary design and exclusive access to the hotel's unique amenities and services. All residences feature the largest terraces in Santiago, spacious bedrooms and living spaces, and state-of-the art appliances. In addition, residents have access to a private owners' lounge, private wine cellar and tasting room, an infinity pool on the 21st floor, and a helipad. In addition, W Santiago offers W's signature Whatever/Whenever(R) service promise, providing both guests and residents alike with whatever they want - from a private plane to the Patagonia to a bottle of vintage wine - whenever they want it, as long as it's legal!

W Santiago is located at Isidora Goyenechea 3000, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.

Source: www.whotels.com/santiago

New InterContinental Hotel in Argentina.

2009-10-27T19:31:00.003-03:00

The 218-guestroom InterContinental Mendoza will be located in city renowned for its spectacular vineyards.

IHG announced it has signed a franchise agreement with KLP Emprendimientos S.A. for development of the InterContinental Mendoza, in Mendoza, Argentina.

It will be IHG's third InterContinental in Argentina, along with the venerable InterContinental Buenos Aires, and the under-construction InterContinental Nordelta Buenos Aires, Residence & Spa, in the Nordelta area of Buenos Aires.

Slated to open in March 2010, the 15-story InterContinental Mendoza will total 218 guestrooms, inclusive of 62 suites and will be conveniently located next to a Convention Center. The hotel boasts 10 meeting rooms totaling 22,500 square feet, inclusive of a 12,900 square foot ballroom.

Situated in a new emerging business district, adjacent also to the city's largest upscale shopping center, Mendoza Plaza, the hotel will be located ten minutes from downtown Mendoza and twenty minutes from the city's international airport. Amenities include a full-service spa, swimming pool, gym, restaurant and casino.

Mendoza is located towards the middle section of the country's western boarder, on the eastern side of the Andes. The city is a regional capital, positioned on a major international thoroughfare linking Argentina with the important seaports of Chile. The region, rich in natural resources, is the heart and soul of Argentina's wine country, where European settlers introduced the ancient craft of winemaking in the 19th century.

The wineries in Mendoza are famed to produce the world's highest ranked Malbec wines.The city is also an adventure tourism center, offering world-class hiking, biking, fishing, rafting, horseback riding in the summer as well as world-class skiing and snowboarding in the winter. Mendoza attracts more than 700,000 tourists per year, making tourism one of the region's fastest growing industries.

In 2008 National Geographic Traveler published its annual destination scorecard and Mendoza was widely acclaimed (number 10 out of 109 worldwide destinations) in a survey that took into consideration environmental and ecological quality; social and cultural integrity; condition of historic buildings and archaeological sites; aesthetic appeal; quality of tourism management; and outlook for the future.

"We are delighted to announce yet another InterContinental hotel in Argentina," said Alvaro Diago, COO, IHG, Latin America and Caribbean. "A presence in a city such as Mendoza furthers our growth in areas that not only attract business travelers, but are renown as a tourism destination. In Mendoza's case, the vineyards are a particular allure, and we look forward to meeting the needs of this broad-base of travelers."

The world's first truly global hotel brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts has had a continuous presence in Latin America since the brand's founding in Brazil in 1946. Over its 63 years, there is no brand in the region with more international appeal. InterContinental Hotels & Resorts throughout Latin America strives to provide its guests with an experience unique to each destination - uncompromising global standards, while respecting the heritage of the communities each hotel calls home.

IHG has more than 180 hotels in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean, and has been serving Latin America for over 60 years. IHG is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, and has hotels situated in nearly every key market throughout the Latin American territory.

Programa de Desarrollo de Inversiones Hoteleras

2009-10-21T19:33:00.012-03:00

Del 5 de noviembre al 3 de diciembre, se llevará a cabo el Programa ejecutivo de Proyectos de inversión hotelera en la Universidad de San Andrés cuyo eje será: cómo analizar, diseñar y decidir una inversión en activos inmobiliarios para la generación de renta.

Entre los proyectos inmobiliarios de renta, posiblemente los de hospitalidad -hoteles, resorts, apart-hotels y otros-, sean los que mayor cantidad de alternativas ofrecen. Desde los hoteles de cinco estrellas a los hoteles boutiques, desde los urbanos a los implantados en escenarios naturales, desde los operados por cadenas internacionales hasta los atendidos por sus dueños, los modelos de negocio son múltiples, y por la activa dinámica de los mercados, exigen de una constante capacitación.

Para maximizar las chances de éxito, quién desarrolle un proyecto hotelero deberá lograr que la localización, el diseño, la construcción, las instalaciones, y el equipamiento respondan eficientemente a las necesidades de la demanda target.

Destinado a: Desarrolladores | Inversores | Proyectistas | Consultores | Brokers y responsables en la toma de decisiones en procesos de inversiones en activos inmobiliarios para la generación de renta.
Quienes asistan a este programa podrán:
. Identificar los temas de relevancia que deberán analizarse.

. Evaluar la verosimilitud de la información que obtengan de consultores y operadores.

. Entender los criterios para la estructuración del modelo de negocio.

. Seleccionar adecuadamente los profesionales que deberán hacerse cargo de las diferentes tareas.
Profesores del Sector Disertantes:
Lic. Massimo Praga
Licenciado en Economía, 1978, UCA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Ha participado en varios proyectos de la especialidad: Park Hyatt Buenos Aires; Hyatt Regency Santiago, Chile; Hotel del Glaciar, Ushuaia; Ayuí Hotel & Resort, Concordia; Hilton Buenos Aires; Faena Hotel & Universe.

Dr. Daniel Cots
Contador Público Nacional.
Es Director Financiero de Hilton Corporation para la región Latinoamérica.
Ha cursado posgrado en el IMD (Suiza) Commercial Behavior Program.

Lic. Carrie Wilder
Bachelor of Science en Política Internacional y Diplomacia – University of Georgetown, Washington DC, USA. Desempeñó diversas posiciones en las cadenas Marriott y Hilton en USA y en la Argentina en el Park Hyatt (hoy Four Seasons Bs As) y en Faena Hotel & Universe.

Lic. Hebe Cafferata
Lic. en Turismo, Universidad de Morón. Posgrado en Turismo (Roma). Actualmente dirige Wanderlust Expediciones, una empresa de turismo receptivo de alta gama. Cuenta con amplia experiencia como consultora en el desarrollo de proyectos y negocios hoteleros y de turismo.

Dr. Daniel Silva
Abogado, UBA. Socio y Managing Director del Grupo Ikal, que opera y comercializa Ikal Living (Tulum), Esencia (Riviera Maya), Ikal del Mar (Cancún) e Ikal winery & resort. Vicepresidente para Sudamérica de Prohotel Interna-tional Inc., opera y comercializa más de 20 hoteles de lujo en todo el mundo, con fuerte presencia en España, México, USA y América Central.

Arq. Ma. Mercedes Irisarri
Arquitecta, UB. Master en Dirección de Empresas Constructoras e Inmobiliarias de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Entre varios proyectos, participó y coordinó el equipo multidisciplinario que planificó el emprendimiento Conrad Buenos Aires.

Lic. Olga Motisi
Lic. en Administración de Empresas, UBA. Ha sido fundadora y Presidente de la Asociación de Profesionales en Hotelería, Gastronomía y Turismo. Ex Directora Académica de Fundación Collegiato: Altos Estudios en Hotelería, Turismo y Servicio.

Fecha: 5 de noviembre al 3 de diciembre de 2009

Días y horario: Martes y jueves de 9 a 13.00 hs.

Duración: 32 horas.

Lugar: Sede Capital de la Universidad de San Andrés | 25 de Mayo 586, Ciudad de Bs. As.

Certificación: Los participantes recibirán un certificado.

Para bajar el flyer del programa hacer click aquí.

Plan en España para mejorar la calidad percibida por el turista

2009-10-21T11:51:00.008-03:00

El proyecto Anfitriones del Turismo, enmarcado dentro del Plan del Turismo Español Horizonte 2020, en su eje Valor al Cliente, programa Calidad Percibida, nace con el fin de mejorar la calidad de las empresas y destinos turísticos para satisfacer de forma correcta las expectativas del turista más exigente.

El objetivo principal de la Administración General del Estado desde hace más de diez años ha sido contribuir a la preparación de las empresas y destinos turísticos para que adapten sus servicios al ritmo que exigen las tendencias del mercado e impulsar un conjunto de estrategias y actuaciones que sitúen al turista como centro de atención y perspectiva para la mejora competitiva de nuestro país.

El enriquecimiento de la experiencia turística requiere la puesta en marcha de atributos tangibles y emocionales de los productos turísticos. La cultura del detalle, la dimensión emocional del servicio y la relación con el cliente constituyen aspectos diferenciales que deben ser reforzados a través de actuaciones asumidas por las propias empresas individualmente y de forma colectiva a través de programas impulsados desde la colaboración público-privada.

Esta cultura también es importante en lo que se refiere al espacio turístico, que tiene la necesidad de apoyar su competitividad en la puesta en valor de elementos diferenciales y únicos.

Para lograr los objetivos descritos se han realizado los trabajos necesarios destinados a fomentar la cultura del detalle y la atención al cliente antes, durante y después del viaje con el único fin de mejorar la calidad percibida en su conjunto.

Las dos líneas básicas de actuación son:

Impulsar la cultura del detalle a través de programas de sensibilización y formación de los prestatarios de servicios turísticos en materia de atención al cliente (Programa Cultura del Detalle).
Favorecer el embellecimiento de los destinos turísticos como factor clave para influir positivamente en la percepción global que el cliente mantenga de éstos (Programa Destino en Detalle).

Más Información: http://www.cultura-detalle.es/

Fuente: Gobierno de España - Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio

2009 World Travel Awards Winners

2009-10-20T17:29:00.002-03:00

About World Travel Awards

The World Travel Awards were launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognize excellence in the world's travel and tourism industry.
Now celebrating its 16th Anniversary, the awards are regarded as the very highest achievement that a travel product could ever hope to receive.
Thousands of votes are cast by travel professionals from 183,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies and tourism organizations in over 160 countries across the globe.
Votes are cast globally by fellow industry professionals in 919 different categories.
Attended by senior executives from major travel companies, operators and destinations, WTA events are universally respected as providing established,
top-level networking opportunities, regionally and globally.

It is with a great pleasure that we announce the winners of the 16th World Travel Awards, voted by travel agents worldwide. The 2009 World Travel Award Winners are:

http://www.worldtravelawards.com/winners

Do you know your Employer Brand?

2009-10-20T16:16:00.002-03:00

Do you know your Employer Brand?
by Prasenjit Bhattacharya

As the war for talent intensifies most companies have put in place a system of exit interviews to find out why people leave them. Surprisingly, only a few ask their employees why they stay. Fewer still, fully leverage the reasons why people stay. In a recent example we formed a project team in an organisation to implement the Great Place to Work® Institute’s Employee Survey. The project team members came from over 30 locations across the country. In the first meeting we examined exit interview data which showed that there were a few reasons which repeatedly came up as reasons for leaving. We asked the group to individually give us the reasons why they continue to stay in this organisation. The answers were revealing in two respects- the reasons were similar across the group, and collectively they were not aware of reasons why people stay until this exercise. Amongst the reasons for staying were powerful reasons like freedom and empowerment which was apparently lacking in some of their talent competitors.

This organisation which is facing increasing attrition was itself not aware about the strengths in its culture which makes people stay, leave alone communicating these reasons to its employees. It is possible that many employees left without fully appreciating what this organisation has to offer, which might not be easily available in some other organisations. Traditional employee surveys seeks employee feedback on a wide range of factors – but these factors are same for all organisations since the basic framework of research based models in employee engagement cannot be changed for individual organisations. Yet, our experience shows that when you ask employees why they stay the reasons are similar and there are few factors that make them stay, just as there are few factors that make most employees leave.

Thus, an organisation may do an employee survey and yet not realize which are the key reasons why people stay. Organisations which are able to understand and clearly communicate to potential employees why they should join, and to existing employees why they should stay are said to have a strong employer brand. However, communication is counter- productive if it is used merely as an inducement to make people join and stay, and is not backed up by real experience of employees. Thus, employer brand can be defined as the sum of all experiences (positive and negative) that people have with your organisation before they join, during their stay and after they leave the organisation. The Employer brand is what the organisation stands for as an employer. It is, therefore, an extension of its core values.

Like product and service branding employer branding becomes relevant when there is intense competition – in this case competition for talent. Consider some statistics.

73 million factory workers would be required by 2015, which is 50% more than current number
Shortfall of 500,000 knowledge workers by 2010
500,000 more jobs will be created directly or indirectly by the retail sector in 2006.
Over 250 new malls in the next three years, the retail sector will add 2.5 million jobs by 2010
By 2010, the IT/ITES sector will need a work force of 2.3 million to maintain the current market share. Last year direct employment was 700,000 people in this sector.

In this scenario to gain the talent advantage, organisations are striving to create differentiation in the minds of employees. One thing we have noticed amongst employees at Great Places to Work® is the feeling that “We are different.” Communicating to employees about the employer brand is important because if employees connect emotionally with the organisation and what it stands for they are more likely to passionately believe in its products and services.

Organisations are employing various means to communicate their employer brand. The employer brand in Cadbury is reinforced through their anthem based on the Lagaan song “Chale Chalo”. The anthem video features employees from all functions and levels senior management and operations in factories – working and enjoying together. The anthem is developed by an in-house and cross-functional team of employees and is refreshed every year to include new members of the Cadbury team. The anthem is played at the end of all conferences and meeting to reinforce the beliefs.

Mindtree is conscious of what its Employer brand has to offer and care is taken at the recruitment stage to ensure the right fit between a potential employee and the brand. In employee meetings at RMSI employees are invited to share their experiences in RMSI that reflect upon the extent to which RMSI is living its Employer brand. Employer brand is also built through stories, for example, stories about their CEO (an IIT & Stanford graduate) wanting to return to India to prove himself in his country, his starting out of a basement, his unwillingness to pay the bribe in the pre-liberalization era of Indian economy are well known to everyone in the organisation.

Adobe has created a desk cube displaying the Brand Beliefs. This becomes a part of the new employee kit. During their first few days employees go through the company orientation program about Adobe’s history, vision, values, culture and business. A Welcome to Adobe video is shown in which the employees talk about the brand beliefs of Adobe.

In successful case studies on Employer branding Organisations have been able to ensure the following:

1. Brand promise & brand positioning

This is about what the employer brand stands for. When employees join Adobe, Texas Instruments or ST Micro Electronics they know that they have a chance to do cutting edge work. Texas Instrument’s site on “Living Legends” talk about the Nobel Laureates the Company has produced. Employees join and stay in these organisations because they feel there is a connect between their deepest aspirations and what the organisation has to offer. What each organisation has to offer would differ depending on their strengths and the needs of the talent pool it wants to attract.

While Fedex would offer “Guaranteed Fair Treatment”, Honeywell Technology Solutions would be attractive for its Diversity and Work Life policies. What is important is how the brand promise leverages your organisation’s unique strengths / beliefs to appeal to the kind of talent pool you seek to recruit & retain. In practice this can be more complicated because organisations are trying to attract different type of talent. This is why Employer brand attributes are often expressed as core values rather than technical or functional attributes which might appeal to a limited set of people.

Brand positioning is about overall reputation, goodwill and perception of your organization in the talent market and how your Brand is viewed by potential employees (and existing employees) vis-à-vis other employer brands. Brand positioning is created through advertising, participating in career fairs and campus recruitments, eRecruitment, open days, internet website & market perceptions Brand promise or the employee value proposition is communicated on a continuous basis to existing employees and through job advertisements, interviewing style, recruitment offers, career fairs, pre-placement talks etc to potential employees.

2. Delivery of the brand promise

It is about the way you do things in your organisation. We all know nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. How is the employer brand being reinforced in actual experience of employees in your organisation? Cadburys has a “People Care Index” that measures employee experience of key aspects of their employer brand. In South West Airlines, one of the most successful examples of employer branding, the CEO and other executives have luncheons with new employees to monitor whether their work-related expectations have been met. When this is not the case, corrective action is taken to the fullest extent possible. In those instances where corporate messages have created unrealistic expectations, efforts are made to identify the source of the miscommunication and adjust the messages accordingly.

Delivering the brand promise starts with creating ownership in people right from the time the employer brand is developed. Organisations with consistent employer brands train employees for values and behaviours, not just skills. J W Marriott takes care to assess a candidate’s fit with the employer brand right at the time of recruitment. Build rewards and recognition processes around the brand. Once a quarter Sapient announces its “Core Values Award” to recognize people who have lived its core values. The 360-degree appraisal seeks feedback on how people are living the brand. This is supplemented by a 360 Leadership feedback which seeks similar feedback about the Leadership team.

Organisations like Marriott and Sapient take care to ensure that all HR processes like recruitment, induction, training, rewards & recognition, performance management etc promote employee behaviours which build the employer brand. Employer brand, on the other hand, is closely aligned to the customer or corporate brand. For example, when ICICI Bank’s advertisement to existing and potential customers talks about Dependability (“ Hum hai na”), votaries of employer branding would claim that this external brand promise would work only if employees feel that in turn they can depend on each other and on management of the Bank. Thus, the employer brand would need to be aligned with the customer brand for the customer brand to become a reality.

Strong employer brands have a number of advantages for the organisation. Even ex-employees talk well about these organisations. For example, they have strong Alumni clubs. Apart from being able to attract better quality talent, the employee turnover in these organisations is less than industry average. A large proportion of their recruitment is through internal referrals. For example, Honeywell Technology Solutions has employee attrition in single digit and over 50 percent employees are recruited through internal referrals.

Prasenjit Bhattacharya is CEO of Great Place to Work® Institute, India. He can be contacted at pbhattacharya@greatplacetowork.in

Miracle in the Andes Anniversary :: A survival story

2009-10-15T19:14:00.007-03:00

It is one of the most famous survival stories of all time. In October 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed into the frozen Andes Mountains, leaving 16 people to survive for 72 days. After waking from a concussion, only to learn that his mother had died on impact and his sister was near death, Nando Parrado became obsessed with surviving. He and rugby teammate Roberto Canessa emerged as heroes when they walked for 10 days to find their salvation.

In this special Q&A, Octane sits down with the entrepreneur to talk about leadership, taking things one day at a time and making miracles of your own.

What did this unimaginable crisis teach you about yourself and life in general?

The most important things I learned are probably the simplest things. I learned to look forward and never backward because I can’t modify the past. So many times I’ve asked myself why someone should have to go through something so extreme. Why did I invite my mother and sister to go with me? They both died in the plane crash. I realized these questions will never be answered, no matter how hard I search.

The second thing I learned is that most of our lives will be dictated by our own decisions and actions. I followed my heart and my intuition when I was faced with the most horrible and hard circumstances I could imagine, and I still do that every day of my life.

What did your experiences in the andes teach you about leadership?

I have seen and experienced leadership on a different level. The teamwork that occurred in that extreme environment showed me that a different type of leadership is possible. Leaders emerged on the mountain because of their actions and work, not because they were appointed to leadership positions. These leaders were compassionate, and they inspired collaboration to a level where we were giving our lives for one another. I have tried to be the same type of leader in my companies, and it has worked. I give people my best, and they give me their best.

What business crises have you’ve faced, and how did you respond to them?

In 2001, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay went through a very complicated economic crisis. A lot of banks collapsed, which created a domino effect that sent huge waves of destruction over the business and industrial sectors of these countries. This crisis directly impacted my business, and I had to find a way around it. The situation was so overwhelming that we didn’t know what to do, only that we had to do something.

We started by cutting corners. I cut out all of the insurance on the company’s assets. If we were broke, what was the importance of insurance? At one point, we even stopped buying office supplies. I also re-negotiated salaries with all of my staff and employees. Really, we took it step by step, not knowing if we were going to survive the economic crisis. Thankfully, we were staying active. Many companies that were paralyzed by the economy did not survive. When I was faced with this business crisis, I asked myself: How much would I have given 30 years ago to be in a situation where I was refinancing with banks and making fast decisions that could make me go broke?

During that time [in the Andes], I would have signed any paper given to me by the devil to be alive and forced to weather a bad business storm, instead of being condemned to die a most horrible death. In the mountains, all of the answers were measured in terms of my own life or death. To make decisions where the outcome would only relate to business gave me perspective. And then I just took it one day at a time. Three years after the economic crisis, I was in the black again.

How do you deal with adversity in your businesses?

I like to think I deal with issues, not adversity. Sometimes things do not go in the direction that I want them to go, but I keep moving on regardless. I do not see failing as being unsuccessful. When adversity comes, I look at the situation and determine the best course of action. I try to sail through the storm, always going forward, one step at a time. I think the essential thing is to not stop, but to always move forward.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs facing impossible odds?

I always say that I have redefined the meaning of the word ‘impossible.’ For me, the only insurmountable thing is death. All other challenges have options; people can go around obstacles, change their circumstances, leave a situation, push people or deadlines, go in different directions, switch jobs, etc. I like to tell people that if they face any insurmountable odds in a financial crisis, business crisis, relationship crisis, health crisis, etc., they can dive inside themselves and search for their own version of a miracle.

Article By: Nando Parrado
EO Speaker

Nando is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home. When he’s not running his five businesses, Nando hosts several television programs in Uruguay and is a highly sought-after speaker represented exclusively by EO Dallas member Gail Davis. Nando will speak at the 2009 EO Barcelona University, to be held 30 September-4 October.

Source: www.eonetwork.org

Frustration, Rejection, Sylvester Stallone and Rocky.

2009-10-12T17:47:00.002-03:00

Frustration, Rejection, Sylvester Stallone and Rocky.
By Harrison Barnes

A few weeks ago I interviewed a guy for a job, who has been emailing me every few days since the interview; he was highly qualified for the position and had great credentials. I have decided that I am not going to hire him and I will tell you why:

The day of the interview, he had apparently just walked off the job he had held for the past three years– because the company was going to make payroll later than usual. When he said this to me in the interview I thought about it for some time, wondering if this was really an appropriate response to a cash crunch happening at his company. He was the Chief Executive Officer of the company and should have had some control over the money situation there.

I have determined that this fellow probably does not handle frustration or various problems very well. If he came to work at our company, how would he handle our problems? Life and work are not always a bed of roses, and one’s ability to handle frustration and problems makes a huge difference in the outcome a person may achieve. It is absolutely crucial to learn how to fail and how to deal with frustration.

When Federal Express (now known as FedEx) was in its early days, there were a couple of times when it had its airplanes repossessed. The company needed to get enough package orders that day in order to get enough money to get its airplanes back, so it could deliver packages that evening and stay in business. When we think of a powerful company like FedEx today, it is hard to fathom a company that ever came this close to going out of business, but it is true.

One of the secrets of FedEx and anyone who is able to achieve outstanding success is the ability to handle frustration and the ability to deal with rejection. If you cannot deal with rejection and frustration you might as well give up now. The most successful people out there generally deal with a tremendous amount of frustration and rejection until they reach their goals. Having the ability to maintain a positive attitude and stay disciplined in the face of frustration and rejection enables you to be strong and to achieve the goals you are seeking to achieve.

You need to become an expert in failing because the more you fail the more you will learn. Also, the more times you fail the more likely you are able to make the law of averages work for you. That is how it is in baseball. A hitter does not hit a home run every single time; he only hits a home run some of the time. You are not going to fail all the time, and the more times you try, the more likely it is that you will eventually end up hitting a home run. The more swings you make, the better off you are likely to become.

In the job search field there is nothing more important than taking a lot of swings. Many job seekers fear rejection and do not apply to every possible job opening. And they definitely do not apply to employers who are not advertising any open positions. My advice to you, however, is to apply to every single employer you can find–even those who do not have any apparent openings. This can make a tremendous difference for you, because you are going to hit a home run with some of these employers; it is a numbers game. Besides this, what is the worst thing that could happen? You might get a letter or an email saying that the employer does not have any openings? This is an easy rejection to take. Who cares? Just keep moving along, and something else will inevitably work out.

When our company advertises jobs we typically receive a lot of applications. Around 95% of the applications we receive are completely appropriate for the job that has been advertised. However, many of the applications are not appropriate, and are sent by people who have no business applying in the first place.

For example, for an attorney job we may get someone who is a landscaper down the street from our office applying, or a receptionist. But guess what! I often look at these applications, and in the past I have actually hired numerous people who have applied for jobs that were not being advertised. Why? It is easy: If we have a receptionist job open and I have not gotten around to advertising it yet, then I will bring the person in and interview him or her for the job. Since this person is the only applicant for the job so far, he or she typically has a much better chance of securing the job than if the person was competing with 100+ other applicants for the same position. In return for risking almost certain rejection by applying inappropriately for a job, many people actually end up getting new jobs.

I failed algebra twice–once in middle school and a second time in high school. Had I not eventually passed this course, along with several other higher–level courses, I would not have gone to a good college and probably would not be where I am today. When I was told to stick to remedial math classes I simply did not give up on algebra. I kept trying until I finally passed the class. I even ended up taking advanced calculus classes in college, which I never would have done, had I had given up.

One of the most inspiring stories regarding rejection and frustration is the story of Sylvester Stallone. Since he had been very young, Stallone had wanted to star in movies. He had had a difficult childhood and had grown up in Hell’s Kitchen, a rough neighborhood in New York City. He wanted to make movies because he felt that it was a way to inspire people about what they were capable of.

Stallone tried to get parts in movies and was rejected continually. He was told that he looked funny, that he talked out of the side of his mouth and sounded funny. Stallone’s voice and the way he looks have to do with his head being pulled out with forceps when he was born. The forceps severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone’s face, which caused his slurred speech and drooping lower lip. From a young age, Stallone was handicapped to some extent. He attended a high school for problem children and after graduating he enrolled in beauty school.

One of Stallone’s first feature films was a soft-core pornography movie called “Party at Kitty and Stud’s”, which Stallone did in 1970. He was paid $200 for two days work.

As he tried to advance in the acting field, Stallone was told ‘no’ by agents again and again. He was apparently thrown out of agency offices in New York more than 1,500 times. There were not even 1,500 agents in New York at the time, but Stallone had gone to many of the agents’ offices multiple times–even after being thrown out.

Stallone got his first job by going to an agent’s office and spending an entire night there. He arrived at 4:00 pm and the agent refused to see him. When the agent came back the next morning he saw that Stallone was still waiting there, and he gave him a job. Stallone’s first gig was playing a thug that got beaten up. Despite landing this small role and a few others, the aspiring actor still did not have money to eat, and he could not even afford to heat his apartment during the cold New York winter.

Stallone’s wife at the time kept telling him to go out and get a real job, something that did not involve acting; however, he refused to do so because he was afraid that if he took a normal job he would lose his hunger to succeed in acting. Stallone felt that this hunger gave him an edge, and made him stronger. Stallone and his wife would have one horrible fight after another because he was so broke.

One day Stallone went to the New York Public Library, where it was warm. He had no plans to read anything; he just wanted to escape the chill of his apartment. He stumbled onto a book by Edgar Allen Poe and started reading it. According to Stallone, reading Poe’s work inspired him right then and there to become a writer. Stallone believes that Poe helped him learn to emotionally influence others by not focusing on himself, but by looking at people and the world around him.

Stallone went on to write a movie script called Paradise Alley, which he sold for only $100. Meanwhile, he was so broke that he sold his wife’s jewelry, which officially ended their relationship. The only thing that Stallone had had left at this point in his life was his dog. He loved his dog for the unconditional love it provided him, even though he had no money; this was more than Stallone could say for his wife at the time.

Stallone one day stood in front of a liquor store, trying to sell his dog. He eventually located a man who wanted to make the purchase. Stallone had hoped to sell the dog for $50, but the buyer refused to pay this much and only offered $25. Stallone sold the dog at the lower price, and walked away crying. According to Stallone, this was the lowest point in his life.

A few weeks later Stallone watched Muhammed Ali fight Chuck Wepner. The fight inspired Stallone. That evening Stallone went home and, in three short days, he wrote the script for Rocky. Stallone tried to sell the script and was rejected numerous times. Finally, he found two men, Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler, who really liked the script. They offered him $125,000; but Stallone refused and stated that he would only accept this money if he could star in the movie. The producers did not want Stallone to star in the movie because he was an unknown actor. A couple of weeks later they offered him $250,000 if he would not star in the movie, and once again he refused. Later the producers offered Stallone $325,000, and he turned this down as well. Stallone felt that Rocky was his story and that it was incredibly important for him to play the leading role.

Eventually, the producers offered him $35,000 and allowed him to play the part in the movie. They would also give Stallone a share of the profits. Ultimately the movie cost $1,000,000 to make and ended up grossing over $200,000,000–and winning an Oscar. Stallone said that right before he received the Oscar he had read every rejection he had ever received and all of the negative things that people had ever said about him, because he had written it all down. One of my favorite quotes is from Stallone: “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.”

Incredibly, the first thing Stallone did when he received the $35,000 was go immediately to the liquor store, hoping to get his dog back. He stood in front of the liquor store for three days waiting for the man to appear. Stallone first offered $100 and then more and more money until he offered to pay $1,000. The man still refused to sell the dog back. Finally, Stallone offered the man $15,000 of the $35,000 he received, and he got his dog back. The dog that is featured in Rocky is Stallone’s dog.

There is nothing wrong with failing. Stallone failed many times early on, and has since left a legacy of one of the most inspiring and fantastic movies ever written and produced. If you do not succeed the first time, just look at what went wrong and change it. Frustration and rejection make you stronger. Doing something and failing is better than doing nothing. At least by trying you will learn a lesson. Learning a lesson is among the most valuable experiences you can have.

Rejection is a numbers game. The more you are rejected the closer you are to success. Let the law of averages work on your behalf, and never give up what you are doing. You need to push through in order to succeed, and to not worry about all the no(s) you are receiving. Each no will bring you closer to a yes. Put your emotions and negative feelings about being rejected behind you.

Life is often frustrating, and the road to success is also often frustrating. Your ability to handle this frustration and rejection, however, will ultimately determine the level of success you will experience. Imagine if Stallone had stopped early on when he experienced frustration and rejection.

Work through frustration and rejection, and never stop moving forward.

Source:
Harrison Barnes
www.aharrisonbarnes.com
www.employmentcrossing.com

Lessons from Seven Hotel Company CEOs

2009-10-12T16:27:00.009-03:00

Leadership and the Global Recession: Lessons from Seven Hotel Company CEOs
Interviews by Lorenza Alessie

Face Reality and Implement the Right Measures Incredibly Fast
“The companies which realised that this is a long-term rather than a short-term crisis and implemented the right measures fast are surviving the crisis better”

– Simon Cooper, President & COO Ritz Carlton Hotels

Peres, Fiskers, Vos and Cooper stressed that cost reductions must be made early since as Peres said,
“The worst is to hesitate hoping things will improve. First, you and your top team need to be aligned on what needs to be done and then be fast, steady, firm, fair and prepared for the worst. Some leaders hesitate to make drastic changes soon, after all, letting go of your people is not an easy task for any leader.”

Fiskers added, “The decision of having to let people go is less difficult than the actual act of having to make the job cuts. However these cost cutting measures need to be done sooner rather than later as otherwise the companies will suffer even more.”

Both Fiskers and Vos revealed that they already implemented cost
cutting measures in 2008. Both agreed that having done this early in the crisis, they were at an advantage this year compared to other companies. At Scandic, several positions were made redundant in August 08 even though the company had all-time high revenues in September 08.
Fiskers explained, “We smelt the peak in summer 08 and knew the downturn would come even if there were no real signs of the crisis. I don’t think you can implement cost cutting strategies and revenue generating strategies simultaneously and as effectively than if you do the two at different times. There was a lot of hoo-haa when we implemented change since employees didn’t see how the American banking crisis affected Scandic, there was also less understanding and acceptance than if we would have implemented these cost cutting measures later in the crisis when it did hit us. The period of dramatic cost reductions must be as short as possible – all our cost reductions were completed by December last year. This meant that during the first quarter of 09, while others were focused on costs, we could focus on the top line which helped us gain market share and increase revenues.”

According to Cooper, especially in today’s crisis which is unprecedented since it applies to everyone and will mark the next generation, companies cannot take half way measures as they did during 9/11, asking employees to work a 4 day week or giving extended unpaid leave. “Leaders need to face reality; the hospitality industry survives on travel and people making deals – and these are just not happening.

It will be a slow recovery, the good times will not be back soon and therefore companies need to take long-term measures. Ritz-Carlton cut 750 leaders worldwide. There have never been so many leaders cut back in the past,but these cuts had to be made in response to the new market reality.”

Gonzalez stressed how at times some companies are blinded by the fact that our economies are cyclical. According to him, the companies that took the best action during the crisis were those who anticipated the crisis even earlier than 2008 and started disinvesting their assets, sensing that the prices had reached the peak and that the end of the upward cycle was soon to come.

“Companies such as IHG and Starwood did a fine job selling most of their assets at a good time and only recently accelerated their selling process even further. Hilton also did a great deal selling to Blackstone at the right time. Companies owning less “bricks and mortar” will still need to manage the increasingly challenging owner relationships but at least they will not need to manage the devaluating assets in their balance sheets.”

However, as important as it is to implement cost cutting strategies it is as important as ever not to sacrifice your culture and values in doing so. “You cannot start treating your stakeholders badly during the crisis, these stakeholders being your suppliers, employees, shareholders and guests. You cannot lose the trade sympathy since if you do you will lose it forever,” concluded Peres.

Anticipate and Continuously Re-Think the Business Model “You need to fix the roof when the sun is still shining.”

– Stephen Alden, CEO Maybourne Hotel Group ‘If it’s not broken, why fix it?’ is a common attitude to adopt during the good times – but not the right one. According to Alden, the biggest leadership lesson he has learnt which continues to be reinforced with time is that you need to re-think the business model both during the good times and during the bad times.

“At Maybourne Hotel Group, July 2009 was the strongest month in the history of the company, since we entered the year with strong brands and invested a lot in the development and upkeep of the properties over the last years. We increased the investment in training, in the technology platform and carried out reforms when times were good, but we didn’t take off every penny from the table. We have also been very aggressive on the marketing front, diversified our markets, strengthened our CRM, and saw the opportunity to grow the business out of the Middle East and Asia as well as out of Milan, London and Paris. Through these initiatives, we entered the recession with very strong branding and off a very solid bank resulting in this year’s results being better than last year, even if in part this is linked to the opening of the Connaught Hotel.”

Peres, a passionate sailor, added “A sailor cannot change the sails in the middle of the storm.” Change needs to be done before a downturn hits, companies need to be constantly reviewing the processes
in order to implement efficiencies.

However as Vos stressed, “Starwood through Six Sigma and other initiatives has always been efficient during normal times but during a period of crisis some further reductions need to be made, simply because volumes are not there due to market reductions. Some of these efficiencies are driven because customers change and Starwood adapts accordingly. If one day customers are willing to pay again for double butler service and the most expensive wines then we will adapt our services again.”

Keep the Long-Term Perspective and Do Not Panic “You need to tell the story like it is to build the trust. Everyone understands that you don’t have a crystal ball to tell the future but you need to build a long-term picture telling your people that in the long-term they are in the right place since we are in a growing industry and they are working for a good company.”
– Roeland Vos, President EMEA Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Leaders need to stay calm, look beyond the negative numbers and despite the near-term pressures plan for the future with a cool head. The CEOs agreed that it is increasingly difficult to predict the future and that you really need to be prepared for the unexpected. However, leaders need to keep the perspective and communicate that a downturn is not a disaster, since markets are cyclical and after a downturn there is always an upturn. Leaders also need to prepare their companies for the
return in demand. As Vos rightly pointed out, “You need to watch how other industries perform, especially the luxury goods industry, since as people start to spend, this will automatically be reflected in the hotel industry.”

For Fiskers, professionally the most challenging part of his job over the last year has been managing the short-term pressures while keeping the long-term perspective. “Finding the right balance between accelerating and braking and making sure that no damage is done in the long-term and that core competencies stay within the company has been a key challenge.”

The Leader Must Communicate and Be Visible “You need to keep your people motivated, performing and fully informed since your people are the ones who deliver the service.”
– Roeland Vos, President EMEA Starwood Hotels & Resorts

All the CEOs stressed the importance of communication especially with employees, but also with investors and hotel owners. “You need to keep communicating to your employees since they know what is going on and they want to know how it is going to affect them,” said Cooper. Peres also added that during the communication process with employees, leaders need to continuously re-emphasise the company’s core values and show how any changes are in line with these core values.

“Since we implemented changes before the crisis directly affected us, there was less understanding and acceptance to change and therefore we needed to communicate even more keenly with the team,” said Fiskers.
“I did a lot of internal communication and organised conference calls with hundreds of managers about why we should be implementing change early. I explained that if the Americans get a cough in August, Europe will get a cold in January and how bank cycles have historically always affected the hospitality industry.”

Fiskers added that leaders should never underestimate their employees, “If employees are motivated they will understand the changes and if they are informed rapidly and transparently they will help you make the change.”

CEOs need to be visible and present for their employees. “A period of crisis is not a period to hide behind your desk. Employees look at the CEO for guidance, everyone wants a piece of you,” stated Fiskers.

“It is essential for leaders to maintain visibility. People look at you to see whether you are comfortable or worried,” said Peres. Even if your company is performing well, you need to communicate more during a period of crisis. For Alden, “One of the most challenging parts of my job over the last year has been being there for our people. Everyone gets nervous when they see what is happening around them and therefore we need to communicate our results (in our case) to show that we are more robust than ever.”

Lawless also stressed the importance of communicating with the local community and working together with them to promote a destination. “In Dubai, where Jumeirah has most of its hotels, the Tourism Department organises bi-monthly meetings where all businesses get together to see how they can promote Dubai to increase bookings. Both after 9/11 and at the end of 08 when there were reductions in bookings, this strategy was very effective to communicate and work jointly with individual businesses as well as competition to promote Dubai as a destination”

The CEOs also stressed the importance of communicating with investors and hotel owners. “In the last year we had to be very close to the stakeholders since the strategy is constantly changing and to be able to implement change fast you need to be able to communicate fast,” observed Fiskers.

For Cooper, one of the most challenging parts of his job over the last year has been managing owner relationships, “You can’t have a 25% drop in RevPAR and have no direct impact on cash for the owner. In the good times, over 90% of our assets are performing well but this is no longer the case.” CEOs need to have as transparent and open communication with hotel owners and investors as with their employees.Surround Yourself with Strong Leaders and Look After Your Revenue Generators “In a period of crisis you cannot have managers who ‘manage by excuse’ but need forward thinking managers who are making decisions that are relevant to 2010 and the bounce back”
– Jean Gabriel Peres, CEO Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts

You need to build a strong and committed top team and CEOs must make tough decisions about who has the ability and motivation to make the journey. It is the people in the company that make the company; they are the most valuable asset in leading any change.
“CEOs must make the tough decision about who has the ability and motivation to deliver the vision. It is during the tough times that you really see the quality of leadership and this is why it is essential that you surround yourself with clever people with great leadership skills,” noted Peres. “You need to constantly adapt the management team, making sure you have leaders with complimentary skills and traits; I am proud to have leaders that are stronger than me in certain areas. You cannot have managers who ‘manage by excuse’ and who constantly have their heads in the sand. You need people who constantly think about how to gear the company for when times get better.”

Several CEOs also stressed the importance of identifying who their top performers are and making sure they are fully on board regarding any decisions made. “At Scandic we have identified 54 people that we consider are tomorrow’s leaders in the company, a mix of General Managers and young talent. We want to make sure that they are fully on board with our changes in order not to lose this talent,” said Fiskers.

Peres added, “It is also important to know your company inside out to know what delivers results and to continue investing in these departments.

At Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts we continue investing in our high caliber employees. We have also strengthened our sales team and continue investing in distribution and sales training.”
Gonzalez also stressed that the sales force has become more important than ever as well as the purchasing department as a way to decrease costs.

Adapt Your Product to the New Market Reality “Anyone who felt they could face the storm without changing the sails will not be able to survive it.”
– Simon Cooper, President & COO Ritz Carlton Hotels

“It doesn’t matter how good your product is, this crisis has had a impact on everyone. We have all lost pricing power, which is something we have never faced and our customer base has very broadly lost wealth. Especially in the US and in the UK we have a very cautious consumer who really watches their spending,” noted Cooper.

“Abercrombie & Fitch is an example; when the crisis hit they said that they were not going to discount their product as other retailers did. However a few months later they realised they had to ‘change their sails’ and had to discount to adapt to the changing market.”

Changing the sail does not necessarily apply only to pricing. Vos stressed how during a period of crisis you not only need to change the product offering to satisfy the changing demand but also have to find different ways of doing business. “You need to challenge your organisation to find new ways of doing things, companies need to innovate. Starwood has always been looking for ways to innovate as we did for the launch of the W brand or the Heavenly Bed.
However during a period of crisis we are looking at a different type of innovation such as combining jobs or finding new ways of getting reservations by using social networks such as Facebook.”
Lawless added to this, “Companies that perform better during a recession are those who aren’t afraid to innovate despite the crisis. Companies need to look at ways of reducing costs, but they also need to look into new initiatives even if it means taking a short-term hit in revenues. There are opportunities in a recession to come up with new products. Sometimes people feel guilty about enjoying luxury in a downturn.
At Jumeirah, to stop guests feeling guilty about enjoying a luxury vacation during the recession, we introduced activities for guests at our Dubai hotels to engage more with the local culture such as Middle Eastern cooking courses and organising visits to the local mosque. With these initiatives guests feel they come back home having also learned about the local traditions instead of just indulging in luxury.”
Alden and Peres argue that the strength of a brand is really put to test during a crisis.
When asked which companies in their opinion have been surviving the crisis best, they highlighted those companies who didn’t compromise their product during the crisis. Peres named Hermés and Audi as two companies who stayed loyal to their values and didn’t change their product in response to the crisis.
“The revenues of Audi and Hermés increased this year thanks to their continuous investment in product quality, attention to detail and their reputation which is second to none. The epitome of brand achievement is when brands don’t need to discount during bad times,” says Peres.

Alden cited Tod’s Group as a brand that has successfully coasted through the crisis by staying true to its core values. He added, “Resilience of a brand proves you can also be successful during the bad times.”

Use Common Sense and Do Not Follow the Herd
“The main lesson I have learnt during this crisis is that instead of doing what everybody else is doing, you should not follow but stop and think if it makes any sense.”
– Raul Gonzalez, CEO EMEA Barcelo Hotels & Resorts

The market is cyclical, every upward cycle follows a downward cycle but it seems that with time companies forget this. If everyone starts purchasing hotel assets, even if these are at a high price, most others follow suit. If all assets are highly leveraged, why should your property have a low debt/equity ratio? It seems that what the neighbour does sometimes blinds companies from basic common sense or elementary economics.
History shows that bubbles burst. It only makes sense to buy after the bubble bursts rather than just before, but if you go against the general flow, you can be criticised for having no understanding of the market or vision.
Gonzalez explained: “The main lesson I have learnt is that you need to use common sense. For a number of years Barcelo saw that hotel prices had increased astronomically, that there was an over demand for hotels to
buy, especially in Spain, and every property had very high debt/equity ratios. Barcelo has always been criticised for having low debt levels. Logic always prevails, when there is high demand and high prices you know that it is
not the best time to buy since there will be a drop as in every cycle. However everyone seems to copy what the next person is doing. You buy because everybody else is buying and you sell when everyone else is selling. If you don’t, you’ll be criticised for having no strategic vision. You need to have the foresight to use your common sense and basic economics and when needed go against the cycle.”

“It is ironic that now that it is the time to buy, no bank is lending. It is now when you can realise the best returns since assets aren’t overpriced.”
Gonzalez explained that if he took Spain as an example, one could see the bubble bursting since over the past few years hotel supply was increasing faster than hotel demand. Investors were acquiring hotels as a real estate investment rather than as a hotel investment. In the long-term, this was just not sustainable.

In conclusion, as Vos stated, “It is hard to see which leaders have taken best actions to get out of the crisis since we will only see this when we get out of it.” However, certainly some lessons have been learnt and hopefully leaders will remember these lessons to avoid having to take drastic measures when the next crisis hits. Alden’s advice is “Do not have short-term memory. Some say that we are having 7-year cycles but we seem to have 3-year memories.”

Even if we are starting to see some signs of recovery, the crisis is not over and as Peres added, “Leaders will still have to manage their companies not really knowing in which direction they are heading and how they will be doing in a few months time.”

So it would seem that leaders need to continue expecting the unexpected as, at the risk of stating the obvious, the only constant is change.

About the Author:
Lorenza Alessie
Director
Tel: +44 (20) 7878-7746
Mbl: +41 79596-8964
Email: lalessie@hvs.com
Lorenza Alessie is Director at HVS Executive Search in London. Lorenza has
significant experience in hospitality management recruitment throughout
Europe and the Middle East. A graduate in International Hospitality
Management from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, she began her hospitality career with
the Dukes Hotel, London. Lorenza went on to work with leading hotels such as Beau Rivage Palace
in Lausanne and Grand Hotel Ambasciatori, The Westin Excelsior and The St. Regis Grand in Rome.
Prior to joining HVS Executive Search, Lorenza was Director of the Geneva office of a recruitment
company focusing on international hotel management recruitment. Dutch and Italian by nationality,
Lorenza is a capable linguist with fluency in English, Italian, Spanish and French.

Source: HVS
(hvs.com)

J.W. Marriott Interview : The voice of Experience

2009-10-08T18:15:00.003-03:00

The chief of the Marriott International hotel chain visited South Florida on Monday to formally unveil a $70 million upgrade of three adjacent Miami airport hotels.

Bill Marriott, 77, spoke with the Sun Sentinel about the recession, hotel trends and the company he built from his parents' restaurant business.

He opened one of the Miami hotels 37 years ago as Marriott's first property in Florida.

An edited version of the interview follows:

Q. The recession has pummeled the travel industry and the consumer. What lessons have you learned that affect the consumer long-term?

A. We've learned that you can take costs out without affecting the guest experience. We work very hard to make sure our guests are satisfied and get good value. Our guest satisfaction scores are higher than they've ever been. That shows our employees are working extra hard, because they know each guest is precious.

Q. How much are your rates down?

A. On average, about 15 to 20 percent.

Q. If you knew before that the recession would last this long and that travel recovery would take years more, would you have done anything differently?

A. I don't think so. One of the great strengths of our company is the length of service of our executive teams. I had dinner with top management at one hotel last week, where the average length of service was 25 years. They've "been there, done that" and know what to do.

Q. But this recession is different – deeper and longer. What lessons does this one offer?

A. It comes back to guest satisfaction, and what's important is that our owners continue to re-invest in the hotels. We don't own our hotels, we manage them. And most owners are re-investing – this state-of-the-art campus is a perfect example. That's key, so when we come out of this recession, we'll be positioned to do very, very well.

Q. We've seen big shifts in consumer expectations at hotels, from wi-fi in rooms to organic food on menus. What consumer trends do you see in the next three to five years?

A. One is our great room, the lobby that you see in this hotel. It's a place you can dine, work, meet, socialize and sit with your laptop on wi-fi.

Before, people usually would check in, go to their room, and if they were meeting someone, they'd sit in the lobby before they'd go do something else. Now, the lobby is becoming a place to socialize, work, meet and greet and spend time. We're rolling these great rooms across our system.

Q. Your company recently took a big write-off on time-shares. How did the industry misjudge the market so badly?

A. The majority of what we've written off is fractional and whole ownership at (luxury) Ritz-Carlton Residences. What happened is all of a sudden, the buyers for resort ownership disappeared. That's why you have a lot of see-through condos in South Florida too. People are just not buying high-end, second and third homes.

Q. What's a typical day for you?

A. There's no such thing. I travel about 30 to 40 percent of the time. I put in about 10 or 11 hours a day -- about five, six or seven days a week.

This morning, we flew down from Washington and had the opening. This afternoon, we're going to tour hotels, and tonight, we're having dinner with an owner. Tomorrow, we leave at 8 a.m. for Bogota, Colombia, where we'll open a hotel. I got up at 5:30 a.m. today and will get up around 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Q. You could retire. What motivates you to stay with the company?

A. You retire, and it's over. I need a reason to get up in the morning. We have 300,000 (full-and part-time) employees who depend on our company for their livelihoods. I love what I do. It's an avocation and a vocation.

Q.. But what about golf or philanthropy?

A. I never learned how to play golf. And we have a foundation that gives away several million dollars a year, mostly to education and health care.

Source:
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

8 leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela

2009-10-07T17:30:00.004-03:00

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.

“Mandela was often afraid during his time underground, during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment, during his time on Robben Island. ‘Of course I was afraid!’ he would tell me later. It would have been irrational, he suggested, not to be. ‘I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.’ But as a leader, you cannot let people know. ‘You must put up a front.’ And that’s precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspire others. It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Robben Island, where there was much to fear. Prisoners who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard, upright and proud, was enough to keep them going for days. He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.”

2. Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind.

“For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.”

3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

“Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. ‘You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind.’ He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy. As a boy, Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba, the tribal king who raised him. When Jongintaba had meetings of his court, the men gathered in a circle, and only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak. The chief’s job, Mandela said, was not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. "Don’t enter the debate too early," he used to say. … The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. ‘It is wise,’ he said, ‘to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.’”

4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport.

“As far back as the 1960s, mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner’s worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs.”

5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer.

“Many of the guests mandela invited to the house he built in Qunu were people whom, he intimated to me, he did not wholly trust. He had them to dinner; he called to consult with them; he flattered them and gave them gifts. Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies. On Robben Island, Mandela would always include in his brain trust men he neither liked nor relied on.… Mandela believed that embracing his rivals was a way of controlling them: they were more dangerous on their own than within his circle of influence. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, ‘people act in their own interest.’ It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect.”

6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile.

“When Mandela was running for the presidency in 1994, he knew that symbols mattered as much as substance. He was never a great public speaker, and people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. But it was the iconography that people understood. When he was on a platform, he would always do the toyi-toyi, the township dance that was an emblem of the struggle. But more important was that dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile.”

7. Nothing is black or white.

“Life is never either/or.Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn’t correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears. Mandela is comfortable with contradiction. As a politician, he was a pragmatist who saw the world as infinitely nuanced. Much of this, I believe, came from living as a black man under an apartheid system that offered a daily regimen of excruciating and debilitating moral choices: Do I defer to the white boss to get the job I want and avoid a punishment? Do I carry my pass? …. Mandela’s calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?”

8. Quitting is leading too.

“Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. In many ways, Mandela’s greatest legacy as President of South Africa is the way he chose to leave it. When he was elected in 1994, Mandela probably could have pressed to be President for life — and there were many who felt that in return for his years in prison, that was the least South Africa could do.…. ‘His job was to set the course,’ says Ramaphosa, ‘not to steer the ship.’ He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.”

Source:
Time Magazine
Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership

El Ott College presenta “Experiencias y Sentidos"

2009-10-06T12:59:00.003-03:00

El jueves 22 de octubre de 17 a 22 horas se realizará Experiencias y Sentidos 2009, el evento de la Hospitalidad y el Turismo organizado por Ott College.

Dicho evento se albergará en el predio del "Complejo Educativo Marin" (Av. del Libertador 17115 - San Isidro, Pcia de Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Estas son algunas de las atracciones y actividades que participarán del evento:

•Degustaciones
•Clases Magistrales
•Bodegas & Maridaje
•Alta Cocina
•Arte Conceptual (Arte + Gastronomía)
•Diseño & Ambientación de eventos
•Estudios en el exterior
•Hotelería y Turismo
•Espectáculos itinerantes
•Música en vivo
•RSE

The Seventh Star Group, participará de dicho evento con un stand de información.

Informes:

www.ott.edu.ar
contacto@ott.com

Consultants hear about gradual global recovery

2009-10-05T16:59:00.002-03:00

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec—The worldwide hotel industry should buckle its safety belt as it prepares for a bumpy ride during the next year or two as the global economy begins to regain its footing.

Members of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants learned—during a panel called “What is the economic outlook for the global hospitality industry” at their annual convention last week—because most elements of a recovery will occur day-to-day, getting back on their feet could be a painstakingly slow process for hotels.

“Despite all the bumps along the way, we are in a form of economic recovery,” said Warren Jestin, SVP and chief economist for Scotiabank Group.
“Despite all the bumps along the way, we are in a form of economic recovery,” said Warren Jestin, SVP and chief economist for Scotiabank Group. “But it’s not taking us back to ’04, ’05 and ’06. … Short-term issues seem to be what’s obsessing people these days. This time around, the market participants are hypersensitive because they’ve been hit like they’ve never been hit before.”

Therefore, the good news is there will be less bad news, Jestin said. Much like the last year has been filled with unfulfilled expectations, during the next six to eight months, people can expect to often hear the phrase “that was better than expected.”

Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts is bullish about a sustained recovery, said Eric Levy, the company’s SVP of development.

“I can’t have a lot of real positive things if we’re looking short term, but we’re very positive about mid- and long-term projects,” Levy said.

Recovery by country

Emerging markets throughout the world, such as China, India and several countries in South America, will outperform more developed areas of the world for the next 10 years as the global economy recovers and commodity prices begin rising, Jestin said.

“It’s all about China, India, Brazil and Russia, and possibly in that order, said Ufi Ibrahim, COO of the World Travel & Tourism Council. “The U.S., Eurozone and Japan are still the most important travel economies in the world, but they are the mature markets.”

The Chinese government hasn’t opened the taps yet to allow many Chinese to travel abroad, and when that happens, it will be a boon to travel-services providers around the global, Ibrahim said.

“It’s all about China, India, Brazil and Russia, and possibly in that order, said Ufi Ibrahim, COO of the World Travel & Tourism Council.
Ibrahim cited the growth of India’s outbound trips as an example of what could happen. Since 1998, the number of outbound trips from India has increased 12 percent annually, and those trips meant US$6.9 billion in additional spending throughout the world in 2008.

Economic obstacles remain for a global travel industry recovery. Gross domestic product per capita is linked closely with the number of trips people take, and that indicator has yet to spring back to life.

“Unemployment is going up, which is no good news for our industry,” Ibrahim said. “But don’t forget people who are still employed … bonuses are getting cut, and pay is declining as companies make cuts to try to keep as many people as possible.

“Business travel has been hit significantly this year … and we suspect that business travel will be the slowest to recover,” she added. “We expect the recovery to be very, very slow with 2010 certainly returning toward growth.”

Jeff Senior, EVP of marketing and sales for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, told attendees at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac the key measurement for a recovery is room demand, and that appears to be stabilizing.

“It was about the deepest, ugliest decline you’ve ever seen,” Senior said. “It turned in February, and last month it crossed over. For demand, we’re at parity year over year.”

A three-week worldwide tour of Fairmont’s hotels revealed the Asia/Pacific region’s performance is robust, the performance in the Eurozone is a mixed bag, and in North America, there’s not much light at the end of the tunnel, Senior said.

Weakness in (group) numbers

2010 will be a challenge for most hotels that focus on group business because they won’t have the luxury of cancellation fees they did in 2009 when groups canceled meetings at a brisk pace, Senior said.

“In 2011, we feel a little better,” he said.

Meeting activity is starting to emerge, but Levy wouldn’t call it a trend just yet.

“Meeting planners are busy with short-term meetings but they won’t go out on a limb and say it has turned,” he said.

Any expected deluge of hotel transactions might indicate frustration and pent-up demand rather than reality, Levy and Senior said.

“I don’t expect the same flood of deals in Asia that most people are predicting for North America,” Levy said. “It’ll be a trickle.”

Levy said a Swissotel property in Singapore recently sold for US$350,000 per key, which at least sets a baseline for future deals.

“It’s not going out on a limb to suggest transactions are going to be hard to come by,” Senior said, noting he expects the costs of loans to increase 150 basis points to 200 basis points by the end of 2010.

Source:

05 October 2009 9:17 AM
By Jeff Higley
Editorial Director
jeff@hotelnewsnow.com
Hotel News Now (www.hotelnewsnow.com)

Parabéns Rio de Janeiro!!!

2009-10-02T14:24:00.003-03:00

Rio de Janeiro vence eleição e será sede dos Jogos Olímpicos de 2016

da Folha Online

Após duas tentativas frustradas de organizar uma Olimpíada, o Rio de Janeiro foi anunciado nesta sexta-feira como sede dos Jogos-2016, os primeiros na história a serem organizados em um país sul-americano. A cidade brasileira venceu Madri, Tóquio e Chicago na eleição do COI (Comitê Olímpico Internacional) realizada hoje em Copenhague, na Dinamarca.

Na primeira rodada de votação, Chicago, que era considerada favorita, foi eliminada. Na segunda, foi a vez de Tóquio sair da disputa. Na decisão, o Rio venceu Madrid por 66 votos a 32, diferença bastante expressiva.

Sites especializados como o "Game Bids" e o "Around The Rings" colocavam a capital fluminense como a principal favorita, com ligeira vantagem sobre Chicago. A cidade norte-americana, porém, era a favorita em casas de apostas, seguida pelo Rio.

Entre os quatro países com cidades candidatas, o Brasil era o único que ainda não havia recebido nenhuma Olimpíada. O caráter inédito da candidatura carioca foi bastante ressaltado na apresentação feita pelo Rio de Janeiro antes da votação.

"Entre as dez maiores economias do mundo, somos os únicos que não sediaram a Olimpíada. Para os outros, será apenas mais uma Olimpíada, mas para nós será uma oportunidade sem igual. O desafio do COI é expandir os Jogos para novos lugares, de acender a pira olímpica em um país tropical", disse o presidente brasileiro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

"Essa candidatura não é só nossa, mas é da América do Sul. Um continente que nunca sediou uma Olimpíada. Está na hora de corrigir isso", adicionou.

A apresentação da candidatura brasileira contou ainda com discursos do ex-presidente da Fifa João Havelange, do comandante do COB e comitê da candidatura, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, do governador do Rio, Sérgio Cabral Filho, do prefeito da cidade, Eduardo Paes, do presidente do Banco Central, Henrique Meirelles, do secretário geral da candidatura, Carlos Roberto Osório, e da velejadora Isabel Swan, medalha de bronze nos Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim-2008.

Um dos embaixadores da campanha carioca, Pelé não discursou. O maior jogador de futebol da história apenas acenou para os membros votantes do COI.

Gastos

O projeto apresentado pelo Rio é o mais caro entre os quatro finalistas. Ele prevê o gasto de US$ 14,42 bilhões na organização da Olimpíada. Chicago projetava orçamento de US$ 4,82 bilhões; Madri, de US$ 6,13 bilhões; e Tóquio, de US$ 6,8 bilhões.

Só na fase de candidatura, encerrada com a eleição desta sexta, já foram gastos R$ 138 milhões. O dinheiro veio de recursos do município, do governo, da União e da iniciativa privada.

O plano da Olimpíada brasileira é aproveitar 19 das arenas que foram levantadas para os Jogos Pan-Americanos de 2007. Outros 11 ginásios serão construídos, além de quatro locais temporários de competição.

Assim como o comitê que organizou o Pan, o projeto da Olimpíada também é encabeçado pelo presidente do COB (Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro), Carlos Arthur Nuzman.

Histórico

Nas duas outras vezes em que o Rio se lançou candidato à principal competição poliesportiva do mundo, o projeto brasileiro não passou das etapas preliminares do processo seletivo.

Para a Olimpíada-2004, a cidade contou com grande apoio popular, mas sofreu com a divisão entre os dirigentes. João Havelange apoiou o projeto, enquanto o presidente do COB (Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro), Carlos Arthur Nuzman, preferiu um papel secundário.

O Rio voltou a competir pela sede dos Jogos-2012, mas não foi aprovado pelo COI, que criticou o planejamento financeiro da candidatura, considerado otimista demais, e as ações para melhorar a rede de transporte da cidade.

A terceira tentativa carioca, enfim, conseguiu chegar à final, mas ainda sim sob desconfiança do COI. Das quatro cidades finalistas, o Rio foi a que recebeu a pior nota na primeira avaliação.

A situação mudou no começo do mês passado.

Após as visitas de inspeção nas quatro cidades, o COI colocou o Rio no mesmo nível das outras três candidaturas. A entidade elogiou o apoio de todas as esferas governamentais, assim como o aspecto social da candidatura, mas criticou a rede hoteleira da cidade e a falta de segurança.

Com a nova avaliação, a candidatura brasileira passou a ser tratada como favorita em sites especialistas no movimento olímpico, como o "Around the Rings" e o "Games Bids", tendo como principal adversária Chicago, que ganhou impulso com a confirmação da presença do presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, em Copenhague.

Source: Folha Online