The U.S. unemployment rate is at a near record low yet the hospitality industry is facing a massive labor shortage. There are many incentives which hospitality industry employers can offer their employees to maintain their current workforce but taking a lax approach to employee discipline should not be one of them. Engaging in disparate disciplinary treatment likely will result in the filing of employment lawsuits or labor grievances which otherwise may have been avoidable. Lodging industry professionals should ensure that their management team consistently administers disciplinary policies and procedures in an evenhanded manner and provide training which identifies and explains the consequences of disparate discipline. READ MORE

Google's continually evolving ecosystem presents both a challenge and an opportunity to business owners looking to maximize their impact and increase visualization on the web. Today, the algorithms behind Google are designed to make recommendations based on a user's intent rather than direct keyword matches, a trend observant hoteliers are taking advantage of. This article will outline the cornerstones of a strong search engine optimization plan, how business owners can adopt an intent-based search process, and why these strategies are integral to your future success. READ MORE

The push and pull of music licensing in the hotel industry has always been somewhat emotional. Because it is a devilish task to determine the value of music to the industry, it is easy for the hotels to conclude they pay too much and easy for the licensing companies to conclude that they, and the artists they represent, are entitled to more. Over the years, the hotel industry and the music industry have gradually gotten accustomed to each other and some of the companies in the industries involved have truly understood how they can help each other. This article is an attempt to explain what is going on. READ MORE

The hospitality sector relies heavily on service providers and supply chains. Cybersecurity risk management and data privacy considerations are increasingly a critical factor in those relationships, both to deter poor vendor practices as well as to mitigate exposure in the event of a cyber incident. This article explains how cybersecurity is a risk management function that can be applied to all aspects of a vendor relationship, along with overarching practices for such relationships. The article focuses on cybersecurity considerations in vendor contracts and offers a practical "cybersecurity checklist" that can be used to vet contracts and ensure that cybersecurity and related considerations are being tended to. READ MORE

Hotel executives realize that knowledge is the most strategic factor for empowering the capabilities of a hotel and improving its competitive advantage in the marketplace. Knowledge is shared and synthesized with an aim to providing higher quality services. However, this is still not enough for hotel executives because knowledge is quite elusive and is changing on a day-to-day basis with discontinued services and the ever changing vast array of environmental issues. The key is for hotel executives to integrate risk management, knowledge management and talent management within hotels so that information can be found and used instantaneously. READ MORE