Service is at the core of a hotel business. Notwithstanding a grand lobby, spanking new guest rooms and sparkling restaurant outlets, customers are drawn to a hotel principally based on the service quality and standards they experience. It is almost an emotional experience to feel at home in your hotel and this triggers repeat patronage. Without a customer focused training strategy effectively executed, a hotel cannot survive for long. But utilizing training dollars in your budget to produce a sharply focused service culture is a totally different kettle of fish. READ MORE

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Not just for our bodies, but for our business. A satisfying breakfast is the fuel that sets the stage for a day ahead. Likewise, breakfast has proven to be one of the most important brand pillars of Hilton Garden Inn. An unsatisfying food and beverage experience at breakfast will tarnish everything else that follows during a guest's stay. Getting breakfast service just right is considered one of the most crucial elements to defining a positive identity for a hotel brand. READ MORE

Collecting feedback won't help much unless it's tied to reporting and action. When feedback is combined with follow-up, loyalty, referrals, and reputation are significantly impacted. The only way to do this is through a feedback program that is built around the experiences of your customers and is mapped to fit your organization. Too many voice-of-customer programs don't provide feedback about the complete customer experience, are often based on metrics that are not relevant to business needs, fail to get the right information to the right people, and don't capitalize on feedback. The result -- misdirected resources and opportunities lost. READ MORE

The day has just started, congratulations! We have yet another opportunity to do something great. In the amount of time it just took someone to read that first sentence, they may have received eight emails, three text messages, and missed two calls - and it's only 7:30am. They are debating if they will make it to the gym this morning or this evening, whether they should go to dinner with friends, or just disregard the invite so they can catch up on work. Decisions, decisions, decisions. . . They seem to be more difficult the older we get. Not difficult in the sense that we do not know what we want to do, but difficult in the sense of finding the 25th hour in the day. READ MORE

Beginning preparations for event or meeting planning virtually starts with a few clicks. These days, a potential guest goes on their computer and searches various sites. Perhaps it is a Google search, or using a search engine specifically for wedding venues. But one thing is certain - finding the best venue for your event is critical to executing a productive program. In our business, it truly is all in the details. In addition to site selection, confidence in the on-site team and quality and consistency in service and product delivery are of paramount importance, and contribute vastly to executing a successful event. Success can be measured in a number of ways, but the most critical is the value attendees received given their time and money invested in participating. Hosting an event, you want to leave feeling that you executed an outstanding day or evening, and that your guests' left with a memorable experience that they won't soon forget. READ MORE