When a hotel enters financial distress, the prospect that the owner may become personally liable for the property's debts is often a source of substantial concern. This article addresses one potential source of exposure for a hotel's owner: nonrecourse carve-out guaranties, often referred to as “bad boy guaranties.” In some circumstances, a nonrecourse carve-out guaranty can result in liability for the hotel's owner up to the full amount of the hotel's debt. READ MORE

There has been a lot of talk about big data recently. Hotels are struggling to understand what this means for them. Revenue management in particular has always been a data intensive discipline, leading some to argue that revenue management is already solving a big data problem. With new data sources and faster analysis of that data, there are new opportunities in today's dynamic market place to make better pricing decisions faster. In this article, I will outline the opportunities available to revenue management in today's “big data” world and how revenue managers can determine the value that their “big data” provides. READ MORE

While some employee turnover is inevitable and even healthy for an organization, rampant turnover constitutes a challenge for even the best hospitality firms, given the expense and disruption caused when employees leave abruptly and new workers must be brought in and trained. For these reasons, human resources researchers at Cornell and other universities have targeted turnover in numerous studies designed to analyze the specific reasons that employees leave and, more important, identify the levers available for limiting unwanted employee turnover. The available levers include specific methods of employee compensation, paying attention to employees' attitudes (particularly as a group), and allowing employees reasonable flexibility. READ MORE

Managing employee leave and staying on the right side of the law is challenging for employers, especially as federal and state laws continue to be enacted and interpretations of laws change and evolve. Hotel human resources teams must be prepared to recognize when and which law applies to an employee request for leave and manage the leave process. But they can't do their job if the employee's leave request is never brought to their attention or brought to them too late. Employers must train supervisors and managers to recognize requests for leave or attendance issues that may implicate federal laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act or state laws that provide for leave for a variety of absences such as school visitation, pregnancy or leave for crime victims, to name a few. Hospitality employers should address attendance and leave issues from a centralized decision-making perspective to ensure consistent application of, and possible modification of, relevant company policies. READ MORE

At its pure essence, business is about people. No matter the industry, the product or the service, it is people who make the difference. A business's success stems from aligning people against the organization's strategies. Culture is the soul of alignment, and though it is shaped by leaders, it is nurtured and driven by Human Resource professionals. In her article, Renie Cavallari, CEO and Chief Inspirational Officer of the hospitality training and consulting firm Aspire, presents the findings of 18 years of field research about what works and what doesn't to drive results in business. Her answer? Human development. READ MORE