Hotel Managment Lay out: 1- Director of Revenue

Let's start with director of revenue. So many people in the hotel business don't know what the job descriptions of the director of revenue are. Forget about the written description; let's talk about the real ones. The director of the revenue is the head coach of the revenue he or she is the one who should know how to maximize the revenue. If you have a smart director of revenue and good sales team, your hotel is set. You will gain all the dollars you are looking for. The director of revenue should be aggressive, risk taker, and should think outside the box. You will never make money if you are always afraid to lose it. Some directors of revenus don’t know their product and therefore they can not make the money. If you don't your product, you will not be able to set your competition. For example, four seasons does not have holiday inn in the comp set. Your competition should not only be the companies around your zip code. Your competition is a hotel almost same size as you and offer same level of service as you. So know your product in order to know your competition in order to set the correct rates. So many director of revenue do not want to higher the rates. They are afraid that they won't get the budgeted occupancy. So they would rather lower the rates. But if you lower the rates and one guest paid the lower rate, and you did not improve your service, you can not ask for a higher rate later one. The first thing the guest will say why I should pay higher for the same room and the same service I got in a lower rate last month. After September 11, 99% of the director of revenues lower their rate to attract business and that was stupid. This people are still struggling to get their rate to the before September 11 period. Very few 5 stars hotel in NYC refused to lower their rate because they know for sure the business was slow any way, lowering the rate would not give any more business, and getting your high rate back is very hard because you have the same product. Directors of revenue should think outside the box as we said. They should be able to guess and predict the market. Good directors must know what their hotel pattern is. Are they busy on Mondays? Do they sell out on holidays? And so many other questions that needed to be answered. We are not done yet To be continued

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Online Interviews

So many companies post their job opening on their website or on other website such as www.Hcareers.com for the hotels industry. It is great tools in the internet aura. Some companies ask you to fill out basic application such as your contact information and they give you the option to attache your resume. Other companies make you fill out everything including you job history, salary requirement, education, language and computer skills. And that is still fine because they may be afraid of virus attachment. Other companies are pushing it a little by adding few questionnaires to answers. They think that they are saving time by giving you bunch of interview questions online and you have to choose the answer. May be they are saving time but I assure you that they are loosing some good employees. I asked five good employees who work in one of the best hotel in the world. 4 of these five employees preferred faxing over a resume and cover letter, the fifth one said that if she had the time she would do it. The 5 employee agree that it discourages them from applying. I think this is very stupid system. How do they know you answer the questions and not you friend or any one else you know. Also, they don't see your facial reaction to the questions. They don’t see the gestures. Thy don’t see how calm or nervous the interviewee is. Technology is important in so many aspects of business, but human relations are still more important in hiring people.

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Is training important?

Training is very important Tool Company must use to insure success to all new employees. Good companies have training manager who handle the training process to the new staff. And when I say training I don’t mean how to use a computer system or how to do the job you are hired for. They hired you because they know that you did the job or you can do it. The training I mean is that the introduction of the new hire to the company’s culture and philosophy. The new hire has to know what the goals of this company and what makes this company different to others. You have to let the new hire knows and believes that your company is different and better than any other company in your industry. This way the new employee will know that he or she has to drop any bad habits from their systems. I remember once, I worked for a great company in the hospitality industry. And I assure you that I did not go to my work station or started doing my job before 3 full weeks of training and orientation from HR. and after the HR orientations and training, I took 2 more weeks training in my department. They trained me how to great people, how to make eye contact, and how to answer the phone. I remember that my trainer told me “I know you have experience, but I want you to forget everything you learn outside this place and focus on what we are trying to do her.” When he told me these words, I knew for sure that I was going to have different job. I left this company and worked in 2 different places, and I assure you that the total training days for both jobs was less than 3 days. My training for the other 2 jobs was like that’s what we do and that’s how we do it and good luck! To tell you the truth, I hated both jobs and I hated the people in both jobs. These people have nothing but gossiping and talking about everyone behind their backs. I once shared an office with 3 employees, and they were the kings and queens of talking about other people; making fun of them; thinking everyone else is a stupid, and when one of the 3 employee leaves the office, the other 2 start talking about him/her. If these employees had the right training and if they were told that in this company we respect each other, they would never do such a thing. Training is important and it will pay you back. It will reduce your turn over rate. It will reduce your employees’ problems, and it will make your company more successful and profitable.

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It is not good fit for your career path!!

Don’t you hate it when you interview for a job and the interviewer tells that he or she does not think the position is a good fit for you career path. Like he or she really cares about your career path. When they say that, there are 2 options. One is they might be afraid of you that one day you will take their position. Two, they don’t think you are good enough for the job and that is the best way to tell you so. If you spend time typing a cover letter and faxing or e-mailing your resume, don’t they think that you thought about the position before sending the resume and the cover letter. I just hate people who are not straight forward. If you don’t think the position will be a good fit for my career path, why did you call me for an interview from the first place?

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Mouth to mouth Marketing

Since I am a big fan of Seth Godin, I will keep talk about the purple cow. In one part of his book he talked about Mouth to Mouth Advertisements. He said that the best and the cheapest way to advertise are mouth to mouth. When you offer a good service that is it. Every one will talk about your good service. People trust each other and they don’t trust advertisements. If you have the best sales force on earth, and they are trying to sell very good products, they will have hard time doing it because they are sales people, and most of us don’t like sales people. On the other hand, if your best friend tells you about a good restaurant or a nice hotel, you will run to try the restaurant and stay in the hotel. I bought my Toshiba laptop because friend of mine told me that it was better than Dell. I told another friend about Toshiba so he bought one for himself. How many times did you stay in a hotel because some one you know told you that the hotel was good and the service is exceptional? TV ads are dying right now. When we are watching the Super Bowl as Mr. Godin Said, we wait till the commercials come so we can run to the bathroom or get more snacks. So we don’t watch the commercial. Companies waste too much money for TV ads instead of using this money to improve their services.

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Is HR Important????

When I go for an interview, I usually get an idea about the company from the second I enter the Human Resources office. I usually arrive few minutes early so I can fill out the paper work. Recently I had an interview in a good company! When I entered the Human Resources office after security gave me a pass, I greeted everyone in the office by saying good afternoon, my name is so and so and I am here for so and so. No one of the 3 ladies they were in the office greeted me back. I looked like an idiot with my big smile, and I stranded up for a few minutes before anyone acknowledged me. Finally, one girl picked up some paper and walked towards me and asked me to fill them out. And told me you can set there. I filled all the paper work in few minutes and I gave it back to her. She told me Ms. XX would be with you. I waited for about 20 minutes and finally Ms. XX showed up and took me to her office. During the 20 minutes wait, I noticed how these ladies were doing their job. And to tell you the truth one of them was nice from the way she answer the phone and talking to other people who stopped by the office for different reasons. The other girl was so rude and did not smile once. Every time she answered the phone, she was looking for a fight. The rude girl was working on the computer and one of her managers came to her nicely saying" hey xxx can you do me a favor" and I assumed the manager wanted the rude girl to do something. The rude girl answered the manager saying” not really, I am busy, but I will do it" the manager said" oh, don't worry" and then the nicer girl told the manager that she was free and she would do whatever. I asked myself why good company like this one should keep a nasty employee like this one. But there are million answers to this question so I did not bother trying to answer it. The point I want to make that good companies know that they get interviewed at the same time they interview someone. Why don't they keep the waiting area away from the work place? This way the candidate does not judge the company before he or she even starts. Honestly, it always works with, if the human resources people are nice and professional, the whole company is nice and professional . Another point is that Human Resources set the tone of employees’ behavior. If Human Resource manager tells you that they will call you at the end of the week to set up another appointment, and they never call, that means; time does not mean anything for these people. In order to make employees respect time, HR has to respect time as well. I remember once, I interviewed for a job with 7 different people. I interviewed with HR, department head, Executive offices and finally the General Manager. When I left the last interview, HR manager told me that they would be in touch with me by the end of the week. At this point, it was very easy. Either call me to offer the job or send me a rejection letter. After 3 months, the HR manager called me to offer me the Job! Of course in these 3 months, I interviewed at some other places and I accepted another job form other people who handle the procedures right. Finally, we have to believe that HR is your company’s heart. It is the first image of your company. You have to hire the right HR, in order to get the right employees. How many companies got sued because of stupid HR mistake?

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Ran out of Sick Days

I ran out of sick Days!!!!I ran out of sick days Some times you weak up in the morning and you don't feel like going to work. You are just not feeling well mentally. So you ask yourself, should I call out sick? And the answer is no because you want to save the sick day to another time. My General Manager once at the Four Seasons New York was Mr. Thomas Steinhauer who I love and respect dearly. He once told us that we all came to work when we were really sick but we called sick when we were feeling well and wanted to do something out. He is right 100%. Most employees go to work when they are very sick, but they call sick when it is sunny out and they want to go to the park, it is the same thinking in a lot of industries, and that is why you see the number of sick days is very important to some people when they are accepting new job. If you love and enjoy your job, you will go to work even if you are sick. A lot of employers know that calling out sick is part of the business and they can not ask employee why he or she called out sick. Employer or management can mention the number of used sick days when an employee up uses the benefit. Or when they give the employees his or her annual performance review So now most employers are trying to build a loyalty and trust relationship with the employees. So many companies are trying so hard to make employees love their job. And as I said, when the employees love and enjoy their job, they will never call out sick unless they really can not walk to work You can check this interesting report from the Department of Premier and Cabinet for 2004-2005. It shows you the average sick used days in the last 3 years.

http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/documents/annualreport/2004-

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