Hotel Operations

📚 Craig Poole, a three-time Hilton Connie Award winner and AHLA’s General Manager of the Year, emphasizes the importance of leadership presence in hospitality. He highlights that being visible to guests, employees, and the community enhances revenue and growth. Craig discusses the “point of impact” and warns against solely managing from reports, which can create blind spots. His strategy of engaging directly with guests and staff has led to new business opportunities in his hotels.

🏨 Craig Poole, a three-time Hilton Connie Award winner and AHLA’s General Manager of the Year, emphasizes returning to hospitality basics. He highlights leadership, presence, knowing your team, and guest engagement as crucial for success. Drawing on decades of experience, Craig offers insights for building strong teams and enhancing guest experiences. This episode is a practical guide for hotel leaders aiming to foster resilient businesses.

🏨 Hotel group business is vital for the hospitality industry, enhancing revenue through corporate, social, association, and tour groups. These bookings offer stable revenue, fewer cancellations, and lower acquisition costs. Hotels like Marriott and Hilton excel in this sector by offering necessary spaces and services. Strategies like optimizing visibility, diversifying channels, aligning sales and marketing, and dynamic pricing are key to maximizing group bookings and profitability. They ensure efficient operations and attract repeat clients.

🏨 At a five-star hotel spa, the initial customer experience falters with visible cables behind a Lenovo monitor. Despite the spa’s beautiful ambiance, this oversight highlights a lack of customer-centric design. Staff have not experienced the customer journey fully, focusing on individual moments rather than seamless continuity. In a luxury setting, the visual impression at reception is crucial. This serves as a reminder of the importance of holistic customer experience design. #experience #customer #hotel

🎄 Craig Poole discusses leadership in hospitality during Christmas, highlighting the importance of culture. The episode encourages applying these insights to benefit teams and businesses. Music is produced by Clay Bassford from Bespoke Sound.

📈 Hoteliers in 2026 should focus on reclaiming time, not just hiring more staff. Dan Martell suggests using the DRIP Matrix (Delegate, Replace, Invest, Produce) to identify "Time Vampires" and replace manual tasks with systems like Demand Calendar. This can save up to 12 hours weekly, enabling strategic decision-making. The 10-80-10 Rule helps optimize revenue strategy: 10% on setting goals, 80% on execution, and 10% on reviewing results, enhancing business growth and guest experience.

🏨 Online reputation management (ORM) is vital for hotels. In 2021, 82% of travelers deemed reviews crucial when booking. With 84% trusting them like personal recommendations, hotels with higher ratings often gain more bookings and can justify higher room rates. ORM involves monitoring reviews, responding promptly, optimizing profiles, and leveraging guest feedback. Effective ORM strengthens trust, visibility, and revenue. Tools like Lighthouse streamline these processes, enhancing hotels' visibility and competitive edge.

🛑 In December 2025, Holly Joint, a guest at a five-star spa shared her experience on LinkedIn. Her post highlighted how outdated details like visible VGA cables mar luxury experiences. Holly's insights reveal the importance of meticulous attention to detail in hospitality, influencing guests' perceptions and potentially affecting brand loyalty. She challenges hospitality managers to reassess and improve guest experiences to maintain luxury standards and customer satisfaction.

🎨 Portraits were created in 2023 as gifts for friends by hand. They reflect the artist's appreciation for friendships, taking hours or days to complete each unique piece. This personal approach contrasts with the efficiency-driven world. At Live Oak Lake, guests received handwritten notes and homemade cookies, highlighting genuine hospitality. Will Guidara’s "Unreasonable Hospitality" discusses such practices. The emphasis is on creating irreplicable, meaningful experiences over scalable, automated ones.

🏨 As we look toward 2026, the hospitality industry reflects on meaningful service moments. A hotel staff member compassionately adjusted standard procedures for a grieving guest, showing empathy over automation. Another luxury resort staff discreetly acknowledged a guest's milestone birthday with a thoughtful gesture, respecting their request for no fuss. These actions highlight the essential human element in hospitality and challenge the balance between technology and genuine human connection. Season’s greetings from Mark Fancourt.