288 | ‘The Big Pause’: Hotels retooling employment policies as business slowly returns

Two viruses emerged in the U.S. this year – COVID-19 and society’s backlash against racism. The coronavirus pandemic forced hotels to close or drastically cut back on their workforces as occupancy plummeted to unprecedented lows. And America’s streets resounded with the voices of citizens protesting racism as businesses began to respond by promising new and better commitments toward diversity, inclusion and equality in hiring and promotion. In Episode 288 of Lodging Leaders podcast, we explore the issues hotels are facing in bringing back laid-off workers and recruiting new employees in the midst of a health pandemic that seems to have no end and society’s desperate call for Corporate America to get serious about ending systemic racism.

266 | Return Policies: Hotel industry works out rehiring plans

As the recognized COVID-19 infection rate began to gain strength in the U.S. in mid-March, lodging industry analysts said they expected at least half of the nation’s 4 million hotel employees would be laid off. It’s a startling number when you consider that six weeks ago, most hospitality jobs were firmly intact. In fact, in read more

243 | Don’t Leave Me Now: How to reduce employee turnover

The annual employee turnover rate in the U.S. hospitality industry is 70 percent. When compared with 10 to 25 percent at other industries, the rate at which people leave hospitality jobs is at a “disastrous level,” said one of the experts we interviewed about recruiting and retaining employees. In this episode of Lodging Leaders, we read more

232 | Wage Pressures: How to plug cost leaks in your hotel’s labor pool (Labor and Hiring Part 2)

At the peak of a great upward climb from the Great Recession, the U.S. lodging industry is seeing a leveling off in business performance. During the 25th annual Lodging Conference in Phoenix last week, many industry experts talked about a new normal of muted revenue gains and thinner profit margins as expenses continue to grow. read more

231 | Culture Club: Your hotel’s work environment may be bad for business (Labor and Hiring Part 1)

Is your hotel a fun place to work? Do your employees look forward to spending their day at your hotel? If the answers are no, then your business is in trouble. Do you have difficulty keeping good employees? Do you see staff members whispering in huddled groups? Do you or your supervisors work behind closed read more

July 4th week

Grading Curves: NAACP diversity report card reveals weaknesses in hotel companies

“Equal opportunity for people of color in the United States remains an unrealized goal.” That is the opening statement in a recently released study by the NAACP. The 2019 study titled “Opportunity & Diversity Report Card: The Hotel & Lodging Industry,” not only shows stagnation in racial equality in hospitality workplaces, it reveals African Americans have lost ground over the past decade in their climb to the top in U.S. hotel companies. NAACP representatives attended NABHOOD’s summit to share the report’s results and find ways to reverse the trend, engage hotel companies and come up with clearer data, including counting the number of minority franchisees.

223 | Grading Curves: NAACP diversity report card reveals weaknesses in hotel companies

“Equal opportunity for people of color in the United States remains an unrealized goal.” That is the opening statement in a recently released study by NAACP. The same opening statement appears in the organization’s 2012 report on diversity in the U.S. hotel industry. The 2019 study titled “Opportunity & Diversity Report Card: The Hotel & read more

219 | Train and Retain: Hospitality apprenticeship fills high-level jobs

It’s no secret the hospitality industry in America is in dire need of skilled employees. Many hotel owners and operators continually seek ways to attract and keep talent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the hospitality industry has a turnover rate of nearly 75 percent per year, compared to a healthy rate of 10 to read more

183 | The Business Case for Improving Employee Engagement with Julia Felton

Julia Felton is the Founder of Business HorsePower, which delivers leadership and team development to CEO’s, entrepreneurs and executives. Julia is a veteran of the hospitality industry having been the creator the HotelBenchmark Survey which provided the lodging industry with monthly statistics on its performance. She took that business from an idea on a piece read more

135 | Hospitality Recruiting Best Practices with John Carpenter

John Carpenter has been in recruiting for 7 years, two years of recruiting semi-pro/college basketball players, and 5 years in the hospitality industry. He currently serves as Hotel Division Executive Recruiter and Vice President of Operations at Snelling Hospitality in Akron, Ohio. In This Episode, John Reveals: What you should expect when working with a read more

127 | If You Don’t Invest in Your Employees, Your Competition Will with Kayla Barrett Curry

Kayla Barrett Curry is President of Organization Impact, LLC and is a member of the Society of Human Resources Management, American Society of Training and Development, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the National Association of Professional Women. She has over 25 years experience in both the corporate sector and non-profit market as Director of read more

123 | Hospitality Internships from the Students’ Perspective

Last month, I featured Ron Whitfield and Dr. Kate Price-Howard, and we took a deep dive into How to Create an Awesome Internship Program. Click here to listen to that episode. This is part two in the hospitality internship series. Today’s guests are ResortQuest Interns Jordon Bonner, Nick Delaney, Allison Johnstone and Yaminah Cummings, and read more

119 | How to Create an Awesome Internship Program with Ron and Kate

Ron Whitfield and Dr. Kate Price-Howard are both seasoned hospitality professionals with extensive experience developing, administering and growing successful internship programs. I’ve invited them back on the show to share how YOU can create an awesome internship program for your property. Dr. Kate Price-Howard has 30 years experience in the fields of hospitality and commercial recreation. read more

113 | The Impact of Extraordinary Talent and a Compelling Culture with Dee Ann Turner

Dee Ann is a business leader, best-selling author and speaker. She started her career at Chick-fil-A in 1985 as an administrator in the Human Resources department. Selected as Chick-fil-A’s first female officer in 2001, Dee Ann has led various areas of the business including Human Resources, Franchisee Selection, Culture, Learning and Development, Talent Management and read more

099 | Induction, On-boarding and Training with Rocco Bova

Rocco is a passionate hotelier and energetic entrepreneur with a remarkable career of over 20 years. He studied hotel management at Westminster College in London and Cornell University in Singapore, and he has worked in some of the finest, world class properties in amazing destinations spanning three continents. He’s led pre-opening, rebranding, and repositioning projects, read more

094 | Investing in Your People with Joann Saucier

Joann V. Saucier, Ed.D. has 30 years experience in hospitality/tourism, government, education, and real estate management. She served as Director of Operations and Senior Regional Manager, ResortQuest, Destin, FL 1985–2005, and went on to serve as a Management Consultant for several companies and organizations, including the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association. Joann earned read more

089 | How to Attract, Retain and Engage Millennials with Amanda Hammett

Amanda is an entrepreneur, speaker and consultant who helps corporations develop strategies around attracting, retaining and engaging top millennial talent. She has spoken to Millennials over 800 times in the last 5 years. In fact, one group of college students dubbed her the “Millennial Translator” after speaking to them, so clearly she understands, and knows read more

087 | Improving Retention Through Training and Development with John Hogan

John J. Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO is a career business professional and educator who has held senior leadership with responsibility in several organizations involving operational, academic and entrepreneurial enterprise. He has demonstrated competencies as a strong leader, relationship builder, problem solver and mentor and is frequently invited to speak at franchise meetings, management company read more

086 | Hiring for Personality and Fit with Al Munguia

Al Munguia is the general manager of the Jupiter Hotel, a mid-century renovated motor inn turned boutique hotel in the heart of Portland. He has worked in the travel and tourism industry since the age of 20 and has worked in many major destinations, including San Francisco, San Diego and Guadalajara, Mexico. Using his experience read more

085 | How to Welcome and Onboard New Hires with Karen Quintanilla

Karen has served as HR Coordinator at a 300 room downtown, full-service Sheraton hotel. She relocated to a 296 unit, all suite airport hotel that she helped open as the HR Director. Following these assignments she served for a number of years as General Manager for a 108 room select service hotel and then a read more

084 | Meaningful Employee Benefits with Laura Lee Blake

Laura Lee Blake, JD is a lawyer and a Wealth Advisor with SunBright Wealth Management & Financial Planning, through Money Concepts Capital Corp., Member SIPC/FINRA. Laura Lee has more than twenty-five years’ experience in the legal industry. She has handled complex litigation, corporate transactional and business-related matters. Laura Lee is expanding into the financial planning read more

083 | How to Build Great Hotel Teams with the Hotelier Mastermind

At it’s core, the Hotelier Mastermind includes John Hogan, Kathleen Hogan, Tim Danyo and Jon Albano. John and Kathleen are the Co-Founders of HospitalityEducators.com, a hotel consulting resource for hospitality professionals focused on making hotels more profitable. Kathleen is the CEO and John is the Chief Learning Officer. Among other things, Hospitality Educators is the read more

071 | Who: The A Method for Hiring A Players for Hotels with Geoff Smart

Geoff Smart, Ph.D. is co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, Who: The A Method for Hiring, which is ranked #1 on Amazon.com on the topic of hiring talented teams. He’s also Chairman & Founder of ghSMART, a leadership consulting firm with 12 offices in the U.S. and one in London whose mission is to read more

057 | Why Women: The Leadership Imperative to Advancing Women and Engaging Men with Jeffery Tobias Halter

Jeffery Tobias Halter is a corporate gender strategist. The country’s leading expert on engaging men to advance women, Jeffery is the President of YWomen, a strategic consulting company. The former Director of Diversity Strategy of The Coca-Cola Company, Jeffery has worked with leading companies including McDonald’s, Deloitte, Publicis Groupe, GE and more. Jeffery’s latest book read more

056 | COMING ALIVE: The Journey to Reengage Your Life and Career with Ruth K Ross

Ruth K Ross led a successful career as a strategic human resources executive with top FORTUNE 100 companies for 30 years before she went on to start her own company in San Francisco to focus on the critical intersection where people and process fuse together in organizations. A thought leader on engagement, Ruth’s work with read more

054 | Creating Rewarding Relationships with Guests, Staff and Industry Professionals with Rocco Bova

Rocco Bova is a passionate hotelier and an energetic entrepreneur with a remarkable career of nearly 20 years. He studied hotel management at Westminster College in London and Cornell University in Singapore, and he has worked in some of the finest, world class properties in amazing destinations spanning three continents. He’s led pre-opening, rebranding, and read more

043 | How to Find, Train and Keep Good People with Rick Takach

Rick Takach, Jr. is President and CEO of Vesta Hospitality – a fully integrated hotel development and hospitality management company based in Vancouver, Washington. In less than 20 years, Vesta has grown their portfolio to 13 properties under management in 8 states. Last year, Hotel Business ranked Vesta Hospitality #78 in their Top 100 Management Companies of read more

034 | Thank, Appreciate and Connect with Your Associates with Walter Isenberg

Walter Isenberg is Co-Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Sage Hospitality, one of the top hotel investment, management and development companies in the United States for more than 30 years. Based in Denver, Sage Hospitality owns and operates over 75 hotels and 10 restaurants in 23 states, from urban full-service hotels to smaller select-service suburban read more

018 | Service, Employee Benefits, Operating Debt Free and Entrepreneurial Responsibility with Harris Rosen

Harris Rosen is president and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts and is Florida’s largest independent hotelier. Founded in 1974, Rosen Hotels & Resorts currently features a collection of seven Central Florida hotels offering a total of more than 6,300 guest rooms, approximately six percent of the Central Florida inventory. Rosen Hotels has several subsidiaries read more