Subway is a FAST food place

Subway is trying to convene us that it is not a fast food place like Burger Kings and KFC, but it is a restaurant. I don’t know how the marketing people at Subway expect us to believe it.
Subway is a good fast food place and it is not a restaurant unless they meet the basic detentions of a restaurant!!

Pay check vs Career

As a Manager, you will see 2 kinds of employees. One of them is looking for pay check. the second one is looking for a career. The one who is looking at the job as Pay check, they should earn it. The second kind; who is looking at the job as career, as a manger, you should push them further. You should find out the leader inside them and help them grow and move up.

Tudor Hotel at the UN

Tudor Hotel at the UN was runing a special rate of $19.31 for July 7 to August 26. Why $19.31 because the hotel was built in 1931. however, the $19.31 special rate is sld out and you can not book it any more. So many hotels do this kind of special rates to attract people and creat publicity.
click here to see the hotel.

People book people

One of my frind sales manager told me that GUEST dont book the hotel rooms. They book the people who work in the hotel. If the GUESTS like the people so they will keep booking the hotel no matter what.
interesting??

Check in & Out

Front office staff is the most important department of the hotel. They are the image of your hotel. They are the first people to make contact with your guests. And they are the last people to say good bye to your guests. When arriving to a hotel, you should be greeted by the doormen, and from this moment you can tell whether you will have a good stay or not. Door staff will open the car door for you, welcome you to the hotel, and assist you with your luggage. That will make you happy already. Door staff will direct you to the front desk to check in. You must have enough front desk agents all the time. All guests heat waiting on line to check in. If your guests wait on line to check in, they will ask themselves hundred questions about the service level. One of these questions is “if I am waiting all this time to check in, how long it will take to get my luggage or my room service order?" By letting your guests wait on line to check in, you give them the chance to doubt your service and they will wait for a mistake so they complaints. Front office staff should have people and problem solving skills. They should be friendly and know how to smile if the guests have problem with the room, they will call the front desk. If they food is late or not good, they will call the front desk. If the bill has some errors, they will call the front desk. If the laundry is not done, they will call the front desk. I remember in one of my jobs, we tried to encourage the guests to call the right department when they have concerns or questions so we can take some of the pressure of the front desk, but it did not work. It did not matter how many notes we put by the phones or in the rooms. Guests still call the front desk for every thing. Basically, the front desk cleans all the mess. They can make your guests happy and they can make them miserable. It does not matter how hard your sales team works to get business to the hotel. The front desk team is the one who will make you have a repeat business or who will drive every guest out and never come back Choose the right people for the front desk

Got people Skills?

People skills are the most important skills you have to look for when hiring new hospitality employee. The hospitality industry is one of these industries that require exceptional people skills. You don’t have to be friendly to be an engineer. You don’t have to smile if you are computer programmer. But working in a hotel, you have to smile, you have to be friendly. When hiring new employee specially those who have guests’ contact, you must look for the smile. Don’t look for computer skill or business experiences. You can teach everyone how to use the computer and how to create a spread sheet, but you can NOT teach them how to smile. If the new employee knows how to smile, everything should be easy to learn after that. Employees with good people skills will save your company a lot of money because with their skills they will know how to solve problems and they will make every guest happy. And when the guests are happy, they will return to your property with no extra ads costs or discount. Look for the employees with people skills, it will pay back.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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-

The Purple Cow

Just read the Purple Cow by Seth Godin. The book is great marketing tools. And honestly, it changes the concepts and the old ideas of how to market your business. Basically, what I understood from this book is that your Business Ideas have to be remarkable so you can market it easy. If you have a bad business idea from the beginning, it will be hard to market it even if you have the best marketing team in earth. He gave Starbucks, jet blue, and amazon.com as examples. These businesses are taken so it is over you can not create a new business like them. Also, he added that when you get your business up in the sky, you have to maintain adding new ideas to it in order to keep it up. In other part of book, he talks about the Advertisings. TV and News Paper ads are not as effective as they used to be. He asked so many people who were reading the Wall Street Journal about the name of the company which had a one page ad in the other page of the journal, 100% of these people did not even catch the name of the company. So the art of advertisements has changed dramatically in the last decade. Finally, I loved the book and I think it is a great marketing tool especially for new marketers like me who wants to learn.

Union Employees

I assume that the union was created to protect all employee rights from injustice employers. In my opinion, the union goals have changed or you can say that the union employees have changed. When you ask any front desk manager about the biggest challenge he or she faces, they will say; dealing with union employees is the hardest part of the job. Union employees think it is ok to be lazy. Don’t get me wrong here. I am talking about small percentage of union employees. I worked with some union employees and they were great examples of the team player. If you compare any hotel in Europe to any hotel in the USA, you will see the difference. For example, Four Seasons in Europe is better than any Four Seasons in the USA. Best western in Europe is like a four stars hotel in the USA. The reason is that most hotels in Europe don’t have union employees. So employee in Europe goes above and beyond his/ her job to make the guest happy In the USA, we have job descriptions, and seniority. And these 2 items can make the job very hard specially if you have some lazy employees who like the word (working under protest)

3 Words!!

in one of my interviews, the interviewer asked me to describe myself in 3 words. How in earth do I describe myself in 3 words. Anyhow, I said 3 words which the interviewer loved to hear such as motivated, loyal, and hard working. After the first interviewer finished with me, another interviewer asked me to describe myself in one word!! I think William shakespeare himself cannot describe himself in one word