Hotels are gearing up for the holiday season, kicking off with Thanksgiving here in the U.S. From a luxurious spin on traditional meals to entire events for people of all ages, each brand seems to be very unique in their holiday offerings. One hotel, the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, seems to have a fairly diverse set of holiday offerings. Beginning November 17, guests can enjoy the Holiday “FantaSeaLand” Spectacular, a gingerbread display created by the resort’s pastry team. A tree lighting ceremony with live music, tasty treats, and a visit from Santa is the following day. Guests visiting Thanksgiving day can attend an early afternoon buffet complete with cookie decorating for the kids at ocean front Pavilions, or visit the Raya or ecoSTEAK for evening offerings. The hotel also puts on the Surfing Santa Contest to benefit Surfers healing, a foundation that seeks to enrich the lives of those with Autism by exposing them to the surfing experience. Other charitable events hosted by this hotel include a Teddy Bear Tea, the Thanks-for-Giving Buffet, and a Happy Howl-iday Yappy Hour, where pets and owners celebrate the season with donations for an animal shelter. This is not a complete list of offerings, they …
This week, I have come across more articles, posts, and rants about being put on hold than anything else. Well, all right, that’s not exaclty the case. But aside from the big news events, being put on hold seems to be bothering some people. In the grand scheme of things, being put on hold isn’t the end of the world. But for a guest who is building up steam every second they’re waiting, it can become a pretty big deal. What happens at your hotel when people call? Skipping the initial annoyance of being put on hold at all, if the situation arises, what is the best practice? I had hoped to list annoyances in some sort of order, but it was pretty evenly divided. Half the people hate marketing messages, and half hate the hold music. Only one person mentioned the beeps, but she was in favor of them. Do beeps win? Hold music: It was agreed by everyone that hold music should be soft and high-quality. No half-static radio stations, and obviously leave out anything with questionable lyrics. About half of the people said they would prefer talking over music, but those who prefer music mentioned the affect …
Growing up in Oklahoma, I learned extreme weather often equals transformation. Although my state is most known for being in the midst of Tornado Alley, we also run the weather gamut with ice storms, flooding, drought and ensuing wildfires, record-breaking heat, blizzards, and even the occasional small earthquake. While that doesn’t sound like the makings of a travel brochure, most Okies have a love/hate relationship with the weather, fascinating and frightening, tremendous and terrible, breathtaking and uncertain. Transformation in any area of our lives can be brought on gradually or suddenly, either planned or forced upon us. Storms like Hurricane Sandy transform everything and everyone they touch. Landscapes, structures, families, and lives change in an instant, and those affected have no choice but to get up the next day and face the new condition. This post is a look at the way the hotel guest experience changes during an emergency. My colleague, Senior Account Manager Elizabeth Robinson, was en route to help clients with technical issues when the storm hit. While this area was not hit as hard as others, the hotel had planned ahead for the storm by testing backup generators and keeping rooms blocked for staff. She made …
Around the office (and beyond), our Monscierge team is driven, hard-working, and innovative. Recently, techJOYnt Robotics Academy visited our office and kindly shared their toys with us. What’s more fun than Legos at work? The Lego Mindstorm Challenge is a team building exercise that promotes critical thinking. Our staff divided into two teams with the same objectives, and were given an hour and a half to complete as many of the objectives as possible. The teams had to work together to build their own robot, program it to move autonomously, and complete the objectives one at a time. This was a creative and fun way for people from different departments to work together to complete a challenge. Even our own resident programmers had to learn a new programming language to get their robots to move. What activities have you participated in to build culture? Have you found anything that beats the fun nerdy-coolness of Lego robots? Tell us about it in the comments.
Around the office, the beginning of Q4 has been permeated with a look ahead at 2013. We are excited for what the new year will bring to the industry, and want to get a head start on preparations. As is natural, looking ahead brings with it a sense of nostalgia for what has passed. 2012 has been an year of positive outlook and growth in the hospitality industry, and we’ve seen some of the biggest game-changers in history disrupt the way we do business and even our day to day lives. Reorganizing public spaces – Many hotels are rethinking their public spaces. Lobbies have become more social, meeting rooms are getting a makeover, and property-specific areas such a libraries or spas are focusing on the personalized guest experience. Growth of online and mobile bookings – So far in 2012, online bookings seem to grow daily, and smartphone penetration hit the 50% mark mid-year. We fully expect to see these numbers continue to rise through 2013 with consumer trust in online purchases on the rise. Connection through social media- There was no question here. As much as social networking has changed the way we interact with friends, family, colleagues, and even …