Prepping

This is me prepping for a Reception that evening.

I have the place picked!

HEY FOLKS!

I will be doing my cooking hours at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Spa, and Convention Center of Northwest Arkansas. I am so excited about starting my hours and hope to start sometime this week! I took the weekend off and went out to the lake and spent the night, went out on the jet ski, saw a HUGE WATER SNAKE, and just relaxed...I plan on going to Club Xanadu tonight!

Cooking update will come soon! Hope everyone is enjoying the class so far!

Food Prep Introduction

Hey Folks!

I am introducing to my Blog some reflections from my cooking class I am taking. The next several blogs will be about this topic.

My name is Jordan Garcia and I am a senior at the University of Arkansas studying Hospitality and Restaurant Management. My main interest include Employee Retention and Training and Feasibility. I am also employed at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Northwest Arkansas as a Banquet/Event Coordinator. My hobbies include golf, piano, movies and networking.

Socialnomics

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO BEFORE READING

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&feature=related


Last Tuesday I went to this Conference in at the Fayetteville Towncenter in Fayetteville, Arkansas called the Hospitality Summit.

One session I attended was very very informative. It was about social media and its impact in the world. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets is not some kind of fad, it's the future. I remember getting on Facebook when I was a junior in high school, some 5 years ago. These were the days when you had to be invited by a friend who was already on Facebook. It was a private social network. When I got on to the Bentonville High School Network there were only 39 other students on the network. In 5 years Facebook went from 5-10 thousand members to over 200 million members!

Some hotels like the Palms in Las Vegas have taken advantage of this outlet and now advertise on Facebook offering great deals to stay at their property. Arkansas Tourism Dept has a Twitter, Facebook page, and Iphone Apps advertising great deals on tourist attractions.

This is the new trend. We will no longer search for products and services; they will find us via social media!

What in the Hell are we going to do??? Part Two

I, first hand, have seen the local hotel market plummet and I live in an area with booming commerce. I can't even begin to imagine worse off areas of the country. Rack rates with local hotels have dropped nearly 40%. For those that do not know about Rack Rate, it is the dollar rate that hotels will charge for non LNR or group affiliated guest. Some people call it the "Walk Rate."

Speaking about LNRs (Locally Negotiated Rates) ,or corporate accounts that will bring business to your hotel for a discounted rate, have dropped nearly 30%. The hotel I work for brought one of its LNR rates down to $79.

Key positions have been eliminated. Starwood Hotles have eliminated most of its room directors as also John Q Hammons Hotles have eliminated most of this Assistant General Managers usually on the rooms division side. Several assistant manager positions were eliminated during the recession. This drastically shapes department and hotel operations. Less management coverage could mean severe service quality reduction and follow-up. With AGM or Room Directors now gone GM's cant keep up with the work and will put it on to their food and beverage directors or AGM F&B who are already busy. With less staff working events or at the front desk guest experience can be damaging and business would be lost much quicker than just that particular person. The Hotel industry greatly relies on word of mouth marketing and bad word of mouth is very damaging!

To sum up everything, sometimes it would be more beneficial to make a smaller profit margin, rather then to lose more money when the recession is over because you lost most of your patrons and future guest, because of the bad service you provided, because you laid off all your managers and staff.

WHAT IN THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO??? Part One

Cash Flow, now more than ever, is imperative in this economy and companies that our proactive will last the storm but their could be major damage in the long run. Capital is extremely important and those that do not have emergency funds for situations like we are in now will lose in the end. Some major Hotel Management Companies have drastically made cuts in service quality and have put employees under wadge freezes. Some employees haven't seen a raise in over 2 years even though inflation continues to rise at a staggering rate. Because of this Employee turnover is higher than ever. This cost the company more then it would to successfully retain the employees. Pricing power has been lost for most 2-4 star brands and rooms that used to go from 249 are not selling for 169 as a rack rate. So companies are making up for it by taking severe risk in service quality. This is very dangerous because these hotels could lose patrons over bad service. Forecasting would way off if those guest that hotels counted on every week, month, and year suddenly vanished. This country will forget what good service is. The hotel and restaurant industry will turn into the airline industry. I can go on and on and on about this but I will continue this discussion next week. I'M SICK! Thanks.

My Favorite Hotel Brands

So some of you are probably wondering what's Jordan's hotel brand? Well that question isn't fair. We have to look at the market segments separately. Its not fair to compare a limited service hotel to a full service one.


My favorite limited service brand is Hampton Inn and Suites. This brand is clean, cut, and modern. These hotels are smaller; usually from 60-120 rooms with very few exceptions. The design structure, and soft colors of the interior remind me of the south; which of course offers the best social hospitality. The brand has free wireless internet, business center, pool, hot tub, foyer space and yes even free hot breakfast. Hampton is part of the Hilton family of hotels so anyone who is a member of the Hilton Honors Program can use this brand for those quick one nighters and business to smaller cities.



My favorite full service brand is the Embassy Suites. These hotels are usually much larger and it's the only brand that requires the floor to ceiling open atrium which is beautifully decorated with live trees, plants, and water features. The brand offers free cooked-to-order breakfast, free drinks and appetizers in the evening, bell services, staffed business centers, restaurant, 24 hour room service, and yes two room suites. This hotel is also a member of the Hilton family and diamond members can use this program to get free upgrades, and extra amenities fee of charge.

My favorite upscale hotel brand would have to be the Westin Hotels and Resorts. These properties are usually resorts in tourist destinations. They have darker colors and usually more of an old world touch. This hotel brand requires an in house full service spa and usually salon. This brand also requires bedays which our lovely. If you've never tried a beday; your MISSING OUT!

When traveling I suggest you stay at these brands.

Five-Star Chains react to the recession

The Recession has been particular brutal for five star hotel brands. Heavily reliant on high spending business travelers, they have been hit by the financial crisis as bankers and the investment community has severely curtailed their travels and high end meetings have been reduced. "It is important that you manage your business differently, and you have to be smarter, and that's healthy," says Christopher Norton, Regional Vice President of Four Seasons Paris. "But it would be a mistake to try and reposition the hotel. You can't discount your way out of a recession. You win by holding rate and providing value, whatever the value is to your customer." I disagree with this statement. Yes, it is very important that you try to hold your service quality so this country doesn't forget what good service is but it's very dangerous to not fill your hotel rooms. Hotel rooms is a perishable product unlike most items bought in the consumer world. Empty rooms means no revenue no mater even if it's 50% off. Yes you want to cover your operating cost and at least try to get a 5-10% contribution margin. Your RevPar is very important and empty rooms does not help RevPar or ADR. See most of these 5 star brands believe that what they offer doesn't have a price. It's the experience but with this recession most business travelers are more savvy now and will think twice about spending 200-300 dollars a night for a room. The value of a dollar is worth more mentally to us now. People are more cautious before they pull out that credit card. Now I'm not saying you have to turn your Westin to a Best Western, this would be very damaging to your brand and once this has bottomed out it would be very difficult to return your your brand to the previous image it was created for. However, a discount here and there would greatly help your bottom line. The only thing is that these hotels are well established and most hoteliers that own these particular hotels are not in development like most hoteliers of 4 Star and limited service hotels with bank loans out the ASS. Usually about 10% of profits goes into capital for reinvestment and upkeep to keep the 5 star status. So please walk the fine line.

Citations from Tom Otley Business Traveler

Introduction

Hello,

My Name is Jordan Garcia and I am here to write about hotels! I love Hotels! I am a Senior at the University of Arkansas and am majoring in Hotel & Restaurant Management there. I also work at a 4 star property as Event Coordinator and Manger On Duty. I have several certifications from the American Hotel and Lodging Association Educational Institute as well as the National Restaurant Association. I was the youngest person to ever be promoted to my current position at the age of 19 in my company's history. Even though I am young professional I am here to discuss current trends, future of the industry and critique decisions and structures of hotel management companies.