The future of....sleep?

I don’t know about you but I’m seeing more hoteliers interacting on LinkedIn than on any other social media platform right now. I invite you to connect with Hospitality Daily’s new page and let me know what you’d like to see there. Would be grateful for your thoughts.

OK, on to our stories of the day:

• The future of guest sleep

• How Four Seasons is hiring through storytelling

• Sheila Johnson’s “Family Reunion”

The future of guest sleep

When is the last time you thought about optimizing your sleep experience? Hospitality providers think about every moment, every interaction - but I feel the sleep experience is often overlooked.

Maybe early experiences shaped that.

If you reflect back on when you were a kid, most of us were inadvertently taught that sleep is actually a punishment. If you got in trouble for doing something bad, you were sent to bed early. On the other hand, if you did something good, you could stay up past your bedtime as a privilege. So many of us have this idea in our head that sleep is something we can put off or that being sleep deprived is something to value – the sign of a life well-lived.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hundreds of published studies are showing sleep quality and duration have massive impacts on our health, disease prevention, and overall well-being. Performance, productivity, comprehension, creativity, and a host of other aspects of our lives suffer when sleep suffers. And nowhere is sleep more challenging than when we are away from home.

When defining your guest sleep experience, consider how your environment can appeal to all five senses:

• Light

• Temperature and humidity

• Scent

• Touch

• Sound

[read more]

Four Seasons sharing employee stories

Employees create the experience your guests (and your investors) depend on, so I’m always looking for creative ways hoteliers are hiring.

I like what Four Seasons posted today: the story of why Alicia Jordan, Director of Revenue & Yield at Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown, joined the brand.

Could you do something like this to encourage new teammates to join you?

Sheila Johnson’s “Family Reunion”

Sheila Johnson, Founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, recently shared the story behind why she created “The Family Reunion” to celebrate diversity within the hospitality industry.

“We collectively wanted to stage an event to celebrate diversity within the hospitality industry, and also realized nobody else was doing it. Upon reflection, this seems shocking. There’s so much talent in our industry, yet nobody was amplifying it.”

Johnson and her team planned and held a multi-day event in Virginia featuring cooking classes and demonstrations, wine tastings and dinners, and thought-provoking panel discussions. Speakers delved closely into the Black cooking traditions that have shaped cuisine in America, shared lessons from the past, and focused on building a better and more inclusive future.

“I believe the how and why we did it can be a lesson for all of us within hospitality.”

[read part 1 and part 2 of this story]

I love Sheila’s focus on community building and celebrating hospitality providers of all types. Who else is doing stuff like this?

Tweet of the day