Travel renaissance coming soon?

Hospitality Daily is a summary of stories for busy people who want to get better each day at providing hospitality.

Today, you’ll find:

• Why a modern-day renaissance in travel could be around the corner

• Marriott’s partnership with Howard University

• How to maximize efficiency while short staffed

Travel renaissance coming soon?

Part of being hosts and stewards of travel comes the responsibility to care for the people and places that keep the industry humming.

In Phocuswright’s conversations with industry analysts and practitioners, they believe the travel, tourism and hospitality sector can have a modern-day renaissance during the coming 12 months.

After surviving the pandemic, there should be no hesitancy to make bold moves. Business leaders now have choices to make that will help shape travel for the years ahead in both positive and fundamental ways. Opportunities include:

• Building for a sustainable future: The climate crisis is not going away, and accommodation providers can no longer provide services and facilities that do not have the best interests of the environment at heart.

• Fairness and opportunities for all: Huge swathes of the industry's upper echelons are led by white, old men. It is now down to leaders in place to accept that brands will be better-run and more representative of their customers if diversity and inclusion are at the heart of their strategies and C-suites.

• Overhauling old technology: The majority of bookings are now made digitally in most developed countries - but much of the underlying technology is decades old, and many hotel systems cannot talk to one another in a seamless or efficient way.

• Collaboration to survive and thrive: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many to evaluate how they forge partnerships for the benefit of their own survival and their customers.

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Marriott Partners with Howard University for Hospitality Week

Today Howard University is kicking off its inaugural Howard Hospitality Week, an event that will bring together the Howard community and hospitality leaders to discuss the need for more diverse and equitable opportunities within the hospitality industry.

Earlier this year, the Marriott Foundation, together with Howard University, announced the establishment of the Marriott-Sorenson Center for Hospitality Leadership in honor of Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International until his passing in February 2021. The center will build on Howard University’s powerful research history and create thought leadership that not only prepares students to be the workforce of the future but also empowers them to be co-creators in what the future of hospitality leadership looks like. Featuring a program that expands educational and professional opportunities for Howard students, the center is designed to create a pipeline of diverse leadership talent for the hospitality industry.

[read more]

Maximizing efficiency while short staffed

Streamlining processes is essential for operations when you’re short staffed, allowing you to do more with less. An automated task management system, for example, allows you to set up processes once so they can then run by themselves. By setting up an automated task flow for your maintenance team, every time a guest reports an issue in their room, a task is automatically created for your maintenance team, with clear instructions and deadlines ensuring quick action.

These systems also give you visibility over the efficiency of your operations: where are the bottlenecks, what issues are reported the most, how fast are they resolved, why are they not resolved on time, etc. By minimizing the opportunities for requests to slip through the cracks, you can maximize the performance of your team.

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And that’s it, folks! Go out there and make someone’s day today.