Category Service

Observations of a not so Frequent Traveller…
While I generally avoid travelling during the holiday season, there are times when I just can’t avoid being part of the herd, that winds its way through airport terminals, shopping malls or cafés with staff looking tired and worn out from the onslaught over the Christmas period. My recent experience has me questioning the responsibility […]

The Future of the Hotel and the Automated Room…
I always like to look ahead and wonder what the industry I grew up in will be like in the future. So much has changed in the past 30 years and will continue to change over the next few decades because of the changing environment, employment, social, economic, and political developments that have so much […]

That Age Perception…
I recently came across some articles from 1987 which discussed the shrinking pool of people working, or willing to work, in the hospitality industry and why we did not tap into the pool of older workers who seemed willing to work but were frequently ignored. Fast forward 35 years and it seems nothing has changed. […]

I Want to Speak to the Manager!
On the internet nothing ever ends it seems, so a complaint letter written to a New York hotel dating back to a stay in 2004 came across my screen a couple of weeks ago. The apparently genuine letter was written by a disgruntled guest of the Hudson Hotel in New York. It hilariously details his […]

Sustainability in The Hospitality Industry – Part 5
While contemplating a follow up to my previous articles about sustainability, I realized that in the past year the world has significantly changed and with it, the way hotels operate. A good example was my recent stay between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I took my chances during the holiday break to travel domestically in […]

The (Re) – Emergence of the Takeaway…
It is widely acknowledged that the recent global pandemic has been deeply damaging to the hospitality industry, but out of that cauldron of despair there were a few positives. It brought out the creative streak in many independent hospitality professionals operating small or family businesses and perhaps showed a way forward for the wider hospitality […]

Passion versus Profit?
When coming back from a well-deserved holiday, have you ever asked yourself, what are the moments you remember and what are the moments you would rather forget? Let’s start with the memorable moments: A reasonably pleasant flight on Qantas. Very little can go wrong with a self check-in these days – contact with humans is […]
Get ready for the Big Reset…
Is there a positive from the years of Covid-19 that have ravaged the hotel industry – maybe not… Post Covid, there seems to be an acute staff shortage in hospitality reflected by the fact that that some restaurants are still unable to re-open, and many hotels have cut back on the services offered and standards […]