News has spread about EHL’s innovative new hotel management diploma concept and the competitive advantage it brings to its graduates in the hospitality industry. Enrolment for the session starting next September has nearly doubled in the French section, and nearly tripled in the English section!
As one hotelier once put it to me, the hotel business is simply “people serving people”. So the quality and training of staff, particularly at the luxury end, is absolutely critical. Different hotels have subtly different philosophies in how they recruit. Why should you care about this when you choose a hotel? Because attentive and friendly staff are more likely to leave a positive imprint on your memory than any other aspect of your hotel stay. Here’s a capsule summary of the findings from speaking to some of London’s leading hoteliers about staff recruitment:
The Board of Governors of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) has regretfully accepted the resignation of Ruud J. Reuland, General Director of the establishment for the end of the year. This decision, made for personal reasons, comes after eight years of service during which he greatly contributed to reinforcing the international reputation of the first hotel school in the world.
The Dorchester, the iconic London flagship of the Dorchester Collection, has announced the appointments of four top-flight hospitality pros to the hotel management team: Ann Costelloe as manager of the soon to debut new Dorchester Spa launching in May 2009, Brian Hughson as Head Chef of The Grill, Renaud Gregoire as Director of Food & Beverage, and Rosanna Crawley as Head of Communications.
In today’s ambiguity, how do Russian hoteliers cope with a need to run leaner businesses, and how do these actions compare with international landscape? Inspired by 2009 Russia HCE compensation survey results, and speaking with market participants. I promise not to use the 6-letter "C"-word in this article, which already fills everyone's communication channels. I just want to talk about how Russian hoteliers are coping with the changing economic climate these days, and what they are doing on the staff compensation front to keep their hotels profitable. I also want to compare what's happening in our market with the practices in other parts of the world.