The hospitality industry is facing a perfect storm. Hotels across America are desperately short-staffed, with vacant positions collecting dust despite better wages and beefed-up benefits. When employees come aboard, they jump ship at an alarming rate.
In hospitality, global expertise often gets the spotlight, scale, systems, and brand recognition. But in practice, none of that matters if you’re not tuned in to what’s happening on the ground.
The days of long lectures and passive note-taking are numbered. At least, they should be. Hospitality professionals are expected to think strategically, lead diverse teams, and make quick decisions under pressure. Yet many graduates leave university with little more than theoretical knowledge, unprepared for the realities of hotel operations. If we want stronger managers, the way we teach has to change.
Internships are often treated as a box to tick in hospitality education: complete a few months of work, collect a reference, and move on. But with talent shortages and rising guest expectations, the industry can no longer afford to treat internships as a formality. When done right, internships can be powerful leadership labs - shaping confident, decision-ready professionals before they even graduate.
As I make the rounds conducting hospitality industry training, I sense that more and more hoteliers are truly understanding the difference between “guest service excellence” and “hospitality.” My regular readers may recall that this is a topic previously addressed here in my monthly column. In short, “guest service excellence” is more demonstrative, requiring the use of hospitality communications essentials like those espoused by hotel ratings services such as Forbes and AAA. “Hospitality,” on the other hand, is more of a philosophy for our work-life culture, or as true hospitality superstars know, it’s really a philosophy for living daily.
Hotel companies are always looking to fill open roles. According to a survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and AHLA Gold Partner Hireology, hotels have, on average, six to seven open positions per property. As a result, hotel companies and hiring managers often undercut the expectations for these roles in an effort to quickly fill the position and alleviate a staffing shortage.
In the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of hospitality, the pressure to "do more with less" has become a universal mantra. But how much more can hotel teams handle? And more importantly, are executives taking a hard look at how much they should be expected to handle?
In today's hospitality landscape, staffing shortages remain a pressing challenge. According to a December 2024 survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and Hireology, nearly 65% of hotels reported ongoing staffing shortages, with 71% unable to fill open positions despite active recruitment efforts.
In hospitality, people are the product. Yet when it comes to planning for future leaders, the industry often drops the ball. According to research, 60% of companies lack any CEO succession plan, and only 14% believe they are doing it effectively. That is not just a talent issue but a strategic risk that can impact guest satisfaction, brand integrity, and operational stability.
What happens when your home becomes your workplace? This question often arises when analyzing how accommodation-sharing platforms like Airbnb continue to blur the lines between personal space and professional service. In the hospitality-driven gig economy, the rise of at-home hosting has redefined business models and shifted the boundaries between work and family life.
The skills that each manager and leader need to be successful in hospitality are a combination of operations management, traditional business functions, and specialty topics. The connection between industry experience and sustainable education practices has become increasingly important. Is there a way to best prepare managers for the diversity of tasks and traits needed to succeed in hospitality? A new and enhanced educational path can reflect enhanced occupational identification .
Accessible tourism is emerging as one of the fastest-growing sectors within the travel industry. For a start, the segment size is huge. In 2023, World Health Organization indicated that across the world, there are 1.3 billion people who have some form of significant disability.
How can you optimize a hotel, if you can't optimize your own career??? Let me ask you a serious question: If YOU were a room type—how would you price yourself? Dynamic? Under market? Upsell potential? Or… stuck on a static rate from 2017?
The third season of “White Lotus” recently wrapped and left an indelible mark on pop culture. The award-winning and widely-discussed show, known for its sharp-as-knives satire and meme-worthy moments, follows the interactions between the ultra-wealthy hotel guests and the staff who cater to their needs at the namesake luxury resort, putting the hospitality industry front and center in the cultural conversation.
Every workplace has an official emotional policy and an underground emotional reality. What if the emotions you're not allowed to have at work are the ones actually making the decisions?
Not long ago, I sat at a quiet café and watched a waiter manage a few tables alone. He moved quickly, politely, with just enough energy to keep up, but no one looked him in the eye. No one said thank you. Not once. No recognition. Just tasks to complete.
As hospitality grapples with one of the worst staffing crises in recent memory, a compelling question arises: Are we truly looking everywhere for talent? A groundbreaking study from the University of West London reveals how simple workplace adjustments can unlock a massive talent pool while improving service for everyone.
When it comes to your work you’re going to want to have a great set of constraints. Without them, you’re going to float aimlessly through your day and week and wonder why you don’t get the work done or the projects completed. We need to set time limits for the work we do in order to be productive. We need to build these into our teams and their worlds with structure and create a professional environment that’s rich with productivity and a sense of order with the flow. With this structure comes the opportunity to create and this is where we grow.
In hospitality, it’s not the lack of effort that slows teams down — it’s the lag between information and action. And all too often, that lag starts with communication that lives outside the flow of work.
Cycling can be a strenuous activity either for sport or for recreation. Especially road bicycle racing. To many professional cyclists the ultimate dream is to take part in the Tour de France. Cyclists while they race through beautiful locations need to show various skills to be a successful contender and take the yellow jersey. They need to excel in having good coordination skills, stamina, balance and perseverance.