A typical grassroots industry, greeting customers 24/ 7 in its establishments, the hotel industry has felt the need to gradually centralize support functions as hotel networks expand. While it is desirable to take advantage of economies of scale and to have a global vision to develop national and international strategies, there is a risk of falling out of touch with local market realities and disempowering hotel management.

Over recent years, with the desire to maximize performance at all costs, the support functions of marketing, revenue management, commercial policy... gradually stripped hotel managers of their decision-making power. Deprived of some of their power to take initiatives, they were asked to comply with guidelines developed in overreaching headquarters and to constantly check on their dashboards if they are in line with the group's mantra.

Busy with reports, conference calls, and briefings, the general manager of a hotel could almost forget that his first duty is to analyze and to extract value from his proximity market, to create a real link with the surrounding community, becoming both a local driving force and a beneficiary of its dynamics.

It would be easy to denounce the stranglehold of the head office on operations, depersonalizing the hotel business to excess. We must rather find the right balance that makes local action essential and part and parcel of a global strategy, the latter defining the identity of the brand, setting up tools and implementing them through general guidelines rather than mandatory steps.

Go "Glocal" is the advice that must be repeated to hoteliers who must not forget that they are the primary engines of the brand policy. Act locally and actively to reach global goals. There is nothing worse than seeing a hotel general manager shut himself in his office to view his Intranet and adjust the ratios to look like an exemplary manager. The beauty of the hotel trade is in having close contact - close relationships with partners in the neighborhood, city, or region. This may sound a bit naïve, but it is the only way in which performance can withstand the macro risks of the economy as well as the pressure of online distributors who are only too happy to sell interchangeable products.