How to Conquer your Fear of Heights

 Italy's Hotel, Cipriani's New Floating Dinner Table

Heres a new reason to one of Venice's most lovable hotels, the Hotel Cipriani. Next month, guests can sign ip to have 'dinner in the Sky' a one-off experience that literally involves a 11- seat dinner table being raised 164 feet in the air.

Thrill-seekers will have the choice of a one-hour three-course meal prepared by the hotel's chef's of a 30-minute aperitif, durning which they can drink in views that stretch to St. Mark's Square on the opposite side of the lagoon."

We'd probably opt for the 30-minute aperitif, since we're almost positive the dizzying height would make us lose our appetite. Then again, we'd also have to watch how much we drank. Wouldn't want to have any bathroom emergencies at that kind of altitude!

According to the Daily Mail, the platform can be rotated 180º, offering each guest at the table a panoramic view of Venice.

If this idea sounds more romantic to you than terrifying, then plan on booking a seat at the table (50 EUR per person for the aperitif; 250 pp for dinner) for the event, which takes place June 19-23.

Source: Daily Mail

For more hotel news and artciles like this, check out http://www.hotelchatter.com/

Are you using the newest form of Social Media: Vine?

Can you keep up?

It's hard to stay on top with the social media trends these days; it seems there is something new coming out almost everyday! Which work best with you? What is worth investing your time into learning to benefit your company? 

I think this is going to catch like wildfire- short video clips is the next biggest hit!!

Source: ehotelier.com

How Can Vine Improve Your Hotel's Social Media Options?

By feature writer Jennifer Nagy of jlnpr

Vine is one of the newer social media crazes in recent months. Vine takes the success of Instagram one step further by enabling users to create and share six-second looping videos. Because video posts can be shared to Twitter and Facebook, it also allows you to create exciting content for all of your social media profiles.

At this moment, Vine is only available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. To start using the app, you will need to download it at http://get.vine.co or through the App Store (there is no cost to download the app). Once you’ve downloaded the app, it is very easy to create a profile either by using your Twitter account or an email address.

The app lets you follow your friends’ posts on a timeline (just like Instagram), make comments and like their videos. Just like on Twitter, Vine users often use hashtags to categorize their posts and make them more searchable. It is also possible to mention other users in your posts.

To find and follow friends, click on the icon in the top left corner of the home screen, choose Profile and then click on the icon (of two people) in the top right corner. From there, you can search for and follow your friends using your address book, Twitter or email.

For hotels, Vine can be used to share videos of your property and amenities (just like Pinterest or Instagram). Video can really bring the potential of your property to life and will help to create an even greater emotional reaction in viewers, which is very important in generating bookings.

If your property has just finished a reno or added additional amenities (new gym, pool, spa, etc.), use Vine to share videos of the new space. Create video tours of key tourist spots in your destination to inspire your followers to explore (or, even better, visit) your city. If you hold special events at your property, make sure that you include at least one video of each type of event that can take place at your hotel (i.e. wedding, corporate conference, dinner, etc.). It will be much more impactful for brides to see a video of another wedding held at your hotel, instead of just a static image.

Hotels should also encourage visitors to make and share videos of their stay. As we’ve seen with the popularity of TripAdvisor (and other review sites that allow users to post pictures of the hotel where they stayed), it provides an unbiased view of your property and will make potential guests more likely to book with your property (than with the competition).

Encourage customers to share videos by offering promotions and contests to reward those who do. Consider a small discount off the room rate for guests who have shared a video of your property (thereby creating repeat customers) or a contest where every user who shares a video gets one entry into a draw for a free stay at your property. Share your Vine username in all of your marketing channels, just as you do for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, et al.

Before you post your first video, do a hashtag search to see how other hotels are using Vine and how customers are posting about #travel and #hotel topics. Open the Vine app, click on the icon in the top left corner and choose Explore. Type the hashtag of your choice into the search bar and choose the Tags menu (instead of People). It will give you all of the most recent posts using that hashtag and will give you some inspiration for your own Vine strategy. Finally, keep an eye on the trending topics on Vine (just like you would on Twitter) so that you can create additional exposure for your property on the app. In the Explore page, you can see a list of trending hashtags by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

So now that you understand the basics, it’s time for you to decide: what will your first video post be?

The Vancouver Penguins moving into a bigger home?

The Aquarium aims to raise $100million for Expansion and Rebuilding

Find out how they are on their way with the help of some friends: 
Source: Business Vancouver

BMO Donates $750, 000 to Vancouver Aquarium upgrades

By Glen Korstrom

BMO Financial Group (TSX:BOM) is donating $750,000 to the Vancouver Aquarium’s capital campaign, the bank announced May 17.

The capital campaign aims to raise $100 million to pay for an expansion and complete rebuilding of much of the aquarium.

Canada’s largest aquarium has already landed $15 million from the federal government and $10 million from Victoria.

Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK) last year announced that it was giving the aquarium the largest corporate donation that the facility has ever received: $12.5 million. Of that, $10 million is earmarked to the capital campaign and the remaining $2.5 million is aimed at funding ongoing education, research and conservation programs

Other capital campaign funding comes from BMO competitor Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY), which has announced that it will donate $500,000.

Expansion currently underway includes:

• a redesigned 47,000-square-foot expansion of the aquarium’s entrance gallery;
• an outdoor, half-covered plaza that the aquarium can use for performances; and
• a new indoor food service.

When that work completes next summer, a second phase will launch – one that will replace crumbling concrete in what is now the dolphin pool.

“In recognition of this generous gift of $750,000, the Aquarium has dedicated its latest feature, Jelly Invasion, to BMO with a stunning display called the BMO Jellyfish Bloom,” said the aquarium’s CEO John Nightingale.

Wake Up Call to the Door?

Anticipating your Guest's Needs

I was recently staying at a hotel and had a wake up call scheduled for 6am. When they called promptly at 6am, I wanted another 10mins of sleep, and requested that they call me back. They graciously accepted the request and I hung up the phone... or thought I did. About 15 mins later I was startled by a knock on the door. A man's voice was on the other side saying "this is your wake up call". I told the man I was up and I was a little curious why I had gotten a wake up call to the door. 

I checked the phone, and realized in my sleepy frame of mind, I had accidently left the phone off the hook. I was very pleased and happy to know that the hotel took it into their own hands, and ensured I was awake and didnt miss my morning meeting. That's going the extra mile!

I just came across this article from Ehotelier.com, which reminded me of this experience, and thought I would share:

The Hotel Wake-Up Call Gets Personal

By Nancy Trejos

Here's a wake-up call: The hotel front desk will do one better than ringing your phone in the morning. They'll send an actual human being to your room.

Don't worry. They won't come in and kiss you good morning. But they might bring you coffee.

Never mind that most travelers nowaways have Smartphones with built-in alarm clocks. Hoteliers say the human wake-up call is a way to personalize a guest's stay.

"The hotel team finds the service to be a bit nostalgic and a romantic throwback to a simpler time," says Paul McKenzie, general manager of The Wolcott Hotel in New York, which will send an employee to a guest's door if a wake-up call is unanswered.

Some examples:

• At the Westin Resort and Casino, Aruba, once you respond to the first telephone wake-up call, an employee goes to your room and knocks on your door to make sure you actually get up.
• At Las Ventanas al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort in Los Cabos, a butler shows up at your room to wake you up with complimentary tea, coffee and breakfast breads.
• At the Mandarin Oriental and The Four Seasons, a person rather than an automated system will call to wake you up. If you don't answer, you'll get a wake-up knock.
• You don't want to oversleep at The Adolphus in Dallas. If you miss your wake-up call three times, a security guard will show up at your door.

Hotels have always taken the wake-up call seriously. IHG's Crowne Plaza, for instance, has a wake-up call guarantee. If you don't get your call within five minutes of the requested time, you won't have to pay for your room.

Travelers, too, still want to have an option of a wake-up call. In a study to be released Tuesday of 285 PGA TOUR golfers such as Rickie Fowler, Crowne Plaza found that 53% considered the assurance of a wake-up call a priority.

But the wake-up call became less personal over the years, says Chekitan Dev, an associate professor of marketing and branding at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. It used to be that a person would call you. Then in the late 1980s, hotels turned to automated systems. Then all you'd get was a ring and silence.

In the ever-competitive race for loyal customers, however, many properties, especially luxury and boutique hotels, are now getting creative with the wake-up call, he says. Some boutique hotels even have recordings of celebrity voices.

Personalizing the wake-up call, Dev says, is an "opportunity to make that one additional brand impression."

"To recapture that opportunity, I expect that more hotels will go back to the old in-person system of wake up calls," he says.

Richard Roy, general manager of The Westin Resort and Casino, Aruba, says the hotel gets 15 to 30 requests for wake-up calls each day.

"Some guests sleep through the call, while others turn their phone ringers off and snooze," he says. "There is also always the possibility of mechanical failure, so the personalized touch is that full-proof safety net."

Bailey Allard, a business consultant who travels 100,000 miles a year, says he'd appreciate a human wake-up call.

"I would be tempted not to answer my phone just in hopes that someone would bring me coffee," he says.

Source: USA today

It's May Long Weekend!

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria!!!

Everyone loves the unofficial kick off to summer- the May 24th long weekend. Most people take advantage of the 3-day weekend, warming weather and go camping or head to their cabins to commence a season full of BBQ's, summer drinks, family, friends, warm nights, laughter and building memories.

But let's not forget where it all started, and why we really do take this weekend in May to spend with family and friends; to remember the birthday day of Queen Victoria and celebrate Confederation. 

According to wikipedia: 

"The birthday of Queen Victoria was a day for celebration in Canada long before Confederation, with the first legislation regarding the event being in 1845 passed by the parliament of the Province of Canada to officially recognize May 24 as the Queen's birthday.

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, May 24 was made by law to be known as Victoria Day, a date to remember the late queen, who was deemed the "Mother of Confederation", and, in 1904, the same date was by imperial decree made Empire Day throughout the British Empire. Over the ensuing decades, the official date in Canada of the reigning sovereign's birthday changed through various royal proclamations until the haphazard format was abandoned in 1952. That year, both Empire Day and Victoria Day were, by order-in-council and statutory amendment, respectively, moved to the Monday before May 25 and themonarch's official birthday in Canada was by regular viceregal proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and January 31, 1957, when the link was made permanent by royal proclamation. The following year, Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day and in 1977 it was moved to the second Monday in March, leaving the Monday before May 25 only as both Victoria Day and the Queen's Birthday."


So dust off your tent, fill the cooler and go 
to woods and enjoy some quality time with your friends and family this weekend!

Stay safe and have fun!

Do you have what it takes?

Upholding the 3 Fundamentals of Hotel Success
By: Birgit Radin

As hoteliers, we work in a world where personality, drive and personal experiences can impact the daily actions of employees in every role. This is why we want to create a workplace that is fair and invites open discussion, allowing us to achieve the three fundamentals of success: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and financial achievement. Ensuring employee accountability and consistent performance evaluation helps secure success in all of these sectors.

Employee satisfaction 

Each department has a role to play as a hotel strives to achieve overall success accountability in every department. I explain this as a “food chain of satisfaction.” Employees who are happy generally perform at their best and provide the best experience for the customer. When the customer is happy, referrals and repeat business play a big part in achieving the financial goals set forth by ownership and management.

Goals set must be measurable, and the expectations of how each individual’s contribution feeds into achieving those goals must be defined.

Performance is measured once annually, usually during the first quarter, for both union and non-union employees. These performance reviews serve two purposes. First, they provide an opportunity for a one-on-one discussion about an individual’s past achievements and contributions toward the goals set forth. Secondly, reviews offer a forum for open dialogue about each employee’s improvement opportunities and career desires. The results of an individual’s evaluation are directly tied to an employee’s bonus or financial raises.

At The DoubleTree by Hilton Chicago Magnificent Mile, union employees have an opportunity to be evaluated, as well. Though their financial gains are set through contracts, it is important to satisfy the need for personal discussion and feedback. It’s a great opportunity for managers to sit down and offer an assessment of how the employee is performing and to gain an understanding of the employee’s needs, wants or difficulties.
In an open environment where feedback and communication is the norm, no one should be surprised about the evaluation results or scores because this process is ongoing throughout the year.

Generally, good performance is rewarded with position promotions and raises, new opportunities for advancement, as well as celebration among the team. When the results are not so great, management reiterates the goals, identifies the challenges, retrains where necessary, reassigns individuals who cannot meet expectations and helps the employee reevaluate his or her career path to find a good fit.

Employee satisfaction benchmarks are important. The employee satisfaction survey results, however, are only as good as what one does with the information gleaned from them. At our properties, we evaluate the results and share them with the individual departments. This allows the team to discuss any shortcomings identified and to talk about options to improve those areas. We choose the top three scoring answers and the bottom three rated responses, and then we ask for feedback from the employees with suggestions on how to improve.

One example of an employee satisfaction challenge was the discovery that employees felt there was little promotion from within. We discussed this issue with the employees and asked them why this was their perception. Their answers helped us identify that new job opportunities and hiring must be more transparent.


As a result of learning this, we now have a process in place to ensure such transparency. Each new position is posted and available for all employees to review. Any employee who wishes to apply is granted an interview, and if he or she does not qualify, our HR department outlines the qualifications, education and experience that the individual must gain to earn such a role. We support the tuition reimbursement program, encouraging our employees to better themselves with education, and our company lends support through partial reimbursement of cost provided that the student earns a passing grade of B or better.

While an evaluation should be about financial and measurable skills, it also should cover the soft skills such as personality, supervisory skills, interpersonal relationship management and more. There are many different products in the marketplace to assist in these evaluations, from very elaborate to basic.

Customer service satisfaction 

Customer service satisfaction is incredibly important to watch. The benchmarks and rating systems vary, depending on the type of hotel in which you work. For instance, independent hotels in most cases need to reach 8-10 points out of 10 to achieve the satisfactory rating set. With brands, standards are set by the brand and must be defined and shared with the employees so they are armed with the knowledge of what success looks like in a particular property.
Most surveys show clearly where the improvement opportunities lie. Collectively, we work on a plan of action on how to improve the area in question.

Financial achievementFinancial benchmarks often are set by the economic climate and the owner’s expectations. We remain cognizant that some goals have contributing factors that may be out of the individual or team’s sphere of influence, such as the economic pressures we’re experiencing today. That said, we are always looking for new ideas of how to improve productivity, evaluate processes, question the “why.” We also seek to find new ways to do things more efficiently through automation, to find new tools to implement and to evaluate whether something still has relevance in today’s climate.
If you provide employees a healthy work environment that offers challenge and free-flowing communication, then customer satisfaction level is high. Leadership’s ability to maintain consistent training and fair evaluation of all ratings received through the various satisfaction surveys should provide a pathway to financial success.
It is critical that everyone on your team understands the big picture goals and that each person feels responsible for positively impacting the bottom-line results required for success.
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About the Author:

For over 20 years, Birgit Radin has focused her energy and talents on leading quality-oriented hospitality teams with the goal of creating employee engagement, memorable customer experiences, and maximizing profit for shareholders and/or owners. As a member of the Kokua Hospitality, LLC management organization team, she serves as the managing director for two properties in Chicago, and the Inn of Chicago. Reach her at bradin@doubletreemagmile.com. 

To learn more about Kokua Hospitality, LLC, visit www.kokuahospitality.com.

Make the most out of your day!

How to Avoid Getting Worn Out

By Mark McGuinness, Owner, Lateral Action

The key to creating remarkable things is to prioritize your big creative challenges over the seemingly urgent but actually ephemeral demands of the day. But it's easier said than done, right?

In the split-second when you have to decide whether to plow on with the next stage of a difficult project, or to answer a ringing phone or pinging email, it can be hard to resist the pressure to respond. After all, the other person is waiting now-and your project may not be done for weeks. What difference will one more phone call or email make?

And of course ‘just one more' doesn't feel like it makes a big difference. But if it's a habitual practice, that amounts to thousands of emails, phone calls, and errands a year-and whole weeks of creative worktime lost.

But if you keep steadily chipping away, day after day-at the blank page, empty screen, canvas, block of stone, or whatever-you are slowly and steadily filling your time with remarkable work. By the end of the year, you will be looking back on a series of achievements (or at least notable failures, that taught you something valuable). Compare that with a year's worth of inbox zero and placated colleagues, and there's no contest-not for a true creative.

So how can you ensure you end up with a full portfolio instead of an empty inbox?

Having coached many people on this, and having struggled with it myself, I've noticed a subtle but important difference in mindset between those who get swept away by the demands of the moment and those who persevere and create something that endures.

Those who get swept off track do so because they are thinking short-term: 

• The phone is ringing now, so I need to answer it. 
• The email has just arrived, I need to get rid of it ASAP. 
• I'll just get this one out of the way, it shouldn't take long...

When you think like this, the pressures of the moment will always feel more urgent than settling down to wrestle with something truly important (and difficult).

But those who persevere take a longer perspective:

Firstly, long before the moment of decision, they've taken time out to consider where they are headed, and the long-term consequences of their daily working habits.

And secondly, when faced with a choice in the moment, they ‘fast forward' in their mind to a few hours in the future, and imagine how each option will make them feel afterwards.

Try it for yourself, right now.

Picture yourself in a few hours' time, having spent the best part of your day firefighting email and running errands for other people. I'm guessing you'll feel frustrated and disappointed, because you'll know you missed an opportunity to create something remarkable today. And you won't get another today.

Okay, scratch that scenario.

Now imagine you have spent several hours working away steadily on your latest and biggest creative challenge. You have faced down the Resistance and knuckled down and made some progress, in spite of the difficulty. Deep down, you feel a sense of satisfaction, knowing you did what you set out to do. You still have a long way to go, but you've taken another step in the right direction.

Sure, you may have to play catch-up on email and phone calls, and smooth over a few ruffled feathers, but most people will forgive you if you give them what they want in the end. And it's a small price to pay for what you've achieved.

Here are three things you can do to make sure you're being as productive and creative as possible, without getting worn out:

1. Before the start of your next big projects?:

Look ahead and decide what you want to achieve. Imagine how you will feel once you've achieved them. That's your reward. Write the projects down-including deadlines-and put a reminder in your calendar so that you hold yourself accountable.

2. At the start of every week?:

Look ahead and decide what you want to achieve that week. Work out how many days/hours you'll need to block off for sustained work. Imagine how you'll feel at the week's end once you've done this. That's your reward.

Now think ahead to anticipate important deadlines and demands from others that are likely to arise during the week. Schedule time to get the necessary work done on time, to avoid letting people down on critical projects.

3. At start of every day:

Look ahead and decide what you want to achieve today. How many hours do you need to block off for focused work? Imagine how you'll feel at the day's end once you've done it. That's your reward.

At each step, you should also consider an alternative universe, where you let other people's demands dictate to you-hour by hour, day by day, year by year. How does that feel? Again, that's your reward, if you choose this path.

Next time you're faced with the temptation to cave in to the apparently urgent instead of getting on with what's truly important to you-remember the two paths ahead of you. Look ahead, and choose wisely.

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This post originally appeared on 99u.com.

About the author 

Mark McGuinness is a coach who helps creative professionals create more, suffer less and attract more opportunities. He is the author of the popular blog Lateral Action and the book Resilience: Facing Down Rejection and Criticism on the Road to Success.