Meet the Money is a productive conference with a casual atmosphere; the executives and other hotel industry representatives who attend often speak candidly about their expectations for hotel finance, development and investment throughout the upcoming year.The short video below highlights how some of our attendees feel about 2018--watch and find out what some of the industry's most well-known brands, banks, consultants, mangers and developers have to say about what's on the horizon.For more in-depth data and research, you can view our special presentations this year, including those from STR, HVS, LW Hospitality, City National Rochdale, and CBRE.One of our founding sponsors, Hotel Business, put together a great video during the conference that will give you an idea of what it's like to attend Meet the Money and includes my thoughts on the current lending landscape.Another longtime sponsor and important industry publication, HotelNewsNow.com, has an insightful summary of the important discussions our Meet the Money panelists and presenters touched on throughout the conference-their "Head-scratcher of the day" and "Quotes of the day" are especially interesting reads.Meet the Money 2019 will be held May 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency LAX--it'll be here before we know it. Registration will open later this year. Check MeetTheMoney.com for more details.

Many people are fond of saying the numbers are the hard part of hospitality. That's not true. What is true is we do not exercise these muscles. We do not even know we have a financial muscle in many cases. This story is about one of those people and how I was able to help her. Names and places are changed to keep anonymity.Tina emailed me with a somewhat cryptic and erratic message that almost had me delete the email without even responding. A message about needing help with budgeting and I could tell immediately that this person was racing against time. You know the kind of note that someone writes when they are doing three other things at the same time. That's what my instinct told me. It also told me to slow down and see if this was someone who needed my help.I replied to Tina's note and suggested a call to discuss her needs. She immediately replied yes, and I followed up with two open times in the following week. She replied, and we had a time for our call booked--now she just needed to confirm a phone number for me to call. No response to this question. I sent a note early on the morning of our scheduled call that I still needed a phone number. No reply. Ten minutes past the time of our call and my phone rang. I did not recognize the caller, so I let it go to voicemail. It was Tina. I picked up the phone.That was a long paragraph to tell you this lady was a busy hotel executive. She was just appointed as the director of operations in a 600-room hotel in Chicago. She immediately impressed upon me just how busy she was with meetings, long hours, vacant leadership positions, a 90 percent occupancy week, owner's meetings, a GM that had expectations. All of this in less than 60 seconds. After I had an opening in the barrage I asked her how I could help. She told me she had more than 15 years of experience, but numbers were not her strong suit. Lots of operational experience in both rooms and F&B, but not comfortable with numbers.We talked, and I asked her why she didn't have a comfort level with numbers and she said it was just one of those things that never naturally came her way. No direct experience and spending most of her career in positions where the numbers were not part of her responsibility. A familiar story and a hallmark of hospitality. Look after the guests and the colleagues; someone else will look after the numbers. I did not believe her for a minute. But it was way too early in our relationship to tell her the truth. If she stuck around long enough it would be revealed, but not now.I listened to a few more war stories and then I asked her if she would like to have another call where I would coach her. My gift to her. She said she would like that. We coordinated a time, I got her number and that was that.Over the next three weeks, she canceled and changed the appointment four times. This is a busy person. No, not busy, just not committed to herself. I see this quite often. When we finally did get on the phone I asked her about her commitment to herself and specifically how committed she was to change the relationship she had with her numbers. She seemed kind of puzzled by my question."I want to get a better understanding of the numbers," she said."Why have you rescheduled our call so many times?" I asked.She went on again about how busy she was, and I listened for a moment and then asked, "Over the last two weeks since we spoke, did you have dinner every day?""Yes," she said."Did you manage to get to sleep every night?""Yes," she said with a little laugh."What about coming to work, did you manage to get to work each day you were required to be there?""Yes, what's this all about?" she asked.I replied, "Your problem with numbers isn't because you lack the ability, you are just not committed to it. And unless you are willing to make it a priority and lock in the time, it is not going to happen."There was a moment of silence and I was not willing to fill the void. I waited for what seemed like a long time until she spoke."I know," she said, "I do this a lot with things that I think are difficult.""How you do this thing is how you do everything in your life," I said."If you're willing to recognize that and if you are willing to really commit to this, then I can help you," I continued, "If you're not, then do us both a favor and let's both move on.""No, no," she said, "I want this more than anything right now and I'm willing to commit.""That means a weekly call with me that does not get canceled or postponed, ever. Making yourself and-- in this case--your development as important, or more important, than the one thousand other things you need to deal with each week. Make your learning and personal development the priority and schedule your world accordingly."This is what's missing. If you think the numbers in hospitality are the hard part, then you are just not committed enough to change that. Up your commitment and the numbers will start to come together for you. It is no different than anything else in life.The very notion that somehow you were in the wrong checkout line when they handed out the numbers gene is not true. It is just a popular excuse.What you focus on in your life gets results, it is that simple.If you would like a copy of any of the following send me an email at david@hotelfinancialcoach.comIncentive Plan TemplateEFTE and Productivity ExerciseHotel Financial Policy Manual - Inventory of "Sections"Hotel Financial Coach "Services Sheet"A White Paper - Creating a Hotel Policy ManualF&B Productivity SpreadsheetRooms Productivity SpreadsheetFinancial Leadership Recipe F TAR WA White Paper - A Six Month Workshop and Coaching AssignmentHotel Financial Coach - "Speaking Sheet"Flow Thru Cheat Sheet - EnhancedVisit my website today for a copy of my FREE guidebookThe Seven Secrets to Create a Financially Engaged Leadership Team in Your Hotel www.hotelfinancialcoach.com

Coaching people around the financials in hotels is what I do. I accomplish this by one-on-one coaching usually on the phone, through Skype, or in workshops where as a group we explore and debunk the mystery around the numbers. Many people are fond of saying the numbers are the hard part of hospitality. That is not true. What is true is we do not exercise these muscles. We do not even know we have a financial muscle in many cases. This story is about one of those people and how I was able to help them. Names and places are changed to keep anonymity. Chris sent me an email requesting some of my free documents that I offer on my weekly blog posts. I think he had read the article, "Financial Statements and Your Hotel Career. " His note was uplifting and he thanked me for writing the blog. Short and sweet. I replied and thanked him for his kind words and attached his free stuff to my email. About a month later he wrote to me again and asked if I could help him understand the rooms productivity measurements. I replied and sent him the link to the blog that explains how they are used. "Read this and if you want more help let's have a call," I wrote, "It will be a gift from me to you." He replied thank you and we scheduled a call the following week. During the call, he explained to me that he was the rooms division manager of a 350-room hotel in San Francisco, Calif. They had a labor planning tool and daily labor reports but no real productivity measurements to work with and no labor statistics in the property financial statements. What they were using was "the standard" that the labor planning tool generated based on job tasks that each department manager created for each position. They would input the forecast rooms and the system produced a schedule. They would compare the actual standard to the scheduled standard at the end of each week. All of this sounded familiar. I asked him what the problem was. He said, "We use this tool but at the end of the month the payroll on the financials is always too high and as a result, no one likes the tool."We looked at two things during that first callHe was able to find the latest schedule and tell me how many rooms were forecast for the next week and he also ran another report from the labor tool and was able to tell me the hours that the system had scheduled. We then broke down the hours into the following buckets: front office, reservations, bell desk, room attendants and general housekeeping. We had a subtotal for each and a total number of hours for the week. Then I had him do the division on each subtotal and the overall number. Now we were getting somewhere. Now we had the productivity for each sub-department. This took us most of the hour to unravel and he was excited to see the results. His hours per room occupied by sub-department and for the rooms division for the next week's schedule. He then asked, "Now what?" What I explained next was what he needed to do to make this weekly number relevant. I told him to go back for the past 12 months and get the hours by month for the same sub-departments and in total. Once he had that, I explained he then need to total each month's hours, for hourly and management and divide those subtotals and the total for each month by the rooms occupied for each month. I then told him to only get the productive hours: hours of regular, overtime and double time. No holidays or other hours are needed. He said, "That's a lot of work." I replied, "Not really when you consider what you will have as a result--the baseline productivity for an entire year by sub-department and in total for the rooms division." Then I moved to wrap up the call. I asked him if the information was helpful. He exclaimed that it was indeed, and we agreed on a regular series of calls. In a few short weeks, he was able to start scheduling based on productivity targets and he taught all his managers the productivity system. We then turned our attention to expenses and devised a system for him to zero base his departments' expenses. He, in turn, got his team on board to do the same exercise in each area. We worked hard to get numbers figured out. The last piece we worked on was him producing the commentary for the monthly manager's report that he submitted to his GM. Again, we worked on all the pieces and getting his managers to do their individual parts of the commentary using what he created with the labor productivity and expense management tools. In a few short months, he really grew as a manager and leader. The exercise I put him thru paid off. His department's results--the rooms profit--finished the year ahead of budget. The flow thru to the previous year was off the charts and he accepted a promotion to a bigger hotel and a bigger job. All because he got some help to learn how to use his financial muscles. It's not accounting--it's business thinking--and it's not the hard part of hospitality.For a complimentary copy of my guidebook on creating a finically engaged team in your hotel head over to my website, www.hotelfinancialcoach.com and don't forget to email me david@hotelfinancialcoach.com for some of my free spreadsheets.

Don Quixote tilted his lance at windmills: we tilt ours at service standards that do not meet expectations, which is why I am spending a perfectly beautiful Florida spring Sunday inside, banging away on the keyboard when sensible people are beaching, sailing, golfing, etc.Why?We tried unsuccessfully on several occasions over the years to give independent QA providers, standards for the butler service being offered by (463) luxury hotels around the world so they could incorporate those standards into their own and help raise butler-service levels in the hospitality industry in a way that our small organization could not, on its own, achieve.All to no avail, but we learned as the years rolled on: Many five-star properties asked us to conduct mystery guest assessments of their butlers, and some even of their whole properties. In doing so, we were asked to assess against internal hotel/chain standards, as well as those of other QA providers. Finding they fell short in various aspects, we were compelled to create our own standards:1) For the two glaring omissions in QA standards: the world of the butler, as mentioned above, and EQ (emotional engagement)--of which more later;and2) Adjusting standards to move away from requirements that forced hotels into actions and behaviours that were robotic and inappropriate for the property. Imagine, while rooming a guest, having to point to a hairdryer in plain sight and say, "This is your hairdryer!" Yet that was just one required standard that hotels were being penalized for overlooking.This quixotic effort to reform QA bumbled along for several years until I met a kindred spirit: Jochen Ehrhardt of TRUE 5 STARS, who single handedly has been engaged in a similar but more fruitful path: assessing the top 3,000 luxury hotels in the world, 1,200 of which he has visited personally, and only 1,500 of which qualify for featuring on his web site."TRUE 5 STARS is completely independent and unbiased," Jochen pointed out once, "Its Quality Assurance Audit standards are the most detailed and demanding in the industry, while reflecting reality better because we constantly adapt to the latest market developments. Hotels typically score 15% lower compared to the feel-good QA audits of the larger QA providers, because standards cannot be raised if they are not set higher, as befits true five-star properties and the expectations of their guests."Even though only a small percentage of hotels around the world provide butler service of one stripe or another, Jochen immediately saw the need for standards for butlers, too, and happily incorporated ours into TRUE 5 STARS'. One small victory!Thereafter, many late nights were spent discussing standards in hospitality and what to do about them. Being German and English, albeit from different generations, we approached the whole subject logically. We assumed as a starting point, that standards were necessary to...maintain standards! Some individuals will say 'Throw all rules away, be spontaneous and do whatever makes you feel good, etc.," and we end up with people who cannot do the actions for which they are being trained and paid for, or which are expected by their customers/clients/patients/fellow citizens. Think Concordia, Pizzagate or any number of the real or imagined, large or small departures from what we would consider to be viable behaviours and outcomes. With standards, we know we will not have melamine in our chocolate and baby formula, Roundup in our stomachs, and that when we stay at a hotel or resort, we will enjoy that stay.So then the question was, were owners and hospitality management companies happy with the standards being set and managed by leading, independent QA companies? The fact that quite a few chains run their own QA programs would indicate that they feel they can do a better job internally in some way. A survey of GMs in luxury hotels around the world told the story where the rubber meets the road, or perhaps more germanely, where the guests meet the beds.Responses varied on perceived pros and cons, but one GM nailed the issue with, "Independent QA audits are good but a big revamp needs to be done because staff attitude is changing, as well guest expectations."And there is the crux of the matter--coming up with standards is no easy feat: As many standards can exist as there are people to dream them, and the difficulty becomes settling, generally via a committee of interested parties, on those standards by which guests will feel well-served. This varies by evolving culture and sub-cultures, generations and gender, so how does one put order into such a confusion or series of moving targets?The answer is simple, actually: each property has a purpose or mission statement that is trumpeted by its branding and marketing, and supported by its location, structures, decor, ambiance, facilities, activities for guests to engage in, and service style--and key geographical and consumer markets to which it reaches out.This is not new news.So why is it such a brain twister to come up with standards that reflect that individual property's or chain's manifestation of these elements that should add up to that purpose or goal being achieved--and thus happy guests--and furthermore, to update the standards from time to time?Herein lies the contradiction with one-size-fits-all standards: the expectation that everyone fit into a 40-inch/100 cm waistband pair of trousers/pants/jeans.For instance, what the Silent Generation expected from their hotel experience would bore the hind legs off a millennial; and yet many of the standards offered currently suit the mentality and standards of the Silent Generation and perhaps the Baby Boomers, too. As a Baby Boomer myself, who espoused environmental responsibility decades before it was fashionable, for instance, I am disconcerted by the ubiquitous and health-damaging EMF pollution existing in the very best of hotels and resorts worldwide today, even those in pristine locations.Why?Our bodies rely on very delicate electrical systems to run properly, and these are blasted to kingdom come by wifi and cell phone reception, much in demand by green-conscious millennials. Not to sidetrack down this road of contention, but it does serve to illustrate that the setting of standards that reflect current needs is more-than tricky: for while a millennial would be happy as an iPad in wifi exploring the virtual world, older codgers like myself would prefer to be in a tranquil setting enjoying the wealth of the moment afforded by the beauty of the real world consciously and proudly created by each hotel and resort.This lack of customized standards that fit the purpose and markets of each property is the source of the frustration felt by more than a few GMs with the results of QA audits; and any failure to really satisfy or wow guests. It is not all bad, by any means, as the pros obviously outweigh the cons--or QA programs would be a footnote in the history books--but it seems QA could use some QC!Other issues raised by GMs include concerns about cross purposes or compromised interests: one company providing audits which, when passed, permit hotels and resorts to become paying members of its sister company--the problem being that the incentive exists to lower standards so as to increase membership.Another issue that comes up is the constant effort to identify the guests who may be auditors--one hotel chain even posting in their staff areas, a rogue's gallery of known-inspector mug-shots. This "spot the inspector" game is a distraction from the real game of servicing guests, and an effort to paint a false picture for any auditor who has been outed. But who can blame the staff, from the GM on down, when bonuses, accolades, and promotion are pegged to the results of randomly executed and too-brief/not-comprehensive snapshot audits; which sometimes suffer from a lack of consistency between inspectors and a lack of fairness in presenting scenarios; and invariably lack clarifying information where boxes are ticked as either "Satisfy" or "Insufficient" judgments.The GMs found benchmarking against their (local) competitors to be of most value with outside audits, but only one-in-three felt benchmarking actually resulted in improved performance. Placing the focus on besting the competition and improving the bottom line is like having ones attention riveted on the scoreboard instead of the game in progress--the better approach being to focus on setting and implementing standards that actually improve the guest experience. Otherwise, one risks becoming irrelevant, especially if the standards are off-base to start with; and furthermore, if they are lowered in order to increase membership, or in the case of luxury hotels, if the standards are written as lowest common denominators of service that can encompass three-star-and-up facilities.Equally important as an issue is the fact that most QA auditors and their organizations simply act as judges (and even jury and executioner, for some GMs); perhaps they provide some follow-on training which is apparently not held in much regard for its focus on hitting audit points and not addressing underlying issues that will actually change conditions. The relationship is not that of partner, therefore, but of judge (and marketer), neither of which quite provide the help that would prove of greatest benefit. Action programs, proper analysis and addressing of basic issues in training, resources, etc., and staying the course to guide improvement are how a partner might deliver value.EQ--One Big Missed OpportunityAnd finally, we come to the question of EQ, emotional engagement: All those GMs canvassed considered EQ to be the most important element in QA, expecting maybe 50-50 consideration with facilities/hardware. This harks back to the early days of QA, when Egon Roney, who published his first restaurant guide in the 1950's, subsequently carried on a thriving business rating hotels. His guide was probably the first to recognize that increasing facilities and services offered didn't necessarily equate to guest satisfaction. Roney's star rating was color-coded: Red stars for excellent service, black for acceptable, and white for below par service. A 5-star grand hotel in London might have black or even white stars, while a small country hotel with limited facilities was classified as a 2-star hotel, but because of the high level of personal service and consistent guest satisfaction, those two stars were red. Somewhere along the line, that focus on service quality was lost in QA programs--and as one ends up with what one pushes, hotels were nudged into focusing on material elements at the expense of live and solicitous service.One QA organization recently added a few token EQ standards to their facilities-centric assessment; these EQ standards have the same technical understanding, accuracy, and efficacy in improving EQ application in hospitality, as doctors had of how the body worked until the 17th Century. Following the theories of the ancient Egyptians and espoused by Galen, a Greek surgeon from the 2nd Century, they claimed for centuries that blood was produced by the liver and was one of the four liquids in the body, the balance of which determined an individual's mood and health. From which they came up with practices such as blood letting to cure pathologies. Dr. Harvey, a doctor in London during the 16th Century, confirmed that blood was pumped around the body by the heart and had nothing to do with one's "humors." It took a while for Dr. Harvey's observations to be viewed and accepted, the cry from the medical community being, "I would rather err (be mistaken) with Galen than proclaim the truth with Harvey."There is no reason that understanding and adopting the proper use of emotions should take so long: all it takes is acknowledging that maybe not everything there is to be known about emotions and emotional engagement, is already known! That just maybe, a Harvey-like breakthrough has already been made.A sadly misnamed "Emotional Quotient" might be better named "Emotional Quality," but it does little to define what is meant by this all-important skill of emotional engagement. Current more-advanced concepts of EQ include: the demonstration of genuine individual care & recognition; the delivery of "wow" moments and stepping above and beyond the expected to create unique moments that make a lasting impression; smiling; proper verbiage; anticipatory service--all of which only obliquely hint at emotions, and instead only reflecting the style of service for which superior service providers, such as butlers, are famous. As a result, the power of emotional engagement is not being harnessed in hospitality, even though its use is greatly desired.More advanced hoteliers see that Western-focused QA-concentration on facilities as opposed to solicitous service does not work in the East, but this is more of the same error: that emotional engagement is simply solicitous and genuine service, as opposed to being a whole new subject that puts hospitality into a whole new ball park of service excellence. One should be able to use emotions to make guests happier, a basic goal of hospitality.In Part II of this series, scheduled for August, we will examine the difficulties faced by hoteliers in evaluating quality/gauging how they are doing and therefore coming up with workable strategies to move forward--including assessing the value to management and guests alike, of report cards generated by QA audits for management versus the report cards being published broadly to potential guests on social media.First published in Hotel Business Review and reprinted with permission of the author