Empower with perspective

Hello. Today we’re looking at:

• Leadership: Empower with perspective

• Strategy: The hotel industry isn’t very good at building brands

• Wellness: Mandarin Oriental’s Group Director of Spa & Wellness on innovation, psychology, and tech

• Technology: How Sudima Hotels is using technology to build a sustainable hotel brand for the modern era

Empower with perspective

with Michael Hraba on the Hospitality Daily Podcast

One of the best things a leader can do to support their teams is to provide perspective, Michael shares on our podcast today.

Alleviate insecurity: “So many times you have a great employee who is a great human, but is just scared.”

Not you: "Nobody is thinking about you negatively. Everybody's all in their own head.”

It’s OK: "People need to know it's okay.” People who haven’t had many life experiences may think every interaction matters the same, but it’s important to know mistakes happen and we can learn from them.

Listen to the conversation

STRATEGY

The hotel industry isn’t very good at building brands

by Martin Soler on LinkedIn

In the hotel industry, we're good at inventing brands. But we're really not great at building brands. It's not that the names of the brands are the problem (well, there are many exceptions to that sentence) - it is that the execution of the brand building, storytelling, standards, experiences, etc are done quite poorly, if at all.

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WELLNESS

Mandarin Oriental’s Group Director of Spa & Wellness on innovation, psychology, and tech

with Jeremy McCarthy and Patrizia Zueck on the SMACK Hospitality Cast

McCarthy oversees wellness, spa, fitness, and leisure activities across Mandarin Oriental's 36 hotels, and shared insights about the impact of technology on our everyday life, the evolving spa industry, and the delicate balance between digital connectivity and the need for disconnection in today's wellness experiences. “Wellness is about getting more of what we want out of life.”

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TECHNOLOGY

How Sudima Hotels is using technology to build a sustainable hotel brand for the modern era

with Alena Novikova and Sam Prakasam on HotelOperations.com

The Sudima Hotels team faced a number of challenges as they worked towards a goal of modern infrastructure that would allow the brand to scale. “People today don’t want to wait. They want to arrive at a hotel, get service within a few minutes, and then proceed to their room. They want instant results.” What creates these expectations? “Guests tend to build their expectations based on previous experiences, be it the other hotels they stay in or cafés and restaurants they went to. And of course, they expect to receive the same level of speed without compromising on the quality of the service.”

Expectations are also shaped by internet culture. “Today’s internet and social media culture has been heavily spoiled by instant gratification. This has put a lot of pressure on service industries such as hospitality because people are used to getting things faster. The concept of waiting is almost nonexistent. Waiting is no longer a norm but is cause for a complaint. The moment you wait, it becomes a negative part of your stay. We are under this constant pressure of how to improve and provide faster services to keep up with this but without losing the human touch.”

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