Hospitality Management Reflection

Top Three Learnings of the Semester

By: Molly

The top three hospitality management strategies I learned from this course relate to customer relationship management, the 80/20 rule, and engaging employees through great managers. The first takeaway I learned is the significance of customer relationship management, as seen through the Happy Guest Relationship Management case. Customer data driven platforms like HGRM not only allow hotels to keep track of all of guests’ preferences and give each guest customized service, but it empowers employees of all departments (even housekeeping) to provide this better service at the touch of an iPad. I think that CRM tools like HGRM are critical for providing the best service possible, and will become the future of the hospitality industry.

Secondly, the 80/20 rule stood out to me because I think it says a lot about how businesses can increase sales. The fact that 80% of sales come from only 20% of customers shows how important it is for companies to focus on retaining their top 20% of customers through offering customized service, loyalty programs, and developing personal relationships with consumers. The last takeaway I learned from this course was the importance of engaging employees through great managers. I think that Winegardner’s & Hammons’ strategy of putting managers through an extensive training process in order to learn how to motivate lower level staff makes a lot of sense. If the managers can act as leaders, employees will have more direction and more people they can rely on. While these three hospitality management strategies are the ones that resonated with me most, I learned many other pieces of new information throughout this course.