How To Run A Great Hotel

This book is based on the premise that being good is just not good enough in today’s competitive environment. For hotel owners and managers who want to achieve lasting business success through a root and branch review of key processes, How To Run a Great Hotel is a ‘must read’. It will serve as a personal business consultant for the hotel professional, probing and testing their thinking across four critical themes which are proven to drive excellence. The content focuses less on day-to-day operations and more on big picture concerns such as strategy development, enhancing leadership skills, engaging employees and attaining customer focus, all of which are central to building a great hotel. Without clear direction in these important areas to guide activities, ongoing daily effort can be counterproductive. It’s easy for hoteliers to lose sight of their goals when, engulfed by operational demands, they are often forced to just do rather than to think about what they are doing. This book provides the reader with an opportunity to step back and take a fresh look at their hotel, no matter where it currently lies in its life cycle. The purpose of the book is to get them to question what it is they are doing, why they are doing it and to offer guidance on how they can make it even better. The book is easy to read, practical, and action oriented. It will help the reader to define clear plans with measurable goals for improved personal and business performance.

Contents: Acknowledgements; Foreword; Preface; Introduction; Theme 1 – Define Direction; Chapter 1. What is a strategic map and how can it help you to achieve excellence?; Chapter 2. How can you create a strategic map for your hotel?; Chapter 3. How can you measure the impact of your strategic map over time?; Theme 2 – Lead to Suceed; Chapter 4. What does leading people actually involve?; Chapter 5. How can you improve leadership effectiveness at your hotel?; Chapter 6. How can you measure leadership effectiveness over time?; Theme 3 – Engage Your Employees; Chapter 7. What does engaging your employees actually involve?; Chapter 8. What can you do to more fully engage your employees?; 9. How can you measure employee engagement levels over time?; Theme 4 – Captivate your customers; Chapter 10. What is SERVICEPLUSONE and why is it important?; Chapter 11. How can you attain SERVICEPLUSONE at your hotel?; Chapter 12. How can you measure the impact of SERVICEPLUSONE over time?; Make it Happen; Theme 1 – Define Direction; Theme 2 – Lead to Suceed; Theme 3 – Engage Your Employees; Theme 4 – Captivate Your Customers; Looking ahead; Tools and Resources; Index.

Author Biography

Enda Larkin was born in Dublin, Ireland and has over 25 years experience in the hotel industry having held a number of senior management positions in Ireland, UK and the US. In 1994 he founded HTC Consulting (www.htc-consult.com) which specialises in working with enterprises in hospitality and tourism and since that time has led numerous consulting projects for public and private sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East. He holds an MBA from ESCP-EAP Paris, a BSc in Management from Trinity College Dublin and a Higher Diploma in Hotel Management from Dublin College of Catering. He currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland and is a member of the Institute of Hospitality. He may be contacted at info@htc-consult.com.