The lodging (hospitality) industry is different from other types of industries because the inventory (rooms) cannot be stored and sold at a later date. There is a fixed amount of inventory which needs to be sold (rented) each night. Any rooms which are left unsold represent lost revenue. This places a tremendous amount of pressure on the owner and manager of lodging establishments, and forms the basis of hotel and motel management. The goal in this industry is to maximize the yield (revenue) for the property by renting the most rooms at the highest rates. This requires that the property build a strong customer base, have employees who are able to encourage repeat business (a critical aspect of this industry), and market the property appropriately. This research examines the experiences I have had in the hospitality industry and considers how those experiences have contributed to continued learning regarding fundamental operating and management principles.
Since 1980, I have purchased four properties in the Carmel/Monterey area; three of these have been sold and I remain the managing partner of the fourth. When a property is purchased, the staff remains with the facility. This means that the new owners must work with the current staff in implementing the changes that are desired (few owners purchase a property because they believe that it can continue without any changes).
At one of the first properties I purchased, the housekeeping staff had become particularly lax in their duties. I went through units after they had supposedly been given a full cleaning, and was disappointed with the results. I called the housekeeping staff together, presented them with a new checklist of procedures to be used in cleaning rooms, and noticed no immediate improvement. Over the course of the next year, I cited specific housekeepers for their lack of performance, and eventually ended up replacing nearly the entire housekeeping staff. Whe...