Briefing: The importance of strong leadership

A new survey from Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has uncovered the work, challenges, and concerns of senior Revenue Management professionals. It found that critical thinking was considered an important or very important management skill by all respondents, as was business acumen by 98% of respondents. What else is required to be an effective manager and how much of a difference can the right leadership make to a business?

In these video, experts discuss leadership and management in hospitality:

The HSMAI survey shows that there is a desire from Revenue Managers to have more control to push businesses forward; the top-rated responsibilities the respondents said they would like to add to their duties were Sales and Marketing, and Strategic Planning.

The HSMAI survey found that revenue management professionals currently spend on average 5.5 hours per week on Human Resource Management, 14 hours on Strategy, and 5.6 hours on Technology Application.

The survey also covered the challenges that the Revenue Managers faced. The most challenging aspects of the revenue managers position was found to be; advancing the thinking & decision making in related disciplines, and elevating the strategic application of data throughout the enterprise.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by ybc.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Pipelines, predictions and provinces in the UK

According to STR’s July 2016 Pipeline Report, Greater London has the most ‘rooms in construction’ in Europe, with 5,400 rooms in 32 hotels. PwC reports that the UK accounted for about 60% of European M&A volumes in 2015. The UK continues to be a strong market, although it is not without its complications. The EU referendum and the introduction of the National Living Wage have been two issues affecting the UK’s hospitality industry this year.

In these videos hospitality experts discuss business in the UK.

Figures from STR for Q2 2016 show that the UK has experienced steady results across three metrics: occupancy (-0.7% to 78.9%), ADR (+1.7 to GBP89.71) and RevPAR (+1.0% to GBP70.82). STR analysts say it is still too early to quantify the impact the vote for the UK to leave the European Union has had or will have on hotels and the European hotel industry as a whole.

Since April this year workers over 25 in the UK have been entitled to a National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour as compared to the minimum wage (previously applied to anyone 21 and over) of £6.70. This is great for the many minimum wage employees working in hospitality in the UK, but has also meant an extra budget consideration for managers. Predictions from PwC last year showed that this National Living Wage would increase the wage bill for Hospitality and Leisure by £2.2m in 2016 and £13.2m by 2020.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by ybc.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Business keeps moving forward

According to statistics from STR, in Q2 2016, Europe’s hotel industry reported nearly flat occupancy growth (+0.6% to 73.9%) and Central/South America region reported a decrease in occupancy. This year there has been a lot of reasons for concern around where we are in the economic cycle and whether geopolitical issues could disrupt the market. With all this happening resilience and focus on the future is important.

These videos show different attitudes towards this year’s hospitality market:

STR’s reports show that in the Central/South America region there 5.1% decrease in occupancy to 54.1% compared to Q2 2015. Average daily rate was up 5.3% to US$89.75. Revenue per available room was flat at US$48.58.

Performance in Europe was more positive with average daily rate going up 2.1% to EUR114.33. and revenue per available room up 2.7% to EUR84.49. However, in France there were decreases on all three of these: occupancy (-5.5% to 68.2%), ADR (-7.5% to EUR138.43) and RevPAR (-12.6% to EUR94.34).

And in Asia Pacific again performance is flattening out with an 1.3% increase in occupancy to 68.3% alongside an average daily rate decrease of 1.1% to US$96.95. Revenue per available room was nearly flat (+0.2% to US$66.18).

While these figures look gloomy there is reason to believe that with one recession in recent memory under the belt and markets showing an increased ability to bounce back, businesses can stay positive and face any possible obstacles head on.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by ybc.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Disengaged employees need some inspiration

According to research by Gallup, only 13% of employees Worldwide are engaged in their work. Similarly worrying statistics have shown up across several studies in recent years. Boston Research Group, for example, found that 27% of corporate bosses and only 4% of employees believe their firms are inspiring places to work. People are vital in hospitality at all levels. Studies suggest that, when it comes to motivating teams, it can be the basics that make the difference, such as positive contact with management and a pleasant working environment.

In this briefing experts share their insights on employee engagement and motivation:

The 2013 study ‘State of the Global Workplace’ by Gallup suggests that it is important to ensure employees have good working lives. This is because “engaged employees are more likely to be ‘thriving’ – i.e., to rate their overall lives highly on a zero-to-10 scale.”

There may be many different ways of dealing with this issue across different companies and hotel brands. One element of Misha Pinkhasov’s (featured) ‘shared value’ approach to business, is to always considering things on an individual level. The approach suggests that companies as a whole need meaning so that individual employees are inspired.

Engagement, or lack thereof, also reflects in a company’s profits. Gallup estimates that employee disengagement costs Germany €112 Bn to €138 Bn per year ($151 Bn to $186 Bn) and the U.K. between £52 Bn and £70 Bn ($83 Bn to $112 Bn) per year.

A report by Towers Watson suggests that good leadership can make all the difference. It says: “in companies where both leaders and managers are perceived by employees as effective, 72% of employees are highly engaged.” This report, Global Workforce Study 2014, also states that whereas some employees may be engaged on a basic level, they are lacking the ‘enablement’ (tools and resources) and ‘energy’ (from a good work environment) to perform at their best. They say that that this ‘unsupported’ worker accounts for 19% of the global workforce.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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