Unemployment is way down and hiring is way up across just about all industries. This is definitely true in the leisure and hospitality industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this industry added 368,000 new jobs between November 2014 and November 2015.
In a market this hot, recruitment-as-usual will not work to bring “A” players to your team. Not only do you need to track them down, but once you find them, you also need to court them. If effect, you should apply the same approach to recruitment that you do to sales and marketing: identify your targets, craft a compelling value proposition and then be persistent in connecting with them.
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My father, Herman Weber, began his career in the hospitality industry in the 1930s as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. He had planned to use the money he saved to buy a car, but instead leased a bankrupt diner that had come onto the market. At only 25 years old, Weber was in business for himself.
More than 75 years later, my father’s legacy lives on at Weber’s Restaurant and Hotel in Ann Arbor, Mich., the establishment my parents founded in 1937. It was first an eatery before a hotel, which was recently ranked among the best hotels in the country by CollegeRank.net and the world by Expedia.com. Today, I serve as president, and two of my sons, Michael and Brian Weber, are vice presidents of the hotel and restaurant, respectively.
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At Crosswinds Grille in The Lakehouse Inn & Winery, excelling at farm-to-table cuisine and working with local producers play important parts in both the inn and restaurant’s success. Chef Nate Fagnilli’s passion for the local food movement is evident; so much so that you will often find him on weekly calls with neighboring livestock companies discussing grass-fed meat or involved in a 6 a.m. text conversation with a farmer.
His menu is filled with items purchased from area farmers and cheese makers, so it changes on a regular basis. It is also based entirely on sources from the region, from the meat right down to the cocktails (created with Ohio-made ingredients) and the house-produced wine.
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Names can mean everything in food labeling. The Code of Federal Regulations devotes 300 pages to naming conventions and standards of identity for foods, but sometimes adjectives mean even more.
Marketers and the food companies they represent for years have been using the terms “organic,” “non-GMO” or “natural” to distinguish their products in a field crowded with competitors. Market research supports them or perhaps reflects their efforts. The USDA’s Economic Research Service 2014 reports that organic goods, for example, enjoy double-digit growth year-over-year; that they are sold in over 20,000 natural food stores; and that almost 75 percent of conventional grocery stores now offer them.
Nielsen’s “Healthy Eating Trends Around the World” published in January 2015 found that sales of products with “natural” or “organic” claims rose from 24 percent in 2012 to 28 percent in 2014 and the International Food Information Council Foundation’s consumer research showed that in 2015, more Americans reported feeling concerned about chemicals in their food (36%) than pathogenic bacteria (34%).
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I stopped by a roadside flea market in search of an antique typewriter. “Your license plate is falling off,” the owner said with a smile as I was getting out of my car. I noticed the screw on the side of the plate was about to separate. Handing me a Phillips screwdriver from his pile of used tools, he said, “Tighten that bad boy back up again!” When I returned his screwdriver, he waved me away. “Just keep it, neighbor; I got plenty of them.” I thought, “How long has it been since a merchant I had never seen referred to me as a neighbor?”
Our fast-paced, get-it-on-the-Internet society has stripped out too much of the neighbor-serving-neighbor service experience. Mechanized trumps personalized. But when we receive a neighborly experience, it makes us feel special and gives us a nostalgic sense of being home.
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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the world’s first declaration of equality for people with disabilities. By mandating standards for accessibility, it seeks to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities and assure them an equal opportunity to participate in normal life activities.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published revised regulations for Titles II and III of the ADA, which apply to governmental facilities, and public accommodations and commercial facilities. For the first time, the ADA regulations imposed specific accessibility requirements for swimming pools, wading pools and spas. These new regulations affect hotels and motels, health clubs, recreation centers and other businesses with aquatic facilities.
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The National Hotel made its mark on Miami Beach as one of the grandest luxury hotels in the area when it opened in 1939. Now, more than 75 years later, it stands the test of time, priding itself on its classic art deco style that made it so popular decades ago. Instead of modernizing the décor during its $12 million renovations in 2014, the National Hotel chose to restore its authentic design elements, items and furniture to retain the authenticity established in the beginning.
“We are a very classic hotel in Miami Beach,” Hotel Manager Yaser Mohamad says. “We have sustained the same style aesthetically speaking with the elements of the hotel that has made us an iconic place. The consistency has made us iconic. We keep the hotel up to date, but keep the old-fashioned style.”
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The draft beer industry is anything but stagnant today, so why do establishments use outdated – not to mention wasteful – techniques when it comes to keg monitoring and ordering? Because that’s the way it has always been done and the industry has seen a lack of innovation when it comes to data gathering.
Quantum physics founder Max Planck said “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” and that’s exactly what Steve Hershberger did when he created SteadyServ iKeg.
The software is a mobile, SaaS-based inventory and order management system designed specifically for the beer industry. “We set out on a journey to create an Internet of Things solution that took a massively different approach,” Hershberger says.
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