Hotel F&B Executive

Successful Scouting
July/August 2009

The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee puts a lot of work into planning their events. They begin a year in advance. The example I read about was Rockwell's Automation Convention. It was hosted the year prior in Chicago, and the catering manager at Gaylord, Diane Skrabec, traveled there to observe and record notes on things she noticed that went wrong and went right in hopes of it making their event the next year even better. Some details she noticed were an average wait time of 10 to 12 minutes for the buffet and a bottleneck formation around the dessert buffet. She flew back to Nashville and shared her notes with her entire staff, who in turn began planning and purchasing as well as forming budgets for the event. They added more dessert stations and developed plans to more efficiently transport food from different kitchens at the resort. They finalized plans and ordered the food, over 1100 pounds of green beans, 9000 pounds of chicken breast and 2075 potatoes, to name a few. The event was a success and they got the wait time down to 6 minutes at the buffet and received the highest feedback scores possible.
I work as a bus girl and event server at a restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware. I have seen the behind the scenes action that goes into planning an event through following the events coordinators. The restaurant I work at is a much smaller venue than the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, but I thought it was interesting to see how they go about planning an event. At the ballroom and restaurant I work at, they just ask the hosts what they want, while Gaylord observed and did what they wanted without even asking. They just saw what went wrong at other events and improved on them to make theirs even better. It was such a successful approach. So much goes into planning an event and for them to spend an entire year working on it is a huge commitment and very impressive.

http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/july-aug2009-gaylord-mega-event-planning.asp

Hilton HHonors surpasses 25-million members

March 18, 2010

Hilton HHonors is Hilton Worldwide's loyalty program and they recently announced that they have surpassed 25 million members within the program. The Hilton Brand has more than 3,500 hotels in 81 countries with brands in all market categories.Their loyalty program allows members to earn both Points and Miles for one stay. Hilton HHonors is notorious for offering great customer service and free night stays to millions of travelers, even during the recession where they actually offered more rewards than in previous years. They do such a great job because of their convenient locations all over the world and don't have Blackout Dates. which are days in which members are not allowed to use their points for free stays.

It really shows that Hilton is doing something right when even in a time of recession where all businesses are struggling, they are still excelling. I think that when I get older and begin to travel I will become a Hilton HHonors member. I have stayed at many Hiltons and they are always clean and I always have a good experience. My parents are Hilton HHonors members and we have earned full weeks of free stays and been able to go places that we probably wouldn't have normally gone to.

Hotel World Network

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7989157119909264345&postID=3309608737459959438

Hotel Online Posting

April 16, 2009

Starwood Sues Hilton and Two Former Starwood Executives for Corporate Espionage,
Theft of Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc announced that it has formally filed a lawsuit against Hilton Hotels Corporation and senior executives Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani. The lawsuit says that Klein, who was former president of Starwood's Luxury Brands Group and Lalvani, former Senior Vice President of Starwood's Luxury Brands Group, stole massive amounts of confidential information in regard to Starwood's marketing strategies. They believe that the stealing of information aided Hilton in opening the "lifestyle hotel" market and thus crippled Starwood's market share. They are accused of stealing more than 100,000 electronic files both before and after joining Hilton. Among the files were confidential plans regarding their W Brand, which Hilton used illegally to develop their own Denizen brand. Starwood is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages from Hilton, Klein and Lalvani. They are also seeking a court order demanding that Hilton refrain from using or benefiting from Starwood's confidential information and requiring that they immediately return all of the obtained information.

I believe this was a really shady move on Hilton's part. It is very suspicious that they recruited the men after they began giving Hilton information and continued to wrongfully use Starwood's ideas and strategies to develop their own brand and attempt to get ahead in the "lifestyle hotel" market. I think that the courts should rule in favor of Starwood as they seem to have adequate evidence to prove that what was done was illegal and that it severly crippled Starwood as a result.

Hotel Online

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2009_2nd/Apr09_StarwoodHilton.html