https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H8POQxTmXaIBrICkMNYr6JUMIlL_55Ue/view?usp=sharingIDEAS THAT CAN SET YOUR PROPERTY APART

• Do Something Good for the Environment. 79% of travelers will support properties who are doing good things environmentally. Start with something simple, but just start.
• Embrace Your Sense of Place. The history, the culture, the natural resources of the area, and the community surrounding the location of a properties are all invaluable assets that can help set your resort apart.
• Connect with Your Community. Give back to your community and your community will give back to you.
• Communicate with your guests, employees and community. Communication is everything!
• A compelling website that makes it easy to book a reservation. Make sure it’s optimized for search engines and the booking process is easy and seamless.
• Great customer service Don’t cut your training budget. You need it!
• Listen to your guests. Give them what they want, not what you’re trying to sell.
• Build and work your database. Capture and communicate with your prospects, too.
• Have an aggressive online strategy. If you don’t, you’ll lose! It’s easier than ever for guests to read reviews, research hotels, compare prices, and find available rooms from anywhere, using their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. If you want to be competitive and drive business, you need to commit to a strong digital marketing strategy.

Anyone who has spent any time working in the hospitality business knows that SOP stands for “Standard Operating Procedures.” Every hotel or resort has a set of them for each department. The idea is when new people start working in a department they will know what procedures they need to follow to do their job well. Having managed numerous departments at resorts, I’ve had to write my share of SOPs for various departments.

But in my mind, far more important than the typical procedural SOP, is one that I’ve put a new spin on. Instead of “Standard Operating Procedures,” my version of the acronym connotes “Sense of Place.”

I’ve encountered many resorts in my business that fail to play off of their biggest inherent asset: their location. The history, the culture, the natural resources of the area and the community surrounding the location of a resort are all invaluable assets that can ultimately help set the resort apart. Leveraging them all provides marketing with a multitude of interesting storylines. More importantly, these are all areas that, when communicated properly, become a major part of the identity and brand of a property. Additionally, they help to instill pride in the resort’s employees and offer the guests and surrounding community something inherent to your property they can’t find anywhere else.

Yet amazingly, resorts very often miss the opportunity to convey and leverage their “Sense of Place.” One of the best examples I’ve encountered of a resort that does a phenomenal job of leveraging their culture is Hawaii’s Mauna Lani Bay & Bungalows. When I first arrived at the property, I had absolutely no knowledge of the Hawaiian culture. But it doesn’t take long into your visit to be taken in by the resort’s natural, authentic delivery of its Hawaiiana. It’s inherent in the employees and transcends into every aspect of the resort experience.

What an honor to be invited to speak at Howard Feiertag’s Hospitality Sales class at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin School of Business. Howard is one of the legends in the hospitality business and is a member of HSMAI’s International Hall of Fame. More importantly, he is one of life’s special people and I am blessed to call him a great friend and colleague. You can tell these are exceptionally bright students from the books they read!

When I was trying to raise money through pre-sales of my book to my family, friends and colleagues, I was surprised by some of the people who stepped up to support me. It’s an awkward task trying to raise money for a book project, but not being John Grisham, I knew in order to design and write the book the way I wanted, I would need to have complete editorial control that only self-publishing could provide me.

I reached out to many of my former cronies from resorts past. I thought they would likely be interested in supporting my book having lived through many of the stories in it with me. So it was really uplifting to hear from Tim Hess, President of Wintergreen Real Estate Company, that his company wanted to sponsor my book party and invite their best clients and also, the community.

I had headed up marketing for Wintergreen Resort for 12 years and the national awards and positive results I was able to generate for the resort, had a positive impact on real estate sales. I always had a strong working relationship with the real estate company and for them to sponsor me over 15 years later meant a great deal to me.

Approximately 75 people, many of whom I worked with several years ago, attended my book party. It was such a wonderful reunion of great friends and former colleagues. Thanks also to Bold Rock Cidery, a beautiful new $5 million, 12,000-square-foot cidery featuring a tasting room with a glass window through which visitors can see Bold Rock’s production process. If you’re ever in the Nelson County, Virginia area, it’s well worth a visit.

PARADISE PUNCHLIST
o When you leave a job or place, always try to do so with positive feelings and relationships. You never know who you will encounter again during your life’s journey.