The View from the Helm

Abstract

If you ask 18 top hotel executives for their views on the current and future situation of the industry, you might expect to get 18 different perspectives. This article, based on interviews conducted over the past two years, shows that, on the contrary, hotel executives have similar views on many topics. For example, they agree that customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction are both essential to the success of their enterprises. Moreover, they agree that the industry's current downturn is temporary and that the future holds considerable opportunity. At the same time, however, each executive offered a slightly different approach for taking advantage of that opportunity, based primarily on the market segment served by his hotel chain. But virtually all the operators agreed that a narrow focus on selected targets is essential.