Training! Beliefs!

Review outside training support that is available from the hotel’s brand  or membership group.  Reach out in advance to find out what training they will be offering in the coming year. When in-house and brand or management company training resources are limited, or have already been used for your staff, consider outside training support from companies like ours (KTN) and others that come up in an Internet search.   Select a company that specializes in hotel industry training not one that teaches generic sales or service programs. Where possible, coordinate plans for training with sister properties.  For outside training support this will help bring down the costs, as most companies allow sister hotels to share the fees.  For in-house training this is also a great approach, as there may be managers or trainers from the other hotel(s) that can bring a new  perspective. Encourage your local hotel association, visitor’s bureau, or other destination marketing organization to organize area-wide training sessions for the member hotels.  Again this is a great way to reduce the costs as fees can be shared by all the hotels that participate. Don’t skip training when it is busier than expected and it’s “too busy to schedule training.  Similarly, don’t cancel training when it is revenues are lower than expected , remembering that training helps to bring in more business. Factor-in time for instructional design, especially if you have tasked your in-house managers with creating program content on their own. Budget for resources to measure the training. (Examples include in-house call monitoring, outside telephone mystery shopping, on-site mystery shopping, guest satisfaction surveys, and post-departure guest surveys.