Terri and I work in the Destination Marketing space, advising DMOs on governance, management, strategy, funding and development. Thus, a lot of what we post on this blog focuses on this side of the hospitality business.
Spero Batistatos (President of the South Shore IN Convention & Visitors Authority) is one of the top DMO CEO minds in our sector. Unlike me, he actually started his career in the "back of the house" at a hotel/theatre complex (where I'm quite sure we met years before we became comrades in arms because I used to introduce a number of acts at the theatre during my turn in FM rock radio).
Over the weekend, my friend penned a fascinating piece on how hospitality businesses need to be planning to successfully emerge from quarantine...from a decidedly "back of the house" mentality.
It is definitely worth your read.
Excellent article. Thanks for highlighting it, Bill. I might add that there has been some discussion about "small hotels" coming back first, due to customer preference. While I might agree a properly licensed bed & breakfast establishment has greater appeal, I can also make a strong case for large hotels. 1) They should have the resources and expertise to use best practices for sanitation and safety. 2) They understand the value of protecting their brand (hence, motivation). And 3) They should be able to leverage "room rotation" between guests while they are under-capacity - to permit any lingering virus to die out before another guest is put in that room. As for unregulated air B&B, no thanks.
Posted by: Gretchen Dahlen | April 20, 2020 at 09:59
Great points, my friend. And, it's been too long. Hope you are well...
Posted by: Bill Geist | April 20, 2020 at 10:09
I concur 100%. Having a back of the house training I don't recall having seen any EcoLab products on the shelves during my STR stays.
Posted by: Beth Javens | April 20, 2020 at 18:16