So what was your first hotel job?
I have interviewed a lot of people during my years covering the hotel industry, and that’s the one question I ask every single person, and it’s the one question I never get tired of asking.
This question never, ever gets old, and I’m convinced that any good hotelier worth his or her salt has a unique, personal origin story about his or her first job in the industry, and how it planted that seed of an idea that hospitality just might be a worthwhile career.
There isn’t enough room in this blog or even in a book to share the excellent stories I’ve heard when I have asked people this question, but a couple people stand out in my mind. I won’t share their stories here, but trust me when I say, next time you see Jim Abrahamson, Roger Bloss, Steve Joyce or Nancy Johnson, it’ll be well worth your time to ask them this particular question and hear the story for yourself. From these hotel vets alone there are funny and heartwarming stories of hard work, intrigue, romance, disco—you name it.
And those are just a few. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad or even boring first-job-in-the-industry story—if I have, usually it’s from someone who joined hospitality from another (of course much more boring) industry. There’s just something so enjoyable about hearing people talk about their first job as a dishwasher or a night auditor, working to pay their way through school or to learn their family’s business.
Hospitality is just one of those industries that people from all walks of life and corners of the globe can fall in love with, and when it’s the right fit for the right person, the stories of how they got into the industry and the lessons they’ve learned are simply amazing.
I heard two personal stories along these lines earlier this week while I was in Honolulu covering Best Western’s annual conference. Of course, the big news coming out of that conference was the company’s name change, its new logos and its newest brand. But here I’d like to share two stories from the conference that you wouldn’t know if you hadn’t been there. They’re not about revenue per available room, or marketing spend or new brands. One is a story about a hotelier’s very first hotel stay, and the other is a story about the lessons two seasoned hoteliers have passed along to their children.
The first is Jayesh (Jay) Patel’s story. He’s the board chairman for Best Western and head of Cajun Lodging, an ownership, management and development company that owns nine hotels in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
From Patel, I’d like to share not his first hotel job story, but the story of his first-ever hotel experience, which happened when he was 19 years old and immigrating to the United States from India.
He, his two brothers and their father were coming to San Francisco to start a new life in the United States, and Patel spent his first night in a hotel, in Hong Kong, en route to the family’s final destination. That night, his father accidentally locked the key in the room and sent Patel, the eldest child, down to the front desk to figure out how to let staff know they needed a new key.
“This was my first night in a hotel, my first time ever constructing an entire sentence in English to ask for a new key,” he said.
After Patel struggled through the 30-minute exercise to communicate the family’s need for a new key, he said his father was so worried that the three children would, in their excitement at being in a hotel for the first time, break something. “Do not touch the TV. Do not touch the lamp. Do not even sleep on the bed,” Patel recalled his father telling them. So they didn’t. They slept on the floor.
Following that encounter, Patel said his first priority upon arriving in San Francisco was to learn English, so he could communicate. Patel went on to earn his degrees and eventually find his way back to the hotel industry.
“I never could have imagined my path would bring me to be the chairman of this hotel company, after sleeping my first night in a hotel on the floor,” he said.
Now that’s a story. But it’s not the only good story that I heard that day.
Patel went on to share the story of this year’s Best Western Chairman’s Legacy Award winners, Hans and Annemarie Schlunegger, owners of the Best Western Plus Swiss Chalet Hotel & Suites and the Best Western Swiss Clock Inn, both in Pecos, Texas.
Today, the Schluneggers’ three adult children are in the business, and theirs is a story that is like so many other family-owned hotel stories out there. They built their businesses on hard work and personal relationships, and those are the lessons they passed on to their children.
“Lesson One is that people are important, and Lesson Two is that you can’t replace hard work,” Patel said, recounting the Schluneggers’ impact. “Lessons Three through Five are: Have a positive attitude, make an impression and be honest.”
He summed up the couple’s legacy of taking care of their guests and maintaining strong professional and personal values with a short anecdote that really resonates:
“Their children learned from their mother that you can never overdress for an occasion,” Patel said. “And they learned from their father to give a good, firm handshake and look people in the eye. Hans always told them that character is everything.”
I just love that. Character is everything.
This week, instead of an infographic you get another quiz. This has been taking the Hotel News Now office by storm lately. We’ve all taken it, and it’s given us great insight into each other’s work habits and personal leadership style. Now if we could only get the Big Kahuna Jeff Higley to take it, we might understand some of his own powerful management tricks. So if you see Jeff, tell him we need him to take the quiz, stat!
Yes, it’s fun, but it’s insightful as well. It’s great to take on your own, to put some method behind the madness of your own personality, but it’s especially helpful to take it with a group—be it your family, your co-workers, you name it. You’ll gain a lot of insight into what makes each other tick.
In case you’re wondering, I’m an ENFP-T. If you want to share your results, or any other comments about this blog or anything else we do here at Hotel News Now, drop a comment below, email me at sricca@hotelnewsnow.com or find me on Twitter @HNN_Steph.
The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.
I have interviewed a lot of people during my years covering the hotel industry, and that’s the one question I ask every single person, and it’s the one question I never get tired of asking.
This question never, ever gets old, and I’m convinced that any good hotelier worth his or her salt has a unique, personal origin story about his or her first job in the industry, and how it planted that seed of an idea that hospitality just might be a worthwhile career.
There isn’t enough room in this blog or even in a book to share the excellent stories I’ve heard when I have asked people this question, but a couple people stand out in my mind. I won’t share their stories here, but trust me when I say, next time you see Jim Abrahamson, Roger Bloss, Steve Joyce or Nancy Johnson, it’ll be well worth your time to ask them this particular question and hear the story for yourself. From these hotel vets alone there are funny and heartwarming stories of hard work, intrigue, romance, disco—you name it.
And those are just a few. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad or even boring first-job-in-the-industry story—if I have, usually it’s from someone who joined hospitality from another (of course much more boring) industry. There’s just something so enjoyable about hearing people talk about their first job as a dishwasher or a night auditor, working to pay their way through school or to learn their family’s business.
Hospitality is just one of those industries that people from all walks of life and corners of the globe can fall in love with, and when it’s the right fit for the right person, the stories of how they got into the industry and the lessons they’ve learned are simply amazing.
I heard two personal stories along these lines earlier this week while I was in Honolulu covering Best Western’s annual conference. Of course, the big news coming out of that conference was the company’s name change, its new logos and its newest brand. But here I’d like to share two stories from the conference that you wouldn’t know if you hadn’t been there. They’re not about revenue per available room, or marketing spend or new brands. One is a story about a hotelier’s very first hotel stay, and the other is a story about the lessons two seasoned hoteliers have passed along to their children.
The first is Jayesh (Jay) Patel’s story. He’s the board chairman for Best Western and head of Cajun Lodging, an ownership, management and development company that owns nine hotels in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
From Patel, I’d like to share not his first hotel job story, but the story of his first-ever hotel experience, which happened when he was 19 years old and immigrating to the United States from India.
He, his two brothers and their father were coming to San Francisco to start a new life in the United States, and Patel spent his first night in a hotel, in Hong Kong, en route to the family’s final destination. That night, his father accidentally locked the key in the room and sent Patel, the eldest child, down to the front desk to figure out how to let staff know they needed a new key.
“This was my first night in a hotel, my first time ever constructing an entire sentence in English to ask for a new key,” he said.
After Patel struggled through the 30-minute exercise to communicate the family’s need for a new key, he said his father was so worried that the three children would, in their excitement at being in a hotel for the first time, break something. “Do not touch the TV. Do not touch the lamp. Do not even sleep on the bed,” Patel recalled his father telling them. So they didn’t. They slept on the floor.
Following that encounter, Patel said his first priority upon arriving in San Francisco was to learn English, so he could communicate. Patel went on to earn his degrees and eventually find his way back to the hotel industry.
“I never could have imagined my path would bring me to be the chairman of this hotel company, after sleeping my first night in a hotel on the floor,” he said.
Now that’s a story. But it’s not the only good story that I heard that day.
Patel went on to share the story of this year’s Best Western Chairman’s Legacy Award winners, Hans and Annemarie Schlunegger, owners of the Best Western Plus Swiss Chalet Hotel & Suites and the Best Western Swiss Clock Inn, both in Pecos, Texas.
Today, the Schluneggers’ three adult children are in the business, and theirs is a story that is like so many other family-owned hotel stories out there. They built their businesses on hard work and personal relationships, and those are the lessons they passed on to their children.
“Lesson One is that people are important, and Lesson Two is that you can’t replace hard work,” Patel said, recounting the Schluneggers’ impact. “Lessons Three through Five are: Have a positive attitude, make an impression and be honest.”
He summed up the couple’s legacy of taking care of their guests and maintaining strong professional and personal values with a short anecdote that really resonates:
“Their children learned from their mother that you can never overdress for an occasion,” Patel said. “And they learned from their father to give a good, firm handshake and look people in the eye. Hans always told them that character is everything.”
I just love that. Character is everything.
Infographic of the week
external
This week, instead of an infographic you get another quiz. This has been taking the Hotel News Now office by storm lately. We’ve all taken it, and it’s given us great insight into each other’s work habits and personal leadership style. Now if we could only get the Big Kahuna Jeff Higley to take it, we might understand some of his own powerful management tricks. So if you see Jeff, tell him we need him to take the quiz, stat!
Yes, it’s fun, but it’s insightful as well. It’s great to take on your own, to put some method behind the madness of your own personality, but it’s especially helpful to take it with a group—be it your family, your co-workers, you name it. You’ll gain a lot of insight into what makes each other tick.
In case you’re wondering, I’m an ENFP-T. If you want to share your results, or any other comments about this blog or anything else we do here at Hotel News Now, drop a comment below, email me at sricca@hotelnewsnow.com or find me on Twitter @HNN_Steph.
The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.