EDITOR ’ S DIARY
Hail the opening GM
For my nearly 29-year tenure in this chair , the bullseye reader for HOTELS has been the hotel general manager , who controls the heartbeat of the business and makes crucial decisions about style , tone and service delivery . He / she should have their finger on the pulse of the guest as well as the team almost all the time , which means sitting at a desk crunching numbers needs to be delegated to the Number Two on property because the GM ’ s ability to listen and react is crucial to the success of the property , never so much more so than today .
That is why I love our lead story in this month ’ s Trending
Editor In Chief section about how GMs prepare to open hotels . They talk about their traditions and some of the cool things they do to get both themselves and their teams ready to successfully open the door for the first time . Without GM ’ s veteran leadership , the day-to-day execution challenges would be up for grabs because strong leadership is simply a must-have and non-negotiable . As a result , it is incumbent on every owner and regional vice president to make sure the GM ’ s needs and wants are met , and their voices heard .
To a man ( yes , we should have included women here but transparently our source for this story provided all men ), these GMs focused on the importance of recruiting and training to open successful hotels . Not only do they make sure operational basics are tested , but they seem to emphasize the personal approach to generate buy-in from the team . If management can ’ t meet line-level team members where they live and understand all their challenges , chances are the necessary trust required to develop critical open communication protocols will fail . Without that communication piece in place , meeting everyone ’ s expectations will be incredibly challenging and no doubt , the bottom line will suffer .
Supporting GMs couldn ’ t be more of a timely topic with every conversation about the business today seemingly evolving around labor challenges . Sure , you can offer stipends to servers who want more tattoos , offer flexible hours to support lifestyle choices , or even provide pay on demand – but none of these solutions are going to solve ongoing challenges that are simply embedded in the business . However , an empowered , supported GM has so many of the answers if you let them run their ships as they see fit by giving them the time to manage .
There are reasons why so many hotel management companies have opening specialists who spend most of their careers moving from opening to opening . They know what it takes to prepare and are given the authority to execute .
After preparing this story for the October issue and listening to all the cries about staffing shortages , it appears to me that a well-supported GM can go such a long way to getting past this challenging moment in time .
EDITORIAL Jeff Weinstein Editor In Chief
Josefina Morley Editorial Coordinator
Kathakali Nandi Editorial Writer
Juan Cruz del Val Designer
Contributing Writers Jeanette Hurt , Megan Rowe , Juliana Shallcross ,
Alicia Sheber
PUBLISHING Ali Jahangiri CEO
Brian Levine Publisher
Marie Ekberg Padilla Senior Editor
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Nakul Anand Executive Director , ITC Ltd ., Gurgaon , India
Stephen Bartolin President , Broadmoor Sea Island Co ., Colorado Springs , Colorado
Robert Hecker Managing Director , Horwath HTL Asia Pacific , Singapore
Ramsey Mankarious CEO , Cedar Capital Partners , London
Christopher Nassetta President and CEO , Hilton , McLean , Virginia
Monika Nerger Chief Information Officer , Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group , Atlanta
Susan Terry Vice President of Culinary and Food and Beverage Operations , Marcus Hotels & Resorts , Milwaukee , Wisconsin
Trevor Ward Managing Director , W Hospitality Group , Lagos , Nigeria
ADVERTISING Caroline de Donnea-Birkel
ADMINISTRATION Kristi Carlson Maureen Millerick
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