Garbage out, garbage in

New York magazine article: Job Interviews Are Way Less Useful Than Everyone Thinks

Observations

We've seen this before: Most people are overconfident in their ability to get accurate assessments based on a job interview.

People whose accountabilities include interviewing and hiring need to stick to a structured interview. 

People whose accountabilities include interviewing and hiring need to be trained to first determine needs and objectives, then conduct an interview and accurately note responses that are in alignment with those needs and objectives.

This isn't just a Starbucks disease

Many hotels are bad about it, too.

Business Insider article: Starbucks is quietly changing the business as furious baristas slam the 'cult that pays $9 per hour'

Observations:

We've seen this before: Management wants to micromanage the customer experience and leans too heavily upon 'service' and connection (which you can't force). Some even attempt to use it to cover inadequacies in the operation or facility itself. It makes any employee exposed to culpability for anything, and makes for a very unhealthy work environment.

No matter what the 'benefits' are, their value will show up as nebulous if you're not paying a living wage.

What is and why do hotels have a rack rate?

Sometimes, with all these 'entitlement' discounts, I wonder myself . . .

First of all, rack rate is not - at least not in the US - set by law. If some hotel clerk told you that, he or she either didn't like you, or just didn't want to give you any kind of discount. Every hotel sets its own rates - and its own exceptions to and discounts from those rates.

(Some localities require the hotel to post their rates, like on the inside of the door to your room, usually a scheme to thwart price gouging, or fraud by clerks. Where there is such a requirement, you'll see an astronomically high rate posted, in anticipation of the expected rate for the most high-demand special event in the area . . .)

Rack rate is the asking price for a room, the set price from which nearly all discounts are calculated.

How much? Well, certainly I want to cover my costs, make a profit, etc. - but it is strictly market driven. (Consider Hampton Inns, or Courtyard by Marriott. A room at a Hampton Inn, or a Courtyard, is going to come pretty much one way. But a king room at a Hampton Inn in one city can be priced very differently from a similar king room at a Hampton Inn in another, depending upon the local market. The same goes for Courtyard, and any chain that emphasizes product consistency and uniformity.) I'm going to set it at an amount comparable hotels are asking for comparable rooms. Set it lower, and I'm charging less than the guest might be willing to pay; set it higher, and unless my property has amenities and features for which the guest considers worth paying a little more, I'm going to lose business to the competing hotels.

And now, the discounts . . . You can pretty much figure that everyone who walks in the door has some rationale why he or she should receive a 10% discount from the rack rate.

Motorcoach service facilities

We like to have installed, in every town where we operate a hotel, facilities for servicing motorcoaches. I learned some years ago that the availability of these is of great value for pursuing and successfully booking bus tour business.

These would include a prefab outbuilding to store your necessary tools and supplies, located to a fresh water connection and a lavatory dump.

We don't want to use the lav dump as a commercial RV dump. (And the design will differ from the one shown above -- which is designed for RVs, not motorcoaches specifically -- to not encourage such inquiries.) Heavy use would generate a mess and odor problem.

But motorcoach tour operators that I've dealt with in the past are particularly appreciative of an amenity such as this. They don't pursue discounts very aggressively -- they just pass the costs of the rooms to the tour customers, anyway -- but they like being able to have the coach serviced; and with Trailways no longer in business in most parts of the country, there aren't that many places to get it done any more.

We have a maintenance guy there when a coach is scheduled to arrive to help unload the coach, we have the driver park the coach over the lav dump, we dump the lav and hose down the area around the dump spot; we swab out the lav, refill it and dump in some de-germ, we sweep and mop the coach and get the interior looking nice and fresh, and we wash the coach. Total time, one guy, a little over an hour, maybe two hours if you want to give it a really good job. (And we do. As you can guess, I worked for Trailways years ago, when there was a Trailways...).

Small price to pay for being able to rent an extra 25-50 rooms in a night, even if we have to give a free room to the driver.

What information do luxury hotels keep on guest profiles?

A guest profile on a good property management system will come with everything you see here. Make a reservation, or check into the hotel, one time, and that ‘file’ will exist for years — or until they change the system.

And that’s their ‘floor sample’, the screenshot provided to their prospective hotel company buyers. The ones I’ve used have an added button on the above screen where, with one click, we can bring up your photo and a sample of your signature (both of these come off your drivers’ license when we scan it the first time we check you in).

Hotels for sale: Sleep Inn, Little River, S. C.

Property offering

SLEEP INN -- HARBOUR VIEW
909 US HIGHWAY 17
LITTLE RIVER, SC 29566

Listing broker: Helen Zaver and Vikesh Zaver, Marcus and Millichap

TripAdvisor reviews: Bubble score 4.0

Property website:

• Sleep Inn at Harbour View -- Local website
• Sleep Inn at Harbour View -- Choice Hotels child site

The facility:

This property has a rather odd design for a Sleep Inn: you have to study it a bit to notice that it's a Sleep Inn prototype.

Hotels for sale: Best Western Governors Inn; Richmond, Virginia

Property offering

Listing broker: Stephen Albis, CAS Associates, via The Hotel Inventory

TripAdvisor reviews: Bubble score 4.0

Property website:

• Best Western - Governors Inn -- Best Western child site

The facility:

This is an attractive, interior corridor property in two buildings, that appears to be custom designed -- actually, a bit quirky, with the turrets -- and not conforming to any brand prototype, constructed in 1987.