Embracing the Digital Disruptions

What did your illustrious career prior to joining Peachtree Hospitality Management look like?

I was in my third year of college, majoring in elementary school, when the thought first struck me that maybe it was the wrong career direction for me. I tried my hands at various odd and miscellaneous jobs, and one fine day I happened to be housekeeping at a local full-service hotel. I fell in love with the industry as a whole that very day and knew this was what I wanted to do. I went back to college eventually and got my degree in hospitality.

I worked through Indiana, Illinois, the Midwest, and Texas in various operations and sales roles for many years before I worked my way up to the front desk, then front office manager, and assistant general manager. After almost two and a half years, I moved to White Lodging Services, where I was part of the operations and sales department. While I was there, I worked in cluster sales in both Indiana and Illinois, and later joined JW Marriot as a housekeeping manager at the same time. At a later stage, TMI Hospitality, which was later taken over by Abridge Hospitality, hired me, and I had a fruitful career there for over eight years. I joined Peachtree as the vice president of operations last year in July.

As the vice president of Peachtree Hospitality Management, what roles and responsibilities do you have to cater to on a daily basis?

One of the things I love about hospitality is that every day is different. As the vice president of operations, I oversee our regional operations. My main responsibility is to ensure that the culture of our company is driven on a property level and to make sure that the hotels are performing well from three major perspectives: ownership, guest, and associate.

My professional responsibilities also require me to travel about three weeks a month, visiting hotels, and the fourth week is spent on administrative duties.

How has the hospitality sector evolved over the years, and what are the recent trends that can be witnessed in the space currently?

The major changes that the hospitality sector has witnessed are in labor and staffing models. In the post-pandemic era, getting people to even show up for an interview is a tedious task for most managers. They have to be a lot more creative in hunting down talents and encouraging them to apply, as no one walks in and drops off their resumes anymore.

 

The second biggest challenge in the industry is that everything is going digital. It is in fact a global issue that most of everything is focused on devices and that human-to-human contact is missing. But in hospitality, communication is a key factor. With rapid digitalization, we have to adapt new and creative ways to interact with guests to make a great impression on them.

The invasion of technology has changed things drastically. For better or for worse, the world has gone digital. How does the hospitality industry strike a balance between adapting to new trends and maintaining a personalized touch?

There are a few things that we do at Peachtree to strike that perfect balance when it comes to adapting to trends and maintaining a personalized touch. We ensure that we communicate with our guests through a messaging application. We are extremely responsive and quick with it. We make sure that there is a human touch involved in our communications and avoid generic, automated messages at all costs. We read through our guests’ requirements, respond, and even follow up with any additional requirements they might have.

So much of our bookings are done on third-party websites, and from an ownership perspective, we do want them diverted to the brand websites, but those third-party websites are vital to our success. We audit these sites from time to time to ensure all the information on them are accurate to avoid any confusion that may occur. We are also quick in responding to any reviews that go online over those websites, as we believe in addressing genuine concerns that our clients come to us with, and we provide very specific responses to each one of them.

Most of our guests’ interactions are limited to the front desk, especially the food and beverage department, and those interactions are very important for us, so we give special focus to these areas.

Where do you envision the future of the hospitality sector in the near future?

As time passes and technology advances, there will be minimal interactions between the employees at the hotel and the guests. There are many innovations that have already replaced human beings, such as robotic window cleaners, floor vacuums, and even robot butlers.

Most of our guests’ interactions are limited to the front desk, especially the food and beverage department, and those interactions are very important for us, and we give special focus to these areas. We intend to continue focusing on the interactions between our guests and our food and beverage employees while being very diligent about our online presence.

Do you have any words of advice for your peers in the hospitality sector?

As organizations in the hospitality industry, we need to ensure that each of our clients is happy and is taken care of in the best possible manner, be it in terms of providing hygienic and well-maintained hotel rooms or an interaction with a team member.