Instead of boring you with more Iceland ash jokes and airport tales of woe I am thinking positively about airports and hotels. Whilst waiting for news and fielding calls from my staff that they finally reached their destination, I realised why I love this job after 20 years in the hotel industry. I love the camaraderie. It doesn’t matter who you work for; hotelier, cleaner, supplier, consultant, it is times like these when the industry shows its strength under stress against all adversity.

Acentic staff members that were stranded in airports and hotels have told me their stories of outstanding service, especially in relation to turnaround times and “feeding the masses”. As for these hotel services, our quick thinking German operations are also part of the team. When this crisis broke, our NOC deployed additional overtime coverage to monitor the systems, especially our 40K rooms with High Speed Internet Access, which we knew would take a hammering these past weeks. I am exceptionally proud of my staff’s well-played part (while working quietly in the background 24/7) to produce a 99.3% digital services uptime!

Speaking of airports I was recently reading an article about world’s “best” airport (Votes were calculated before the whole air transport crash due to the volcano) http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=D18363_0_11_0_M, and it made me recall the hours I spent in each of them, using their unique facilities. Indeed Acentic has its systems installed in Hotels at all of the European hotels in the  top 10 of this list!

Understanding the customers’ needs in order to optimise products and services is what this industry is all about and what adds value to our business! Working with our hotel customers is certainly the best job in the world, keep it up team!

Travel safely.

In 1783, a volcano in Iceland erupted over an eight month period during the hottest summer on record. Because of an unusual weather pattern, southerly winds blew the cloud over the UK and mainland Europe -- sound familiar? During that episode, it killed 25% of the Icelandic population and more than 20,000 people in the UK. It caused fog so thick that boats couldn’t navigate and the sun was a blood red colour for months. Everything heated up causing thunderstorms with hailstones that were big enough to kill cattle. In France, the ensuing poverty and famine that the weather caused partly led to the triggering of the French Revolution in 1789!

So we can consider ourselves lucky, as we sit back, stranded in our hotels across Europe, because now we have time to catch up on that latest film showing on Acentic’s in-house movie system. I was considering a volcano kind of joke, but that would be insensitive.
We need to let the dust settle.

In the early 2000’s after and before our numerous economic cycles we “need to have” I attended a business luncheon where the guest speaker was, heaven forbid, an Australian by the name of Roger Campbell Corbett (note the Scottish influence). Being a guest of another organisation I approached the event rather nonchalant, after all they say Australians are a simpler version of the British. 

I relay to you my epiphany – this CEO of a consumer centric ca. USD$ 50 billion company talked about his up to 6 days a week in the retail stores with staff and even consumers together with the suppliers to the business; whilst his executive assistance faxed or emailed him the daily KPI’s that drove the business. I recall reflecting on how I would spend even more time in the field with customers, staff and suppliers.

With the current “Great Recession” that the bankers tell us we “had to have” I am making sure I spend even greater time with customers, staff and suppliers rather than sweating over micro P&L’s that is not to say that they are not critical however I am lucky as I have great people who know the KPI’s and deliver.

Happy shopping with your customers, staff and suppliers!

Want to read about a now global business icon (coincidentally in Forbes magazine) click here http://people.forbes.com/profile/roger-c-corbett/85296

It was one of those nights after a day on the road with partners and customers that we all have experienced. I had jetlag and a small hangover but finally made it back to the hotel. Despite all of that, I still had work to do and sat down to clear out my inbox and answer some emails. I connected my laptop to the Internet via the Ethernet cable provided for me on the desk and started working away with determination to catch up on all those emails. With jetlag creeping up on me, I switched on the TV to stay awake and leverage my multitasking abilities, even though my wife disagrees with that when I claim to have them at home.

And then it hit me, the only way to watch the TV from the desk was to wrench my neck at 90 degrees and risk permanent damage in order to catch a glimpse of the television. One must wonder what the architects were thinking and/or drinking when they made this design.

Next, I went to the bed to sit and see the TV more comfortably but at that point I fell victim to the limitations of being connected to the Internet with a cable. There was just no way I could pull the Ethernet cable all the way to the bed without ripping everything out. Thankfully all PCs today have integrated WiFi, which is fully secure, so I decided to connect to the hotel’s WiFi network. I was shocked and stunned when I realized that the hotel’s WiFi was provided by a different provider than the one that provided the wired technology and I would have to pay again to access the Internet via WiFi.

At Acentic, we strongly encourage hoteliers to take ownership of their technology and avoid scenarios like these which will certainly lead to disgruntled guests as well as lost revenue for the hotel. My suggestion is learn through experience. Hotelier’s who put a high premium on guest satisfaction, should try a little field work: go in and sleep in one their hotel rooms for one night and try out the technology to experience how a guest would experience it. A few small adjustments and my hotel room would have been a highly rated stay and I would have been able to fully enjoy this beautiful hotel and get my work done.