One of the most convenient ways to book a hotel room online is through travel booking sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. Although these websites provide a fairly quick and easy way to make a reservation and there are many sites to choose from, you might experience more of...

Apologies are due firstly for the delay in posting for a while, there really is no excuse except laziness and lack of motivation – but I am back now and tackling something that a lot of companies fail to recognise. The job market in the UK is not great currently, but there are some...

I have worked for many years in Hospitality, and have been a contributory member of society for most of my life, but sometimes things happen that make you wonder if you as a person actually matter. For several years my partner has battled depression, anxiety and a wide range of mental health...

I have had a lot of queries in my past about what a hotel legally can and cannot do, and what is legal or not (including guests screaming at me quoting scripture and verse of bar-room lawyerism).  So I thought I would write a few bits that are important for any hotel manager to know –...

Many of you will be in a position to understand the ‘difficult’ customer and just how draining they can be; but does such a thing as the ‘Difficult Customer’ actually exist or is this just a Customer Service Myth? I recently had cause to think about this in a fair...

For anyone that knows me, I am a hospitality passionate geek who loves gadgets and fun new toys – particularly those that have an application within the hotel environment.  Having a usual muse around a variety of blogs today, I found a little post about the Google Glass on...

2013 brings a hopefully prosperous new year for all hoteliers, but also inevitably means yet further growth of TripAdvisor; but is this behemoth of online reviews actually doing hoteliers any favours – does it even care about them? As almost any hotelier who uses TripAdvisor will tell...

Those of you who have done a hospitality degree of some kind, will know what this theory is; but does it really exist and can you stop this from occurring anyway? The theory of the service recovery paradox goes something like this: The guest who does not have a service failure, is less likely...

I have written many an article that slanders overbooking and how detrimental this can be to a hotel’s reputation.  But there are some positives to it too…  Let’s bear in mind that an entire airline industry pretty much owes its multi-million pound booming successes to...

People I have worked with, and some revenue and business models I have seen, rely on (for want of a better phrase) ‘packing people in’ – generally fill the hotel as much as possible (sometimes overfill it) and then we will look brilliant…. But in many cases, you can...

So you put your heart and soul in to giving someone a nice stay, and then three days later their review comes in on TripAdvisor as one out of five, and a long list of complaints – what do you do? It is expected for every hotel to get negative feedback from time to time, and to be fair,...

Those of you familiar with TripAdvisor will be fully aware of the ability for hotels to write management responses to reviews, and just how those responses can be misinterpreted, or just downright rude and sarcastic. Take for example this review and response from the hotelier (titled Unclean...

Well, here we are…. back in the UK after visiting the amazing sunny shores of Bali and everything the island has to offer.  Believe me, if you have never been there, put it on your list of places to visit in your lifetime as it is an unrelentingly fantastic assault on the senses! It was...

There is one point with every hotel booking where you only get that one, singular, solitary defining moment that sets the pace for the entire stay at your hotel – the welcome.  But you would be surprised how many places actually get this wrong when there is so much more that you can do...

Today, I walked in to the Halifax branch I normally used, went to the counter to deposit cash, and was informed that my account did not allow cash deposits at the counter – I had to use the self-service machine.  I further enquired about what services I can use at the counter, to be...

I saw an interesting article earlier today on BigHospitality which reported that visitor numbers were down during the Olympics 2012 – the Office of National Statistics reported that there were 5% less international visitors than the same time last year, with International Visitors...

How do readers, am getting a few posts in to keep you all entertained whilst I am away…wonder if i can find an ‘auto publish’ feature one this blog? …. anyhow, this post is about my favouritist subject – Overbooking! Now, someone said a while ago, in relation to...

Hi again all; well it is 2 weeks today that I head off on my Bali adventure, jetting off around the world and hopefully experiencing some of the best service that hospitality industries have to offer – or then again it could be that the service is atrocious; but who really cares when...

Something was mentioned today that made me wonder, and took me on an interesting thought process – does the placebo effect apply to hotels?   Most people may be familiar with the placebo effect, but for those that are not:   The placebo effect is the psychological term used to...

So, last night we had the first episode if Hotel GB on Channel 4 (in the UK).  I am a member of many forums and sites and have spent today reading quite a few posts and views and reports and blogs about the program, so just before episode 2 goes on air, let me respond to a few of these:...

There are many things you can do when attempting to recover service and the practice of simply refunding a guest is commonplace; the situation gets instantly rectified, the guest has instant gratification and all is fine…or is it? There are many different things that can be done to...

Every hotel has to pinch every penny and save as much as possible, but how is this affecting the actual core of your business?  How many pen-pushers have sliced a few zero’s off a budget without caring for the actual people it affects or the overall impact it has on service? There are...

So, in my last post I talked about overbooking, and in a few previous rants I have touched on the difference between operations and revenue teams in hotels. I have decided to consolidate my arguments for this in to one single post to hopefully get a clear contrast between the two put in to...

What better way to jumpstart momentum at your hotel than to enjoy a cup of coffee and great conversation with your current guests? They are your best resources for discovering local businesses, special events and other key contacts that can actually generate a lot of new business for you. I...

Overbooking is a fact of life in hotels, and whether you love or hate it there is a very important question that in 18 years of hospitality, I have never had asked of me nor ever asked of anyone else I work with… What is the impact of overbooking on you? Now, I have spent far too many...

Today I get to introduce you to the first new contributor to the Chocolate Pillow site – Rebekah J Fishel. Rebekah is a hospitality success story, and a passionate individual with a true understanding of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the industry. She took some time out to speak...

I have had cause recently to contact several companies over a variety of things, and the responses I received nearly rendered me speechless.  This was not because they had provided an exceptional response, but because they had broken some of the fundamental rules of enquiry handling. Whilst I...

Most people who eat out a lot, or eat at the same restaurant a lot, or even who just let the restaurant know that one of the guests has a birthday have probably been given at one time or another a glass of champagne ‘on the house’ at the beginning of the meal....

So last time, I talked about special offers and how, when managed poorly, they can have a severely detrimental impact on your business, staff and guests; this time I want to talk some more on the subject of revenue management and how management of the daily rate can have a negative impact on...

Okay, so there will be no studies to back me up, and there will no doubt be people who disagree and those who agree with what I have to say on this subject… Let me begin by stating very clearly that I am not a revenue specialist, and I have not spent years as a revenue manager or similar, but...

One thing that no-one admits to you when you go into the hotel trade is that people die, and they may well die on your shift or in your premises. And when this does happen, no-one ever tells you what to do, shock generally takes over and there tends to be a bit of an eclectic commotion whilst...

On a recent edition of the Hotel Inspector (UK – channel 5), hospitality businesswoman and member of the Charles Forte hotel dynasty Alex Polizzi, quite blatantly advised a hotelier to start charging for extras and stop giving them away for free. Now you may be thinking about things...

There is no shortage of articles about management, and definitely no shortage of advice on how to be the ‘perfect’ manager; I do not proclaim to be the perfect manager, nor am I the strongest manager out there. I have my flaws, shy away from some confrontation and sometimes even...

Hello again all, So I have covered Groupon before, but there is an even bigger monster that almost every hotelier or restaurateur in the world has had lurk over their shoulder at some point or another; the beast known as TripAdvisor. I previously looked at how Groupon has changed the way...

So, my last post about changes in consumer behaviour due to sites such as Groupon provoked a fair amount of debate, and indeed in that post I dared to infer the hotel is to blame if a deal does not work. Hotels agreed with me, people working for these daily deal sites agreed with me; people...

I will no doubt not be the first to bring this up, nor will I be the last, but I think it is high time my opinion was added to the others that have gone before and will go after me. I know the title of this post mentions Groupon specifically, but this actually applies to all ‘daily deal...

Okay, so this is not on a par with previous posts and is more of a personal rant (if you wish to classify it as a rant?), but is something that I think needs to be discussed, at least to some extent. I am a member of several social networking sites, both for business and for personal use....

It is an age of austerity and hoteliers will be the first to admit that times are hard. Competition has changed within the industry; where once people looked for the best quality experience and best value for money, consumerism and the appearance of daily deal sites has resulted in the...

Okay, so last week I talked about when to complain, and who to complain to. This week I want to talk about how to actually phrase your complaint face to face, and how to ensure you receive the best results for yourself. I know that when complaining it is really difficult to stay calm if you...

So, it has been a while, but I am back after 2 weeks in Tunisia and then another 2 weeks catching up on my workload! When we went on holiday, and when we returned, there were several issues that caused us to complain to the tour operator and the hotel. Now, having worked in the industry and...

Hello again all! It has been a busy few weeks for me recently, so the entries for the blog have been a bit delayed… Saying that, it has actually been possible for me to write them, I have just been a bit lazy! The busy thing is just an excuse and I intend on sticking to it! Last time I...

Welcome once again to my weekly blog, I hope you enjoyed last weeks entry! This week I want to talk about complaint handling, and offer a few little pieces of advice that may help you out when dealing with complaints (or even whilst complaining!). Now I recently had cause to complain to a...

I was at work several weeks ago when someone drew my attention to a tiny detail that had made a guest fall in love with our hotel and decide to go on to tell all her friends and family about us on every possible format from twitter to tripadvisor and beyond…   All we did was ask...

How to be a Hotel Receptionist...: and other handy stuff for working with peopleMatt Shiells-Jones; Matt Shiells-Jones 2012WorldCat•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder  This book is designed for anyone who works front of house in a hotel, from porters to managers and...

Welcome to the new look Chocolate Pillow site.  We have stripped back and streamlined the entire site to make it easier for users to access content.   To do this we moved on to the highly popular WordPress framework and have implemented a few small features to help everyone: Membership...