This entry was posted on 11/30/2008 7:42 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
After my weekend pit stop at home for a fun Halloween weekend, November wasted no time in putting me back on the road, which given the current economy I have to say I was especially thankful to have another busy month for our team at KTN. Sunday afternoon found me flying Frontier non-stop to Denver, followed by a 2 hour drive to my next client, which was Beaver Run Resort located in Breckinridge, CO. Normally I try to avoid Sunday departures, but in this case I wanted to be home on Tuesday evening, as it was Election Day. (I’d already voted absentee but wanted to watch the results at home with Cathy.) Plus I still had to get to New York City before the week was out.
I’d only met my new contact Andrea Lawrence over the telephone, and although I’ve been to ski resorts throughout Colorado so many times, I’d never been to Breckinridge so I really didn’t know what to expect as I exited I-70 West and headed 10 miles south on an empty but well paved state road watching for deer and elk. What a great first impression it made as I drove into the quiet laceType w:st="on">villagelaceType> of laceName w:st="on">BreckenridgelaceName> itself of a Sunday evening, with the newly strung holiday lights already twinkling along the charming Victorian storefronts on Main Street and tourism areas.
As I found out the next day, I was one of only 7 guests in the entire resort of about 400 rooms due to being shoulder season and Election Day. Yet despite that there wasn’t much going on I was happy to find the bar and restaurant staff open and ready to engage in some genuine conversation while I enjoyed a great meal and well deserved beer watching what was left of Sunday Night Football.
Next morning it was time to conduct a full-day reservations workshop for Andrea’s reservations team of about 6 agents and some guests from other departments. Monday AM start-times for workshops can sometimes be a little tricky, especially when so many of the staff are brand new and sometimes don’t have as much input or questions. Thankfully though that wasn’t the case here, as my participants kept me fully engaged throughout a fun-filled day. You can tell by my picture with their group below that they had a sense of humor! Here’s also a picture of me with Andrea Lawrence, Reservations Manager.
Early Tues AM I was up way before the sun for my drive back to Denver and non-stop flight home. Thankfully for me there wasn’t any rain, snow, or high winds, as after living so long in flat Florida I’ve bit of a nervous driver on the downside of those “14er’s” headed back to Denver. Landing home at 1:30pm I was able to make school pick-up and after mulling through the usual hours of grade school homework enjoy a wonderful afternoon and evening with the kids before sending them back to mom’s. This left just enough of a window to watch the election results with Cathy. Since I had another early AM flight on Wednesday, I was glad when several of the networks called the race at 10pm ET and relieved I wouldn’t be up all night like the past two Presidential elections.
Again rising before dawn, my car seemed to drive itself back to the airport, this time for a non-stop flight to New York. The engagement was to train the reservations team of the historic Carlton Hotel, which is managed by our latest KTN hotel management company client – Gemstone Hotels & Resorts.
This was an especially fun booking for a couple of reasons. For one, I got to meet their team of bright, savvy agents, including staff from Gemstone’s White Face Lodge in Lake Placid, who had driven down for my training I also got to meet Jennifer Mahl their Director of Revenue, who’s enthusiasm and energy I appreciated during such a long week of travel. Not to mention that I’m always impressed when a top-notch quality Director of Revenue carves out time to participate fully with their team for the entire workshop experience. An extra treat was bumping into an old client and friend Bonnie Frain. I’d known Bonnie when she was the Director of Reservations for Manhattan East Suite Hotels (now Affinia), where I’d trained her call center staff in 1991 and for several years after done follow-up training and mystery shopping. So what a treat it was to run into Bonnie again at her new stop with Gemstone’s Carlton. Here’s a picture of me with the reservations team that day; Bonnie is on my left and Jennifer Mahl is to my right.
Thankfully I live in near a great airport with lots of non-stop flights, so not long past dinner time I was walking back in the door and ready for a couple of office days bookending a weekend at home during which we were to celebrate my wife Cathy’s 45th birthday with the kids who made special cards. Adam wanted to take Cathy to one of her favorite restaurants, a local Greek spot called Taverna Opa, where people dance on tables every night. Here they are doing Adam’s “Robot” dance:
Soon the road was calling again as it would for a while longer before this month was out. Monday found me back on another non-stop airplane ride, this time to Norfolk, VA, to visit Siebert Realty Vacation Rentals. This was a long-awaited booking that had been discussed for a couple of years now, when Jean Siebert the owner called me up personally to invite me to be a guest speaker at their annual all employee meeting sometime and the dates finally worked out this year. Although I worked out the details with their General Manager, Patrick Keenan, who was also great to work with and meet, I especially enjoyed meeting Jean because she is understand the words “hospitality” and “customer service” like few I can think of on a short list that includes my own mom Barbara Kennedy who once ran Kennedy Craft Shop with basically the same principles.
Upon entering the Siebert Realty Vacation Rentals office I could tell right away that it was a great place for both guests and associates, and I later found out that each architectural detail of their office layout had been meticulously worked over by Jean and Patrick. I was then escorted to dinner by Jean, Patrick and some of their top managers and their spouses to what had to have been one of the best restaurants in the area as we had a wonderful meal. Afterwards I checked into one of the most comfortable and well-designed, vacation rental homes on a long list I’ve stayed in over the years, finding a heated indoor pool, outdoor pool, Jacuzzi, and a kitchen big enough for 60+ people!
This was evidenced the next day as their annual company-wide meeting was to be held in my expansive living room and kitchen/dining room the next morning. After a great night’s sleep in what was basically my own little apartment on the first level, I took the shortest commute ever upstairs to be the guest speaker for the first day of their two-day meeting.
What a fun and engaging group they were to work with! It’s always great to get people from different departments/divisions together and this day included everyone, including the real estate sales division and of course all of the housekeeping and maintenance team. Speaking of, during the program I had noticed how their maintenance team was participating as much as any other group that day. Later I received a very nice e-mail from a gentleman name Clint from Maintenance talking about how relevant he found the segment on hospitality excellence, and also offering up some great suggestions that inspired me to write about hospitality for the maintenance team in a future article.
I truly had a great day of training on this day, and after taking time to catch up on e-mail and unwind back “home” on the first floor, I joined in on their holiday dinner which was being held on the floor above. Although the event was catered-in and there was plenty of help, I couldn’t help but notice how it was Jean Siebert herself that was the last one serving and then helping the caterer tidy-up until the end. As yet another sign of how she understands hospitality, she presented me with two beautiful and highly personalized gifts which include a notepad cover and wallet that I now carry everywhere as a reminder of my time with them. Here’s a picture of me with the group that day, followed by one of Jean presenting me with her gifts at the conclusion:
After a great day at Sandbridge Key the road was calling all too early, and by 6am it was wheels-up from Norfolk to Chicago, again non-stop thanks to Southwest this time. By 11am I was arriving at my next stop, which was to train the reservations team at another Gemstone property – Hotel Sax Chicago. I knew the hotel was located directly next to the House of Blues in Chicago, and upon arrival I placed it as the old House of Blues Hotel, but this time reincarnated to a whole new level as a hotel that is hard to describe in its uniqueness.
It certainly has some of the hip, edgy, ambience of South Beach Miami, along with the professionalism of the top boutique hotel brands in major markets, but all in a unique way. Besides the ambience, it’s also their outlets and amenities such as a bowling alley night club complete with DJ and dancing and unique lobby lounge/nightclub, their other amenities set them apart. I was especially impressed with the entertainment lounge they’ve created where guests can interact over RockBand, Guitar Hero, or any other Wii game with other guests, and also their welcome amenity which is a Microsoft ZUNE player pre-loaded with music of your designated genre or artist requests.
What a fun day of training we had that day, and I especially enjoyed our property tour during which I got to see all of the amenities I’d missed in my all too brief visit, but at least I know where to stay when I come back to Chicago for fun some day. Here’s a picture of me with my group that day:
Once again the road always seems to bring me back home at the right time, as I was able to give a special presentation to her class that week about the importance of the U.S. Constitution in our lives today. Even more fortunately, I was able to be there for my Julia’s seventh straight A-honor roll awards ceremony. Here's a picture of me after presenting to Julia's calls, and also one of her receiving her honor roll award; also pictured are Mrs. Wagner, her incredibly dedicated and passionate teacher and Julia's mom Lisa Kennedy (far right.)
With all the travel so far this month, and more month still yet to come, I felt lucky that my next client was a call center located just 30 minutes from home. Although it was a local booking, the client company was very exciting as I was to train the new staff at the new call centralized call center they have just opened to market all of their many wonderful resorts in Barbados. Although this is a well established company, it was almost like the excitement of the grand opening as it was a new office, a new team, and a new reservations system.
The training was on a Monday and just that weekend the group had returned from an extensive FAM trip to tour the resorts they’d be selling, so there was plenty of enthusiasm in the air. It was also great to see my buddy Dan Snepp, who has been a client at so many stops over the years at Wyndham, Sandals/Beaches, and who had now was doing work as a consultant to help set-up this office and had recommended me. It was also great to be able to have Colleen Tuttle from our KTN team there since it was local, and her enthusiastic new approaches always are insightful. We’re glad to have this client locally so that we can stay in touch for many years to come and look forward to doing a planned follow-up training for them in a few months. Here’s a picture of me with my group that day; Colleen is on the far left on the first row:
For my final trip of the month leaving home was kind of like coming home, as I left Hollywood to head back home to Lexington, KY where I grew up and my family still lives. As readers of this blog know, my dad George has been in the long term care there for about a year now, after going in for some outpatient surgery one day. Given his circumstances, he’s doing incredibly well and made several amazing comebacks this year and this fall to give all us Kennedy’s the best Christmas wish ever simply by being there once again. He continues to inspire us with his incredible optimism and will to live. My sister Kathy fixed a complete Thanksgiving meal and we took-over the dining room for the afternoon to celebrate together. Here’s a picture of us that day my sister Kathy is on the far left.
