After returning from my long trip to Brazil, it was good to have the rest of February off the road, especially as I looked ahead to my extensive travel schedule for March.  My travels for the month began on the very first day of March when my alarm went off at 3:45am for my day-trip to Raleigh, NC, where I was to be a keynote speaker for the North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association’s annual conference.  I normally would have flown up the night before for such an engagement, but since my presentation wasn’t until 3:20pm I decided to save the association some lodging costs and to fly in and out of Raleigh on the same day. Although I usually check the weather channel before my trips, especially this time of year, it was a late night with Cathy and the kids and I never go around to doing so. Sometimes ignorance is bliss though, as had I checked I would have found about the major snow and ice storm converging on Raleigh!

About 5:20am while seated comfortably in my Delta flight to Atlanta, where I would connect on to Raleigh, I decided to take a quick peek at my Blackberry before dozing off for the flight.  That’s when I saw the message about my return flight that same evening being rescheduled for the same time – tomorrow evening!  Since I had no clothes nor toiletries, I knew this just wouldn’t work.  With the boarding door closing, I had just enough time to find learn out about the approach storming on the mobile-phone Internet.  Of all my travel essentials, my “estimated driving time” map has perhaps proven to be the most invaluable, and it certainly was that day as I immediately began thinking of alternate airports.

When we landed in Atlanta and I headed straight for the terminal monitors only to find that all three of the remaining flights to Raleigh were canceled!  Thanks to my well-worn driving distance map, I knew Greensboro was only 70 minutes away; seeing a flight departing for there in 30 minutes I bypassed the usual re-ticketing desk and instead grabbed one of the last seats.  Upon arrival I headed straight to Delta counter to see about my return flight, which was now postponed 24 hours.  Spiderman has his Spidey Senses, but Doug Kennedy as his travel angels which delivered me to a very nice Delta Airlines agent who was patient enough to check every possible option, including other airlines.  I couldn’t believe it when she came up with an AA non-stop back to Miami – close enough for a cab ride home – which was rare from a smaller airport like Raleigh.  (When I later heard how many passengers were stranded in Atlanta, Charlotte and elsewhere in the ice storm that night I felt even more fortunate to have made it home.)

With the travel stress now behind me, I headed over to the Marriott Raleigh Convention CenterlaceType> for the NC Restaurant & Lodging Association’s annual conference I was feeling much better now.  This conference was a special event, as it for was the first since the Restaurant and Lodging associations had merged.  Despite the late time slot on a Sunday afternoon, I was very happy to see that the room was mostly full for my session on Cooking UP New Sales.  This presentation turned out to be well-named for the occasion. Normally, it is a model where we use cooking and fine dinging analogies in exploring sales fundamentals.  Since this audience included several catering salespersons from restaurants, the theme worked especially well this time! (A picture of me with my main contact at NCRLA, Alyssa Barkley, can be seen above.) 

After making it home in time for a decent night’s sleep, I enjoyed an entire week in the office working with my team of KTN superstars which seems to be bonding more and more these days.  Knowing that I was about to head out on the road for three work weeks, Colleen suggested that I was time for KTN to have one of those off-premise team-bonding events.  But it was me that suggested the place which happens to be my wife’s favorite spot especially on weekend afternoons where you can always hear live Latin influenced bands and performers.  This time it was just me and the team, as Cathy was still at work.  Here’s a picture of our team that day from left to right:  Kathleen (Kat), Karla, and Colleen.

                                               
Monday morning I headed off early for my next stop, which was to work once again with one an old client and friend Ned Williams, who had about a year ago joined Brittain Hotel Management as their VP of Operations for their 9 resorts and also golf club operations.  I had known Ned from when he had the same title with Flagstone Hotels, which was at one time a major client of my first company; although we’d spoken by phone we hadn’t seen one another in person for several years. Since this was to be four straight days of on-site training for the on-site reservations teams, I had planned to head up early for an introductory meeting with his GM’s and corporate team.

Unlike my Raleigh trip, I did check the weather in advance and it was a beautiful day to fly.  The travel gods must have been laughing on this day, as it turned out that both of my flights experienced mechanical delays of a few hours each.  By the time I arrived it was too late to meet with the GM’s, but we were able to reschedule it during my visit.

It was very exciting to work with the room reservations and golf reservations sales agents from their nine resorts. I had a chance to also meet some very bright, talented and up-and-coming managers from Ned’s properties.  As of this writing, Ned and his team at Brittain management has ratcheted-up their level of focus and commitment to our training and mystery shopping, so I’m looking forward to two additional rounds of training in May and June.  Here’s a picture of me with the four groups from my full-day workshops.
                                                 

                                                

                                               

                                              

                                                

Here’s a picture of me with my client and good friend Ned Williams, V.P. of Operations right before I headed out to the airport:


                                              

It was good to be home for the weekend with Cathy and the kids, especiallu since it was St. Patrick’s Day and we got to take them to the annual parade in Downtown Hollywood, FL on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon.

As I headed back out on Monday morning I was excited to be FINALLY working with a hotel company which I’ve pursued as a client for many years, which is Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.  Actually Rosewood had been a client of my first company and I remember well mailing them packages of cassette tapes with mystery shopping for Caneel Bay and Little Dix Resorts.  I also had many of their reservations managers attend our various public-venue training workshops over the years, but until now I had never had the chance to conduct private training for them.

This was an extra special engagement as I was also extra special, as I would have the opportunity to reconnect with another former client and friend, Lauri Graves, who is now the Director of Reservations and Channel Management for Rosewood. I had known Lauri when she was one of the Regional Directors of Revenue for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the late 1990’s and early Millennial years.  Here’s a picture of me with Lauri the week of the training:

                                                                       

It was also exciting to be a guest of a Rosewood property for the first time ever, and to have my first experience there be at one of their flagship properties The Mansion at Turtle Creek.  During my visit I learned that the Mansion is actually built over a real mansion, and the architectural style such that the hotel blended in with the quiet residential area to the point where you couldn’t really tell it was a hotel at a glance. The service was also very authentic and genuine, the true mark of a grand hotel, since they are mostly all good at service efficiency.  Although I didn’t get to stay at the Hotel Crescent Court, we did take a tour as part of our KTN training.  This hotel on the other hand was connected directly to of the most prestigious office and retail shopping complexes in the Dallas area.  Here’s a picture of the Hotel Crescent Court with the complex in the foreground:
                    
                                                           

Over the next two days I conducted training for the agents at the Rosewood  Hotels & Resorts reservations office in Dallas.  What an interesting and  well-traveled team they have there.  Most of the agents had been to most of the North American and Carribean properties and really knew their product.  Here's a picture of me with my groups each day:

                                             

                     
                                            

After finishing up my second day of training I was excited to be headed to DFW airport and thankful that one of the participants even dropped me off personally right at the terminal.  It's always great to return home but this time I was returning to my original home in Lexington, KY.  Although I have resided in Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale for 23 years now and thus lived here longer, Lexington KY will always be my "true" home.  I was able to once again see my father George, who continues to amaze us all with his courage and will to live on despite his health challenges.  Best of all, I was able to be there for my Sister Kathy's birthday, which was the first time in decades since I was able to share this with her.  Here's a picture of my sister Kathy Bolton with my Brother-In-Law Don Bolton at dinner that night.  (I think the waitress sent out the wrong candles though!) 

                                                                 
After my visit to Lexington I headed home for the weekend and had just enough time to do some chores, unpack and then repack before heading out again on Monday.  My next trip was to work with a new KTN client which is also new to the hotel industry, a company called Customer Direct in Chesterfield, MO.  This client had identified us as a resource from reading some of my recent hotel training articles.  Although they were an established third party voice reservations call center of over 200 agents, they had so far focused on other industries such as retail fulfillment and customer service for cable companies, although they had worked with hotels to provide WiFi tech support call servicing.  Although they had just taken on reservations for their first hotel client and had gone live only two weeks prior to my arrival, they seemed to already have the basics down very well and their call conversion numbers had already increased from the previous supplier to prove it.  We had a very interesting couple of days of training and it was clearly evident they had done an excellent job in the recruitment and selection process.  Here’s a picture of me with my groups that day:

                                                           

                                              

Besides meeting their staff, it was especially wonderful getting to know their President, Rob Nolan, and also their VP of Sales, Charlie Noonan.  I knew we were off to a great start when they took me to dinner at a sports bar and were happy when I wanted to eat at the bar.  (It was after all still March Madness!)

After arriving back home late Wednesday night it was time for some real travel fun for a change!  Since the kids had four day weekend this year,  right after breakfast we loaded up the car and drove up to Orlando to stay at The Peabody Hotel once again and to visit Disney World with one of our best family-friends.  Here's our kids' picture with their friends right after the Peabody Duck march in the lobby: