My agenda for December picked up where November had left off, with me finishing  up the training for  Cove Haven Resorts in the Poconos of PA on December 1st.  In making my travel plans, logic would have said to fly straight on to the next client; but since my Julia was receiving her first honor roll in middle school it was an easy decision to fly home, even if only for one night.  I checked her brother Adam out of class early so he and I could watch together as Julia continued her record of straight all A Honor Rolls throughout Grade School.  Here's a picture of her receiving her award:

                                                     

Right after the ceremony I was headed back to the airport for a short flight to Jacksonville, FL to conduct another round of training for one of our annual training clients - Vacation Rental Pro.  Steve Milo, who runs the company,  had started using our program at the beginning of the year and we are very proud of the progress his team has made in making 2009 a great year.  Of course our training was only part of the story, as Steve is very up on the latest in online marketing for the vacation rental industry.  Steve also brought in a very talented manager named Kyung Bishop, who has taken the organization to the next level of efficiency and productivity.  It was especially rewarding to receive several positive comments from the workshop participants themselves regarding how helpful the training program has been.  Here's a picture of me with the group that day, including Kyung  Bishop, Sales Manager, who is to my immediate right:

                                              

Thanks to Southwest, I was home that night which was good because I still had lots of preparations to make for the weekend, as it was Julia's 12th birthday and time for her third-annual sleepover.  Thanks to Cathy my wife, who was still back at the farm hunting deer with her family, I was able to get an employee rate at the Doral Marriott Resort nearby in Miami, which was the last hotel I worked at in the 1980's before starting my current career as a hotel  trainer.  As has become tradition for the last 3 years, Julia, my son, and three former neighbor children, all  go to a local resort for a sleepover.   Cathy also  got us an upgrade to a very large one-bedroom suite.  The kids loved exploring the fancy retail shops and they also liked visiting the lobby that evening,  as there were several formal holiday parties being held and the girls loved looking at the ladies fancy dresses.   But what the girls liked best was to use the sample of the hand lotion provided at the front  desk, which was a custom product from the famous Doral  spa.  Here's a picture of the kids that night.  My children Adam and Julia are on the right:

                                                    

After dropping the kids home to their mom's house it was time to hit the road again for  another visit to Myrtle Beach to  work with the managers and reservations sales staff of Myrtle Beach Resorts/Brittain Management.  Having spent so much time on the road alone the past few weeks it was good to have Colleen Tuttle, our Managing Director of Training, along for this engagement, not to mention that I was getting a break as she was doing most of the training!  This engagement was also another celebration with another of our clients who have worked so hard to make 2009 a great year in terms of revenue, despite the economy.   Colleen and I both enjoyed seeing the managers, supervisors, and frontline associates we've gotten to know this past year.  It was also great to see my client friend, Ned Williams, Director of Hotel Operations, who is pictured  here with Colleen and I on the last day of the training:

                                          

After the training Colleen headed back  to Ft.  Lauderdale and I was off in a rental car for a 2 hour drive to Oak Island, NC, where I would be conducting both hospitality and guest services training for the next day and a half for Dick Davis and his team at Oak Island Accommodations.  It was my first visit to Oak Island, and so I enjoyed the drive despite being a bit stressed about running late due to the location of the meeting being at one of the homes, which was a much further drive than the office where I was expecting it to be.  This was the first time in a long time where I had to walk right out of  the rental car and start the workshop.  But the wonderful  group of participants there made it so easy for me.  It ended up that the training was in a three story, 8 bedroom home at the end  of the island, facing a large stretch of  sand out into the  Atlantic.  The training was held in the super sized living room, with the participants seated in couches or sitting comfortably on pillows.  Not only Dick have his entire staff from Oak Island attending, but it turned out that Jodi and Joe Refosco, two of the  owners of Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations, had driven down from western Maryland with several of their key employees.  Here's a picture of me with their team;  Jodi is to my immediate left and Joe is in behind her in the green shirt:

                                             

That evening they had a wonderful little reception at the home of , to which Dick Davis drove me to personally.  He then took me out to dinner with the Taylor-Made Deep Creek crew.  Although I have met Dick at the various VRMA conferences over the years and he has also been a client of my former company, this was a great chance to get to know him even better and now I can see why he is so highly respected in the vacation rental industry.  I somehow ended up not getting a picture with him, but here's a picture of me with most of his team that attended the training: 

                                        
After getting home late Thursday night, it really only left the weekend. But still it was nice to be home in Florida for the weekend before heading out once again Sunday afternoon, this time to fly to Norfolk and then drive down to the Kitty Hawk area in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Thankfully once again the travel gods were smiling on me, as in checking the weather forecast it had been raining all day in Norfolk, but the hourly forecast online said the rain would taper off at exactly at the time I was landing!  Sure enough, it was clear skies for the drive to pick-up my key and check-in to my little townhouse they had reserved for me right close by. 

The next day it was very exciting to be kicking-off an annual plan for reservations sales and hospitality training workshops and webinars for Sun Realty.  For so many years now they have always been such a huge supporter of every public-venue workshop I've conducted wither through the Vacation Rental Manager's Association, the Outer Banks Board of Realty, or even those  we've run on our own at KTN, but this  was the first time in all those years where I was going to lead a workshop just for their company.   Based on the commitment of their leadership team to a new vision, and my own experiences training the reservations and welcome center staff that day, I am certain they are  going  to have a fantastic 2010 on all levels. Best of all, it will also be a lot of fun!  Here's a picture of me with their group that day:

                                      

Here's a picture of me with their leadership team (from left):  Ali Breaux, President, Christina Martin, Reservations Manager, and Janice Farr, Senior Vice President of Operations.  


                                        

After finishing up Tuesday morning with a short training workshop for the leaders and managers at Sun Realty it was time to head on to my next (and last) training engagement for 2009, which was to conduct training for Doug Brindley and his team at Brindley Beach Vacations.  Despite that I had only met Doug a few times at the various VRMA conferences, I knew of his legendary status in the vacation rental management business.  Now that I have met and worked with his team I know why he has such a great reputation.  I was there to conduct company-wide hospitality and guest service excellence training for this staff, including all levels of management and all departments; we even had the pool and spa maintenance associates!  This made for a very dynamic and interesting day, especially since Doug employs some of the most hospitality-focused people I've met.  Due to the scheduling being tight I wasn't able to get a picture of me with my groups that day, but a few of the participants were able to stay at the end me to grab this picture below, followed by a picture of Doug Brindley with Kelly Hanig:

                                                      

                                                      

Being a two hour drive back to Norfolk, I ended up staying over for my last night on the road just enjoying the beautiful luxury vacation home they had put me in, watching the fireplace, and ordering those last minute Christmas gifts for Cathy and the kids online.  Thankfully it had been a great Fall season of travel which came safely to an end when I arrived back home mid-day on Thursday, December 17.  I enjoyed the rest of the month and into the New Year either at home with the family or at our Hollywood office with my KTN family.