On The Road to New York City, Annapolis, Washington State, and Oregon
Having been home for Christmas and New Years and enjoying some downtime with Cathy and the kids I felt restored and ready for what was certain to be a busy month of travel, especially considering the month of January can be a time of very long delays. But as the month rolled out, I felt very grateful to have had about the best weather ever for each leg of my January journeys.
First up was an easy trip to New York on non-stop Delta flights, which made it seem like a bus ride. I had not been to the Delta terminal at Laguardia in some time now and was pleasantly surprised to find it completely renovated and very pleasant. Great airport food.
I soon in a cab and on the way to the Park South Hotel, where I was to conduct a reservations sales training program for the team at Park South and its sister hotel, The Strand. It was wonderful to be back in The City again, and although it had been in the mid-teens the day prior this day was sunny and bright. I even snapped a camera pick of The Chrysler Building, which is the view right outside the front door.
Soon after arrival I was meeting with my long time friend and client Dan Snepp, who is VP of Revenue/Distribution for Atlantic Stars Hotels, the parent company that owns and operates these two wonderful NY properties. I liked staying at The Park South as it felt like a quiet neighborhood area, yet that evening for dinner it was only a short walk over to see The Strand, which is their contemporary new hotel. I snapped a great picture of the Empire State Building which was right there to send back home to my son, who was quite impressed for a 12 year old. Soon Dan and I were enjoying one of the most memorable dining experiences I can recall on the road right there at The Strand's own restaurant, The Strand American Bistro.
The next day I conducted two workshops for the front desk, sales and reservations staff. It was really fun to spend the day with their staff of the two hotels. I was once again impressed with the longevity of their staff, as many of them had worked for the company for over 5 or even ten years. It was also a very professional group with tons of experience, yet everyone participated actively and made my job easy. Here's a picture of me with the two groups that day:
After a weekend at home the road was calling once again, but this time I was especially eager as this was to be the week we launched a company-wide program for the Oxford Hotel Group. I had met Kim Baney, their Vice President, several years ago at a conference and we had kept in touch periodically. Then two years ago I was asked to do a full-day train-the-trainer program for their Manager's Conference near the home office in Bend, OR. At that time I had met Susie Rossi, their Corporate Director of Revenue Management, who had just started the very day of my presentation.
Having reconnected last Fall it was exciting to hear of the goals they had set and achieved to take their revenue and distribution management processes to the next level. Now it was time for them to focus on optimizing revenue at the front desk.
Thankfully once again the weather cooperated perfect and my travel angels must have been doing their job, as this engagement was to involve significant travel to reach all 17 of the OHG locations. I started the week training at their Oxford Inn and Oxford Suites properties in Silverdale, WA located just south of Seattle.
Upon arrival in my room I got my first sign that I was going to be well taken care of during my entire stay, as there was a personalized note from the General Manager along with a dish of small ultra-tasty cream puffs and a bowl of melted chocolate for dipping. So much for my New Years resolution at that point. That night the home office team including Susie and Troy took the GM and I out to dinner and I was very happy to find that everyone was a sports fan, as it was the night of the National Championship. During the evening I must have made the mention that wherever I go, especially in the Pacific Northwest, I always enjoy sampling local micro brewery beers. From that point on the word got out and for every Oxford property I have checked in to I was greeted with a note that there were local brews awaiting in the mini-fridge.
Thankfully with the time change the game ended early and I got plenty of sleep since the next day was the kick-off of the first of 14 days of training for the Oxford Hotel Group. Thankfully the frontline associates of the Silverdale properties made it easy as they were very interactive and not at all intimidated with the number of managers sitting in to see the first program. Here is a picture of me with my groups that day:
After training, it was time for a road trip but thankfully Troy their Regional Director of Operations was doing the driving and I even had time to do Skype video calls with the kids from the car. I also got to talk with my wife Cathy to get the update on some bad news we had that day; our little kitty, who is named Little Kitty, had disappeared early that morning having snuck out through a tear in a screen over one of our garage vents. Although we live on a quiet street we are not far from busy suburban roads and could not help but think the worst as she has always been an indoor cat.
The next day I did the training at the Oxord Hotel in Yakima, WA and again another great group. The morning class, like many on this engagement, included two night auditors who had just worked all night. Yet they were very cooperative and participated throughout. Here's my picture with the groups that day:
To get to the next and last stop for the week, which was to train the two Oxford Suites properties in the Spokane, WA, would have required either another long drive. Instead Kim Baney had arranged for their corporate pilot to fly me out of the private airport in Yakima, along with the rest of the home office team. Here's a slightly re-touched picture of the plane:
My third and final day of training also turned out to be a great day, as I had to enthusiastic groups once again. I was quickly learning that this was a hotel company that delivered on its promises as the frontline staff was once again top notch. Here's my picture with the groups that day.
In case you didn't notice, there were a lot of Denver Broncos fans that day who had to do a picture in tribute to their star quarterback:
After three cities in three days it was great to have some down-time in my super comfortable room at the Oxford Suites right in the heart of downtown Spokane. The next day my flights home were uneventful, and best of all I was greeted at the airport by my wife Cathy and son. He was so far taking the news about Little Kitty being missing pretty well but was clearly holding out hope. As for myself, I still believed that Saturday would be the day that maybe a working person finally had a day off to take her to a vet to scan for her pet chip. But the day passed with no calls. Adam persisted to believe and put up even more missing cat posters throughout the neighborhood. But the day came and went and no Little Kitty was to be found. Yet the very next morning, right when Adam came into the room to wake me up, we heard a familiar meowing in the garage. Little Kitty had returned through the very hole she had snuck out of. The kids were thrilled as were we.
Next up was to be an easy day of travel to train at the Oxford Suites in Pismo Beach, CA. I had even planned ahead with an early flight and was seeing myself jogging on the beach there in the Big Sur area of California, having a Noon arrival time. Yet when I checked my cell phone in the morning there was a message that my outbound flight had been delayed by 90 minutes. There was still hope for that jog, as my new arrival time was to be around 2:30pm. Then at the airport all of us passengers who were waiting received a cell phone notification at the same time that the flight was pushed back another 4 hours! My new arrival time was to be 10pm! I took it well and was happy that I would at least make it to do the training. Perhaps this optimism helped in some way, as when I landed in Phoenix I noticed another flight about to depart to an alternative airport. Although it was about 90 minutes in a rental car, I still arrived by 8:30pm and managed to get a full night's rest. For the next two days I had a really fun time training the teams at the Oxford Suites in Pismo Beach and then in Lancaster, CA. Here are pictures of me with my groups those days:
Now as much as my flight delay had been an inconvenience, when I started watching the weather I felt very fortunate as the cities in Washington State the week prior were this week getting slammed with a really bad storm; for the Seattle area, one of the worst in over 50 years! Yet the weather in this part of California was in the 70's during the day.
Next up on my schedule was a nearby engagement, as OHG had planned around my previous commitment to be a guest speaker at the GM/Management conference for the Viceroy Hotel Group. It was only a relatively short drive of 2 hours and in the still-early evening I was arriving to the Viceroy Hotel in Palm Springs, CA. I was immediately welcomed by a valet/bellman right at the curb and from then on I stepped into the restive luxury of this chic urban resort environment. It had been a long day so I had some excellent dinner from room service and then after a power walk in the cool but not cold desert air I drifted off to a good night's sleep.
The next day I got to sit-in as the leaders of Viceroy Hotels announced their newest plans for growth and acquisition of properties and new projects. It was great to meet all of the on-site contacts that we have been working with for the last few months as their mystery shopping program has been expanded, as well as the corporate offices leaders. The food was amazing and that alone was worth a blog entry. The only bad part is that I forgot to even take pictures of that part of my January travels.
After my short afternoon presentation I returned to my room and was thankful to have the afternoon to catch up on my correspondence and office work. The wake up call came very early and soon I was flying home again for the weekend.
Next up was my last long trip of the month, this time to train the OHG properties in Jantzen/Gladestone, Hermiston, Pendelton, and finally to Boise. Training by day and traveling by night is never easy, but I have to say the OHG executives once again made it super easy by making all my flight arrangements on regional air carriers or by flying me around themselves. To talk in detail about all of the great people I met, fabulous meals I had, and also the kind notes, amenities, and everywhere I went a fridge full of micro brewed beer would result in my longest blog entry ever. So I will just a a big "Thank You" to everyone involved. Here are pictures of me with the groups that week:
Below is a picture from the training in Janzen for the Janzen/Gladstone properties:
Here is the team at the Oxford Suites in Hermiston:
Here I am with the groups from the Oxford Suites in Pendelton:
Here I am with the groups on the last day of training at the Oxford Suites in Boise, ID
On Friday night I was glad to once again have a second night in the same hotel room, and it was easy to fall asleep early and get ready for my flight home. Again this whole week the weather had been nearly perfect for traveling, and I was very thankful that the planes were all on time as waiting at the airport was Cathy and both kids this time. We had a full weekend at home and the next week even started with an office day, my first in over three weeks. I was happy to see familiar faces at work and felt especially blessed that they run on auto-pilot when I am not around.
It felt great to look back at a successful month, but since Monday was still January I had one more trip left on the agenda. Tuesday morning I was back at the airport but this time for a short non-stop to National Airport, and a short drive to the Annapolis Marriott where I was to kick-off the first in a series of training programs for the properties owned and/or managed by the Thayer Hotel Group. Again the weather was perfect and it almost felt like Spring as I made the short drive to and then through the beautiful historic town of Annapolis, to the Marriott right on the waterfront. There I was greeted by the General Manager Colleen and also the corporate office contact Sarah and Amal their Guest Services Manager. We had a wonderful lunch at their in-house restaurant Pusser's Caribbean Grill. At lunch I go the news that it was easier for them to have the entire staff attend my first workshop which was to start that evening at 5pm, so I was going to be able to sleep late the next morning. The hours flew by and soon enough we were starting the workshop on the subject of upselling at registration. There were many corporate office staff and managers, in fact more than the frontline associates in attendance. This could have been intimidating for some participants but not this group, which included some really fun personalities and people. The corporate level staff and managers turned out to be really fun participants too and the time flew by. Here is a picture of me with the group that night:
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