Peachtree Hospitality Management

What did your illustrious  career prior to joining  Peachtree Hospitality  Management look like? 

I was in my third year of college,  majoring in elementary school, when  the thought first struck me that maybe  it was the wrong career direction for  me. I tried my hands at various odd  and miscellaneous jobs, and one fine  day I happened to be housekeeping at  a local full-service hotel. I fell in love  with the industry as a whole that very  day and knew this was what I wanted  to do. I went back to college eventually  and got my degree in hospitality. 

I worked through Indiana, Illinois,  the Midwest, and Texas in various  operations and sales roles for many  years before I worked my way up to the front desk, then front  office manager, and assistant general manager. After almost two  and a half years, I moved to White Lodging Services, where I was  part of the operations and sales department. While I was there,  I worked in cluster sales in both Indiana and Illinois, and later  joined JW Marriot as a housekeeping manager at the same time.  At a later stage, TMI Hospitality, which was later taken over by  Abridge Hospitality, hired me, and I had a fruitful career there  for over eight years. I joined Peachtree as the vice president of  operations last year in July. 

As the vice president of Peachtree Hospitality  Management, what roles and responsibilities  do you have to cater to on a daily basis? 

One of the things I love about hospitality is that every day is  different. As the vice president of operations, I oversee our  regional operations. My main responsibility is to ensure that  the culture of our company is driven on a property level and to  make sure that the hotels are performing well from three major  perspectives: ownership, guest, and  associate. 

My professional responsibilities  also require me to travel about three  weeks a month, visiting hotels, and the  fourth week is spent on administrative  duties. 

How has the hospitality  sector evolved over the  years, and what are the  recent trends that can be  witnessed in the space  currently? 

The major changes that the hospitality  sector has witnessed are in labor and  staffing models. In the post-pandemic  era, getting people to even show up  for an interview is a tedious task for  most managers. They have to be a lot more creative in hunting  down talents and encouraging them to apply, as no one walks in  and drops off their resumes anymore. 

“We are extremely responsive and quick with it. We make sure that there is a human touch involved in  our communications and avoid generic, automated messages at all costs”

The second biggest challenge in the industry is that  everything is going digital. It is in fact a global issue that most  of everything is focused on devices and that human-to-human  contact is missing. But in hospitality, communication is a key  factor. With rapid digitalization, we have to adapt new and  creative ways to interact with guests to make a great impression  on them. 

The invasion of technology has changed things  drastically. For better or for worse, the world  has gone digital. How does the hospitality  industry strike a balance between adapting  to new trends and maintaining a personalized  touch? 

There are a few things that we do at Peachtree to strike  that perfect balance when it comes to adapting to trendsand maintaining a personalized touch. We ensure that we  communicate with our guests through a messaging application.  We are extremely responsive and quick with it. We make sure  that there is a human touch involved in our communications  and avoid generic, automated messages at all costs. We read  through our guests’ requirements, respond, and even follow up  with any additional requirements they might have. 

So much of our bookings are done on third-party websites,  and from an ownership perspective, we do want them diverted  to the brand websites, but those third-party websites are vital  to our success. We audit these sites from time to time to ensure  all the information on them are accurate to avoid any confusion  that may occur. We are also quick in responding to any reviews  that go online over those websites, as we believe in addressing  genuine concerns that our clients come to us with, and we  provide very specific responses to each one of them. 

Most of our guests’ interactions are limited to the front  desk, especially the food and beverage department, and those  interactions are very important for us, so we give special focus  to these areas. 

Where do you envision the future of the  hospitality sector in the near future? 

As time passes and technology advances, there will be minimal  interactions between the employees at the hotel and the  guests. There are many innovations that have already replaced  human beings, such as robotic window cleaners, floor vacuums,  and even robot butlers.  Most of our guests’ interactions are limited to the front  desk, especially the food and beverage department, and  those interactions are very important for us, and we give  special focus to these areas. We intend to continue focusing  on the interactions between our guests and our food and  beverage employees while being very diligent about our  online presence. 

Do you have any words of advice for your peers  in the hospitality sector? 

As organizations in the hospitality industry, we need to ensure  that each of our clients is happy and is taken care of in the  best possible manner, be it in terms of providing hygienic and  well-maintained hotel rooms or an interaction with a team  member.