I love having time for reading, and I am currently enjoying these three:

100 Tips for Hoteliers: What Every Successful Hotel Professional Needs to Know and Do by Peter Venison

This book has a lot of concrete tips and it is an easy, enjoyable read. There is some really good stuff there! For instance, he writes about the importance of empowering your staff. In hotels, some of the lower ranked staff members, like reception clerks, have the most client contacts, and these need to be empowered to make decisions and act independently. It is much better if a situation is handled right away instead of having to call in a manager to decide what to do. This saves time and makes the guest feel important. Venison stresses that we have to allow for mistakes, because we all make mistakes, and if staff are afraid to be reprimanded they will never take the chance of making empowered decisions.

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer

I am loving this one – so much of what he says resonates with me and his approach to hospitality is inline with my own. Service has to be genuine and heartfelt, not based on rote memorization. He also makes interesting distinctions between service and hospitality. Danny Meyer is my new idol!

Polo by Jilly Cooper

This is what reviewers would call “a fun romp”, even though I never really knew what that means. In any case, it is a super fun read and I don’t want to finish it!! It is far from the world of polo that I know, but still cool.