Welcome to the start of this new decade! Now that you’ve had your fill of turkey feasts and midnight champagne toasts, it’s time for you to set some goals for the coming year but also to look ahead at what the ‘Roaring 20s’ will bring.

As is too often the case with hotel operations, we get some bogged down in the daily hubbub of hospitality that we lose sight of what the grand vision for a property is while also failing to set aside time for the projects that will make this vision a reality.

While the topic of rearranging your schedule to reserve more time for special, long-term projects would need many more words to properly illustrate, for the here and now we can look at five basic tenets that will underscore many other trends for the decade ahead. Obviously, the years to come will prove me right, wrong or somewhere in between, but these are nevertheless a great starting list for your consideration.

1. Vow to be good to our planet. Chances are you’ve already moved to LED lighting, taken steps to improve your HVAC efficiency and offer guests the opportunity to reduce their laundry utilization. Now move on to the smaller items. Eliminate single-use plastic water bottles, plastic straws, stir sticks and bathroom amenities. These are quite often easy-to-execute changes and subtly express to guests your property’s commitment to our environment. Concerns for the environment will increasingly become not just a hot topic but a key customer purchasing factor over the next several years, and if you find yourself lagging on the trends then you may also find yourself lagging on occupancy.
2. Remember your housekeepers. Perhaps the most important members of your core operations, housekeepers are backbone to all guest service delivery because guests now expect only flawlessness when it comes to room cleanliness. Moreover, the coming decade will likely see 24-hour room readiness shift from a value-add to an outright expectation. Too often we tend to overlook room attendants’ vital contribution. Yet, there are subtle changes that you can undertake that show that you care and to thus improve operational efficiency. Start with a simple, personalized thank you. Understand their primary language requirements and translate printed materials. Look to automated systems that will empower their decision making and enhance performance. Add wellness programs that work to boost the overall quality of life for this backbreaking line of work. Let’s make 2020 the ‘Year of the Housekeeper’ in your property.
3. Watch food costs more closely. Take a trip to your local supermarket. Worldwide climate change is causing erratic crop yields which, combined with increased shipping costs and any new age carbon taxes, is leading to substantial increases in vegetable, fruit, meat and fish costs. While you are typically making purchases through wholesalers, your kitchen is not immune to these escalations. As a start, maintain your quality but clamp down on waste. Challenge your culinary team to fine tune your menus to reduce inventories and keep a lid on ingredient costs. Next, know that the addition of rarified animal products on the menu is not the only way going forward to impress customers. The future is plant-based (and insect-based!), not only because it’s better for the environment but also because it’s significantly cheaper.
4. Learn and embrace new technologies for both FOH and BOH. In the past, you’ve been hesitant to go to the bigtime hotel technology tradeshows like HITEC (this year’s show is in San Antonio), delegating this responsibility to your IT staff. While they should definitely continue to be involved in the exploration process, personally commit to get off your proverbial ‘duff’ and see what is new in tech. The reason being is that any new implementation needs vision to see how it will better connect and enhance a variety of different operations, with IT oftentimes not privy to how these departments may potentially benefit. Importantly, see what can drive your property to new levels of efficiency. Only someone at the rooms division manager, general manager, owner, or regional director level can properly see how all these disparate parts can become more cohesive entities through the use of integrative technology.
5. Eliminate taking credit cards via email. Credit card forms are so 1990s! Sorry, but data breaches are not going away, and may even be on the rise. Many cost-effective technologies are already available that allow you to securely process payments over the internet in a secure, PCI-compliant manner, with some even able to directly post these entries into your general ledger. Bad practices are one thing; bad practices that can bring down your property are another. Driven by the odious nature of the modern news cycle, data securities may soon make a property or an entire hotel brand anathema to guests for all time, so why take the risk? Eliminating unencrypted contact with credit card information is but one step you must take as part of the larger trend of continually upgrading your data security apparatus.

That’s just my list and I’m sure that you have more you can add. The key is not in the listing, though, but the execution. Wishing you the best for 2020 and lots of hard work ahead!