Gordon Hills Blog

Food is a very important part of our life. You can surely win anybody’s heart by offering great food. People are very particular about their food especially when they are traveling. In fact their selection of hotel (to stay) greatly depends on their eating habits. So if you want to attract more visitors to your hotel then offering good food is a good idea. In fact offering good food can get a guest or casual diner come to your hotel again.

The economic meltdown of last year or so has definitely affected every individual’s economy at the micro level. The hotel and travel industry is seeing the expected tough times predicted now in 2009. In order to sustain this slowdown the hotel and travel industry players need to gear up and come up with new innovative business ideas. Here are some of the findings based on experts study on food trends for hotels and restaurants expected for the year 2009 that can help you in business decisions.

• Straight from the farm to the Table cuisine is now-a-days getting very popular. A customer might ask, and would be delighted to know about where the food comes from, and can be a great selling point for wait staff when taking orders. If it’s structured properly can be used to up sell.
• With market ups and downs and changing inflation rates, changing menus is an ideal thing to do.
• Customization and personalization sometimes can make your customer feel special. Considering a slight change in the menu or taste, to suit your customer needs is worth it. Strong Return Guest programs could record like and dislikes of particular guests.
• 2009 will be a year of cost cuttings, savings and restoring the economic health. Consider things like half glass wine, happy hours, offering several snacks type foods that are a better option for customers as compared to a fixed priced complete dinner.
• In today’s fast paced life people are unable to stick to the traditional timings of breakfast, lunch or dinner. You should be ready to serve them food according to their needs anytime.
• Restaurants that are open late night are very convenient for business travelers. In fact business travelers choose hotels (to stay) that have late night restaurant services.
• Dining in different areas of the hotel other than the traditional restaurant, bar can add uniqueness and a lasting memory. Creating a rainforest effect in the ballroom for a couple of sittings or out in the garden is fast getting popular. So, offering this kind of services can give guests and visitors an exciting and fun filled experience.
• Complimentary restaurant services like serving breakfast or tea/coffee round the clock is an important thing for luring visitors. According to a study 72% of vacation travelers and 71% of business travelers check this kind of services before choosing hotels to stay.
• With globalization the world has come closer. People travel to different places of the world and enjoy different type of food. So, prepare to serve any all kinds of food i.e. Chinese, African, Japanese etc.
• Herbs in particular Tarragon was not much used till recent times, is gaining popularity among chefs these days, probably through programs from Gordon Ramsey! Leading chefs around the world are now recommending including this ingredient in their menus.
• More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of being eco-friendly. So, stop supplying those water bottles and offer sparkling filtered tap water. If it tastes nice then less will need to be thrown out at the end of service.

These are just a few things that you can concentrate on. Next newsletter I will expand on some of the other things happening in the Restaurants around the world.

Faye

So you want more business and you think that this Green stuff is a bit of a cook up? Guess again – Hotel guests are very savvy these days and with environmental groups getting more prominent by the day it seem the best thing a hotel can do is tell the guest what your green practices are. They’ll come back.
It’s a bit like the shopping story where the silent shopper never complains when they get bad service they just never come back.
Your guest does notice. Just Last month the author stayed in a hotel interstate where the showers were still operating at full flow, no regulators nothing and in another property on a different trip there was no less than 11 different globes of different colors , types ,energy usage and wattage in the one room.
Global warming looks like being a health hazard. Hotels in particular are required to put their best foot forward, however many stop short of a measurable approach and seem happy to just have a green tinge.
Listed below are some easy things your property may not have tried.

A great way to address your indirect emissions is to address your material suppliers. It could be good policy to ask your suppliers if they have programs in place to “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle products. Using this type of approach can give a hotel significant cost savings.

Restaurants could use the organic produce to also minimize the hotels carbon footprint.
The Purchasing department might find that there are providers who use less packaging on or for their goods.

Guest room, bathroom amenities can be of the biodegradable type to minimize the impact of wastes entering the environment through the rubbish dumps. It’s a simple question and selection process with your suppliers.

More direct actions for hotels are things like having the Guestroom drapes closed to help retain the heat or cool air regardless of the room being occupied or not. Sure it’s up to the guest to do what they want when they occupy the room – rest of the time belongs to the hotel. Advertising has told us the heating and cooling costs lost through the windows is significant.

For those hotels that have variable thermostats in every guestroom, it would be a beneficial in terms of energy used if Housekeeping were to adjust the dial to a predetermined standard setting after they have finished servicing the room. Instead of having one room running on 20 degrees Celsius and the next at 23 degrees Celsius
Imagine the energy wasted everyday when thermostats are all over the place; it’s like a silent killer.

Do you have computers running 24 hours day because they’ve not been turned off in places like sales and marketing, housekeeping, finance, or admin departments?

It’s very noticeable the accommodation industry has not taken onboard advances made in lamps and lighting technology. Just Lookup in any reception area at the widespread use of incandescent lamps. With LED lamps 5 times more efficient than halogen or incandescent globes it pure common sense to change. Environmentally friendly LED is Mercury free unlike the fluorescent globes, guess that’s the reason hotels are hanging off changing over.
Lifetime on LED is significantly longer than any of the others out there meaning less replacement and maintenance costs. LEDs do not emit harmful infrared or ultraviolet radiation.
Think they are not bright enough – think again, check them out.
Until next time

Faye

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a long time coming but we are very pleased to announce that Gordon Hill Sales has now got a website that’s easy to use and is jam packed with great new products and extra brands.

We have decided to add a Blog which will keep you all up to date with the latest industry information, anything that’s good about going green, technology, and even inside tips to help protect you against some of the twists and cons that go on in the industry. All good information that will help you become aware so you can do good safe business.

The new website has an extra 37 hospitality product brands added to the inventory, all designed to help you have better options when sourcing goods.

So if it’s a light globe, Maytag washer, microphone or even a floor scrubber you’re looking for, now it’s all in one place.

You may note we’re still adding product to the site on a daily basis this will continue until the site is fully operational.

Signing up for an account will make your quote or proposal process quick and easy.

Coming soon you will also receive our new printed catalog which has a comprehensive range of goods you can look up in an instant.

For our long distance customers we’ll mail the catalog to you so you can get your hands on it quickly – and we’ll give you a personal phone call in the coming weeks. For our Sydney customers the catalog will be hand delivered so we can catch-up and say hello. It’s been a while.

Finally, each month there will be “Specials” you can access. We are coming across a lot of run out stock from manufacturers at the moment, so you’ll need to act fast because most have very limited stock.

It will be our mission to bring to you a great range of specials which will be more comprehensive and exceed the traditional “cheap Iron or Kettle” offerings.

The specials offering cannot be accessed by anybody on the internet so you must be a Gordon Hill Sales Customer to receive the offers.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.

Faye

Looking at chemicals used around hotels and in particular the housekeeping departments, gives us all an opportunity that’s quicker cleaner, safer and easy.

Did you know there were 81000 chemicals registered with the EPA in the last 30 years? Reports tell us that fewer than 20% have been tested for toxicity.
That’s a bit scary considering the everyday use of these products.

Going “Green” in the cleaning of hotel guest rooms probably conjures up using well know products like baking soda, white vinegar and salt !

Hardly practical when it comes to cleaning hundreds of rooms everyday.
Health and safety issues in chemicals used for cleaning by hotel staff are pretty well known.
Cost of a sick leave provision for staff is a real issue for management.
Improper use of chemicals and anything that goes down the drain costs money to the hotel and the environment.

So what product has technology bought to us in the last 15 years that is used extensively in hospitals and can resolve all of the issues mentioned earlier?
I won’t give you the answer just yet but I do have some hard facts for you to consider from a 5 star hotel in Sydney that has completed a comprehensive trial to prove the true worth of not using chemicals.
They had a 3% higher rating from guest comment cards that room cleanliness was better.
This was backed up by a bacterial swab count which came out lower the chemical cleaned surfaces. Infra red light tests for dirt buildup showed negative.
And reports, that to the naked eye, glazed and metal surfaces such as sinks and kettles as an example looked to have an enhanced appearance.
“They looked cleaner” Great that’s what keeps the guests happy!!

The trial by the hotel did include costing in terms of products and labour, training and was completed in March 07.
Feedback from the housekeeping staff was very good with comments like:
“The method used was less physically strenuous”
“Feel good about less chemical usage and its helping the environment”
“Far less water used”

Chemical costs were reduced by 80% Water usage was down by a million litres.
OK so what are we talking about? Microfiber of course.
Used in hospitals since the 1990s – it’s a water based cleaning solution invented and developed in Sweden in the 1990s.

Just how high tech is Microfiber cloth- well when these guys say the fibre is thinner than human hair, that’s only part of the story.
Actually one square centimeter of Microfiber contains over 30 kilometers of fibre.
But that’s not all round surface threads on a traditional cloth are not really designed to pickup dirt particles.
Microfiber secret is the fibres are wedge shaped and that makes the millions of fibres much more effective in trapping the dirt particles.
Hence the reason no chemicals are required.
The cloth is simply washed out with water at the end of the day for re-use the next day.

A great genuine Green product made for hospitality.

Faye