News & Media | BON Hotels Blog

Horses for Courses

As much as people do business with like-minded people, businesses do business with like-minded businesses. There certainly needs to be some sort of a match.

August 22, 2017

Ahhh, the luxury…

I remember the days when we hoteliers had the luxury of daydreaming of ways to delight our guests, conjuring up new ideas, even improving things that seemed to be working.

June 21, 2017

The perfect match

As much as people ‘do business’ with like-minded people, businesses ‘do business’ with like-minded businesses. There certainly needs to be some sort of a match.

April 18, 2017

Comfy in the middle

While this might sound fallacious, it is actually founded in truth. Travelling abroad will make any South African hotel guest realise that our ‘3-star’ market boxes way above its weight.

March 16, 2017

The worst hotel in the world

My recent blog on the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at got me thinking of the contrary. What is the WORST hotel I have ever stayed at?

February 22, 2017

The way you make me feel

At a recent hotel industry function, I was asked which was THE best hotel I have ever stayed at. This has been a common question over the years and one that has an easy answer.

January 30, 2017

The Rise of the Old School General Manager

There’s been something fundamental missing in this last decade of hotel management: the unflashy, workaholic general managers, those who started their careers waiting tables, scrubbing kitchen counters and floors, climbing the ladder, slowly learning ALL of the necessary skills to eventually become THE General Manager.

January 2, 2017

Hats

There’s a terrible misconception by hotel management companies that hotel owners are interfering, ill-informed nuisances who should leave hotel management companies to do what they do

November 9, 2016

Disserving the service industry

As the large hotel groups also focussed on training industry ‘wannabees’, I would estimate that collectively our industry trained and placed 180 hotel school graduates annually.

August 31, 2016

Third party politics – owning the client

I often come across hotel owners who insist that their hotel is performing well and as such, they see no need for a marketing strategy or a dedicated sales effort.

July 25, 2016

Let the son shine

We occasionally need a life-changing event to remind us to be grateful. In tough circumstances, we so easily get caught up in the darkness that we cannot see the wood for the trees.

July 7, 2016

Leading horses to water

Start-up. Sounds like an exciting journey, doesn’t it? I have to say, exciting is true in every way, but the realities of a start-up can be challenging in many regards as well, not the least of which is staff turnover.

June 13, 2016

The value of trade shows

We’ve just seen the back-end of the trade show season in the hospitality industry. Current conversation concerns the present value of participating in industry trade shows

May 26, 2016

How many people does it take to change a light bulb?

Case in point: I was hosted at a four-star luxury 80 room, full-service hotel in Paris. The hotel had only nine permanent staff. I kid you not!

April 4, 2016

Keep your foot in the door

Most of us have worked in a sales department at some point in our career. I certainly have. In fact, a substantial part of my role at BON Hotels requires sales skills.

March 9, 2016

Colouring in between the lines

My jaw dropped when I recently heard that the Department of Home Affairs announced quite audaciously that inbound tourism numbers climbed between 4 and 7% during the last quarter of 2015.

February 24, 2016

Seeing STARS

I am learning that to successfully build any business, it is best to nurture your own people, instil your own systems and develop your own culture.

February 2, 2016

Started from the bottom, no we are here: Lessons from 2015

Naturally, this time of the year forces one to reflect on the past twelve months. In doing so, I cannot remember ever having a tougher year than this one.

January 7, 2016

Long distance relationships

ternational hotel management companies have had their fair share of the South African hotel management contract pie for more than a decade.

November 30, 2015

Africa – the land of opportunity

My recent travels to Zambia and Namibia have confirmed; our long-term strategic plan of focusing on the larger Africa is a good one.

October 28, 2015