All posts by Alexander Kellermann

Leadership

The Only Way To Succeed

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The most important thing that I have ever learned in my career is that it is all about having the right attitude and giving your best every day and at every turn – nothing can replace that.

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Frankly you can be the most talented, skilled and knowledgeable professional, but if you are not willing to leave your sweat, blood and tears on the floor for it, you will not succeed… and even if you are the hardest working person in the industry, you might still not succeed. The secret ingredient to success is, to not only work hard but also to believe that anything is possible and to make everyone else around you believe that as well. Continue reading The Only Way To Succeed →

Leadership

My Amazing Thailand

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I moved to Bangkok together with my wife at the beginning of this year and fell in love with the land of smiles immediately. Thailand is a beautiful country, and Bangkok is a great city, but it’s really the Thai people who make all the difference and make Thailand so popular for tourism.

I love Bangkok… except maybe the heat and the traffic. No kidding! The traffic can be so bad that when you’re in a hurry it’s probably better to walk than to take a car. Taxi and Tuk Tuk drivers have a reputation of always trying to negotiate a couple of dollars more from foreigners than they would normally charge a local.

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And here, my story that deepens my love and respect to Thailand and its people. Continue reading My Amazing Thailand →

How To, Leadership

Do You Have The Right Attitude For Success?

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While I was responsible for smaller teams before my first real management position was as Assistant Housekeeping Manager in New York. I didn’t know much about management, let alone leadership at this point. I was very good at what I was doing and knew exactly how things had to get done the right way, but I didn’t know yet how to lead people or how to create a successful culture.

The unionized environment in New York is an environment of entitlement, and many discussions evolve around who is right, who is wrong, whose job it is, whose fault it is, and of course most importantly who is to blame. As a manager you’ll find yourself involved into these discussions of whose job it is and whose fault it is a lot, if you like it or not you’ll get sucked right into it.

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Continue reading Do You Have The Right Attitude For Success? →

Leadership

What Working With The Union Taught Me About Leadership

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I have been working in New York City in a heavily unionized environment for over six years, and while I always appreciated how much I learned because of it along the way, having transferred to Asia recently, I only understand now how much I really got out of this experience.

When conducting orientation days for new-hires in New York, I was always talking about the challenges that come with working in a five stars & five diamonds property in New York. The high expectations towards service excellence and product quality from your guests, the financial expectations from your management company or ownership, the stressful dynamics that we love so much about New York, and the limitations of working in unionized settings. I used to quote Frank Sinatra in saying ‘if you can make it as a manager at a hotel in New York, you probably can make it anywhere’… and I really meant it. I have worked with so many talented and skilled managers that did not make it New York, lost their passion and enthusiasm, and eventually gave up – they either didn’t try to change anything anymore and tried their best to hold on to the status quo, or resigned their assignment and left without a success story.

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Continue reading What Working With The Union Taught Me About Leadership →

Leadership

Build A Team of A Players!

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Steve Jobs stated in ‘The Lost Interview’ that to be truly successful and accomplish something great together you need to build a team of A players and should not settle for B or C players.

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This is true for any industry, but especially for hospitality. Receiving average service from an associate who is not passionate and doesn’t seem to care, and experiencing service from someone who sincerely cares about you and about providing excellent service, makes all the difference for you, and how successful the hotel can be. Continue reading Build A Team of A Players! →

Guest Services

W Hotels And The Modern Butler Service

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WhateverWhenever is not only a department of W Hotels that handles guest requests amongst many other tasks, it is also a mindset and service philosophy. Whatever you want, whenever you want it (just as long as it’s legal and moral).

Isn’t that pretty much what a butler is doing? Does a butler need to wear a tuxedo, white gloves, and a bow tie, or is it a mindset, a service attitude that butlers service stands for? Continue reading W Hotels And The Modern Butler Service →

Hotel Review

The Yard – A Hidden Gem In Bangkok’s Vibrant Ari

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You know that I usually don’t post reviews about hotels. It would seem like an obvious thing to do for a hotelier and blogger to post about hotels, right?

Not because I don’t want to or never thought about it, just because I work for Starwood and with that mostly stay at Starwood properties when travelling for business or when going on vacation. Since it obviously wouldn’t be smart for me to provide constructive feedback about a Starwood property online (and I guess it wouldn’t help my career development either), and writing only positively and saying that absolutely everything is perfect would be somewhat unrealistic and not exactly boost my credibility, I decided not to post at all… until now!

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My wife asked me if we could stay at The Yard, a hostel that one of her friends recently opened, and while I am spoiled with mostly staying at luxury properties, I had to go with ‘happy wife, happy life’ on this one.

I previously explained my take on luxury, how it changed over the past years, and that it’s not about marble  floors, crystal chandeliers and sumptuous flower bouquets anymore, that it’s about an experience and the feeling of genuine service.

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View from our hostel room

So my wife and I arrived at The Yard, and immediately fell in love with the vintage design, heart warming welcome of the owners and the boutique concept. The wooden furniture in the guest rooms matches the design of a boutique hotel and the mattress is extremely comfortable. The bathrooms are across the corridor and are very clean and well-maintained. I have only been to a hostel a few times before, many years ago as a teenager, and this was a very different experience than what I remember – almost a luxury boutique hostel, I would say. The Yard features a bar, a small business center, kitchen area, library and entertainment room.

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Business center facilities and free wifi everywhere

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I love the vintage design

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The library  on the 2nd floor overviewing the yard

At night you can sit or lay down in the yard and enjoy the company of other travellers or the owners themselves.

My favorite part is waking up in the morning to the sounds of birds, it feels like an oasis within Bangkok.

I like to compare Ari, a neighbourhood of Bangkok that The Yard is located in, to the Williamsburg of Brooklyn, and you can find a lot of hip and cool places as well as delicious street food (I recommend that you check out the Fat Bird for dinner while in Ari)

If you are ready to try something different for your next trip to Bangkok or are just looking for a nice getaway to Ari for the weekend at a very reasonable price, The Yard is a must try for you – I know that I definitely come back again to switch off and relax for the hectic city life. No drawbacks whatsoever as long as you manage your expectations that you are staying at a hostel and not at a 5 star luxury propety.

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Development, Leadership

Don’t Let Great Ideas Die

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I have now worked in five different hotels over the past decade and all of them had one thing in common. People would tell me about all the great things that they used to do or all the great ideas that they have had in the past, but that just disappeared or never even happened.

Why is that? We know that a lot of people have great ideas all the time, know what’s wrong and what needs improvement, so why is it that only few succeed?

1111_idea_400x280 Continue reading Don’t Let Great Ideas Die →

Development, Leadership

Fake It Until You Become It

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We have all heard how important body language is and that only a small percentage of communication involves actual words. Only 7% of communication, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice). So we understand that it’s probably a good idea to focus on our body language and how we are being perceived by others. Are you standing straight with an open and powerful posture or are you trying to make yourself smaller? All this has an effect of how well we are being perceived by others.

We have also learned that sometimes we have to fake until we make it. When we are going for a job interview or we are starting a new job and it’s our first day, chances are that we are a little bit out of our comfort zone (if not it probably means that we are jumping from job to job too often). Looking at our body language and focusing on high power postures rather than lower power postures can make a big difference.

We know that how we feel does influence our body language, and Amy Cuddy is proving that the exact opposite works as well. Our body language (even if only faked) does influence our mind and how we feel about ourselves.

Take a moment to watch Amy’s speech ‘Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are’ on TED and learn her inspiring story (in my opinion one of the best TED talks).

Continue reading Fake It Until You Become It →

How To, Leadership

What To Do First When Starting A New Job

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I recently started an assignment at a new property and wanted to share my experiences with you. I know it seems pretty obvious what should be the first thing to do when starting a new job, so why do I even talk about it.

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I read plenty of articles about what’s important and what to focus on, and while most of them will list five to ten points of what’s important to keep in mind, they all highlight that you need to focus on people. Think about every time a new employee started at your company, and about the ones that did well? What did they do differently? Did they focus on getting their office desk organized, studying the financials and company’s guidelines? No, they did well, because they started with walking around trying to make a connection with the team.

Well, things might be overwhelming at the beginning with everything being new and it’s very well possible that you could lose focus of what matters most. It doesn’t matter how smart and talented you are, how much experience you have and how well you did at your previous job, if you are new, you will have to start from scratch again and you will not go very far if you don’t focus on your people first.

The beautiful thing about hospitality is that it’s all about people, if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your guests, and guess what, your business and the bottom line will then just take care of itself… it’s that simple.

So we have established that you should first focus on getting to know everyone and build relationships, but is it really that simple? No, certainly not, because in most cases mountains of work, and new assignments with pressing deadlines are already waiting for you… and that’s how your performance is being measured on, right?

You need to focus on your people first, otherwise you will not be effective, and all the work that is waiting for you, will not get done at all. Try to focus on your big rocks and what matters most first, and keep in mind that you are a leader, and if you have no one following you, you’re really missing the point of it.

Best of luck on your first days!

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Guest Relations, Guest Services, How To

How To Have The Best Hotel Experience

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You are probably wondering why you should have to do anything to receive the best service, shouldn’t it be up to the hotel to provide you with the best experience without you having to ask for it. You are the one who paid for it, right?  Trip-Advisor-Logo

Yes, of course you are right, and you should receive the service that you paid for, and I hope that most hotels would get it right. But why even taking a chance. Why not making sure that they will pay this extra little bit of attention and do their very best that you’ll have a memorable experience. Continue reading How To Have The Best Hotel Experience →

Leadership

If You Want To Grow, You Need To Be Accountable

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I have read many leadership books and blogs on accountability, and most talk about the importance of holding yourself accountable to the highest standards and accepting responsibility for your actions. It is important that you are not trying to find excuses when things go wrong or that you are trying to shift the blame to other. On the contrary when things go wrong, try first to understand what you could have done differently to change the outcome – and trust me it is very liberating to start accepting responsibility!

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Continue reading If You Want To Grow, You Need To Be Accountable →

Leadership

A Must Read Guide To Leadership

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I always used to believe that if one person can learn to do something, anyone should be able to learn it provided the proper training and guidance. I used to believe that anyone can evolve from being a micro-manager to becoming a great leader.

I now believe that while you can learn certain leadership techniques and skills and evolve to become average at leading other people, you’ll never be able to make a true difference and change things. Continue reading A Must Read Guide To Leadership →

Development, Leadership

Rule #1 Don’t Get Comfortable!

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Everything is difficult before it gets easy, and what was once out of your comfort zone now belongs to your daily routine. So our goal should be to become most comfortable at our job, correct?

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In contrary our goal should be to always look for opportunities and challenges that push us out of our comfort zone and help us grow further. If we never step out of our comfort zone and make mistakes, we never learn new things and our career stagnates.

Don’t be happy if you know all the answers and know how everything works, don’t be happy if you are the smartest person in the room, and look for ways to continue to challenge yourself.

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Leadership

Leaders Vs. Managers? What Are You?

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Everyone is talking about leadership, and how we need to evolve from managers to leaders, but only few really get the difference! It’s a beautiful word and the thought of leading people is very appealing, but how can you make the step from managing to leading? And how can you get people wanting to follow you?

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Continue reading Leaders Vs. Managers? What Are You? →

Development, Leadership

The Only Thing Standing Between You And Your Goals Is…

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The only thing standing between you and your goals is more than what the Wolf of Wall Street is trying to tell us.

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It’s not just being afraid to follow your goals for one reason or another, it’s having a clear understanding of what your goals really are to begin with.

‘What are my goals’, is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself at the beginning of your journey and your career in hospitality!

I am recruiting graduates from hotel management schools for the position of housekeeping floor manager now for years, and my experience is that many, if not most, do not have clearly defined goals and are rushed to get promoted as fast as possible, and definitely faster than their peers from school. Continue reading The Only Thing Standing Between You And Your Goals Is… →

Development, Leadership

Do You Have The Right Attitude To Succeed?

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You come to work on Monday morning after a rejuvenating weekend with your loved one, and get confronted by a coworker with a negative attitude within the first ten minutes… you kept working endless hours over the weekend to complete the project in time for the upcoming presentation and put in endless efforts, but your peers missed the deadline and your presentation got cancelled… you always try to do your best and work hard, and the person next to you is sleeping on the wheel, yet there is no sign of accountability… other people in your organization have ulterior motives and employ unethical techniques to advance themselves…

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

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Don’t get yourself in the victim role and develop a negative mindset, but rather continue to focus on yourself and on doing the right thing. I am not saying that you shouldn’t hold people accountable to their behavior, actions and performance (without it your business cannot succeed), but you cannot make it personal either, get emotional about it, or let it change anything of who you are and what you believe in. If you believe in Karma and that one’s actions always have consequences, even if you yourself are not able to address it or do anything about it, you can trust that no one gets away with cutting corners or unethical behavior. Focus on being at your best every day and on growing the people around you the best you can, and you will always have a feeling of accomplishment by the end of the day.

I have come across a lot of smart people with the skill set to be very successful in their role, and who yet fail to work as a team, fail to get the best out of their teams and coworkers, and fail to deliver the expected results because of their attitude.

If you believe that 10% in life is what happens to you, things that you cannot control, and 90% your attitude about it, you know what you have to focus on first – yourself and your outlook on things!

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Development

Do You Have The Right Perspective On Your Career?

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What’s my career goal, is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself at the beginning of your journey and your career in hospitality!

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I am recruiting graduates from hotel management schools for the position of housekeeping floor manager now for years, and my experience is that many, if not most, do not have clearly defined goals and are rushed to get promoted as fast as possible, and definitely faster than their peers from school. Continue reading Do You Have The Right Perspective On Your Career? →