Crisis Management in Hospitality

Running a hospitality group through a regional conflict teaches you things no MBA program covers. Here is what the last few weeks built in me. Hospitality is one of the most volatile industries in the world. We get hit first and hardest. Covid shut us down overnight. Regional conflict empties dining rooms before most sectors even feel the pressure. No buffer, no grace period. So how do you survive intact? Your team comes first. Always. Before cash, before landlords, before anything operational, your people are absorbing fear, uncertainty, and exhaustion in real time. I spent more time in conversations about morale than about P&L during the worst weeks. That was the right call. A healthy balance sheet is not conservative thinking. It is survival infrastructure. Cash is not just liquidity. It is options. It buys you time to make good decisions instead of desperate ones. Companies that entered this period overleveraged did not come out intact. Manage your stakeholders before they manage you. Landlords and suppliers will remember how you showed up during hard times. Proactive communication, honest conversations, negotiated solutions. These build more trust than a decade of smooth sailing. Keep building. Even in the dark. When business slows, the instinct is to freeze. Resist it. The operators who come out ahead use the downtime to prepare. New concepts, new markets, new infrastructure. When the wave returns, you need to already be on your feet. The flip side of this industry is real. When things stabilize, people come back hungry. For food, for music, for each other. The operators who stayed ready don’t just recover. They lead.

The less you do, the more you win… even in crisis times. Especially in times of crisis, this is the story of Chili’s. In Europe, most of us have never walked into a Chili’s. It’s a Tex-Mex casual dining chain in the US. Think burgers, fajitas, margaritas, and sizzling skillets. Fun? Yes. Thriving in a downturn? Surprisingly, yes. While competitors like TGI Friday’s and Red Lobster were filing for bankruptcy in 2024, Chili’s grew. More customers. More sales. More relevance. Why? Because they cut through complexity and went back to basics. Here’s what brands in any industry can learn from their turnaround: - 1. Cut clutter, deliver better. They trimmed 25% of the menu. Simpler kitchen. Faster prep. Fewer errors. More consistent quality. The result? A single dish, chicken crispers, jumped 66% in sales. Not because it changed. Because it was finally done right. - 2. Ask the people closest to the problem. The CEO runs listening sessions across the US. He asks one question: “If you were CEO, what would you change tomorrow?” One idea? Fix the fry salt shaker. Seasoning used to take 30 shakes. Now? A redesigned shaker and a better bowl. Hotter, crispier fries. Happier teams. - 3. Value that doesn’t race to the bottom. They introduced barbell pricing. €6 deals for the cost-conscious. €12 premium options for those who want more. It’s not just pricing—it’s flexibility. - 4. Make your classics go viral. The Triple Dipper wasn’t new. But it looked incredible on TikTok: cheese pulls, dips, textures. That social-first framing boosted sales by 70%. Now? It makes up 14% of all revenue. Big picture? +50% revenue growth over the last 3 years. +31% sales in a single quarter (while competitors dropped). +20% traffic growth during industry-wide decline. Triple Dipper sales ↑ 70% year-on-year. Chili’s didn’t invent a new product. They fixed what was broken. They trimmed the fat. They made it work harder. This is what growth looks like when you don’t chase more... you just do better. (Never had Chili's but I 'm hungry now and want some...) [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Nothing kills a hotel faster than an owner who complains more than he leads. I once worked with a hotel where i feel i was working smart, hardworking, and committed. Every day, I pushed for improvement ,new ideas, better standards, stronger systems. But there was one problem. The owner discuss every single morning with the same question: “Why are sales not higher? Why are we not full? What is wrong with the team?” My Realisation : I’m fighting two battles: the market outside… and the pressure inside. And that’s when I saw the truth: Sales weren’t the issue. The owner’s constant negativity was. THE REAL PROBLEM - When a hotel owner complains constantly, the GM stops focusing on: Strategy Systems Team development Guest experience Revenue planning … and starts focusing on protecting his job. The hotel becomes “fear-managed,” not “system-managed.” THE CONSEQUENCES A complaining owner creates: A stressed GM A demotivated team Zero innovation Defensive thinking Short-term decisions High staff turnover Poor guest experience Weak sales — ironically, the thing the owner wants most When pressure replaces support, performance collapses. WHY THIS HAPPENS Owners expect “instant results” No revenue forecasting No marketing strategy No seasonality awareness No understanding of operational cycles They believe stress = productivity But in hospitality, stress doesn’t increase sales. Systems do. THE SOLUTION - Operating Brand person responsible for operations should step in, and rebuilt the relationship between the owner and the GM with a new structure: Weekly Performance Reports The owner receives one report a week — not daily pressure. Clear KPIs Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, cost percentage, forecast. A Marketing Calendar So the owner sees the actual plan, not random activity. A Revenue Forecast Model To show expected numbers and prevent unrealistic expectations. Monthly Review Meeting To align goals, celebrate wins, and address challenges constructively. This stopped emotional management and replaced it with structured leadership. RESULTS AFTER 30 DAYS Sales stabilized The GM became creative again The team felt supported Guests noticed better service The owner finally saw a clear roadmap Panic disappeared — progress began ADVICE TO HOTEL OWNERS “If you want higher sales, reduce fear and increase structure.” Your GM is not a magician. He is a leader — but he can only lead if you stop suffocating the process. Support creates growth. Pressure creates collapse.

In March 2020, Marriott was collapsing. Its CEO, Arne Sorenson, was battling cancer. What he did next redefined leadership accountability: Most leaders think accountability means consequences. When performance drops, they tighten control. When projects fail, they add oversight. When mistakes happen, they hunt for someone to blame. Then they wonder why their best people leave. March 2020. Marriott faces the worst crisis in 100 years. Hotels are shuttering. Thousands face furlough. And Arne Sorenson is undergoing cancer treatment. Most CEOs would’ve delegated the message. Sent a memo. Protected themselves. Not Sorenson. He sat in front of a camera, hair thinned, visibly weakened, and spoke directly to Marriott’s global team. He delivered the hard news. Took full accountability. Announced he and Bill Marriott would take no salary. The executive team? 50% pay cuts. Employees didn’t just hear the message. They felt it. Many returned when the company recovered, despite every reason not to. Why? Because Sorenson understood: Accountability isn't about blame. It's about ownership. Fear-based accountability focuses on control. Ownership-based accountability builds commitment. The difference shows up in a crisis: • Fear-based cultures protect themselves. • Ownership-based cultures protect the mission. Here’s what Sorenson did that most leaders don’t: He chose truth over spin. No euphemisms. No sugarcoating. He trusted people with the reality and gave them a plan. He made sacrifice visible. Pay cuts weren’t a cost-saving tactic. They were a statement: Leaders go first. That’s how you earn the right to ask others to follow. He gave teams control. Instead of dictating execution, he co-created solutions. People commit more when they help design the path forward. The result? Even under pressure, Marriott stayed aligned, committed, and resilient. Here’s the shift most leaders miss: Traditional accountability enforces standards. Transformational accountability builds capability. One makes people cautious. The other makes them better. Want more research-backed insights on leadership? Join 11,000+ leaders who get our weekly newsletter: 👉 https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

✈️𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟑-𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 Geopolitical shifts, civil unrest, and sudden global events are making business and leisure travel more unpredictable than ever. You can't eliminate risk, but you can build resilience. My advice for navigating uncertainty isn't about avoiding travel—it’s about being an informed, prepared traveler who can pivot when the unexpected hits. 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐨-𝐁𝐚𝐠 (𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐆𝐨) 🛡️ You have a physical Go-Bag, but what about your digital one? 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Store digital copies of your passport, visa, insurance policy (especially the emergency medical evacuation number), and key contacts in a secure, offline folder (like Google Drive or a password manager). 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬: If there is an option, utilize a tool like ISOS or Global Rescue to ensure that you receive vital security alerts and are easily located in an emergency. 𝐕𝐏𝐍: Use a reliable VPN, especially when connecting to public Wi-Fi, to keep your business communications secure from potential monitoring. 2️⃣ 𝐒𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 (𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐩) 🧭 Your best tool is not technology—it’s your instincts. 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬: Don't just rely on global news. Follow local, trusted media (in-language, translated if necessary) and sign up for official travel alerts. 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬: In a high-risk area, avoid protests, political gatherings, and large crowds, no matter how peaceful they seem. If you find yourself near one, calmly and deliberately walk away in the opposite direction. During a recent trip to Istanbul, a group of men approached me when I was walking back to my hotel on a desolate street. After asking an initial harmless question, they started to get a bit pushy asking for local currency. I had to diplomatically get out of the situation and hastily walk back to my hotel before things escalated. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 "𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐭 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧": At your hotel, a meeting venue, or a restaurant, take 30 seconds to identify two distinct exit routes. Knowing your way out keeps you calm under pressure. 3️⃣ 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭 & 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐬) ♟️ 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐦, 𝐆𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐰-𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞: Panic clouds judgment. Breathe, assess, and move with purpose. Wear neutral, conservative clothing and avoid displaying expensive jewelry or electronics that draw attention. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦-𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: Keep your phone fully charged and have a physical power bank. A dead battery is a communication failure when you need to contact your travel security provider or family. In today's travel environment, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥. Do you have any tips from your travels? Please share! #BusinessTravel #TravelSafety #RiskManagement #GlobalMobility #TravelTips

Crisis hits you when you least expect it. While brands create an SOP for crisis comms at the outset, it is super important to review it constantly, simply because the significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Here are some hard but straight facts that you realise in the hour of crisis - 1. Real-time is not a suggestion but an expectation of your audience. An expectation that will not turn in your favour if unmet. 2. Being informative is the only way. If you’re not, somebody else will be. On a channel that your org has zero control over. 3. Listen, listen and listen. Monitor what others are saying and publishing and where they’re saying it. Analyse what they’re not saying. 4. Communication is a two way street, whether you want them to be or not. 5. Sincere, honest and meaningful apologies go a long way. More importantly, what the corrective measure is and how it is implemented. 6. Humans dealing with humans. While you take legal assistance, keep aside the corporate and legal talk in your response. Your audience expects to hear from the humans behind the brand. 7. Internal communications are key to successful crisis communication management. Period. #corporatecommunications #crisiscommunications #publicrelations

Your biggest food safety risk may no longer be inside your factory. It could be in someone's Instagram Reel. Before your quality team even knows there's a problem, thousands of people may have already seen it. Ten years ago, an unhappy customer called your helpline. Today, they open Instagram before they finish chewing. The complaint window has collapsed from 72 hours to 7 minutes. Yet many food brands still handle complaints as though it's 2014. That's the gap. Across audits in food manufacturing facilities and cloud kitchens, I've noticed a recurring pattern. Companies invest heavily in food safety systems, GMP, hygiene, and FSSAI compliance. But customer complaints often sit with customer support or social media, disconnected from the quality team. By the time QA gets involved, the conversation is already public. Here's what has changed: 1. Every complaint is now evidence. A contamination complaint is no longer just a refund request. It's a video showing the product, packaging, batch details, and timestamps before the investigation has even started. 2. Speed matters. Customers don't expect all the answers immediately. They expect acknowledgement. Silence creates speculation. 3. Your response is being audited. Most consumers understand that isolated incidents can happen. What they judge is how quickly, transparently, and responsibly the brand responds. 4. Your social media team is now part of your food safety system. The first person replying online shouldn't be guessing. They need direct access to QA, traceability, and clear response protocols. Complaint handling can no longer sit outside your food safety system. It needs to be integrated with quality, traceability, and crisis communication. Because today's complaint isn't just customer service. It's live-broadcast quality assurance. The brands that understand this won't just handle crises better. They'll earn trust before the next complaint ever happens. #FoodSafety #FoodIndustry #QualityAssurance #FSSAI #FoodManufacturing #ConsumerTrust #FoodBrands #CrisisManagement #FoodCompliance #Equinox Labs

There’s a major difference between managing people and leading them. In hospitality, leadership is tested most during the hardest moments…the slammed Saturday night service, the call-outs before a big event, the guest complaint that could spiral, the exhausted team trying to push through one more shift. In those moments, your staff remembers exactly who stood beside them and who stayed silent. The strongest leaders are not the loudest people in the room. They are the ones who protect the culture they expect everyone else to uphold. They advocate for fairness, accountability, respect, and growth. They correct privately, praise publicly, and create an environment where people feel seen instead of replaceable. A great manager understands that defending your people does not mean avoiding standards or excusing mistakes. It means leading with integrity. It means giving your team the tools, support, communication, and confidence they need to succeed before criticizing the outcome. It means stepping in when they are overwhelmed, listening when morale is low, and standing up for them when pressure rises from every direction. The hospitality industry is built on people. Guests may remember the food, the décor, or the experience but those things only exist because of the individuals behind the scenes who make it happen every single day. A respected team creates a stronger operation. A supported team creates consistency. And a valued team creates excellence. The best leaders never forget what it felt like to be the employee looking for guidance, reassurance, and someone willing to have their back. People do not leave difficult jobs as often as they leave environments where they feel unsupported. Leadership is not power. Leadership is responsibility. And the leaders who defend, develop, and genuinely care for their people are the ones who build teams that last.

Many hotel GMs carry silent insecurities no one talks about. They're expected to be the confident face of the hotel. But under the surface, here’s what really keeps them up at night. Over the last few months, I’ve had honest conversations with GMs from all types of properties—independent, luxury, boutique—and here are the most common pressure points I’ve heard. If any of these sound familiar, you're far from alone. The Pressure Points GMs Often Face 👇 ↓↓↓ ▶ Financial Performance & Revenue Management Stressed over revenue targets, slow reports, and unpredictable occupancy swings. ▶ Sales & Marketing for Revenue Growth Sales feels reactive. Marketing is disconnected from actual guest behavior. ▶ Staffing Challenges Team morale is low, turnover is high, and recruiting feels like chasing shadows. ▶ Operational Efficiency Back-of-house chaos is affecting guest experience. Everyone’s fire-fighting. ▶ Guest Satisfaction & Reputation Management One bad review overshadows weeks of great service. Online reputation feels fragile. ▶ Regulatory Compliance & Risk Management From safety drills to data privacy—compliance is a ticking time bomb that rarely gets the spotlight. So What Can You Actually Do? 💡 Here are specific strategies you can try: ↓↓↓ ⚡️ Real-Time Revenue Monitoring Use dashboards to spot issues early and run 2–3 “revenue experiments” each month. Tools to try: Duetto, Lighthouse Intelligence, ProfitSword (by Actabl) ⚡️ Sales Team Alignment Join one sales huddle a week. Use CRM data to find hidden revenue and cross-promote locally. Tools to try: Revinate, Tripleseat ⚡️ Build a Talent Pipeline Do informal 1:1s, reconnect with ex-staff, and celebrate small team wins to improve retention. Tools to try: Harri, 7shifts, Workpop (by Cornerstone) ⚡️ Daily 15-Min “Pulse Check” Get HODs together for a quick sync. Identify bottlenecks with visual tools and delegate ops metrics. Tools to try: ALICE (by Actabl) ⚡️ Proactive Guest Recovery Respond to reviews personally. Spot trends, and have a playbook for complaints that kicks in within 15 minutes. Tools to try: Haven Guest Support, Whistle (by Cloudbeds), Revinate Guest Feedback ⚡️ Department-Level Compliance Champions Rotate ownership. Track all compliance items on a simple 1-pager and run quarterly mock drills. Tools to try: Transcendent (by Actabl), Quore, Jolt If any of this resonates with you—you’re not behind, you’re in the game. You're navigating one of the most demanding leadership roles out there. And every GM who shares openly makes it easier for the next. What’s one thing you’ve implemented that helped you breathe easier? Let’s share. Someone else might be facing the same challenge. 👇 ↓↓↓ ⚡️ If you're specifically facing a challenge with Proactive Guest Recovery, explore Haven's Guest Support solution that helps easily report, record and manage guest issues all the way to successful closure before your guest checks-out. #Hospitality #GMInsecurities #GuestRecovery

The numbers from H1 2025 just dropped, and they're telling a story that should make every hotel sales leader rethink how we operate. Global hotel rates hit their steepest decline since the post-pandemic recovery. But here's the real kicker: most reservations are now booked within just two weeks of travel. Some markets are seeing booking windows compress to just days out. Yet I'm still hearing about hotels running the same weekly revenue meetings, building static 90-day forecasts, and making pricing decisions based on last year's patterns. It's like trying to steer a speedboat with a cruise ship's wheel. The uncomfortable truth? Traditional forecasting isn't just outdated, it's dangerous. When demand can spike or crater in hours, and distribution algorithms can shuffle your ranking in seconds, your weekly strategy session is already obsolete before it ends. The properties that are actually winning right now have made a fundamental shift. They've moved from prediction to reaction. Real-time velocity analytics. Automated triggers that adjust pricing without waiting for a meeting. Teams that can spot anomalies and act within hours, not days. But here's what really gets me: while we're all scrambling to buy better technology, we're forgetting about the people caught in the middle. Your front desk team is watching upgrades walk out the door because rates changed after the guest arrived. Your sales team is trying to quote group rates when pricing is fluctuating daily. Your revenue manager is working 60-hour weeks just trying to keep up. The solution isn't just better systems, it's empowering your teams to operate in this new reality. Training them to recognize patterns, giving them authority to make real-time adjustments, and creating processes that work when everything is moving fast. What's your booking window looking like these days? Are your teams equipped for the speed of modern demand, or are you still playing catch-up? #hospitality #revenuemanagement #hotelsales #leadership #booking