AuthorAs author of “The Spirit of Hospitality”, I have fulfilled a life-long dream of encouraging and instructing hospitality professionals in providing genuine guest service delivery. I outline my experiences spanning a 40-year career in the “People Business” and leader in the hotel and restaurant industry. This project serves as a passing of the Olympic Torch of Hospitality to my fellow colleagues – to share those key values that have propelled me to a place in life I never before dreamed possible. The pinnacle of hospitality excellence is not in reacting to guests’ needs, but in making the sincere and proactive effort toward building warm relationships and serving guests from the heart. To mentor to those who are hungry to achieve hospitality excellence is what this book is all about.

We own and manage a 3-unit fine art gallery chain at the Disney’s Boardwalk, St. Petersburg Marina and Port Canaveral, FL, in tandem with Walt Disney World Company, generating in excess of $6 million in revenue annually.

I secured a long-term agreement to take over the leadership of a $5 million F&B operation consisting of a restaurant, bar, room service, and catering operation. The goal was to turn around the performance and quality of an operation that was falling short of established Hilton brand standards. I revamped the management team, installing new leadership to work beside the current F&B team.Along with recruiting, hiring, training and mentoring personnel to ensure guest-centric delivery of services consistent with Hilton brand, I imparted the importance of service execution consistency organization-wide. I also coordinated with designers to add meeting space and bid out contractors. Upon successful turnaround, I negotiated a partnership exit to write my book on superior hospitality servant leadership.HIGHLIGHTS✯ Saved the property from losing multi-million investment in Hilton brand flag. Reinvented operation by upgrading brand standards, improving F&B / culinary brand quality, negotiating higher quality products, and implementing new labor model.✯ Redesigned and renovated 4,500 sq. ft. space of failing Thai-Caribbean themed restaurant, converting it into a more productive and high-demand meeting space that exceeded ROI targets. Invested $500,000 in conversion of additional meeting space resulting in 14,700 sq. ft. of gross meeting space.✯ Reinvented interior atrium restaurant space that was losing $200,000 annually, launching newly branded “Eola Café”, an all-American Bistro with a Mediterranean flare serving breakfast for up to 650 guests daily.* Negotiated free rent for restaurant, bar, room service operations and paid scaled percentage rent on catering, posting a profit after only one year.* Increased catering volume from $700,000 to $1.3 million, exceeding ROI / projections and client expectations.✯ Rated best food service partner/management company in Hilton family. Regularly outperformed hotel staff on Hilton brand standard GSI and ESI scores.

In this role, I negotiated a partnership to form a restaurant management company that oversaw daily operation of 12 restaurants, including upscale Pebbles Restaurant chain, while building a future portfolio on viable options aligned with company mission, values and strategy.HIGHLIGHTS✯ Spearheaded re-invention of the Pebbles brand and brought “California” concept of lighter fare, including entree salads to Central Florida. My organizational structure leadership and operational philosophy led to being voted Best American Chain in Sentinel's 2001 Foodie Awards.

I was recruited to design, develop, create story line, and oversee the start-up of more than 30 restaurants, lounges, catering and third party operations as part of start-up / opening of a first-class food service operations for three resort properties as part of Universal’s effort to invest more than $1 billion into resort hotels, meeting space, restaurants, and amenities servicing Universal Orlando theme park infrastructure. Along with guiding F&B vision initiative from Loews / Universal designers and architects, I set foundational operational values to ensure provision of exemplary guest experiences.To achieve consistency in customer service expectations, I worked with HR to compose job descriptions and staffing guides, along with implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs), along with creating and overseeing implementation of pre and post-opening procedures. I provided my expertise in restaurant space design planning to merge thematic presentation with functionality. Additionally, I recruited, hired, and trained personnel to fill key management positions, as well as front-line staff. HIGHLIGHTS✯ Conceived brand concepts and operational infrastructure for the following properties:* Portofino Bay Hotel (7 restaurants and lounges, 42,000 sq. ft. of meeting / catering space)* Hard Rock Hotel (4 restaurants and lounges, 6,000 sq. ft. of meeting / catering space)* Royal Pacific Resort (5 restaurants and lounges, 85,000 sq. ft. of meeting / catering space)✯ Developed concepts and provided culinary direction. Directed planning and changes regarding kitchen layout / functionality, which included identification of HOS&E, Big 4, and FF&E.✯ Collaborated with marketing and sales teams to develop strategies to penetrate local market for community buy-in.✯ Combined third party restaurants by facilitating collaboration of Palm Steakhouse and Emeril Lagasse’s Tchoup Chop.

KIWI International Airlines (VP of Customer Service)I played a key role in the development of philosophy and crafting of operational structure to provide quality, seamless, first class guest service for a startup airline, requiring coordination with human resources to build teams from CEO level down through each department. I standardized training process and integrated metrics measurements, evaluations, and guest and industry feedback.✯ Developed highly effective Genuine Guest Service Program.✯ Won several awards for Best Customer Service.

Motor City Casino Hotel (Project Director)In this project, I was recruited to address major challenges in guest and food services delivery systems. I performed a full assessment of hotel and food service operations, with one restaurant (Flames) requiring repositioning to guest demand and two to be added.✯ Significantly increased check bverages / profit and improved morale, employee retention, and guest satisfaction.✯ Provide a successful rebranding strategy for several of the property’s restaurants.✯ Identified management team ideal for implementing proposed solutions as a consensus team.

Disney Hilton (Project Director)I was recruited and brought aboard to lead the project to reposition the outdated American Vineyards restaurant into a cutting-edge and successful Finn’s Grille concept for Tishman Hotel Company. I led the project to revamp the outdated and intimidating design which was failing to draw the hotel client base.✯ Recouped entire $300,000 investment for hotel inside of 12 months, more than doubling annual gross revenue ($1.2 million to $2.5 million).✯ Achieved impressive turnover rate of under 10%, compared to area restaurant average of 80%.

In this position, I orchestrated a finely calibrated operation of 1,500-room property with 12 restaurants and lounges, along with over 250,000 sq. ft. of convention and banquet space. I oversaw concept and story line development, entertainment integration, design direction to interior design team, leadership playbook, logistics, communications, POS, financial systems, cost controls applications, and menu engineering. Along with developing F&B operating standards for all hotel restaurants to guarantee consistency, I performed forecasting and budgeting, marketing, public relations, and promotional planning.Other leadership duties involved identification of Big 4 and FF&E, creation of plating guides, and integration of reservation systems. I managed 1,000 cast members, including culinary personnel, which included quarterly evaluations to address job performance and career development.✯ Led restaurants to achieving $40 million annually in average revenue, with net profit of 23% and staff turnover of 13%.✯ Performed demographic surveys to better understand potential guests; performed competitive set, studying all restaurants and catering facilities in the Disney and local community to better comprehend target market profile.✯ Selected by HR to represent hotel and in video used for orientation process.