Las Vegas’ new 4000 room hotel, the CityCenter, is preparing to open later this year. One problem: they need to hire 12,000 employees to run the hotel, restaurants, casinos, and retail.
They just launched their new careers website with all of the positions listed.
Check it out at www.citycentercareers.com. It is amazing to see that many jobs.
A new forum was just created where you can post questions and interact with fellow hoteliers.
Check it out at http://www.hotelworldnetwork.com/forums.
Whether you are new to the hiring process or have been interviewing candidates for years, it is always helpful to refresh yourself on some of the questions that can and cannot be asked during an interview. With the large number of discrimination lawsuits filed, it can be easy to catch a lawsuit without even realizing it. With some new types of questions, you may also gain some new perspectives and methods in your current hiring practices.
Before you start, remember the categories that are illegal to discriminate against. This will help you phrase all of your questions properly. These categories include: Disabilities, Marital/Family Status, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Ethnic Group/Race, Nationality, Age, Gender, Arrest Record, Outside Affiliations, and other miscellaneous items such as the ability to drive. Remember to never ask any questions that involve these categories as it can be interpreted as discriminatory. Any questions that you ask must pertain to the job that is being interviewed for and the skills and abilities required for that position. If you are unsure about a question that you would like to pose, consider making the question as general and open-ended as possible.
Are rising food costs decreasing your restaurant’s profits? You better act now! We anticipate the cost of food, especially the staples, to continue to rise. Food and Beverage Departments for hotels are typically low profit areas and can easily turn into no profit areas if you do not react quickly. Here are some things that you can do:
Know Your Food Costs – It is surprising how little hotels actually know about their food costs. Most hotels have a breakfast buffet, however, few hotels have any idea what their food cost is on the buffet. Most just assume they are making a high profit because they were taught that buffets were always high profit. Not true. Spend the time to calculate your buffet cost. You may be surprised to find out that your buffet food cost is 40 or 50 percent!
Here is a simple way to find out the food cost for your buffet: Have the kitchen log every single item that is used on the buffet during a 7 day period (10 cases of bacon, 22 cases of eggs, etc). At the end of the week, add up the total food expense and divide it by the amount of revenue you posted for those days. Be sure to do it for a whole week because you will find that your weekend food cost is very different than your weekday food cost. Also, be sure to add in all items included with the buffet such as juice and coffee.
Re-engineer Your Menu – Hopefully, you are using a spreadsheet or computer program to monitor your menu engineering. Be sure to re-evaluate your menu every single month. For additional menu engineering help, check out this article.
This month’s Los Angeles chapter HFTP (Hospitality Financial & Technology Professional’s) meeting was held at the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens in downtown Los Angeles. This beautiful hotel was formally the New Otani Hotel. The cocktail reception began in the hotel’s rooftop Japanese Garden followed by dinner in a banquet room downstairs.
Instead of the usual speaker for the HFTP gathering, the attendees participated in a roundtable discussion on some current events and trends. Though there were some pre-determined topics of discussions, time seemed to fly by as everybody’s had their share of valuable input. Some of the main topics of the night included everybody’s general outlook for the next three to six months, cost saving tips, and other hotel related issues.
