Hospitality Influencers

I have enjoyed an exciting and fast-paced journey in my hospitality career, having worked in the Coffee Industry for just a little over 5 years. When I first started working in a coffee house in Vancouver, Canada, I did so because I was looking for a job that would allow me to get to know local residents and insert myself fully into Canadian life, and not one that could offer me a fantastic stepping stone into a new and exciting career.

We’ve all heard how important social media engagement is to keep your brand at the forefront of everyone’s feeds. Restaurants are busy establishments, and it can be difficult engaging online and in real life (which should continuously be happening during service).

How can you offer the best customer service? Customer service is all about communication - how do you communicate with your staff? How do your staff communicate with your guests and with each other?

How do you know what makes a restaurant gain a repeat diner? My solution would be to look at which ones you would return too.

Restaurant marketing has changed over the years, word-of-mouth is no longer enough, and traditional advertising isn't valid, or affordable for a small business. Here are 15 modern marketing strategies that won't cost a fortune. You won't need to do all of the below to deliver a successful marketing campaign, but a combination of a few of them is the best approach.

You will not have trouble putting a list together of business to supply you, finding the right ones that will look after you isn't hard, especially if you follow my advice.

Sustainability, 'səsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti' - noun: the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. "The sustainability of economic growth" - avoidance of the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance. "The pursuit of global environmental sustainability."

What is Tourism & Hospitality? What jobs can I pursue? Before going to University to study Hospitality & Tourism, I couldn't answer these questions.

Do you run a small, quaint restaurant or cafe? Locals may know the name of your restaurant through word-of-mouth reviews and musings, but marketing your venue online will help to spread your name to out-of-town visitors and to those who haven’t heard the chatter highlighting the wonders of your service, coffee, and food!

There’s an old adage in the marketing world – all publicity is good publicity. If you get your name in the news, regardless of whether it's good, bad or just plain ugly, people are talking about you and as such, awareness of who are you are and what the business is, is being created…for free! Sounds almost too good to be true.