Start of My Career in Hotel and Hospitality

 It was a good interview with the General Manager at the Hawaiian Regent.  I began as Assistant Manager at the Summary Restaurant to gain Food and Beverage experience.   A year later, transferred to the Front Office as Assistant Manager, a role which encompasses operations and most importantly, guest service.   Hands on experience is always meaningful and I knew that this would contribute to my pursuit for sales.   No product sells by itself, and the hotel is no different.   The hotel required a strong sales effort to fill its 680 rooms.     

With some Food and Beverage experience and front office experience, I felt ready for sales.    I requested an opportunity to join the sales department, and this was granted.  Although this would be new to me, I was determined to perform well and succeed in sales.   It was easy to understand that an empty room is exactly that, “empty.”  The hotel makes money only when its rooms are occupied by paying guests. 

I always told people that the hotel business was putting warm bodies into cold rooms. 

The Hawaiian Regent Hotel was very successful, running high occupancies, and generating strong revenues that translated into profitability.   It established an excellent reputation in Honolulu for service with excellent facilities that included the famous Third Floor Restaurant, one of the first 5-star, high-end restaurants in Honolulu.

While I was confident to be a good salesman and generate business for the hotel, there was so much to learn.  My desire to be in sales drove me onwards, but the strong desire overshadowed the fact that I needed to learn HOW to sell the hotel. 

The first and most important aspect of the hotel business to learn is that guest rooms are a very precious and time-sensitive product.   It is not a product that can be put on a shelf to sell later.   A room that is not occupied today, cannot be sold tomorrow.  It is gone forever.   An empty room today will not generate any revenue for the day and the revenue is lost forever.  If you wait for today to sell a room, it is too late. 

I learned early in my career that we are selling into the future all the time, weeks, months, and even years ahead of time.

For the next several years, I learned to be a salesman for the Hawaiian Regent Hotel.   It was a wonderful training ground and through the mistakes along the way, I developed the skills to sell and contribute to the success of the hotel.  A sales career is a long and bumpy road with numerous twists and turns.   One never stops learning and adjusting along the way