IHI HNN December 2022 Issue by Irish Hospitality Institute

HNN DECEMBER 2022 HOSPITALITY NETWORK NEWS C h a r l i e S h e i l , E d w a r d S t e p h e n s o n , D r P h i l l i p S m y t h ( L i f e t i m e A c h i e v e m e n t A w a r d r e c i p i e n t ) w i t h I H I P r e s i d e n t B r i a n B o w l e r

3 New IHI Members 4 President's Note 8 IHI Founder's Evening & Hospitality Management Awards 14 The Red Cube Podacast 15 Break Siloes and Foster Synergies to Optimize Hotel Profits 16 How to Deliver an At-home Wi-Fi Experience in Hospitality 19 The Europe Hotel & Resort announces multimillion-euro development of Phase B of The Lodges at The Europe 20 Call for Tax-Free Allowance on Tips as New Tipping Legislation Comes into Force 23 Sodexo Ireland raises €17,000 for Shine a Light Night HNN CONTENTS

Welcome New IHI Members

Lisa O'Callaghan MIHI HR Manager The Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin

Fergal Harte MIHI General Manager The Kingsley 3

Michael Magner MIHI Proprietor Vienna Woods Hotel

On Thursday, 24th November, over 500 attendees enjoyed a fantastic evening at the IHI Founder's Evening & Hospitality Management Awards, which took place at the Clayton Hotel Burlington Road.

It was a very special night for the IHI, as it was the first time the event was held since 2019 On the evening, we celebrated 56 years of the IHI and 25 years of the IHI Hospitality Management Awards, but most importantly, we celebrated and honoured our 59 finalists, for their, passion, professionalism, ability, energy and excellence in what they do.

2022 attracted the highest number of nominations to date throughout 18 counties The IHI Awards nominations process allows IHI members to submit their chosen nominees across thirteen categories.

There are two rounds to the nomination process. Round 1 requires the judges for each category to independently score the nominations received in their respective categories. Once the scoring takes place, a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 nominees progress to Round 2, the interview round

In Round 2, the successful short-listed finalists were called to be interviewed by their panel. Each finalist is scored by the panel based on a competency-based interview and the winner of each category was announced on the awards night.

Thirteen hospitality professionals were awarded in their relevant categories,

The Winners included:

Orla McAndrew, Shannon College of Hotel Management - Graduate of the Catherine O’Mahoney, Cork International Hotel - Employee of the Year

Florie Ghibaudo, Balfes, The Westbury - Young Manager of the Year

Shane Cox, Center Parcs - HR & Training Manager of the Year Colette Carew, Sodexo - Catering Manager of the Year

Julie Daly, Trigon Hotels - Finance Manager of the Year

Eithne Tighe, The Montenotte Hotel - Revenue Manager of the Year Declan Cunningham, Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa Sligo - Environmental & the Year

Karl Byrne, The Westbury - Food & Beverage Manager of the Year Megan Pardy, Trigon Hotels - Sales & Marketing Manager of the Year

Gary Rogers, Carton House - Executive Head Chef of the Year Anneliese Badescu, Jurys Inn & Leonardo Hotels - Deputy General Manager of the Year Elaine Carolan, Radisson Blu, Dublin Airport - Hotel General Manager of the Year

Four IHI Members were elected to the IHI College of Fellows on the night Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed upon an IHI Member It recognises the Member's contribution above and beyond the demands of commerce; it acknowledges their outstanding service, leadership, contribution, and inspiring commitment to professional development within our industry.

IHI Fellowships were awarded to Conor O’Kane FIHI, Sharon Power Cowley FIHI, Joseph Higgins FIHI and Alan Smullen FIHI

We were also honoured to award Dr Philip Smyth FIHI with the IHI Lifetime Achievement Award

A huge congratulations to all Award Winners, Fellows and to Dr. Smyth!

A very sincere thanks to our Members, Patrons, Sponsors & Colleagues who joined us. It was truly amazing to be back in a room filled with so many industry friends and colleagues. We thank you for your continued membership and we look forward to supporting you in 2023

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year BrianBowler

IHI President

A very special thanks to the IHI Hospitality Management Award Sponsors

IHI Founder's Evening

Dr. Phillip Smyth, Lifetime Achievement Award recipient

& Hospitality Management Awards

Conor O'Kane FIHI Sharon Power Cowley FIHI Alan Smullen FIHI Joseph Higgins FIHI

IHI Elected Fellows - Conor O'Kane FIHI, Sharon Power Cowley FIHI, Joseph Higgins FIHI and Alan Smullen FIHI

IHI Founder's Evening

IHI Graduate of the Year - Orla McAndrew with David, McEnroe, Classic Drinks, Adriano & Franka Dal Bianco of Masottina IHI Employee of the Year - Catherine O'Mahoney with David O'Connor, Celtic Linen IHI HR & Training Manager of the Year - Shane Cox with Noel Cafferkey, Action HR Services IHI Young Manager of the Year - Florie Ghibaudo with Paul Keely, Fáilte Ireland

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2022 IHI Hospitality Management Award Finalists

& Hospitality Management Awards

IHI Catering Manager of the Year - Colette Carew with Jim Reeves, Unilever Food Solutions IHI Finance Manager of the Year - Julie Daly with Sinead Marron, Alkimii IHI Revenue Manager of the Year - Eithne Tighe with James Cannon and Clio O'Gara, Guestline IHI Sales & Marketing Manager of the Year - Megan Pardy with William Cotter, Net Affinity IHI Environmental & Facilities Manager of the YearDeclan Cunningham with Robin Chandler, Crystal Air

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IHI Food & Beverage Manager of the Year - Karl Byrne with Micheline Corr, Peggy Kim and Lynda McFadden The Firm Hospitality Recruitment

IHI Founders's Evening & Hospitality Management Awards

Congratulations to all!

IHI Executive Head Chef of the Year - Gary Rogers with Patrick McNamara, Broadline Group IHI Deputy Manager of the Year - Anneliese Badescu with Adam Kirwan, Maria Logan Recruitment IHI Hotel General Manager of the Year - Elaine Carolan with Cathal Divilly, GPTW

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Break Siloes and Foster Synergies to Optimize Hotel Profits

Steps to creating a connected commercial organization

Sibylle Luger, Regional Vice President of Account Management, EMEA & APAC, IDeaS Hotels looking to optimize profits must break the silo mentality. They must align their teams and synchronize their knowledge

The movement toward commercial revenue is a good start Many hotels have brought sales, marketing, revenue management and distribution under a single commercial revenue leader But it’s not a single person ’ s job It takes a village You still have other departments – housekeeping, food and beverage, purchasing – all working pretty much independently That often creates conflict

When operational areas have their own goals, their own tools and their own strategies, they think in terms of what does our functional area need to achieve rather than the goals of the organization as a whole. Moving towards total profit optimization requires finding synergies between departments

Establish Goals and Start Measuring

Start by asking, what is the profit we want to achieve, is it realistic and when do we want to achieve it? What departments need to be involved?

Choose revenue streams you want to measure starting with your most profitable piece of business or areas that historically are under-forecasted, like meetings & events Ensure you ’ re measuring using industry-standard metrics and best practices.

Establish revenue streams and goals for each, and then start tracking all the data and expenses. Don’t get too complicated or go too deep Stay higher level

By establishing processes, tracking data, and getting people from all areas involved, you will naturally gravitate towards more granular, detailed information You’ll then start to see patterns and forecasting will become more meaningful

Profit Optimization Resources

Think about who you can partner with as you embark on the journey to profit optimization. The hotel industry has many resources that can help, including:

Industry events and conferences

Ted talks

Networking and social media

IDeaS Revenue Solutions offers materials, consulting services and market intelligence

Putting strategies like these into play enables everyone to work together toward a common goal and create a more connected commercial organization

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How to Deliver an At-home Wi-Fi Experience in Hospitality

When IMS first began installing broadband into buildings (2003), it was long before the world of Wi-Fi and we were catering for the few who had laptops that could plug into sockets on the wall Back then, a 64kb leased line was a massive investment costing around £10,000 per annum! How far we have come from those days to a reality where every person in a building, young or old, has a device that they want to connect to the internet

When we were making the transition from wired networks to wireless networks for our hospitality clients, they were faced with the double whammy of having to upgrade their internet connections as well to cater for the increased usage. Symmetrical broadband connections were proving an expensive necessity and the industry had both early and not so early adopters. Fast forward to 2022 and what the guest expects.. the guest wants to continue doing what they were doing before they got there! Understanding this is half the battle; implementing solutions that cater for this is the other half.

There are basics that are non-negotiable now for the hotelier when ensuring their property is prepared for the modern hotel guest; uncontended symmetrical fibre broadband being one However, the broadband connection into a building can only be as good as the Wi-Fi network that distributes this broadband to the Wi-Fi hungry devices, of which there are many

The irony of a Wi-Fi network is that it is far from wireless! It is made up of switches and Wi-Fi access points that are peppered throughout a hotel’s complex Not only in bedrooms, but in all common areas, meeting rooms, event spaces etc This requires proper design from wireless network experts, not the IT experts who only offer Wi-Fi as an add-on service.

Once you get these elements right, then it is down to what the devices can do on your Wi-Fi network, and this is where it is essential to put yourself in the shoes of the guest. The modern guest is likely to bring, on average, 3 devices each to your property. They bring the devices that have the latest and greatest technology; therefore, the onus is on us to provide a conduit for them to continue using this technology.

Take for example the TV services offered by hotel chains tethered by archaic brand standards. Who wants to navigate 20 menus just to watch TV? Who wants to jump through the hoops of trying to connect a device, which is hit and miss to say the least? Guests don’t want countless menus on a TV, they want to use the TV screen to cast the episode of the show they were already watching on their preferred streaming platform

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I’m always intrigued to see what my teenage boys do when we’re on a staycation They connect their devices and if they’re unable to cast that content, they stick to their iPhones or iPads and don’t bother with the TV When they come with me to stay in a property with the IMS solution, we cast off one device and watch something together. Powerful. No longer are the kids sitting in the corners on their devices, (which drives all parents crazy!) we are now doing something together. This is why GMs love the casting solution, it helps guests to feel at home.

One hotel operator that we have provided managed Wi-Fi services for years, decided on our advice to roll out casting as standard in all their new openings post 2019. This operator is very driven in achieving a booking.com rating above 9. An interesting picture began to develop - all the properties that have casting are scoring well above 9, while the properties without casting are scoring marginally lower Why is this?

The IMS Personal Entertainment Network

The modern guest wants to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) It is the job of the hotel to make it as easy as possible for these devices to connect to the Wi-Fi and connect to the TV Outside of phones & tabletsdevices like gaming consoles, voice assistants or other smart-enabled devices are also easily onboarded to the network

The IMS PEN solution that has been rolled out in hotels, aparthotels, serviced apartments and other MDU developments throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe makes this very easy to do.

If you’re looking to enhance your guests’ experience, I’d love to hear from you. leo.colgan@imedia.ie

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The

Resort

development of Phase B of The Lodges at The Europe

The Europe Hotel & Resort is pleased to announce the construction of Phase B of their employee accommodation facility - The Lodges at The Europe.

In 2018, the company invested over 4.5 million euro into the first phase of The Lodges, an employee accommodation headquarters based at The Europe Hotel & Resort. The second phased which is now under construction comes in line with the company’s continued commitment to their employees and being a quality employer.

Phase B will first see the demolition and removal of the old staff house followed by the construction of 4 new accommodation blocks boasting 40 generous en-suite rooms. Alongside the high-spec accommodation, this phase will also include a new state-of-the-art gym, bicycle storage, laundry facilities and indoor & outdoor recreational areas. Following on from Phase B, 20 additional rooms will be added, subject to planning permission.

Once all phases have been completed, the total investment in employee accommodation will stand in excess of €12 million euro. The construction tender has been awarded to Kerry based firm, Kenmare Plant Hire who recently completed the expansion of the hotel’s car park and has been designed by local architect Achim Gottstein.

Speaking about the project, Managing Director of Killarney Hotels Collection Michael Brennan said; ‘We are very proud of our continued commitment to the comfort and well-being of our team. The construction of Phase B follows on from this year’s earlier announcement of the company’s family leave policy being extended to included Maternity, Adoptive and Paternity Leave payments for our employees. The company already offers extraordinary benefits to employees including an industry leading pension scheme, DIS benefit, dedicated in house employee restaurant, employee discounts to name but a few.

With the shortage of rental accommodation in Killarney and staff in the hospitality sector, we are committed to providing our hard-working and valued staff with the highest standard of on-site accommodation to help us retain and attract new employees to our hotels’ he said.

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Europe Hotel & announces multi-million-euro

Call for Tax-Free Allowance on Tips as New Tipping Legislation Comes into Force

As significant new legislation is brought into force to ensure that staff get paid their share of tips left by customers, leading recruitment specialist Excel Recruitment is calling on the Government to go one step further to boost the incomes of lower-paid earners in sectors such as beauty and hospitality.

Excel Recruitment is an award-winning recruitment company specialising in retail, hospitality, healthcare, industrial, commercial, and administrative since 2002.

The recruitment specialists say that while the legislation is to be welcome in that it will create fairness and transparency around how tips are distributed amongst employees, the Government should have considered removing tips – or a certain amount of tips – from the tax net to encourage more workers back into hospitality and other low-paid sectors.

Shane McLave of Excel Recruitment explained, “The premise underpinning this legislation is laudable - this Act will provide guardrails to the payment of tips to employees.

However, the Government should have gone a step further and considered excluding income derived from tips, or a portion of it, from the tax net. All tips received by staff are currently taxable. However, given the often low-paid nature of the work – and the huge staff shortages which the hospitality sector is currently grappling with, more people could be encouraged to work in the sector if tips were not taxable – or if they could earn a certain portion of them tax-free.

A case could be made for the fact that PAYE employers are already allowed to gift employees up to €1000 in tax-free vouchers per year – this however is unlikely to impact the vast majority of bar staff, wait staff, hairdressers, beauticians and other professions who receive tips. A really progressive move could be to introduce a similar scheme for employers and employees in service industries, so that workers might be able to receive tips up to a certain threshold without incurring a tax bill.”

Lower income earners would really benefit from some leeway around how tips are treated for tax purposes

Excel Recruitment contends that once a product or service has been paid for, this includes the appropriate amount of tax relative to that product or service.

Employers should not use tips or gratuities given by consumers to make up the basic wages of their staff. Furthermore, tips should be distributed evenly between staff – though depending on experience and the number of hours worked, some staff would clearly be entitled to more tips than others.

McLave continued, “The point of the Act is to protect the people who have worked hard to earn the tips, gratuities and service charge payments given by consumers. Those working in the food, retail, and hospitality industries are often on lower wages and some may be dependent on subsidising their wages with rent allowance, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), or the Family Income Supplement (FIS) With tips".

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SODEXO IRELAND RAISES €17,000 FOR SHINE A LIGHT NIGHT

Employees of workplace services provider

Sodexo Ireland have raised €17,000 for the annual Shine a Light Night, the national fundraiser organised by its charity partner, Focus Ireland The funds raised by Sodexo will be used to cover the overall costs of providing 750 nutritious meals at the charity’s coffee shop in Dublin city centre.

On Shine a Light Night, a team of employees from all over Ireland joined managing director David Fox to spend the night outdoors in the Wicklow mountains The leadership and culinary teams within Sodexo also organised bake sales and other activities throughout the country to boost the fundraising efforts

Operating 365 days a year, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Focus Ireland coffee shop ensures people affected by homelessness with no access to hot meals can be catered for in a safe, secure and welcoming environment.

Focus Ireland takes great care in designing its coffee shop menus to make sure healthy, balanced, and nutritious meals are provided for its customers The meals are heavily subsidised with fundraising from companies like Sodexo, with meat and vegetarian/vegan options offered

David Fox, managing director, Sodexo UK & Ireland said: “Shine a Light Night is a valuable reminder of what some individuals and families must face every single day in Ireland. Thank you so much to all our volunteers, our clients and our suppliers for their support, it just wouldn’t have been possible without them. As an organisation, we are committed to enhancing the capacity and capabilities of our charity partners to help create equity for all.”

Focus Ireland is the leading not-for-profit working to prevent people becoming, remaining or returning to homelessness Every year, thousands of people in cities, towns and communities nationwide volunteer to sleep out for one night and raise funds

Aisling Nolan, head of partnerships and philanthropy at Focus Ireland, said “Thank you to Sodexo for raising funds for our coffee shop, which delivers vital services on so many levels. It provides nutritious meals to support a person’s physical health and well-being, keeps them connected to services and supports social interaction. Providing such a service is only possible with the support of companies like Sodexo.”