Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

Many people were forced to work from home when the pandemic hit. After two years of remote work, people have discovered the benefits that remote work offers. People want  the flexibility   of where, how, when, and how much they work, but companies have begun demanding workers to work in the office. More people become anxious about their careers if they continue working from home.      Where does the anxiety come from?     Some companies have already required employees to resume in-person work five days a week; others still offer hybrid work schedules or fully remote work to employees. The   anxiety   arises when employees worry that their choice of remote work would hurt their careers.     “If you want a job, stay remote all the time. If you want a career, engage with the rest of us in the office. … No judgment on which you pick, but don’t be surprised or disappointed by certain outcomes.”   said a CEO of an investment banking ...

Many Californian schools’ back-to-normal, face-to-face instruction plan was interrupted at the beginning of the spring semester due to a new wave (variance) of COVID cases. It was not until this fall semester that we resumed most classes in face-to-face mode. At the beginning of the semester, I met a few hospitality students from the Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona who were excited to return to campus. I was curious about how our students spent their summer. I also want to know how prepared they are for school.     Who are the students I met?     I interviewed four students. They are:   Adrian Laksmono (AL) , a senior student from Toronto, Canada, is a hospitality major with a lodging operation emphasis and a minor in finance.   Andrew Soel (AS) , a first-year student from New York, is a hospitality major.   Demi Quevedo (DQ) , a senior student from Orange County, CA, is a hospitality major emphasizing on event management. ...

  “ Everything is getting more expensive every day! ” Is that how you feel about today’s inflation?   Consumer prices   at grocery stores, for example, had increased 13.1% in July 2022 from a year before.      Higher food prices and increasing wages pressure restaurant operations   Food and beverages are the core product that a restaurant sells. Food and labor make up a restaurant's two highest variable costs. Besides higher food prices,  labor costs  in the second quarter also surged 5.1% from last year, recording the largest rise since 2001. Restaurants are under high pressure to increase meal prices.    Restaurants manage to raise the menu prices at a lower rate     Consumer prices at restaurants in July 2022 only increased 7.6%, resulting in the most significant inflationary gap between grocery stores and restaurants since the 1970s. By comparison, restaurant meals have become a “bargain” now. More people go to fast fo...

The U.S. hotel industry reported the highest room rate in July 2022 on a nominal basis. According to the   STR   (Smith Travel Research) data, the key performance indicators for the industry include: Occupancy: 69.9% ADR (average daily rate): $159.08 RevPAR (revenue per available room): $110.73   Using June 2019 as a reference point, the industry reported a -5.4% percent change in occupancy, a +17.5 percent change in ADR, and a +11.2 percent change in RevPAR for the month. If inflation is ignored, the hotel industry had already recovered in ADR and RevPAR, exceeding the pre-pandemic level. This recovery is driven by the rate instead of occupancy.     Yet, there is no real sense of recovery without the business travelers   AHLA projected that business travelers would make up 43.6% of the room revenues for the hotel industry in 2022, down from 52.5% in 2019. That is a $21 billion difference. Although there are more “ bleisure ” (business + leisure) travelers ...

“The customer is not always right, but your job is never to show them how they’re wrong. Your job is to be professional, courteous, accommodating … even (and especially) under stress.”   --- Steve Dorfman, Driven to Excel   The consumer is always right, isn’t it?   For decades, companies have been doing their best to ensure that their customers are 100% satisfied. Many hotels adopted the “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” policy that comes with a 100% refund if customers are not 100% happy. There is nothing wrong with companies putting the customer first, but is it now the time to revisit such a policy?   Is the 100% satisfaction guarantee policy dated?     That should not be a concern if few customers abuse the policy. In today’s marketplace, however, such a satisfaction promise has led to more discontent among hotels and customers ( Franch, 2022 ). Plus, service providers in the hospitality and tourism industry must deal with more demanding customers with a sm...