News for the Hospitality Executive |
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS, ISHC
September 16, 2011 1. Impertinent
Questions Still in Search of Pertinent Answers I wrote the
following questions in
some of my earliest “Nobody Asked Me, But…” columns in the period from
1990-2000. So far, no pertinent answers
have been forthcoming:
Incidentally,
these questions
originally appeared in the Cornell Quarterly, World’s-Eye View on
Hospitality
Trends (Northern Arizona University), e-hospitality.com, Hotel
Interactive and
Hotel-Online. 2. Questions for 32,500
Franchised Hotel Owners (and the Answers)
Answers Support the
Universal Franchisee
Bill of Rights proposed by the Coalition of Franchisee Associations
(CFA) this
summer (and endorsed by AAHOA). This
latest variation provides twelve guidelines franchisees should look for
before
signing a 20-year franchise agreement: freedom
of association; good faith and fair dealing;
uniform application
of brand standards; full disclosure of fees collected by franchisors;
fair
sourcing of goods and services; right to renew; right to transfer;
encroachment; ample notice of significant changes; franchisee
termination
rights; and default. Michael Garner,
Esq. of W. Michael
Garner Law Offices (a franchisee attorney) says: “I think the
Bill of
Rights is terrific! It highlights the 12
issues that are truly high priorities for fair treatment of
franchisees, and it
does so in a succinct and cogent way. Will the Bill of Rights change
anything?
If it is promoted, endorsed, quoted and used properly, yes, it will
change
things. This will require effort within
the industry, with courts and judges, with legislators at the state and
federal
level, and with the public. The document is wonderful—short and easy to
understand. It should be great springboard
for educating
the public and lawmakers.” 3. Quote of the Month Why We Oppose
Votes For Men
Alice
Duer Miller, 1915
American
novelist and poet,
lived
from 1874-1942. PLEASE TAKE
NOTE: My new book
“Built To Last: 100+
Year-Old Hotels in New York” will be published before the end of the
year. The circumstances that enabled many
of the
thirty-two hotels featured in this book to survive more than one
hundred years
are both surprising and unexpected. If you want to
reserve an autographed
copy, send me an email with your mailing address. I
will notify you the when the book is
published and available. In 2009 Stanley
Turkel, published
his classic book, Great American
Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry. It
contains 359 pages, 25 illustrations and 16 chapters.
It also has a foreword (by Stephen Rushmore),
preface, introduction, bibliography and index. Ed Watkins,
Editor of Lodging
Hospitality wrote, “The lodging industry typically doesn’t spend a
lot of
time considering its past. Some may find
that odd since compared to many other businesses (computers,
automobiles,
aircraft), the hotel business is one of oldest if not the oldest, in
the
history of man. That changed recently
with the publication of….. Great American
Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry, a fascinating and
entertaining
series of profiles of 16 men who author Stanley Turkel argues were the
builders
of the modern American hotel industry. That’s
significant because due to the efforts of these
titans (and
others, of course), the American style of hotelkeeping long surpassed
the
European tradition that reigned for centuries. Some of the
profiles contain cover
names (Hilton, Marriott, Johnson, Wilson) familiar to even casual
students of
hotel or U.S. history. Sadly, just one
of the pioneers covered the book (John Q. Hammons) is still alive and
active in
the industry. To me, the more
interesting tales cover hoteliers about whom I knew little before
reading this
book but now have a great appreciation for their contributions.
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Contact: Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC 917-628-8549 [email protected] www.stanleyturkel.com
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