By Richard Branson: The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality. If you can find people who are fun, friendly, caring and love helping others, you are on to a winner.

An analysis by ReviewPro of online guest reviews for 5,683 hotels in 20 key tourist destinations reveals that noise is the No. 1 most common complaint by consumers in all but one city. In addition to analyzing reviews for common complaints, ReviewPro, the leading provider of online reputation and social media analytics for the hotel industry, also crunched its data to discover the cities with the best overall reputation based on direct feedback from consumers on more than 100 review sites such as TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Jalan and HolidayCheck.

One of Europe's leading hotel brands gaining a reputation for being at the cutting edge of hospitality today is seeking a talented Operations Manager / Deputy GM.

Responsibilities include the smooth running of the day to day operations and to deputise the duties of the GM.

Wondering where to send your best high-end customers for a unique vacation experience? It seems you can't go wrong recommending a name that isn't usually top-of-mind.

By feature writer Alan Fairweather: If you've interviewed well and picked the right people for the job then you need to trust them to do that job. You need to constantly demonstrate to your staff that you trust and believe in them by what you say, your tone of voice and your body language. They will very quickly sense if you don't trust them to carry out their job and they'll act accordingly.

By Mike Waite: The power and balance of three applies to customer feedback. You need direct guest feedback, market perspective and social monitoring to successfully manage every aspect of a hospitality business.

You will be greatly missed! The ducks  at the Peabody Orlando will soon be off into retirement, sadly the duck parade will reach the end of the road on 30 September. The Hotel has been sold; Hyatt Hotels agreed to pay $717 million for the Peabody Orlando, which will be rebranded as the Hyatt Regency Orlando.

By feature writer Steve DiGioia: Our young workforce is not trained in the nuances of customer service, let alone in the simple, courteous & professional terms that should be used during a conversation between a customer and employee. Our conversations have been reduced to short, cutesy phrases that may be suited for friends at a party but not in a business setting. Here are a few examples.