By Daniel Edward Craig: It’s an incident guaranteed to make any hotelier shudder. After a power outage at a Texas hotel last summer, a paralyzed American war veteran called the front desk to request help from his room. For reasons not entirely clear, the clerk allegedly laughed at the request and mocked him. The guest got down by throwing his wheelchair and bags down three flights of stairs and sliding down on his backside. Then he went to straight to the media.

By Jim Hartigan: With unemployment rates slowly (and I do mean slowly) coming down, job movement will soon accelerate as the best, most productive team members  gain the confidence to test the job market to measure their value to other organizations.   If your organization isn’t already practicing these five tips for better hiring, you are risking having a perpetual revolving door of turnover as you make bad hires (“garbage in”) who don’t last (“garbage out”).

By Gordon James Gorman: As a long time fan and regular contributor to ehotelier, and to many other daily hospitality e-magazines and blogs, Gordon Gorman, the long serving Scottish General Manager of Karachi’s leading five stars Hotel, the iconic Avari Towers, recently transformed the daily refreshing, but non productive Head of Department morning and afternoon tea breaks into supercharged e-breaks. Here’s how he did it.

By Bryan K. Williams: Two of the most important phrases in service excellence are, "I don't know" and "Let me find out". As opposite as they may be, both phrases speak volumes about the service culture on a team. One wreaks of indifference and apathy, while the other expresses ownership and initiative. One of the words, has absolutely no business on a team where service is supposed to be paramount. The other should be the minimum standard that EVERYONE is held accountable to.

By Steve Cokkinias: A veteran of the hospitality industry, Steve has many entertaining stories up his sleeve. Each Wednesday he will share a story on ehotelier.

By Joan King: Technology has been consistently identified as one of the key contributing factors for meeting planner venue choices and, for the most part, venue operators have responded to that need. In order to get a better understanding of the current technology trends in the meeting industry, UniFocus surveyed an array of certified meeting planners who had planned in excess of 500 meetings and events during 2012. The participating planners were all involved with either corporate or association events, and the short survey was designed with the intent to gather insight on both the planner's personal technological preferences and those of their clients and attendees.

By Swetha Kabra: A Recent survey showed that around 85% of travelers repeat their holiday destinations… As an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry, does my business show a consistent performance graph year after year?

By Claudette Covey: The majority of hotels will have booking engines integrated into their social media channels and mobile websites in 2013, according to a recent survey from TravelClick, a provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers.

By Vivan Gomez: Oscar night is coming, folks! Sunday, Feb. 24, some of you will be sipping your Manhattans, your Cosmopolitans, your gin-and-tonics, and your Harvey Wallbangers while checking out who's wearing what and which overrated film is going to give your favourite a run for its money.