The Cornell School of Hotel Administration on Hospitality: Cutting Edge Thinking and Practice

Cornell's book contains all of the best practices and hospitality management strategies they teach to their students, so that anyone who needs to utilize hospitality skills in their business can succeed. The book is divided into four sections:

1.      Managing Your Career in the Hospitality Industry: Jobs in the Hospitality Industry require certain knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics and love of the job for potential to move up the organizational ladder. This section of the books shares Cornell's knowledge of the educational and personal development that has worked to create successful careers in the Hospitality Industry.

2.      Success at Property Operations: Any successful hospitality operation (hotel or restaurant, chain or independent, low-cost provider or luxury establishment) requires a well-performing individual operation.  This section shares the knowledge Cornell's School of Hotel Administration has gained from its studies of all aspects of how an individual business unit can succeed, including aspects of operations, human resources, marketing, and information management.

3.      Success at the Corporate Office: The requirements for success when managing a chain of establishments are very different than when managing any single property.  At the corporate office, you need to choose the right strategy, manage your brand, coordinate information, control costs, and implement the right systems to achieve success at multiple locations simultaneously.  This section highlights some of the major areas that require attention to successfully manage a set of properties, and provides guidance as to what research and experience has shown can enhance your likelihood of operating a successful multi-unit company.

4.      Success as a Business Owner: In this industry, owners receive cash flows by owning hotel, restaurant, and other types of hospitality businesses, by owning the real estate underlying these fixed-location businesses, and by owning both.  Simply entering this growth industry presents the opportunity for wealth creation; but competitive market conditions require that owners take well-conceived actions to earn excess returns on their investments. This section of the book informs about the actions available to owners for wealth creation; and, because in many important components of the hospitality industry, control of the business operations have become increasingly separated by contract from ownership of the real estate, the chapters in this section emphasize the profitable actions of hospitality real estate owners who hold the rights to the residual cash flows.