If you want to know about the hotel industry, there are few people better to ask than the just retired CEO of Marriott hotels, Bill Marriott. He revealed the following to the Economist about how the industry has changed since he started in 1957:

• The lobby has become the place to be. Modern hotel guests go to their rooms, dump their stuff and return downstairs.
• Despite this people want more space in their room. Mostly work is done from the bed with a laptop, so desks have shrunk in order to make space. Big closets have also gone as guests don’t bother to pack much…or unpack.
• The hotel has become increasingly a place to ‘entertain and be entertained’. This means a more boutique style downstairs.
• Bill offers two pieces of advice to the modern entrepreneur. The first is that business today is all about focus and specialism. If you want Wall Street to become interested, make your business easy to understand.
• The second is perhaps counter-cultural. Instead of customer focus, Bill invests in employees. Take care of them, he says, and they will take care of the customer. And then you get returning clients.

For more about what Bill considers his greatest mistake and his thoughts on opening a low-budget hotel, click over here

Source: The Economist

The Economist argues that there’s a lot business can learn from the military. Highlights of the article include:

• Behind enemy lines, cut off from communication, soldiers are expected to think on their feet and find ways to complete their mission. This kind of delegation and trust is invaluable in business.
• Businesses try very hard to develop a corporate culture. The military has done a great job of preserving its culture.
• Soldiers also have to have soft skills. They spend long periods of time with strangers, and this requires them to be amicable people that others enjoy working with despite difficult circumstances.
• Business would envy a training program that so effectively teaches soldiers to do arguably the most difficult thing imaginable: take another human life at the risk of your own.
• The military’s training also has the advantage of preparing troops for the next rung of leadership. Businesses must do something similar if they want to train the next generation of effective leaders.
• All of these make the military an important case study and veterans an invaluable asset. Perhaps the reason why Israel has so many high-tech startups is because they have mandatory military training.

Read more about how businesses used to be in awe of the military…but have since lost interest, how businesses can capitalize on this arsenal of talent, and other lessons that they can learn over here.

Source: The Economist

Hate airline food? Well here’s an incredible opportunity to have it every week! Raymond Kollau wrote:

• While economy class fare is usually pretty drab, business class food isn’t too bad.
• Which is why a grocery store has teamed up with the kitchen that provides Lufthansa passengers with their in-flight meals, to offer a subscription service where people can get a business class airline meal once a week.
• The meals can be heated up whenever an individual wants, and is a healthier alternative than fast food for many professionals.
• This also allows the kitchen that makes the dinners to get rid of excess meals without creating waste.
• If people end up liking the food, it could also encourage more passengers to travel on Lufthansa.
• The subscription service costs £9.99 for one meal a week.

Read more here.

Source: Springwise

The Chinese government has recently been on a crusade against public officials claiming extravagant expenses. This hasn’t worked out as well as the government would have liked writes The Economist:

• As a result of the effort domestic airline carriers have seen a sharp fall in profits as politicians no longer fly in first class.
• To get around this China Southern Airlines has relabeled its first class seats as business class without making any other changes.
• This should make it more palatable to bean counters who will now see ‘business’ rather than ‘first’ next to flight ticket expenses.
• Similarly hotels have requested to be downgraded from “five-star” status so that government officials continue to visit.

Read about the government’s efforts, its unintended consequences, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

Some tech designers have come up with a prototype luxury airline seat. Marisa Garcia took a look at what makes it special:

• The seat is able to connect directly with your electronic devices and use big data to figure out what movies you’ll likely want to watch, and what your preferred inflight meal would be.
• It comes with an active video display side panel which changes colours based on what you’re doing and the mood you’re in.
• It is, of course, able to give full massages.
• It tracks your eyes so that if you look away to pay attention to a flight attendant, for example, it’ll pause whatever you’re watching.
• The eye-tracking technology can even do things like figure out how strong or weak your vision is and recommend glasses.

Read about the seat’s surround-sound system and when the super-rich might be able to enjoy such seats over here. And read more about the economics of business class over here.

Source: Quartz

London’s Heathrow airport could be thought of as a mall with an airport attached wrote The Economist in an article that looked at how shops had adapted to selling at the airport:

• All restaurants have dishes for which the wait is guaranteed to be less than 15 minutes for travelers trying to catch a tight connection.
• Clothing retailers put grab and go items such as ties close to the entrance.
• “Heathrow Ambassadors” can take you from one terminal to another if you’re unable to find the items of your desire in your own terminal.
• Standard shops are located in the areas where economy class passengers embark and disembark. High end brands are located near the First and Business class passengers.
• Shoppers are legally required to produce their boarding pass when purchasing something. This provides shops with a wealth of data that allows them to identify which types of travelers like to purchase which items.
• Japanese passengers, for example, like expensive wine. Middle Eastern and Russian customers like sparkly jewelry.

Read how the shops are performing, how Heathrow has climbed the international airport standings, why retailers have to compete with other distractions, why shoppers are afraid of being caught naked, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

Salon has an “Ask the Pilot” column where Captain Patrick Smith answers questions from readers about airlines. This week’s article included a look at the meals that pilots get. Highlights include:

• Pilots are normally fed the same multi-course meal given to those in first and business class.
• Co-pilots are encouraged to eat different entrees to guard against cases of food poisoning.
• Airbus planes have a special table that pops out for pilots to enjoy their meals. Boeings do not, and because eating can sometimes be messy, pilots go into the cabin to finish their meal.

To read more about the dynamics of feeding pilots, as well as the surprising snacks given to passengers, and why the pilots and cabin crew are normally put in separate hotels click here.

Source: Salon

Sui-Lee Wee wrote about China’s dating schools:

• Many Chinese youth are struggling with a societal shift away from arranged marriages and towards ones based on mutual attraction.
• They often haven’t built the skills necessary to successfully date. And traditional gender preferences combined with the one child policy have left an overabundance of boys.
• Dating schools will charge boys anywhere between $45 for an online course to $3,000 for individualized coaching.
• Courses start with the basics: how to dress. Narrow collars and fitted pants are important.
• Next up: a haircut. The right style is key.
• Professional photographers help the boys strike artistic poses to convey a sense of sophistication.
• Then there’s field work. Enrollees are expected to approach random women in the mall and ask to add them on WeChat – a major Chinese social media platform.
• The schools boast a 90% success rate in having their graduates find girlfriends.

Read more on The New York Times.

Via: Marginal Revolution.