The Left Hand

I tend to make a big deal in my head noticing people being left-handed. I'm left-handed myself, so it may be trying to have a commonality with other human beings.

I never really faced a stigma against my being left-handed, though I do cite how my grandfather (and, now thinking about it, occasionally my dad in the earlier years) would have me put on and tie my right shoe first. My dad has asked me sometimes why I hang clothes on hangers the way I do, and that is primarily because I'm left-handed.

When I found people actually didn't mind, I would wear watches on my right wrist, making it so much easier to put on.

I would have to remember consciously that people shake hands with their right hand (even though I think I may have extended my left on more than a few occasions out of not even thinking about it), because there are some people who consider shaking the left hand rude (or even gross, since some people believe one must wipe after using the restroom with the left hand only).

It's funny, though, that traditional place settings have the fork on the left and knife on the right, even though when eating with just a fork I see people use their right hands to manipulate their food. I have, to horror, seen some people do a reverse place setting. I've had to learn to not put drinkware on the left hand side, and to make sure the handle on teacups and coffee cups face the right (since, especially in hospitality, one wants to make things easier for people and err to the majority of your clients being right-handed). 

I have a Wikipedia page in edit/draught status where I've been amassing a list of left-hand "celebrities" as I've noticed them. There are people like Eliza Taylor who seem a little ambidextrous, but others like Barack Obama that people would recognize.

This world is interesting enough with cultural differences with left and right. I still need to read The Left Hand of Darkness.

Business Travel: Hotel Reflaggings

washingtonpost.com: "Wasn't that Hilton a Marriott last week? What travelers need to know as hotels suffer from an identity crisis."

I know this well, because where I work, it's changed hands a few times, and my other post changed names as well. I can relate entirely.

West Palm Beach Marriott, Among Palm Beach Hotels, Introduces a New Getaway Package for Florida Residents

Hospitality Net - Industry News: Wow, they're giving the place away!

Raffles Rumours

ehotelier.com News Archives: Oh how rumours spread, and how they're mended.

Five Outstanding Green Restaurants

TreeHugger: These are the leaders people should look towards. It just takes a little effort if one would give it a chance.

"Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group installs Datavision Business Intelligence System Worldwide"

Hospitality Net - Industry News: "Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group installs Datavision Business Intelligence System Worldwide ... to consolidate information from PMS, POS, Spa, Sales & Catering and Back Office at each Mandarin Oriental hotel..."

I'm only posting this because as I read this article, I was thinking, "What Mandarin Oriental sneezes out, KOR will catch." It's been the case for about a year until when I'd gone, as a number of the personnel are either from Mandarin Oriental or Ritz-Carlton. Further solidifying this is that Datavision is based in Miami.

I'll have to tell the Sales Department to keep me posted on this one.

FREE Technolgy or Bust

The Hotel Show - News & Updates: "Hotels charging guests to use Internet and failing to provide access for iPods could lose out, says The Hotel Show Seven Star conference moderator"

So basically, we'd all better shape up. Marriott has already begun to embrace this and other concepts like organic liquour, but who knows when it will all end. In the future, it might not be such an issue to get these things done.

How to Find Smoke-Free Hotel Rooms Worldwide

The Good Life HOT MAR - TheStreet.com: "Hotels in North America are increasingly going smoke-free, but hotels in Europe and Asia often seem as slow as late-night room service when it comes to kicking the tobacco habit."

I don't mean to sound judgmental, but it's a nasty habit anyway. Smoke-free rooms all around, I say. That's been kind of a bone of contention among hoteliers I've known, because there are just some guests who don't feel they can get up and go outside to smoke.

They'll try to rig smoke detectors, smoke next to exhaust fans... Anything rather than get up and walk.

Shan Kanagasingham Appointed General Manager Of The Tides South Beach, The Flagship Property For New Tides Brand

Hospitality Net - Industry News: "Extensive hotel-opening experience clinches hire as 'Diva of Ocean Drive' prepares for December re-launch"

A past news story from my former employer who taught me much of what I know today about hospitality. May they be well.

I do miss them, but times do change.

Jobless lorry driver 'sold' The Ritz hotel to businessman in £250million con

The Daily Mail:
"When businessman Terry Collins was offered the chance to buy the Ritz Hotel for a knockdown price of £250million it was an opportunity that sounded too good to be true.
And it was indeed too good to be true. The hotel, with an estimated market value of around £600million, was not on the market.
Yet two conmen managed to persuade Mr Collins, co-founder of a large and reputable property company, that the hotel's owners, the Barclay brothers, were prepared to sell it at a bargain price."

Now, I'm not one to arbitrarily post something from The Daily Mail, especially since it's not the most worthy piece of news media on this planet... However, I'd originally seen this on one of the hospitality news sources to which I subscribe, and thought, "Oh, well they're a little more reputable, so I suppose it can't be all that bad." I'm not really certain in the figures TDM quote as being what these con artists had spent, as well as on what they'd spent the sum they'd philandered, but it was rather TMZ-like of them, anyway.

Still, I think this businessman should've researched his investment's worth a little more throughly before putting down the pounds, which, if he wins back, will probably be reallocated to legal fees anyway.