DISCOVERING
     HOSPITALITY

Want to stand out in the hospitality industry? Discover 7 essential hospitality skills for 2026, from guest service and leadership to AI literacy and career development. Get practical tips to build your skills and succeed in a changing industry with Discovering Hospitality.

When AI enters the workplace, what happens to the people who built their expertise over decades? In What the Corridors Know, hotel leader Allan Chan explores the human side of digital transformation and why empathy, experience, and trust are essential to making technology work.

River cruising is evolving beyond scenic views and leisurely excursions. Discover how leading cruise brands are redefining hospitality through adventure, cultural immersion, personalization and purposeful travel—and what industry professionals can learn from the shift.

Discover how hotels can unlock new revenue from underused meeting rooms, rooftops, parking spaces and wellness facilities. Five hospitality leaders share strategies to boost hotel profitability, maximize existing assets and enhance the guest experience without nickel-and-diming customers.

What separates good hospitality managers from great leaders? Discover seven practical leadership lessons on retaining top talent, building guest loyalty, managing costs, embracing technology, and preparing the next generation of hospitality leaders. A must-read Sunday feature for hotel general managers, restaurant owners, and hospitality executives.

Gen Alpha is gaining influence over family travel decisions, including hotel choice. Allan Chan explores how hotels can turn young guests into loyal advocates through personalised experiences, playful rewards and family-focused loyalty programmes.

When a hotel system crashes during her temporary promotion, a young Filipina must rely on the lessons she learned at her family’s sari-sari store. But a costly mistake and the loss of her acting supervisor role teach her a deeper lesson about leadership, accountability, and growth in the hospitality industry.

What can a hotel internship teach that the classroom cannot? Four hospitality students share how real-world hotel experience built confidence, sharpened judgment and helped them discover where they belong in the industry.

Sustainability is no longer a specialized concern limited to environmental organizations or the construction industry. Around the world, governments, businesses, developers, and institutions are redefining how buildings are designed, constructed, and managed in response to climate change, resource scarcity, and the growing demand for healthier, more resilient communities.

Running a successful hotel means mastering the art of the invisible. Whether it’s a boutique property, a major resort or a busy city hotel, success depends on turning rooms and keeping amenities stocked around the clock. Guests expect quick, consistent service from the moment they check in. While most of that work happens behind the scenes, if something slips, guests pick up on it.

The college degree is not obsolete. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data continue to show a substantial economic advantage from higher education. Across OECD countries, workers with bachelor's degrees earn considerably more, on average, than those whose education ended at the upper-secondary level.

Hospitality is more than food, drinks, hotels, and restaurants—it is the art of creating experiences, building relationships, and turning passion into a meaningful career. Behind every successful hospitality business is a story of vision, resilience, creativity, and a willingness to keep learning.

The more interesting question is not whether AI can perform the receptionist's tasks. It is which tasks hotels will decide no longer require a receptionist at all—and what happens to the role when those tasks disappear.

Early in 2026, we decided to follow the career progress of a young Filipina whose lifelong dream has been to become a Hospitality professional.

During my staycation at Splendido Tagaytay Hotel and Country Club a few months ago, I had the privilege of meeting its Executive Chef Victor Legaspi whose culinary creations stayed palpable in my palate.

For beverage directors, this is the moment to start asking suppliers harder questions about site, harvest timing and cellar technique, rather than waiting for the finished wines to arrive on a sell sheet.

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that belongs only to the hospitality floor. It settles into the lower back after ten hours on tile, lingers in the wrists after carrying trays stacked three plates high, and shows up behind the eyes after a double shift spent smiling through complaints about cold coffee and slow kitchens.

Traveling around England for the past month taught me a lot about cheeses; although I knew some things, there was still some info that was new to me. Here are some of the things I learned about these delightful ones that I simply had to enjoy with a glass of chilled white.

Early in 2026, we decided to follow the career progress of a young Filipina whose lifelong dream has been to become a Hospitality professional.

Every reservation, stay, dining experience and preference is recorded somewhere. Yet if those insights fail to reach frontline employees at the moment of service, they deliver little value.