What’s Next For The Hospitality Industry: Experts Dish On Best Practices For Hotel And Restaurant Re-Openings

​As a customer service and hospitality consultant, I advise hotels at all star ratings and service levels (up to and including triple-Five Star Forbes Travel Guide properties) on “the hospitality part of the hospitality industry”: proactive customer service, standards and best practices, and moments of wow, large and small. A typical consulting engagement for me with a property involves mystery shopping, customer service and proactive hospitality training, workshops, and ongoing advisory services.

​Micah Solomon Senior Contributor
Entrepreneurs
Customer experience consultant • customer service keynote speaker & webinar host • training • executive content creator and ghostwriter • influencer • company culture • patient experience • tech & AI • hospitality • www.micahsolomon.com • micah@micahsolomon.com • 484-343-5881 • Bestselling author of "Ignore Your Customers and They'll Go Away," (HarperCollins Leadership).

Jay Coldren JAY COLDREN

​More than ever before, though, with the massive changes wrought by COVID-19, I’ve been feeling that no single SME (subject matter expert), myself emphatically included, has all the answers. So I thought it would be enlightening today to check in with one of my favorites in this field, Jay Coldren, Managing Director of Hospitality/Eat+Drink for Streetsense, a creative design consultancy in Washington, DC, for another expert point of view on what is currently going on–and what is heading our way.

​A 25-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Coldren’s background includes roles as the Global Brand Leader for EDITION Hotels, Managing Director for Dean & Deluca, and Director of Dining for the Little Washington (a Michelin Three Star property I’ve spent a lot of time with in these pages). In response to the global pandemic, Mr. Coldren and his team at Streetsense have developed a series of “tool kits” to support restaurants and hotels struggling with the impact of the crisis.

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Micah Solomon, Senior Contributor, Forbes; customer service and hospitality consultant; author, The Heart of Hospitality: Great Hotel and Restaurant Leaders Share Their Secrets:  The hospitality sector is going through an industry-wide catastrophe of proportions we’ve arguably never seen before. What are you seeing out there?


Jay Coldren, Managing Director of Hospitality/Eat+Drink for Streetsense: It sure feels like the worst industry wide crisis of my lifetime. After the initial shock, our clients are now coming to grips with the reality of a very long road back to something close to normal. They just want to know how they can fight back and save their businesses. 
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