Recognizing the importance of well-trained staff as a crucial factor for success for independent hotels, WORLDHOTELS has increased its training curriculum by 30 per cent offering 115 additional courses in The Academy in 2010.

In order to support its hotels in optimising their online strategy, WORLDHOTELS also offers three brand new certification courses focusing on eMarketing: Professional Creation of a Sales-focused Hotel Website; The Power of Social Media; and Strategic eMarketing.

In 2009, the group trained more than 1,000 of its hoteliers in more than 130 courses available in 20 destinations and conducted in five languages.

In the second year of The Academy’s programme, “Unlimited Training”, WORLDHOTELS hoteliers can send as many staff members as they wish to over 300 training courses in 14 areas of specialty.

“The training courses offered by The Academy have proven to be a very valuable asset to our hotel”, comments Lutz Frey, manager of the Atrium Hotel Mainz in Germany. In 2009, the hotel sent 18 hoteliers to 50 training courses. “We were able to see direct results in our service levels, efficiency and customer satisfaction. In addition, this means a great motivational boost for our staff.”

Inspired by new ideas gained through training courses offered by The Academy, the Atrium Hotel Mainz was also able to optimize parts of its operational processes. “We changed, for example, the look and feel of our online events booking tool after our front desk manager participated in a training session on ‘Successful Conference and Event Sales’,” continues Lutz Frey.

“Overall, we are very satisfied with The Academy. For me as a hotel manager, the two main advantages are the one-off fee, allowing me to better plan my budget for the year ahead, and the single point of contact for all training courses across all areas of expertise”.

In 2010, the Atrium Hotel Mainz plans to send its staff to advanced courses. “We believe in investing in our people’s development to stay up-to-date”, says Lutz Frey. “Our employees was especially pleased with the enthusiasm, qualification and knowledge-level of the trainers and are eager to further develop their skills.”

“The 2010 curriculum has been refined and expanded to meet the specific needs of our hotels,” comments Robert Hornman, Managing Director of WORLDHOTELS. “Our aim with The Academy is to deliver strong support and a means for continued training to our affiliate hotels and their staff. Our certification programmes are on track to becoming benchmarks within the hotels industry.”