Mike Cohen, General Manager at the Aloft Manhattan - Financial District, heard about a guest's autistic son who loves to collect business cards from hotel GMs. He put out a call via email to RHG properties and via his LinkedIn page to see how many they could collect and forward on to the boy's father. His comments on the responses he received are below:
The response from everyone out there in the Real Hospitality Group and LinkedIn universe has been STAGGERING! My original post has been liked 541 times, commented on by 98 and has almost 76,000 views! WOW!!!
I was going to spread out all the business cards on some meeting tables and take some pictures, but there are just so many that all the cards would just blend together.
However, I have some awesome stats! Who doesn’t love data?
OF BRANDED US HOTELS:
I have cards from 233 hotels, resorts, conference centers, campgrounds and management companies! There are cards from 167 branded US hotels, representing 55 chains....INSANE! Leading the pack were Fairfield Inn & Suites tied with Hilton Garden Inn at 10 hotels each, followed by a three-way tie at 9 for Marriott, Courtyard and Hampton. The most GM cards came from New York (40), followed by Texas (17) and Oklahoma (all Oklahoma City!). A BIG shout out to all the hotels of Cheektowga, NY! 8 GMs sent their cards from this small city in upstate, NY. AWESOME! There are cards from 39 states! Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wyoming.....where ya at?!?!?
OF INDEPENDENT US HOTELS:
I have cards from 49 independent hotels and resorts! The most cards came from New York (17), followed by California (8) and Florida (6). Other states that GM cards came from were Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Thank you all!
OF INTERNATIONAL HOTELS:
I have cards from 17 international hotels and resorts! The most came from England (7), followed by Ireland (5). Other countries include Canada, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scotland and Spain.
I have a huge stack of cards and letters ready to go out!! A full list of every hotel is below. Thank you all soooo much for liking, commenting, sharing, reposting, tagging and sending your cards and inspirational notes to me. It has been fantastic. Our roles as GMs can be pretty tough and wear us down from time to time, but it’s through moments like this that we all can really regroup, refocus and see the big picture! All of us will surely make a humongous impact on our guest’s son and family. You all are truly fantastic!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
--Mike
