SUMMER • 2016 THE ALBERTA HOTEL & LODGING ASSOCIATION Inspiring Service - Growing Value DEEP DIVE Get your swimming pool A glimpse inside this year’s summer-ready Accommodation Outlook Tips on keeping your food costs under control PM#40020055 PM#40020055 Now your guests SUMMER 2016 can do some serious surfi ng. TELUS Wi-Fi and TV delivers the ultimate in-room experience. TELUS Hospitality Wi-Fi allows your guests to stream video as fast or even faster than at home, while TELUS Business Optik TVTM lets you choose from over 100 HD channels, with a wide selection of On Demand content available for your guests. Connect to what your guests want most at telus.com/guestconnect © 2016 TELUS Corporation. 000MNST-Telus-FP.indd 1 2016-03-03 8:38 AM Contents SUMMER 2016 14 Columns 7 Letters 9 The Lobby Having tough conversations with your staff, five ways to keep your food costs under control, keeping your property safe 18 12 Notes from Home and Abroad 30 16 AHLA and You 17 HR Files Back of House 26 Eat, Drink, Sleep Features Grande Prairie 14 Let’s Have Lunch 28 Speaking Personally General managers Andrew Peter Parmar, Vice President of Shepherd and Kelly Anne Perri Operations at Nova Hotels discuss Alberta’s staffing challenges 22 18 The Alberta Advantage 30 Parting Shot The 2016 Accommodation Outlook sees challenges – and opportunity – in the province’s hospitality sector 22 Take the Plunge Stay on top of regulations, policies and best practices for swimming pools 24 Featured Employee: Finding Refuge In a new phase of life, Teresa Hemminger finds comfort and 24 community at the Village Creek 28 Country Inn Inspiring Service - Growing Value www.ahla.ca Summer 2016 Mainstay 3 Over 30 Years of Excellence and Dependability SUMMER 2016 Official magazine of 2707 Ellwood Drive Edmonton, AB T6X 0P7 Toll-Free: 1-888-436-6112 www.ahla.ca Chair of the Board: Perry Batke First Vice Chair: Leanne Shaw Past Chair: Steven Watters K-Bro is Canada’s largest laundry and linen supplier President & CEO: Dave Kaiser to the hospitality industry. K-Bro services over 38,000 hotel rooms and is the recognized national partner to Vice Chairs: Chris Barr Tina Tobin luxury hotels and resorts across the country. Directors North: Amr Awad Shazma Charania Decades of experience, continual reinvestment in Robin Cumine leading edge equipment and extensive quality assurance Ken Mealey programs combine to make K-Bro the number one Directors Central: Karen Naylor choice of the hospitality industry in Canada. George Marine Mark Perry For further information, contact us at: 1-866-232-0222 Directors South: Heather Hamilton Sandra Kanegawa or www.k-brolinen.com Published by: Victoria . Vancouver . Whistler . Edmonton . Calgary . Toronto . Montreal . Quebec City 10259 105 Street Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3 ENGAGE Toll-Free 1-866-227-4276 Phone (780) 990-0839 Fax (780) 425-4921 THE SENSES www.venturepublishing.ca HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE? Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Ruth Kelly Venture Publishing has the tools to transform the way you interact with your stakeholders, clients, donors, employees and members. Managing Editor: Lyndsie Bourgon Art Director: Charles Burke Graphic Designer: Andrew Wedman TOUCH Production Manager: Betty Feniak Get your Production Technicians: Brent Felzien, message in Brandon Hoover the hands of your clients, Vice-President, Sales: Anita McGillis members, employees, or Contributing Writers: Robin Brunet, Lisa Catterall, stakeholders Julie-Anne Cleyn, Willow White with a print or digital custom Contributing magazine. Photographers and Full-Sized Illustrators: Shelby Deep, Don Molyneaux, Print Darryl Propp, Heff O’Reilly Magazines Runs-of-Press PM #40020055 Interactive Tablet Apps 90% Mainstay is printed on Commorative of consumers Forest Stewardship Issues find custom Council® certified paper content useful Mainstay is published four times a year for Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association. Content copyright 2016 is held by AHLA. VENTURE PUBLISHING CLIENTS: Content may not be reprinted or reproduced on websites without ALBERTA CANCER FOUNDATION • PETROLEUM SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF CANADA • MANASC ISAAC ARCHITECTS the express permission of AHLA. STOLLERY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION • CONSULTING ENGINEERS OF ALBERTA • CANADIAN BAR ASSOCIATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS ALBERTA • SYNCRUDE CANADA • UNITED WAY OF THE ALBERTA CAPITAL REGION Undeliverable mail should be returned to Venture Publishing at ROYAL ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION • ALBERTA HOTEL & LODGING ASSOCIATION 10259 105 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3 VenturePublishing.ca 1-866-227-4276 (toll free) The Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association Control your group benefit plan costs… without compromising choice or flexibility. As Alberta’s largest benefit provider, Alberta Blue Cross delivers industry-leading plan management and cost containment to meet the needs of Alberta employers through challenging economic times. 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ABC 83420 2016/05 000MNST-AlbertaBlueCross-FP.indd 1 2016-05-12 9:50 AM Alberta Blue Cross 2016 Mainstay magazine full page / full colour - Trim Size: 8.25” by 10.75” RUN July, October JOIN THE TREND! Your Guests Will Enjoy The Camping Experience With The Go above Comforts of Home and beyond PLUG & PLAY Train to exceed expectations READY TO RENT and deliver a higher level of service. Alberta’s booming service and hospitality sector is poised for dramatic growth, and with that growth comes great opportunity. We offer a range of introductory and specialized service and hospitality programs and courses: RICK BELLAMY • Service Industry Skills (403) 652-0423 • Guest Service Professional • Customer Service Skills [email protected] • Managing Casino Slot Operations www.experthome.ca Register today 780.644.6480 norquest.ca/hospitality Step Forward NQ_SISP-GuestServices_Mainstay_3.625x9.875-May25.indd 1 16-05-25 2:59 PM President’s MESSAGE When Tourism Works BY DAVE KAISER, AHLA PRESIDENT & CEO N MAY 3, 2016 THE ALBERTA HOTEL & LODGING Association (AHLA) hosted a reception for Alberta’s ONDP government caucus at the Matrix Hotel in Edmon- ton. Using the theme Tourism Works, we informed govern- Tourism works ment MLAs about the current state of our industry and pro- moted tourism as a way to diversify Alberta’s struggling econo- in Alberta if my. We included other industry stakeholders to support these government and messages and show the collaboration that currently exists in industry work Alberta’s tourism sector. together in a spirit Unfortunately, a number of MLAs could not attend because of collaboration. of wildfires and the resulting evacuation of Fort McMurray. How- ever, one member who could make it was MLA Thomas Dang (Edmonton-Southwest), who recently sponsored Bill 204, the Alberta Tourism Week Act. We made sure to acknowledge Mr. Dang for his recognition and support of our industry. The event saw the AHLA provide industry-related statistics that showcased the current state of affairs for hotel owners and the tourism industry as a whole. In particular, the Association noted the dramatic contrast in operating results in Alberta resorts (with a 2015 RevPAR gain of 12.8 per cent) versus operating results for properties in the rest of the province (with a 2015 RevPAR decline of 15.6 per cent). It was also a prime time to remind the government of our ongoing concerns, including the impacts of Alberta’s recession on the food service sector, the impacts of hiking the minimum tourism from government members. It was also an opportunity wage by 2018 and phasing out the wage differential for liquor to share with these new MLAs the history of the Tourism Levy servers, and the dangerous precedent set by the Town of Fox and how levy dollars have been allocated in recent budgets. We Creek’s bylaw that raises business license fees for hotels from a are now faced with an opportunity for Alberta to gain market flat rate of $75 per year up to four per cent of the business’s share in a global tourism industry that is clean, sustainable, and room revenue. Industry-wide, there has been a decrease in growing faster than global GDP. profitability and tax revenues as a result of the popularity of The take-away message we hoped to deliver was that tour- online travel agencies (OTAs), and in Alberta there is a growing ism works for Alberta if government and industry work togeth- gap between the tourism levy collected and the amount dedi- er in a spirit of collaboration. Future policy decisions about cated to tourism marketing and product development. minimum wage, tourism investment, and taxation will tell us if Still, we were encouraged to hear genuine support for government is listening. Inspiring Service - Growing Value www.ahla.ca Summer 2016 Mainstay 7 C hairman’s REPORT In With the New BY PERRY BATKE, CHAIR OF THE BOARD ’M VERY GRATEFUL AND HUMBLED TO BE ABLE TO serve you as Chair of the Alberta Hotel & Lodging Associa- I tion (AHLA). We have a passionate Board of Directors who are outstanding hospitality people, dedicated to serving our members and strengthening Alberta’s tourism and hospitality industry.