Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Brendan Genther is Director of Member Relations, Learning & Development at Best Western Hotels & Resorts. He focuses on service training, operational execution, and aligning guest experience with revenue outcomes through practical, behavior-driven learning strategies in hospitality.

Rethinking Training as a Business Lever

Many hotels still treat training as a cost center. It lives in and is developed by corporate L&D and HR, gets deployed through an LMS, and is measured by completions instead of outcomes. Operations tolerates it. Finance questions it. And in many cases, they’re right to. Because if training doesn’t change behavior, it doesn’t change anything. In hospitality, the connection is more direct than in most industries. What your team does in the moment - at check-in (the interaction I am on a quest to rename as, “The Welcome”), at breakfast, in the guest room, and at departure, immediately shapes the guest experience. And that experience drives satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately revenue. A glaring opportunity is to stop thinking about training as an expense or box-checking and start treating it as an investment - a business lever.

The Link Between Service Execution and Revenue

At its best, service training follows a simple chain: stronger execution leads to a stronger guest experience, which leads to stronger financial performance. You see it clearly at the front desk. A confident, engaging welcome (formerly known as the check in!) sets the tone for the entire stay. Guests feel welcomed, not processed. In that moment, you’re making a deposit into what can best be described as a “trust account.”

That concept extends across the stay. In focused-service hotels, breakfast is one of the few touch points nearly every guest experiences and it delivers an immediate impression. When it’s clean, stocked, and hosted with intention, it doesn’t just improve satisfaction with breakfast - it lifts overall experience scores. It builds confidence. Another deposit. Cleanliness and working order operate the same way. The room is clean, everything works, the guest sleeps soundly and wakes refreshed. When these things are done correctly, they reinforce trust. When done poorly, they erase it instantly.

The Loyalty Wheel in Action

This is where what I call “The Loyalty Wheel” comes into play.

Welcome → Trust → Loyalty → Revenue → Reinvestment → Return.

“Stronger execution leads to a stronger guest experience, which leads directly to stronger financial performance.”

It starts with the welcome. That first interaction creates trust – and it needs to do so, quickly. From there, a connection is formed. That connection opens the door to loyalty: enrolling the guest (hopefully) into the loyalty program, recognizing them, using their name, acknowledging their status. Done well, this drives immediate revenue and increases the likelihood of return.

But it doesn’t stop there.

A returning guest expects consistency. That requires a broader strategy in the office - revenue management, sales, and operational discipline. It also requires reinvestment by owners: more training, maintaining the hotel through deep cleaning, preventative maintenance, and ongoing improvements. Along the way, listening posts guest surveys, social feedback, and direct input - help refine the experience. Then the cycle repeats. A true wheel, not a one-time event.

Execution, Simplicity, and Measurable Impact

The common thread through all of it is execution. Not theory, execution. That’s where training often falls short. Too much fluff. Too many words. Word soup: overwritten, overthought, and disconnected from the reality of a front desk agent with a guest standing right in front of them. What works is simpler!

Focus on the moments that matter most. Define what “good” looks like in those moments. Keep training short, clear, and practical. Write at the level of the audience, not above it. Ditch the corporate speak and give teams something they can actually use. Then reinforce it, on property, not just online. Through leadership, coaching, and accountability. Training is not the finish line. It’s the starting point. Measurement matters too. Guest satisfaction scores, sentiment, and operational metrics should tie directly back to the behaviors being trained. That’s how training earns credibility with operations, with ownership, and with finance. It shows impact. It shows dollars. Money in your khakis! The shift isn’t complicated, but it is intentional.

Training isn’t just about what teams know. It’s about what they do, consistently, in front of the guest. Because in hospitality, every interaction is an opportunity to build trust. And trust leads to loyalty. Loyalty leads to repeat business. And repeat business leads to revenue. When training improves those moments, it stops being an expense. It becomes one of the most effective investments a hotel can make. Make the investment.