Transition Team
Orientation
Agenda
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What is a transition team?
Who makes up this team?
Transition sheet Pre-work
Pre-work Forms
Transition sheet on site
On site Forms
On site Schedule
Hotel Review form
All employee orientation and presentation
Post Work
Budget
Hand off to Regional Director for hotel
Wrap up
Q&A
What is a Transition Team?
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Transition teams are a group of experienced HP
Hotels Staff, GMs, and Department heads that are put
together when HP is acquiring a new hotel. This
acquisition can be one of three types:
1. A change of ownership and new ownership is
hiring HP to manage the property
2. A hotel that is required to have a management
company run the hotel and ownership has chosen HP
3. A new hotel that HP has just built and opened.
Who Makes up these Teams?
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The Transition Teams are made up of the following:
Team Leaders: Team leaders will be one of the following: Senior director
of Operations, Regional Director of Operations, or Vice President of
Operations.
Team Leader and Team will meet via conference call to discuss property
transition approximately 7 to 10 days prior to transition date.
The Team Leader will have the following: Flash drive with all letters,
checklists, forms, schedule for the week, contact first response regarding all
HR paperwork, org chart, and power point orientation.
Set up with transition hotel rooms for team, forward transition work sheet
to be done 1 week in advance, vendor and client letter, and get a break
down of each department and their staffing levels, put together a org chart
for the property.
Next Team Member!
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Brand Specialist:
The brand specialist will be an individual chosen from one of our hotels that has
successfully run a hotel for a minimum of 1 year and 6 months.
The brand specialist will be selected based on the following criteria:
GM for a minimum of 1 year with the brand, or AGM of property for a minimum of
2 years with the brand.
Hotel has had 2 consecutive passing QA inspections.
Service Scores have been in the acceptable level for 6 consecutive months.
Management team at this person’s property is fully staffed and trained.
A clear working understanding of the brand standards and websites.
All weekly and monthly duties are completed on a timely manner and accurate.
2 brand specialists are need for each of the following brands HGI, Hampton, HIE
and Choice.
1 Brand Specialist is need for Wingate, Sheraton, Best Western.
Next Team Member!
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Sales Specialist:
The sales specialist will be an individual chosen from one of our hotels that has
successfully worked as a inside sales coordinator or Director of Sales for a
minimum of 1 year. The brand specialist will be selected based on the following
criteria:
Hotel has had 2 consecutive passing QA inspections.
Sales director has at least 2 years experience in the pos or sales coordinator for at
least 1 year at existing property.
Service Scores have been in the acceptable level for 6 consecutive months.
Management team at this person’s property is fully staffed and trained.
A clear working understanding of the brand standards and websites.
clear understanding of brand PMS system and sales system.
All weekly and monthly duties are completed on a timely manner and accurate.
2 brand specialists are need for each of the following brands HGI, Hampton, HIE
and Choice.
1 Brand Specialist is need for Wingate, Sheraton, Best Western.
Next 2 Team Members!
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Accounting Specialist:
The accounting specialist will be an individual from the Corporate office accounting
department.
Department Experts:
The department experts will be individuals who are highly skilled in their specific
departments. Experts will be needed for Housekeeping, food and Beverage, Front office and
Engineering. Experts will be chosen for each transition based on the properties immediate
needs. One departmental expert will travel with the each transition team. The Departmental
Experts will be selected based on the following criteria:
Hotel has had 2 consecutive passing QA inspections.
Services scores for the department have been in the acceptable level for 6 consecutive months.
Department expert has been in their position for 2 years with the brand.
Department is fully staffed and trained.
Department expert has a clear understanding of brand standards and department standards for
HP Hotels.
Department expert has a clear understanding of the hotel brand PMS system.
All weekly and monthly duties are accurate and on time.
The Transition Begins
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Each transition team when assigned to a
project will get a flash drive containing all
forms needed for the project.
The Team Leader will then hold a team
meeting and roll out the forms to each team
member and assign duties on the pre-work
sheet.
The pre-meeting and weekly meetings there
after will follow this agenda….
Point of the weekly meetings
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The Weekly meetings before the actual
transition should be kept to one hour or less.
The is meeting is designed to make sure that
all members are staying on task and have run
into any issues.
The Pre – work Transition Sheet looks like
This…
Let’s review the pre work sheet in
detail!
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On the pre-work sheet there are items in black
and items in red. All items must be completed
however items in Red are critical to the
transition process.
You will also receive a flash drive with all
forms, reports, templates, inventory sheets,
presentations, etc.
And of course www.hp-hotels.com is always
available.
The More you do in Advance the
Easier the Transition is!
Let’s Review
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Once a transition is announced a team leader is
chosen and a team is formed.
The team will meet and divide up duties.
They will then meet weekly and should be
preparing for the transition 4 to 6 weeks in
advance.
All items on the Pre-work sheet must be done
before the date of the transition and the more
you can complete the better off you will be.
Any one need a Break!
See you in 10 Minutes
Finally the Day of Transition has
arrived!
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Remember transitions
can be a nervous time
for Staff and Owners.
Be sure to be patient
with questions.
Have fun and show the
staff what kind of Team
HP is from the
beginning.
Reassurance is the Key!
The on Site Schedule
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When arriving on site you will have a
transition sheet, property walk through forms
and a schedule to follow.
The schedule will be broken down by Day and
department.
Let’s talk about the upcoming week!
The Transition Schedule
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Schedule for Transition Team
Monday: Arrive in _______ at ____ est., Get checked in at hotel, do property walk through to familiarize ourselves with the
hotel. Go to nearest copier store and print out employee packets and manuals for all employee meeting Tuesday morning.
Organize all forms and files into stacks for AM meeting.
Tuesday: All employee meeting in the AM approx. 2 hours. 9am – 11 am
HP – Orientation, HR paperwork, benefits coverage, any changes being made.
Hotel – Orientation, and brand service training review.
Department head meeting: to include current staffing levels, supplies and product needs, month end procedures,
leadership map, HP goals and mission, chain of command within company, HP website review.
Finish anything on the HP transition checklist that has not been
done. Call utilities make sure Electric is on Time of
use plan.
Get banks counted, M-3 accounting program set up, review accounting procedures with GM, daily reporting, AP, AR,
Weekly reports, month end reports, Petty cash procedures, inventories, vendor letter and list of current vendors.
Budgets, P/L’s, P/L reasoning report, Paycom Training.
Wednesday: Department specific training meeting (Front Desk 9a-11am). Will cover specific Brand service training, and HP
Operating standards.
Human Resources Day: Organize all employee files and get up to First response speed.
Rollout to GM training checklist for brand.
Rollout QA documentation check list that is completed.
Walk through each department with GM with QA Improvement Planner.
Review Service Scores, Brand Rankings Scores, and current QA. Begin to develop plan of action for services.
The rest of the Week
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Thursday: Revenue Day!!
Review STAR reports, LOS strategy, Revenue Systems, sales tracking and PMS systems,
Website, GDS Screens, Forecasting procedures, F/B pricing for catering and restaurant, and
menus.
Training Department meeting for next department (Food and Beverage 10a – 12pm). Will
cover specific Brand service training, and HP Operating standards.
Thursday night Team will take the weeks information make sure we have tied up all transition
loose ends, and put together a 15 day through 90 day action plan for GM and Property. We
will also get the appropriate people scheduled for any off site brand training necessary and
schedule GM for visit to Birmingham, AL for Corporate visit.
Friday: Final Transition Day!
Last departmental Training meeting (Housekeeping 9a-11am). Will cover specific brand
service training, and HP Operating standards.
Contact Joe to make sure he is up to speed with what he needs.
Contact Brand Performance Manager to follow up on any Hilton needs.
Contact Kerry and Mike to make sure there is nothing else we need to follow up on.
Contact Ownership and follow up on any last minute loose ends provide them with transition
notes and property action plan along with a list of phone numbers and extensions to the
Corporate team.
Using the on Site Transition Sheet
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The on site transition sheet is a continuation of
the Pre-work sheet.
You may have a majority of this form filled out
already and it is used as a point of reference
and a place to keep all important information
during the transition.
At the end of the transition a copy will be left
with the GM of the property and a copy will be
put in the properties file at the office.
The Hotel Review Forms
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Hotel review forms are broken down by department
and are to be used as inspection sheets for a complete
property walk through and investigation.
These forms should be filled out in detail with
specifics so they can be used to form the final report
to ownership.
Please be very critical of the hotel as you are do these
walk through.
The property review form looks like this…
A Sample of the Property Review
form
It’s time to Bring in the new
Recruits!
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You are not only doing a
physical evaluation of
the building but also a
personnel evaluation.
During the week of
transition depending on
the situation several
things will need to be
addressed.
Employee Orientation
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All employees will need to fill out HP paperwork.
The following items should have been decided with ownership
prior to the orientation meeting: Benefits, Insurance, do they
want to retain all employees, and do they want seniority to
carry over in the case of a change of ownership.
Orientation should be rolled out in the following manner:
Welcome speech by team leader, a new hire orientation
PowerPoint, a property Org. Chart, the “Dog and Pony Show”,
filling out of paper work if necessary, expectations and
guidelines, a review of the employee handbook, Human
resources policies, and Questions and Answers.
The “Dog and Pony Show”
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The dog and pony show is the first lesson learned
when you join the HP family. We typically start by
asking the group about their work ethic and who likes
to get paid for what they do. We then hold up a
hundred dollar bill and tell them to come and get it.
The first employee out of there seat to get the money
keeps it.
The Lesson to be learned is that we are a go get it
company, if you want something, show initiative,
work hard, and give 110% then you will be rewarded!
Post Work
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After the transition week at the property is over the team has
one final task before turning the hotel over to the RDO that
will oversee the property going forward.
They must complete a final report for the ownership including
the completed property review form with suggestions,
positives, deficiencies, and a list of needs and wants for the
hotel. The best time to hit up an owner for money is during the
transition.
They also need to complete a budget for the property along
with a sales and marketing plan and a 30 to 90 day action plan
for the hotel staff.
These items are due no more than 10 working days after the
transition week.
The Hand off!
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After the transition process is over
all items should be handed over to
the RDO from HP who is
assigned to the property.
Most likely this person was the
team leader for the transition.
However if this is not the case
then the RDO should meet via
conference call with the entire
team to be debriefed.
The RDO should then call the
owner and introduce themselves
and schedule their first visit with
the hotel.
Final thoughts
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Remember HP is a Family and each time we are
doing a transition we need to make team at the hotel
feel like part of our family.
Always have fun, transitions can be hectic and even
when you are prepared things can change.
Be flexible with the schedule and timelines but make
sure everything gets done.
Do not give an answer to a question if you are unsure
always ask.
Transitions are hard work and demand complete
cooperation from all team members and HP executive
staff.
Questions??????
Thank you and congratulations, you
are now a HP Transition Team
Member!