Lagenda Aqila - bab 2 teaser

sedutan Bab 2 Lagenda Aqila

"Siapakah kamu yang tidak diundang? " soal Tuan Elfion, keras nadanya.

Suasana yang mulanya meriah kini bertukar menjadi tegang. Kehadiran seseorang di dalam dewan itu dalam keadaan berjubah tanpa kelibat rupanya menjadi satu persoalan bagi semua.

Tuan Elfion kurang senang dengan apa yang dirasainya kini. Sejuk tapi bahang. Bahang ibarat perasaan amarah yang tidak tenteram yang semakin lama semakin mengganas. Bakal membaham mereka semua kalau tidak dikawal atau dibendung seawal mungkin.

Tangannya mengarah kepada beberapa pengawal yang berada di dalam dewan itu.
Masing-masing bergerak merapati lembaga itu, namun tidak semena-mena langkah mereka terhenti dengan sendirinya.

Kaku tanpa sebarang sebab, hinggalah menjadi api yang menjilat seluruh badan dengan sendirinya. Menjadi debu terus diiringi jeritan orang ramai di dalam dewan itu.

"Nyawa kau milik aku! " suara seorang wanita yang kasar dan nyaring bergema.

Pening

Pening dirasakan sementara menanti kedatangan 2013. Banyak perkara yang perlu diselesaikan namun masih lagi tak berjalan...

Mudahan dalam masa yang singkat ni, akan aku selesaikan sebaik mungkin dengan segera..

My Untold Story - Part 1

Sinaran cahaya matahari di pagi hari itu menceriakan pemandangan di luar kelas 4 Merah. Mereka yang sedia ada masing-masing sibuk dengan pelbagai ragam yang menjadi suatu kebiasaan.

 Tampak seorang lelaki yang bercermin mata berserta dengan buku-buku yang dipegang di tangan kanannya melangkah masuk di pintu hadapan. Kemunculannya mengubah suasana bising tadi menjadi senyap ditemani oleh geseran kerusi yang ditolak tepi.

 "Bangun. Selamat Pagi Cikgu, " suara lelaki yang berada di barisan hadapan memecah kesunyian yang ada.

 Serentak dengan itu, kelas itu bergema dengan ucapan selamat pagi kepada lelaki yang bergelar guru itu.

 " Selamat pagi semua, " balas cikgu Rashid selaku guru kelas 4 merah.

 "Semua hadir pagi ni? " ditanya sambil mengamati bilangan orang yang hadir.

 "Luqman Daniel takda cikgu. Dah masuk 3 hari dah, " jawab lelaki tadi selaku ketua kelas 4 merah.

 Cikgu Rashid sekadar mengangguk kecil. 3 hari yang berturut-turut tanpa sebarang berita. Sakit ke, atau ada masalah lain?

 Dipandangnya meja belajar yang terletak di barisan ketiga dan bertentangan dengannya. Kosong dan tidak berpenghuni hari ini jua.

 Dikenalinya Luqman Daniel sebagai seorang pelajar yang pendiam tapi rajin. Gemar membaca apatah lagi menjadi ahli pustakawan. Semenjak dari bermulanya sesi persekolahan tahun ini, rekod kehadirannya cukup cemerland, 100%.

 Tapi disedarinya awal minggu ini, keceriaan yang sentiasa ada di wajahnya pudar tanpa sebab.

 "Ada sesiapa tahu tak kat mana rumahnya? "

 "Saya tahu, cikgu " jawab seorang lelaki yang bertubuh kecil dan berkulit hitam manis, duduknya di bahagian belakang sekali.

 "Ok. Nanti pergi ke rumah dia dan tanya kenapa dia tak datang sekolah." sambil meneliti buku-buku latihan yang sedia ada di mejanya.

 "Baik cikgu."

 "Mungkin sebab dia kot., " bisik Sharin yang duduk di sebelahnya. Sharin yang terkenal dengan sikap nakal yang suka mengusik dan mengenakan orang, mengacukan jari kanannya ke arah seorang gadis yang berbaju kurung. Gadis yang duduk semeja di hadapan Luqman.

 "Entahle, nanti petang aku cari dia tengok apa citer, " jawab Suhaizam. Lelaki yang dikira rapat juga dengan Luqman.

 Saja dilihatnya gadis itu, membisu sahaja tanpa menunjukkan sebarang reaksi.

Angkasa

Angkasa, please baca and komen. Thanks

http://buku.karangkraf.com/ilham/karya-detail.aspx?idk=186&idc=1587

Lagenda Aqila

Baca dan komen ya

idk=311&idc=1519http://buku.karangkraf.com/ilham/karya-detail.aspx?idk=311&idc=1519

Hilangnya Aku

Boleh baca updated bab sampai bab 5 di link below

http://buku.karangkraf.com/ilham/karya-detail.aspx?idk=249&idc=1640

Steps forward to 2013

2013 is on the way within 7 more days to go.

My present plan apart of furthering my career in hotel line as a future HOD who knows when and where, were to being part time writer / novellist.

An interest that i have had since i was in secondary school, but nothing that concrete till recently.

A steps i`ve taken to write Angkasa- a science fiction story about space itself, and the domination of certain key people and organization alongside few mysteries to be revealed with a twist at the end of the story.

But still incomplete, at chapter 28 thus far. Refer http://angkasa-ech33.blogspot.com

Apart of that, Hilangnya Aku - a horror mystery story, Lagenda Aqila - a fantasy story like RPG cum LOTR and a compilation of what memories i had during mid school time... which would become a love story..

Well many thinks to plan still...

My Untold Story - Prolog

Hujan yang lebat membasahi permukaan tanah yang diselaputi simen. Tempat kebiasaan di mana berlangsungnya perhimpunan pagi setiap hari kecuali di hari sabtu dan ahad.

Waktu tengahari dengan cuaca yang cerah sebelum ini, menjadi gelap gelita dan ditemani oleh awan nimbus. Gelagat budak-budak yang berpakaian putih sibuk berlari mencari tempat lindungan. 

Yang tinggal hanyalah dia sahaja, termenung tanpa menghiraukan titisan air hujan. Air hujan yang menjadi penemannya kini, walaupun membasahkan baju dan seluarnya.

Fikirannya hanya tertumpu dengan apa yang dilihatnya tadi. Tak percaya pada mulanya, tapi dia terpaksa menelan jua kepahitan yang tak pernah disangkanya.

"I minta maaf. I suka berkawan dengan u, tapi tak lebih dari itu.. I tak suka berboyfriend " ayat yang diungkapkan kepadanya awal minggu ni.

Namun apa yang dilihatnya tadi jelas lain dari apa yang didengarinya. Perlakuan manis dan berdua-duaan bercampur gelak ketawa menggambarkan suasana yang berbeza.
Kasih yang ditagih daripadanya kini hanyalah suatu impian yang berkecai, hancur begitu sahaja.

Air matanya mengalir begitu sahaja tanpa dia sedari, bercampur dengan titisan hujan sedia ada...

Hilangnya Aku - Prolog

Prolog

Kereta Alza berwarna kelabu itu bergerak menaiki bukit itu dengan kelajuan sederhana. Jalan yang berbukit bukau dan dikelilingi oleh persekitaran hutan itu mengambil masa 30 minit sebelum sampainya destinati kereta itu.

Jam yang terpapar di dashboard kereta itu menunjukkan 10.45pm. Dah hampir nak masuk 12.00 tak lama lagi.

Dia tak sangka pula perjalanan dari KL ke Bukit Kelangsar akan mengambil masa 3 jam. Setahu dia, sepatutnya dia dah sampai ke Hotel Everglades 90 minit tadi. Salah jalan ke? Tapi ikutkan peta dan GPS, jalannya betul.

Isterinya sudahpun terlena awal tadi, berbaring di tempat duduk penumpang. Bunyi bising yang tadinya merancakkan suasana di dalam kereta itu telahpun senyap, apabila kedua anak kembarnya juga masing-masing terlelap.

Selama ni dia memang dah lama nak pergi bercuti ke Hotel Everglades yang terkenal di atas kecantikan dan keunikannya, tapi tak pernah berpeluang dek kesibukan bekerja. Apabila adanya peluang keemasan ini dan secara kebetulannya cuti sekolah, maka dia mengambil keputusan terus untuk bercuti di tempat yang diminatinya itu.

Pedal minyak ditekan sebaik mungkin manakala gear rendah digunakan apabila menaiki bukit itu. Jalan yang berbengkok itu sedikit sebanyak mengganggu rentak perjalanan. Celoteh deejay radio Fly Fm sedikit sebanyak menghiburkan hatinya yang sunyi kini.

POMMM...

Rentak tayar keretanya secara tiba-tiba menjadi terumbang ambing. Dia memberhentikan keretanya di bahu jalan di samping memasang lampu kecemasan.

Isterinya masih lagi terlena, tak terusik pun. Lampu jalan yang sedia ada tidaklah begitu terang, dikelilingi pula oleh pokok-pokok di samping bunyi serangga malam berkumandang.

Dia mengeluh panjang. Kurang percaya dengan nasibnya kini. Takkan le nak tunggu sampai esok pagi baru nak wat?....Cabar dirinya.

Dia lak tengah syok tidur...langsung tak sedar. Duh.... Sedikit marah perasaannya.

Pintu kereta dibuka lantas dia melangkah keluar perlahan-lahan. Udara di sekelilingnya sejuk, sangat sejuk. Nasib dia telah mengenakan baju sejuknya awal-awal lagi apabila dia melepasi tol dalam perjalanan naik ke bukit tadi.

Dilihatnya keadaan tayar kereta di bahagian hadapan. Tayar depan di sebelah kanan ada kebocoran dan terpaksa ditukarkan.

Memang nasibnya benar-benar malang, terpaksa menukar tayar pulak...

Pintu bonet belakang dibuka lalu diambilnya peralatan dan tayar spare. Di kala itu dia terdengar sesuatu. Sesuatu yang tidak ingin didengarinya.

Bunyi siulan ....nyanyian..atau .....

Naluri ingin tahu adakalanya menguasai dia lalu dia melangkah jauh sedikit dari keretanya itu. Bunyi tersebut secara tiba-tiba terus senyap saja, hilang camtu sahaja. Dia terkejut, bulu romanya meremang dan terasakan suasana makin sejuk.

Dia berpusing. Tergamam seketika, cemas dan keliru.

Mana kereta Alza-nya pergi? Isteri dan anak-anaknya. Terus ghaib begitu sahaja.. Dia menjerit, memanggil nama isterinya di samping meminta pertolongan.. Hampa, tiada siapa di sana untuk menolongnya.. Dia keseorangan..

Apabila dia berpusing ke belakang semula, kawasan sekelilingnya semua gelap. Gelap gelita sungguh.

Takda bayangan jalan, pokok, mahupun cuaca langit dan sinaran bulan.

Gelap, kosong.....

Yang ada hanyalah dia sahaja...

???

Sonny White of NASA's Johnson Space Center presented his calculations on the energies required to travel faster than Einstein's famous speed limit: the speed of light. By White's reckoning, his design of starship -- that is "adjusted into more of a rounded doughnut, as opposed to a flat ring" and oscillates the warp intensity -- could be powered by the approximate mass-energy of the Voyager 1 space probe.

Although "the mass-energy of the Voyager 1 space probe" may not sound like much, if you convert the 722 kilogram Voyager mass into raw energy (using Einstein's famous mass-energy equivalence equation: E=mc²), White's warp drive would require 6.5x10¹⁹ Joules (65 exajoules) to create a warp bubble. That's nearly the entire annual energy consumption of the United States.

Clearly, this monstrous energy requirement isn't practical, but it's one heck of an improvement over previous estimates.

As described by Eric W. Davis, senior research physicist at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas, and co-author of Frontiers of Propulsion Science, the warp drive can be envisaged as a means of "surfing" through spacetime:


Fill 'er Up with One Jupiter
Although Alcubierre's calculations showed that unimaginably huge amounts of energy would be needed to create this warp bubble, recently, Richard Obousy, co-founder and president of Icarus Interstellar (a key partner of the 100YSS), used our new understandings of quantum mechanics and applied them to the warp drive.

Obousy's approach is to manipulate dark energy -- the mysterious force that appears to permeate the entire Universe, causing it to expand -- in such a way that extra dimensions (as predicted by string theory) can facilitate the creation of a bubble of spacetime.

"Given that extra dimensions have not yet experimentally been shown to exist, and the idea that dark energy is an artifact of these extra dimensions is somehow related to these dimensions is clearly highly theoretical," Obousy told Discovery News, "however it provides us with an interesting perspective from which to examine the problem."

Although this method would theoretically allow a Alcubierre-like solution to traveling faster than the speed of light, vast amounts of energy would still be needed -- the approximate mass-energy of Jupiter no less -- but at least it's an improvement from the "all the energy in the Universe" solution.
Referring to White's work, Obousy continued: "The Jupiter calculation was purposefully created as an 'upper bound' to the problem, and I'm glad that the work performed by my colleagues has demonstrated ways to reduce the energy requirements down further."

Warp Drive Possible

HOUSTON — A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television's Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say.

A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre; however, subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy.

Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science.

Warping space-time
An Alcubierre warp drive would involve a football-shape spacecraft attached to a large ring encircling it. This ring, potentially made of exotic matter, would cause space-time to warp around the starship, creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space behind. [Star Trek's Warp Drive: Are We There Yet? | Video]

Meanwhile, the starship itself would stay inside a bubble of flat space-time that wasn't being warped at all.
"Everything within space is restricted by the speed of light," explained Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit group of scientists and engineers devoted to pursuing interstellar spaceflight. "But the really cool thing is space-time, the fabric of space, is not limited by the speed of light."

With this concept, the spacecraft would be able to achieve an effective speed of about 10 times the speed of light, all without breaking the cosmic speed limit. The only problem is, previous studies estimated the warp drive would require a minimum amount of energy about equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter.

But recently White calculated what would happen if the shape of the ring encircling the spacecraft was adjusted into more of a rounded donut, as opposed to a flat ring. He found in that case, the warp drive could be powered by a mass about the size of a spacecraft like the Voyager 1 probe NASA launched in 1977.
Furthermore, if the intensity of the space warps can be oscillated over time, the energy required is reduced even more, White found.

 "The findings I presented today change it from impractical to plausible and worth further investigation," White told SPACE.com. "The additional energy reduction realized by oscillating the bubble intensity is an interesting conjecture that we will enjoy looking at in the lab."

Warps Drive

Warp drive is a hypothetical faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion system which a spacecraft equipped with a warp drive may travel at apparent speeds greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude, while circumventing the relativistic problem of time dilation.

Warp drive technology creates an artificial "bubble" of normal space-time that surrounds the spacecraft. Consequently, spacecraft at warp velocity can continue to interact with objects in "normal space".

A valid solution for faster-than-light travel which models the warp drive concept, called the Alcubierre drive, was formulated by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. Subsequent calculations found that such a model would require prohibitive amounts of energy. However, it has recently been found that by changing the shape of the warp drive, much less energy could be used, making the idea of a warp drive once again feasible, and NASA scientists have begun preliminary research on such technology. 

By using a matter/antimatter reactor to create plasma, and by sending this plasma through warp coils,  a warp bubble is created which could be use to move a craft into subspace and hence exceed the speed of light. 
Warp engine technology as a 'Gravimetric Field Displacement Manifold' and the device being powered by an anti-matter/matter reaction which powers the two separate nacelles (one on each side of the ship) to create a displacement field (the aforementioned "bubble")

Warp drive velocity in Star Trek is generally expressed in "warp factor" units, which—according to the Star Trek Technical Manuals—correspond to the magnitude of the warp field. Achieving warp factor 1 is equivalent to breaking the light barrier, while the actual velocity corresponding to higher factors is determined using an ambiguous formula.

However, the velocity [in present dimensional units] of any given warp factor is rarely the subject of explicit expression, and travel times for specific interstellar distances are not consistent through the various series.

Warp factors are converted to multiples of c with the cubic function v = w³c, where w is the warp factor, v is the velocity, and c is the speed of light. Accordingly, "warp 1" is equivalent to the speed of light, "warp 2" is 8 times the speed of light, "warp 3" is 27 times the speed of light, etc.

A primary component of the warp drive method of propulsion in the Star Trek universe is the "gravimetric field displacement manifold," more commonly referred to as a warp core. It is a fictional reactor which taps the energy released in a matter-antimatter annihilation to provide the energy necessary to power a starship's warp drive, allowing faster-than-light travel. Starship warp cores generally also serve as powerplants for other primary ship systems.

When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate — both matter and antimatter are converted directly and entirely into enormous quantities of energy, as electromagnetic radiation. In the Star Trek universe, fictional "dilithium crystals" are used to regulate this reaction. These crystals are described as being non-reactive to anti-matter when bombarded with high levels of radiation. Usually, the reactants are deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, and antideuterium (its antimatter counterpart).

The warp core reaction chamber is often referred to as the "dilithium intermix chamber" or the "matter/antimatter reaction chamber", depending upon the ship's intermix type. The reaction chamber is surrounded by powerful magnetic fields to contain the anti-matter. If the containment fields ever fail, the subsequent interaction of the antimatter fuel with the container walls would result in a catastrophic release of energy, with the resultant explosion capable of utterly destroying the ship. Such "warp core breaches" are used as plot devices in many Star Trek episodes.

Can we ?

We have achieved a lot since the day technology was found by our predecessors, creating lights, electricity, cars, plane, and others, and it keeps evolving.

From the time people created ship to sail the earth, learn how to navigate, and expand the journey from one continent to one continent.

Then, it`s airplane, flying around the world.

Then, it`s spaceship, flying to the space and land on the moon...

Evolving humans we are, more to the extent of betterment or the worse...

When the story/concept of warp speed were highlighted in science fiction and space opera, would this ever being a reality someday or simply just an imagination or a human myth.

But history did shows that whenever a human being focused to create his own vision and work his way towards it, it can be a reality just like the above example.

Traveling within earth is considered complete, and now we are looking for ways to travel through space, to the moon or to the other galaxy.

But how? When NASA launched the spaceship for project Apollo 13 and the rest, how did they manage to do that ?

Battling the craziest ideas that man can stay alive in space, flying a spaceship to the moon and return back safely?

With proper technology created, understanding of the principles for space science and relativity law etc, engineering issues..etc... can it be ? Yes.

Space The Final Frontier

Oh Boy, when i was at the age of 14 years old, i somehow had a thoughts that someday the prospects of us being a human traveling through space might became a reality, someday in the future of course.

I even drafted a blueprint based on the star trek series - Enterprise ship.
Then again, that was when i`m still a young boy.

But the thought of such never did left me till today. Our technological terms for space exploration has been on-going non-stop with some discoveries and experiments made to enable the possibility of a next step, a more advance space exploration.

Of course, the challenges is not because of the inavailability of the materials required to achieve or to produce but simply the concept of economics.

We are hindered and being burden by the ' economics system ' that would not allow us to get the proper
experimentation needed to achieve whatever beyond.

For example as the quote of Captain Picard from Star Trek The Next Generations, in future itself coins / money is no longer exist. The people strive towards the betterment of the human civilization at no expense under the terms of cash/money.

As i would say as per above, presently a lot of experiments or expedition are subjective to grants / loans provided by the corporation or government agencies which is to them cost a lot.

With cost and fundings, the experiments can go on.
Without the said cost and fundings, the experiments can`t go on.

With or without cost, the experiements can go on because the materials and resources are always there, basically.

1995

1995

That`s the year when i first joined the hospitality industry. It`s not like i wanted to venture in hotel line, but it was the only thing that i could think of since the hotel located very near to my housing area and due to my previous part time experiences in banqueting during high school.

To think that i`m still in the hospitality business is quite funny as i 'retired' for 8 months after spending 12 years in my first hotel, looking for other opportunities to make my living.... but here i am, yet.

Reminder

Just a reminder for me to do on 13th April

- roster plan for month of May 2012, checking leave and ph - assigning a day for Section meeting and GAC.

- PCR module training follow up

- re-clarifying on MC's policy and submission to HR

- Stephen Ranger booking status and G.A upgrades

- redo the VISA card transaction

- Daily and Missed enrollment tracking YTD, and reconcile against QE per month

- PCR top enrollment 1st quarter list and updates HM on those with access or without.

- the arrival email- 3 days in advance rather than 2 days due to 48 hours gap to short.

- Jeff Britton reservation status and upgrade.

- Azimah - Resign??

....

A good boss is the one who knows in and out about his department. Things that happened, and of course how he act and handle it.

A weak boss is someone who tends to act cool, always relying on other people to assist and always head down against other bosses.

When things started to happen, panic starts and fear evolve into desperate moments.
Losing the grip that once firm, it shall be no longer under his care any further..

KPO / KJR

- PCR QE Success
- Brand Hearted Transformation / Implementation.

Revenue Management

- Demand and Price Management
- ADR By segment
- Revenue Opprotunities
- Path to price optimization

My Learning Journey

My Target
- key focus area
- what s important to develop in current role.
- what will be important to develop for next role.
- skill, knowledge and 'co' competencies.

My Success
- what it`ll look like when this areas are successfully developed.
- what will others be able to recognise in this ability

My Action
- specific action to take for each development area.
- activities a challenge but is attainable
- implement activities that can be done everyday or everytime as a habit.

My Track
- measure and review progress.
- key dates to review progress
- feedback and support

Development Areas

1. Emotional Intelligence
2. Impact and influence
3. Building your profile across the hotel/area
4. Drive for results
5. Financial Acumen
6. Strategic Thinking
7. Leading and developing people
8. Time Management
9. Effective Communication skills
10. Delegation

Internal flow

Too many internal flows error that occurs, and unfortunately was not rectified.
As seem the players involved are not keen to improvise, but rather destroy the process
to another low level.

Duh!

Front Office Manager

My questions

Hi all. Just to ask, is it TRUE that the most important thing that u need 2 be as FOM is that to have the skills/knowledges in making/preparing budget + forecast, and others are considered secondary?

Answers, thus far

1.I would like to say the first thing a FOM should have that is prediction level & a true understanding towards the team and the guests... Budgeting & forecasting will follow automatically...

2. Front office managers need several skill sets that all have significant value:
1. financial acumen, including budgets and forecasts
2. revenue management
3. people skills in hiring, training and motivating staff
4. guest service

3. I would say it is people's skills first and foremost, how you develop and motivate your staff to achieve the results that you want. And how you handle delicate and difficult situations with guests in an efficient manner. Budgeting and forecasting and definitely secondary skills as FOM.

4 If I were to prioritize John Hogan's list, it would be as follows. 4, 3, 2, 1. A strong FOM should be able to assist with the making/preparing budget + forecast. However, the service, people skills and Same Day Yielding are paramount for a successful FOM. One tip I would like to offer is any department head should be able to explain a monthly P/L thoroughly with quantitative support. If this is done, learning annual budgeting and forecasting will be relatively painless.

5. Service is the number 1 thing and the financial piece comes at the end. At the minimum, the FOM should be able to track his/her spending and compare to the G/L and how it impacts the P&L. Once this skill is mastered, budgeting/forecasting is fairly straightforward.

6. FOM is first of all to get your team to perform at the highest level in relation to your guest. The numbers comes after....

7. Be a good leader, everything will fall at the right track.

8. I really disagree with this, most important thing to be a fom is to build up your team to maintain the Guest satisfaction.
A perfect budget is nothing if your property guest satisfaction result is bad.

9. As FOM you need to know how to lead your team to achieve highest level of guest satisfaction as the core role of front office is customer service, also creative on generating revenue through upselling techniques. then Budgeting & forecasting will follow automatically...

10. If you can manage people (Your Team), keep the guests happy and have a good decision making skills i think you are done.

11. One quality you must have is integrity to succeed in any managerial field

12. FOM needs Leadership, Foresight and People Management skills, to interact well with the Hotel management TEAM, Employees, Suppliers, Guests / Customers and the general public.

13. While understanding the budget is important, building a great GSR team and executing outstanding Guest Service is the absolutely MOST vital job requirement an FOM has.

Mini Bar Future.

By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca)

Sandeep SharmaOne aspect of a hotel room that definitely merits more discussion from a profitability and customer satisfaction standpoint is the minibar. Truth be told, I seldom use the minibar when I travel. I like to eat out and experience the city that I'm in, plus there's the stigma of having to pay exorbitant fees for staple goods. All said, the minibar is one aspect primed for reimagining, and to help kick start the call to action, I sat down with Sandeep Sharma, VP Account Management at Minibar Systems (www.minibar.ch), the pre-eminent supplier in this segment, to address the issue.

PKF's 2011 annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry report examined minibar utilization. With 727 hotels (out of 6,500) reporting minibar revenue in 2010 and 2009, the results indicated:

In 2010, minibar revenue averaged $152 per available room, 60 cents per occupied room, or 0.24% of total hotel revenue.
In 2009, minibar revenue averaged $143 per available room, 61 cents per occupied room, or 0.23% of total hotel revenue.



Therefore, it appears that minibar revenue grew 6.3% as a source of revenue for the sample of hotels, but much was attributable to the increase in occupied rooms. For reference purposes, room service at these hotels averaged $775 per room in 2010, or 1.2% of total hotel revenue.

Sandeep, I noticed from the latest PKF data that minibars represent only a minor revenue source for hotels. Yet, I can't remember a hotel that does not have a minibar. What is your take on this data?

It is true that the average hotel guest at a full service, reputable hotel expects his/her guestroom to have a minibar. From the hotel's perspective, besides offering the convenience of a minibar to make the guest's stay more pleasurable, there also is an opportunity to generate incremental revenue. That is why minibars are found in most reputable hotels and hotel chains.

While it is also true that minibar revenue is a minor source of revenue (when compared to rooms, restaurants or banquets), those hotels that have our equipment averaged a Sales Per Occupied Room (SPOR) of $2.01 in 2009 and $2.41 in 2010. This was largely a result of higher ADR and occupancy trends in the industry. In our opinion, a hotel that is doing $0.60 SPOR really should not have minibars because at that revenue level, it is impossible to make a profit given the fixed and controllable expenses of a minibar department.

You mentioned that automatic bars were becoming an increasingly important business. Can you explain the impact of this phenomena and where it is most prevalent.

One of the biggest expenses that a hotel has is labor. With honor bars, labor expense (in high labor cost cities) can run as high as 80% of revenues. Automation drastically reduces a hotel's labor expense. A minibar attendant can service 130 occupied rooms in a hotel that has honor bars. That productivity goes up to 350 occupied rooms in a hotel that might use our SmartCube automated bar system.

I noticed a move towards minibars with automated accounting: remove a bottle and the guest gets computer charged. What is the feedback from the hotels? Have you seen a lot of complaints from guests?

A hotel that has a well-run minibar department will ensure that the daily routine includes the process of refunding to the guest account all such charges where the attendant identifies that the guest has not consumed the item. Educating the guest about the new amenity is also critical in keeping guest complaints down. This is done by the Front Desk on guest check-in as well as by having signage and collateral in guest rooms which provide information about the automated nature of the bars.

There are some growing pains when a hotel that has had honor bars switches to automated bars. However, if properly managed, automation actually has the ability to cut down on minibar related guest complaints for the following reasons:

You are not disturbing those guests who have not moved anything in the minibar. Compare this to honor bars where you have to knock on every occupied room.
Billing takes place in real time, so the chances of a guest being billed in error are minimized.
Because all activity in the bar is stamped with a date and time and saved on our SmartCube S3 Software, it acts as a deterrent against employee theft from the minibars.



With a trend towards healthier products, how have you guided your hotels in planning their product selection?

Our studies indicate that the trend towards healthy options in the general marketplace does not transfer over to minibars. With the exception of Spring Water and Orange Juice, ‘healthy' items perform poorly in minibars. While we advise that hotels have one healthy item (such as a granola bar) offered in the minibar, for a hotel where profit is the main objective, our advise is against loading the minibar with ‘healthy' items. The 10 top selling and most profitable items sold in minibars have mostly remained unchanged over the years.

Despite the reasons given above, we always engineer menus based on the hotel type and guest demographic. For instance, if a hotel is a spa resort, we will engineer a menu that focuses on that particular theme.

What can a hotel do to maximize return on their mini-bar capital investment?

This is a very interesting question and one that hotels often struggle with. A majority of the hotels do not treat their minibar department as a profit center and never provide the focus and attention it needs. As a result, they have unprofitable minibar departments. The key to success consists of three simple steps:

Procure equipment from a well established and reputable company such as Minibar Systems.
Ensure that the company just does not install the minibars and disappear. It is critical that the company provides technical and operational support for the minibars as well as the point of sale system that it installs.
If the hotel does not want to dedicate the time and resources needed to manage the operation then partner with a company, such as Minibar Systems, who have an established track record of providing minibar consulting and management services to the hotel industry.



What is the funniest or most unusual minibar story that you can tell us?

This story comes from Garrett Warren, our Senior Account Manager and minibar expert-at-large.
A guest was checking out of her hotel room and had been automatically charged for all of the minibar items in the external snack basket. When the guest realized she had already been billed, she said she had all of the items in her suitcase and opened it up to retrieve the items. As she pulled out all of the snacks, she also pulled out guest towels, hair dryer and hotel room iron. When the Front Desk Agent asked if she wanted to return these items as well, the guest replied, "No, why should I return them if I haven't been billed for them?" The Front Desk Agent fell over laughing.

What is the future of minibar systems? Do you see expansion within the accommodation marketplace? What are the latest trends in minibar management and marketing?

While the viability of the minibar concept is often debated, the fact is that guests of upscale hotels expect minibars in their rooms. They like the fact that some of their favorite beverages and snacks are available at an arm's reach in their guest room and they can get what they want immediately without having to call or talk to someone.

With the advent of new technology, the way minibars work will continue to change. For instance, Minibar Systems now offers a communication platform called PowerPlus that enables our SmartCube Minibars to work over the hotel's electrical infrastructure. Hotels no longer have to spend on costly wiring and cabling infrastructure to have an automated minibar in their guest rooms.

The latest trend is for hotels to outsource the operation of individual departments to companies that have the expertise, and this is happening with minibars as well. The fact is that the F&B Director at a hotel has too many things going on and really does not have the time to focus on an operation that contributes limited revenue to his division. That is where Minibar Systems steps in and takes over the operation and ensures that the right focus and direction is provided to ensure the minibar department is profitable. We give our customers different options that they can choose from depending on how much they want to be involved.

Some properties retain us to provide them with consulting services for their minibar department. We assign one of our experienced Regional Account Managers to the hotel who makes periodic onsite visits to audit the operation and make specific recommendations targeted to improve revenues and reduce expenses. Some hotels enter into revenue sharing agreements with us wherein they have no capital costs. We provide the hotel with the equipment as well as technical and operational support and recover our costs by sharing the revenues generated by the minibar department. Some hotels do a full ‘outsource' of their minibar department to us, wherein we provide the equipment, the product that is sold in the minibars and an onsite manager to operate the hotel's minibar department.