How can you franchise hospitality?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There's nothing magic about working with franchisees. What you have to do is help them improve their business.
For a franchise system to work well, you really need people with an entrepreneurial mind-set because, while you have a large, overarching system that everybody has to work with, a lot of local issues have to be handled.
The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.
Franchises are independently owned and operated businesses whose owners are responsible for their operations.
Franchising implies a financial arrangement, and I am always pleased to consider those.
We need to take excellent care of our customers, and do so at a profit.
In 1974, we began franchising. We didn't have any big thought process except that, 'OK, franchising will help us get to our goal of 32 stores and help us run stores farther away from home.'
The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.
When we first started the company, I didn't have any thoughts of franchising. We just had company-owned stores.
I always worked in institutions, I never had a restaurant of my own before, but I have opened over 30 hotels, restaurants and casinos. I understand what it takes to keep them running.