Curiosity Archive

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

The Hotel CEO Who Initiated a Dialogue Rather than an Instruction

The Hotel CEO Who Initiated a Dialogue Rather than an Instruction

This story is about how curiosity transforms performance management into organisational learning.

The organisation had asked for performance management.
At least that is what everyone believed.
The mandate sounded straightforward.
Improve performance. Increase profitability.
Strengthen accountability. Introduce structure. Measure outcomes.
The objectives were sensible. The implementation began.

Managers learned. Reports improved.
Discussions became more disciplined.
Departments became increasingly aligned. People started asking better questions.
At first, the questions were operational.
Then commercial. Then strategic.

Then something unexpected happened.
The questions started travelling upwards.
Department Heads wanted clarity. The General Managers wanted clarity.
The senior leadership team wanted clarity.
Eventually, the same questions began appearing repeatedly.
What are our objectives? What assumptions are they based upon?
What are we trying to become? What are we optimising for?

The questions were not rebellious. They were logical.
The organisation was learning.
And learning organisations tend to become curious.

When budgeting time arrived, the CEO was asking the organisation to improve profitability.
A reasonable request in any organisation.

The response from the management team was equally reasonable:

What is our Highest and Best Use?
What market positioning are we pursuing?
Which customer are we targeting?
What brand strategy supports that choice?
How much capital are we prepared to invest?
When will that investment occur?
What return are we expecting?
What organisational structure is required to deliver it?

The fascinating part was that nobody had instructed the organisation to ask these questions.
The organisation had taught itself.
Performance management had created curiosity.
And curiosity has a remarkable quality.
Once it takes hold, it becomes difficult to reverse.

There was no hostility in these questions.
No resistance. No politics.
Simply a request for clarity in order to plan and execute effectively.

What followed was a growing realisation that important assumptions about who the organisation was, where it wanted to go, and what it ultimately wanted to become had never been fully articulated.
Eventually, the discussion returned to management itself: Tell us what you believe we can achieve. Tell us what you need to achieve it.
What had started as a project about measurement gradually became a conversation about direction.

Many people believe performance management is about measurement.
I have gradually come to a different conclusion.
Performance management is fundamentally about setting expectations.
Measurement simply reveals whether those expectations have been achieved.

The difficult part is rarely the measurement.
The difficult part is defining the expectations first.
Once people understand how a business works, they naturally begin asking why it works the way it does.
What started as a discussion about performance eventually became a discussion about purpose, positioning, capital, structure, and strategy.
Governance begins with that clarity, because expectations define decision rights, accountability, information flows, and ultimately the basis upon which performance can be assessed.
And not merely the financial expectations.

Looking back, I believe this was the real success of the project.
Not the reports. Not the systems.
Not the numbers. Not the measurement.
The organisation had learned how to think and had begun discovering what it was and what it wanted to achieve.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

15.06.2026/by gransier

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

The Hotel HR Director Who Learned to Love Numbers

The Hotel HR Director Who Learned to Love Numbers

This story is about how curiosity taught me that people and performance succeed together or fail together.

One of the most persistent misconceptions in business is that people and performance are in competition with each other.
My experience suggests the opposite.
Poorly managed organisations damage both.
Well-managed organisations support both.

The challenge is not choosing between people and performance.
The challenge is understanding that sustainable performance creates the conditions in which people can succeed.

If somebody had told me at the beginning of the project that the strongest advocate for performance management would eventually emerge from Human Resources, I would have been sceptical.
Very sceptical.
A hotel HR Director taught me that lesson.
And she taught it far more convincingly than any consultant ever could.

At the time, the HR Director represented something important within the organisation:
Culture, care, wellbeing, development, and respect.
The company genuinely cared about its people.
And she was one of the principal custodians of that culture.

Performance management worried her.
Not because she opposed improvement.
Because she feared what numbers might do.
Like many people, she saw a potential conflict.
People on one side. Performance on the other.
Compassion versus accountability. Culture versus profitability.
The concern was understandable.
Many organisations manage to create exactly that conflict.

Yet something unexpected happened.
She became curious. She asked questions.
She challenged assumptions.
And, at times, she gave me a hard time.
She wanted to understand. Not the spreadsheets.
The thinking behind them.
Slowly, patiently, and somewhat reluctantly at first, she began exploring concepts she had previously avoided.
Performance. Productivity. Profitability. Measurement. Expectations.

The more she learned, the more her perspective changed.
Not because she cared less about people. Quite the opposite.
She gradually realised that satisfied employees do not emerge from good intentions alone.
They emerge from functioning organisations:
Sales must perform. Operations must perform.
Finance must perform. Engineering must perform.
Managers must perform. Expectations must be clear.
Responsibilities must be understood. Resources must be available.
Only then can an organisation create the conditions that allow people to thrive.
That realisation changed her perspective.

She eventually understood something important.
People are not separate from capital.
They are one of the most significant investments any hotel makes.
Most organisations treat people and capital as different conversations.
One belongs to Human Resources. The other belongs to Finance.
Yet sustainable organisations depend on both working together.

She came to recognise that salaries, training, development, engagement, and leadership are not merely costs.
They are investments expected to generate outcomes, just as any other investment within the business.
Equally, she understood that capital without capable and motivated people rarely delivers its intended return.
People and performance are not competing priorities.
Nor are people and capital.
In healthy organisations, people, performance, capital and purpose are interconnected.

Strong performance creates opportunity, stability, investment, development, and career growth.
Strong people create the performance that makes those things possible.
The relationship is not adversarial. It is symbiotic.

Over time, she became one of the strongest advocates for performance management within the organisation.
Not despite her commitment to people. Because of it.
She recognised that performance management, applied within a healthy and humane culture, protects both people and capital.
Most importantly, she reached that conclusion herself.

Years later she joined the Board.
The promotion was deserved.
Not because she had mastered numbers.
Because she had learned to integrate two worlds that many people mistakenly separate: people and capital.
Humanity and performance.
She understood that neither can succeed sustainably without the other.

Looking back, one outcome gives me particular satisfaction.
The organisation no longer required external advocates for performance management.
One of its strongest advocates had emerged from within: The HR Director herself.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

14.06.2026/by gransier

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

The Most Admirable Hotel General Manager I Know

The Most Admirable Hotel General Manager I Know

This story is about how authenticity taught me that leadership begins with understanding who you are.

Throughout my career, I have encountered many leaders who tried to imitate others.
The successful ones rarely did.
The strongest leaders usually possess a deep understanding of who they are.
They then build upon that foundation, not by replacing their strengths, but by complementing them.

The most memorable Hotel General Manager I know taught me a lesson I continue to carry today.
People do not follow perfection. They follow authenticity.
And authenticity becomes more powerful when combined with curiosity and a willingness to keep learning.

Over the years, I have worked with many Hotel General Managers.
Some were commercially brilliant. Some were operationally exceptional.
Some were charismatic. Some were disciplined.
Some were feared. Some were respected.

One in particular remains in my memory.
Not because he was the most analytical, or achieved the best KPIs.
And certainly not because he was the most demanding.
In many ways, he is my opposite. His teams genuinely love him.
Not merely respect him. They love him.
There is a difference.

He is approachable, patient, and genuinely interested in people.
He remembers names, families, birthdays, concerns, and successes.
People naturally want to do well for him.
I admire that. Because – even if our worldview is the same – I could not do it the way he does.
My instinct has always been different. I gravitate toward structure, numbers, expectations, analysis, and systems.
When faced with a problem, I look for causes.
He looks for people first.

Yet over time, something interesting happened.
He became increasingly curious about the commercial and operational logic behind the business.
Not because he wanted to become more analytical, but because he wanted to become more effective.
He started asking different questions.
Questions about profitability. Questions about assumptions.
Questions about consequences. Questions about why things worked the way they did.
And then he did something important. He did not abandon who he was.
He incorporated what he learned into who he already was.

The result was remarkable.
The warmth remained. The humanity remained.
The connection with his teams remained.
But now there was additional clarity, additional discipline, and additional understanding.

Eventually he was promoted.
The promotion surprised nobody. Least of all me.
What impressed me was not the promotion itself.
It was his evolution. He did not become somebody else.
He became more complete.

Perhaps more.
He taught me that leadership is not merely about achieving better numbers.
It is about becoming the best version of yourself.
The numbers are often a consequence rather than the objective.

His path happened to be different from mine. And that was precisely why it was valuable.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

13.06.2026/by gransier

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

The Revenue Experiment

The Revenue Experiment

This story is about how curiosity taught me to look beyond the obvious.

While serving as Front Office Manager at a large hotel catering predominantly to leisure groups, I became fascinated by distribution.

At the time, revenue management – both in terms of systems and culture – was still emerging.
Convincing management and ownership to invest in dedicated systems and specialised staff often required as much selling as the rooms themselves.

Most business was negotiated with wholesalers and tour operators at fixed prices.

Something about the booking and distribution methodology fascinated me.
I wanted to understand how it actually worked.
Not the theory. The mechanism. The chain.
How did guests find us?
Why did some channels perform better than others?
Why did some market segments behave differently from others?

I became absorbed by questions such as:

Global Distribution Systems and Online Travel Agents
Distribution costs, commissions, mark-ups, kick-backs
Market segments and sources of business
Pricing, net or inclusive of VAT and city tax
Demand, pickup, cancellations, booking pace, and double-occupancy density
Room categories and benefits, addressing leisure, Meetings & Conference, and business needs
Yield management
Reputation management

I experimented relentlessly.
Without specialised software. Without automated tools.
This was long before today’s user-friendly property management systems and apps.
All I had were spreadsheets, observation, curiosity, and adjustment.

I changed one thing. Observed the result. Changed another.
Observed again. Slowly, patterns started to emerge.
The result was not merely better occupancy.
The result was a different business model. New market segments emerged.
Dependence on low-yield wholesale business decreased.
The hotel began attracting guests who had previously never considered it.

What had been considered an out-of-town wholesale hotel gradually became one of the city’s strongest online performers.

Looking back, the lesson was not revenue management.
The lesson was curiosity.
Understanding the mechanism often creates opportunities that remain invisible to others.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

07.06.2026/by gransier

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

Numbers in the Ballroom

Numbers in the Ballroom

This story is about how numbers helped me to channel my curiosity.

Growing up, my biggest anxiety was around numbers.
I still remember receiving a Chinese abacus during “Sinterklaas”, a Dutch festivity before Christmas during which children receive presents.
As the photograph shows, I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

Looking back, perhaps that was the beginning of a much longer story.
Years later, working night audit in hotels, I had to face that same anxiety.
Excel. Daily reconciliations. Accounting.
Basic spreadsheets. Basic financial reporting.

The problem was simple.
I was unable to see the forest for the trees.
I could not connect the dots.
I made many mistakes and gave both the accounting and IT departments a headache.
Back then, I was certainly not on the shortlist for Employee of the Month.
Quite the opposite.

One night, after once again frustrating accounting and IT by breaking reports and spreadsheets, I decided to do something different.
I printed everything. Every tab.
Every page. Hundreds of pages.
I covered the floor of an unused ballroom with all these hundreds of sheets, blocked its availability for a week, and spent several nights walking through the process.
Page by page. Report by report. Formula by formula.
Slowly the connections became visible.
Not because somebody explained them.
Because I followed the chain.

That lesson stayed with me.
Whenever I struggle to understand something, I still look for the chain.
The outcome rarely explains itself. The path that created it usually does.

Today, numbers are part of my daily bread and butter.
I overcame my anxiety by facing it.
More importantly, I learned that weaknesses are often invitations to learn rather than reasons to stop.
My colleagues and managers recognised the effort and supported me.
I owe them my respect and gratitude forever.

Looking back, I do not think the lesson was really about numbers.
It was about humility.
Acknowledging what you do not understand.
Being curious enough to keep asking questions.
And being persistently stubborn enough not to give up until the pieces start fitting together.

That lesson has stayed with me far beyond accounting.
In operations. In commercial strategy.
In governance. And increasingly, in life itself.
Curiosity and humility are a powerful combination.
Together, they allow us to transform weaknesses into strengths.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

02.06.2026/by gransier

The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself

Introduction

Introduction

I once managed a hotel that operated more like a banana republic than a business.

In another hotel, I learned more about leadership during a flood than in years of management training
A credit policy taught me accountability
A 100% overbooked hotel—on the arrival day—taught me calmness
A Dishwasher taught me respect
A revenue experiment taught me curiosity

And so it continued.
Every hotel, and many of the people I met throughout my career in hospitality, taught me a lesson.
None of these lessons came from textbooks.
They came from real people, difficult situations, mistakes, successes, and occasionally complete chaos.

For more than 30 years, I was asked to analyse hotels, businesses, and organisations.
I learned to observe before judging, question assumptions, and look beyond the obvious.
Often, the problem everyone could see was not the real problem at all.

Only much later did I realise I had never applied that same way of thinking to myself.
I decided to apply my advisory methodology to myself.
This series is the result of that decision.

These are not stories about hotels.
They are stories about what hospitality taught me.

They begin before the Banana Republic Hotel, continue through it, and extend far beyond it.

Ultimately, this is the story of becoming a better professional, a better leader, and, I hope, a better human being.

Perhaps some of those lessons will resonate with your own journey as well.

Overview of Stories

The Banana Republic Hotel
What It Taught Me About Myself

21 stories, so far, about staying humble and human in an industry that often rewards appearances.

No glamour
No pretense
No illusions

The finalised stories in this series are listed below:

Thank you for reading my introduction.

This is an introduction to a series of stories—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading a story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com

01.06.2026/by gransier

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