Students win Passion4Hospitality 2016 debate

Passion4Hospitality 2016, took place in March at Novotel London West. The event, now in its sixth year, provided networking and advice for hospitality management students at the start of their careers.

The all-day programme included inspirational stories from operators, speed networking and one-to-one careers advice, the student debating competition and the HOTS Business Game to successfully operate a virtual resort hotel.

The subject of the debate for the competition was: It’s not worth spending money on staff training. The hospitality industry has such high staff turnover; they all leave as soon as they are trained.

A University of Brighton team made up of students Laura Ricciotti, Erek Thuersam and Rachel Stevens, went head-to-head in the final with a team from Hotel School The Hague in front of an audience of academics, industry leaders and students.

The Brighton team, arguing against the motion, emphasised that ignoring training puts lives and reputations at risk ( for example, 40% of credit card security breaches occur in the hospitality sector; which could be prevented by better training). They concluded that one important way to make people feel valued is to train them.

An audience vote declared the University of Brighton team the winners of the debate and the three students received their trophy from Michael Sloan FIH, general manager of the Novotel London West.

The separate HOTS Business Game consisted of a competition to successfully operate a 200 bedroom hotel by setting up rate, revenue and marketing strategies. The team form Brighton came second losing out to the victors, Plymouth University, who showed the highest levels of profitability.

Congratulations everyone!