Be Our Guest

Now, for the first time, one element of the methods behind the magic that is the Walt Disney World Resort--quality service--is revealed. The book outlines proven Disney principles and processes for helping an organization focus its vision and align its people into a strategy that delivers on the promise of exceptional customer service.

In a brand-new series, the Disney Institute reveals the strategies that have sealed Disney's extraordinary reputation in a highly competitive and ever-evolving business environment. This edition features anecdotes and case studies from various companies that describe how they adopted the techniques learned in the Institute's seminars to create an environment that nurtures success.

Welcome to the Parker Palm Springs, where you’ll experience a delightful time away, filled with everything you’d expect from a sunny, California vacation. There’s tennis courts and a lemonade stand, a gorgeous pool, and a lawn for croquet. But, the other guests and staff are more than a little unexpected . . . From the New York Times bestselling photographer of Beaches, Gray Malin, comes Be Our Guest!, Malin’s first children’s picture book, compiled from his acclaimed series of photographs Gray Malin at the Parker Palm Springs. If Eloise had lived in an animal-only hotel, it would have had the style and whimsy of the Parker. Just reading Be Our Guest! will whisk children away on a temporary holiday, which is nothing less than extraordinary.

‘A brave and beautiful exploration into food, race, memory and the very meaning of life. I read it greedily - and so will you’ Meera Sodha, author of Fresh India The dinner table, among friends, is where the best conversations take place – talk about the world, religion, politics, culture, love and cooking. In the same way, Be My Guest is a conversation about all these things, mediated through the sharing of food. We live in a world where some have too much and others not enough, where migrants and refugees are both welcomed and vilified, and where most of us spend less and less time cooking and eating together. Priya Basil explores the meaning and limits of hospitality today, and in doing so she invites us to consider that how much we have in common may depend on what we are willing to share.

Adopting a geographic lens to examine the employment of guest workers in the United States, Be Our Guest offers readers the most comprehensive analysis of guest work in tourism that has been produced to date. In weaving together the constellation of political and economic factors that exist across multiple scales, the case is made for how and why so many tourism-dependent areas of the United States have developed a dependency on temporary foreign workforces. Towards a holistic approach, special emphasis is placed on the economic histories of these areas and shifting patterns of employment, seasonality, gentrification, and related housing shortages. Throughout are the voices of stakeholders involved in every aspect of guest work: human resources managers battling labor shortages, town planners mitigating workforce housing shortages, and attorneys and advocates helping to directly assist migrant workers and affect policy changes. These perspectives are coupled with detailed analysis of state policies regarding guest worker visa programs and labor market stress to illustrate a vivid picture of the precarious lives of the migrant laborers who arrive in the United States. Be Our Guest serves to specifically address a lacuna on the critical tourism studies side and the growing concern on the practitioner side over workforce quality and supply. Nevertheless, it is a benefit for everyone with an interest in issues of labor migration, precarity, housing policy, and immigration reform.

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest. And he cameas a homeless man, a stranger, a friend. Marian Korth and her partner, Mim Jacobson, have served breakfast to thousands of overnight guests in their home, but they didnt bother to offer a cup of coffee to a homeless man huddling on their doorstep one cold winter morning. Why didnt they welcome this Jesus into their home? Marian has more to learn about hospitality, even after sixty years of adventures in hospitality. She can tell stories about being hospitable (or not) from: Growing up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin Living in Chicago for twenty years Returning to Wisconsin and turning their farmhouse into a bed and breakfast Providing end-of-life care for guests who live with Marian and Mim in their home Transforming their bed and breakfast into a spiritual retreat center Kindness is the common thread that runs through all these adventures in hospitality. The first verse Marian memorized as a child was Ephesians 4:32, Be ye kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you. (She memorized it and still thinks about it in the King James Version.) In these stories, Marian reflects on what God is telling her about being hospitable. She thinks its pretty exciting to know that God has told us, Be ready with a meal or a bed when its needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! (Hebrews 13:2 The Message)

Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (2011)by Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni outlines the Walt Disney Company’s approach to customer service. Disney Institute, the company’s professional development arm, trains people from other businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to adapt Disney’s customer service strategies for their own organizations… Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.