Beyond the Bottom Line
Reflections on Leadership, Family, Faith, and the People Behind Hospitality.
Running a Hotel Is Hard Work. So Is Life.
Owning and operating a hotel is hard work. Technology changes faster than the carpet. A guest can post a one-star review before their bags are unpacked. Good people are harder to find and harder to keep than ever. And somehow the ice machine always picks the hottest weekend of the year to quit.
Most of what gets written for hotel owners is about the numbers, and we write about those too. But the hardest parts of this business usually don’t show up on a P&L. They show up at home, in a marriage stretched thin by a business that never closes. They show up in the discouragement a lot of owners and managers carry quietly. And they show up in the question every one of us eventually asks: what does success actually look like?
I’ve spent much of my life pouring into people. For years I wrote a daily reflection on life, faith and keeping things in balance, and sent it out. Beyond the Bottom Line picks that back up, written for the people of hospitality: owners, general managers, housekeepers, investors and anyone who has ever worked a holiday.
Some columns will be practical. Some will be personal. A few might step on toes, mine included. My faith will show up, because it’s how I live, but you don’t have to share it to get something out of this. And I’ll try to make you smile at least once along the way. If you can’t laugh in this business, you won’t last long in it.
EricEric Bahme · Founder and CEO, MBE Hospitality
The Things That Don’t Fit on a P&L
Leadership and business, yes. But mostly the life that happens around them.
Marriage & family
Hotels are open 365 days a year. Marriages and kids don’t thrive on that schedule. How to make sure the people at home don’t get the leftovers.
Balance & rest
Stepping away from a business that never closes. Spoiler: the hotel will still be standing on Monday.
Hard seasons
Discouragement, burnout and depression are more common in this business than anyone admits. Let’s talk about them honestly, and about the way back.
Measuring success
RevPAR is a great number. It’s a terrible way to measure a life. What really counts, and how to keep score.
Health & energy
Exercise, sleep and the vending-machine dinner. Taking care of the one asset you can’t renovate: you.
Leading people
Hiring for character, keeping good people, and the hard conversations most managers put off.
The guest in front of you
Complaints, one-star reviews and the guest who wants a refund because it rained. Keeping your patience, your dignity and your sense of humor.
Faith & purpose
Why the work matters, where strength comes from when it’s hard, and who you are when nobody’s watching.
The first column is on the way
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