Frequently Asked Questions

The Hospitality Conference is an elevated annual gathering for leaders of restaurants, hotels, and the companies that serve the hospitality industry. It brings together leading voices to explore guest experience, service culture, leadership, and the future of hospitality.

The inaugural Hospitality Conference launches in 2027. Dates and venue will be announced soon — join the early access list to be the first to know.

The venue will be announced soon. We are selecting a location that reflects the level of hospitality our attendees deliver every day.

Hotel owners, general managers, and resort leaders; restaurant owners, operators, and culinary directors; food and beverage, front-of-house, and guest experience leaders; event, venue, and catering professionals; and suppliers, technology providers, and service partners to the hospitality industry.

No. While founder Greg Atkinson also founded the First Impressions Conference, The Hospitality Conference is designed specifically for the restaurant, hotel, and broader hospitality industry.

The Hospitality Conference was founded by Greg Atkinson, who is also the founder of the First Impressions Conference and SpeakerSync. Learn more about Greg.

Our founding lineup of eight featured speakers is being assembled from leaders across hotels, restaurants, and guest experience. Speakers will be revealed in the months ahead.

Ticket pricing will be announced soon. Early access list members will receive first access to tickets and preferred founding pricing.

Enter your email in the early access form. You'll receive speaker reveals, venue news, and first access to tickets.

We plan to offer team options so leaders can bring their managers and front-line stars. Details will be shared with the early access list.

A limited number of founding partner, sponsor, and exhibitor opportunities are available for companies that serve hospitality. Contact us about partnership.

Speaker inquiries are welcome. Please email us with your topic, background, and past speaking experience.

Hospitality is the practice of welcoming, caring for, and serving guests so they feel expected, comfortable, and valued. As an industry, it includes hotels and lodging, restaurants and food service, events and venues, travel, and the companies that support them.

Service is what you do for a guest — delivering the meal, checking them in. Hospitality is how the guest feels while you do it — welcomed, known, and cared for. Great operations deliver both.

Guest experience is the sum of every interaction and impression a guest has with a business, from the first website visit through arrival, the stay or meal, departure, and follow-up. Read our guide to designing the arrival experience.

Service recovery is how a business responds to a service failure to restore a guest's trust — often using a framework such as HEART: Hear, Empathize, Apologize, Resolve, Thank. Read the full framework.

Hire for attitude, deliver structured onboarding, offer predictable schedules, pay transparently, create career paths, train managers to coach, recognize people often, and conduct stay interviews. See all nine strategies.

Respond within 24–48 hours: thank the reviewer, apologize for the specific issue, briefly explain what you're doing about it, and invite them to continue the conversation privately. Get our review response templates.

Hotels and restaurants use AI for guest messaging, demand forecasting and pricing, scheduling, review analysis, and marketing — ideally to free up staff for more personal service. Read our practical AI guide.