The Suite Life – Hyatt Partnership gives students insights from hotel executives

通过与莫里斯敦凯悦酒店的执行团队紧密合作，学习酒店管理教授林丽春的住宿管理课程的学生将学习如何运营一家全方位服务的酒店，从与客户互动和客房服务到了解收入管理和餐饮活动运营，再到维护实体工厂。

The decade-old partnership between Montclair State and the Hyatt Regency Morristown provides Feliciano School of Business students a unique opportunity to get deep industry insights from front-line executives. “You can’t learn this dynamic business from a textbook,” says Lin. “Students see how situations unfold and the importance of knowing how to react and solve problems creatively.”

Lin’s students split their time between classroom lectures, executive presentations and time spent shadowing hotel management. Unlike a more traditional internship at a hotel, where a student may work in a single department under the supervision of a manager, Lin’s course enables students to explore all aspects of hotel operations and have an open dialogue with executives as they ask questions and exchange ideas.

“Our students have the luxury of working with the executives and directors, who act as mentors and have just-in-time information as it is emerging in the industry,” Lin says. Each semester, students work in teams or individually to present a potential investment or strategy for the property, identifying costs, designing building plans and calculating return on investment.

The partnership has also helped open doors for students, several of whom started their careers at the hotel and moved up the career ladder within the company. “Hyatt Regency Morristown has been fortunate to partner with the Feliciano School of Business and Dr. Lin,” says Sheila Geary, Hyatt’s director of human resources. “We have also benefited with many students coming to work at the hotel or other Hyatt hotels before, during and after they take the class which is a wonderful benefit of this partnership.”