Miguel Ruano: "It’s a typical scenario which projects get built on, on a dram.  Sometimes it’s an ego dream that I’m gonna have the best hotel in the region.  I just went over to Brazil a few months ago and somebody  wanted the best, to have the best hotel in Brazil.  And I said, well why not, somebody must, will have, the best hotel in Brazil.  The question is, can you have the best hotel in Brazil?  Does the best hotel in Brazil make sense in this location in particular or should the best hotel in Brazil in a location that supports that positioning?  Because somebody will have the best hotel in Brazil, undoubtedly.  And the best hotel in London and the best hotel in Spain. Somebody will have it." At the time of filming, Miguel Ruano was Lead Associate at The Hotel Solutions Partnership Ltd.

Robert Cook: "The big boys are terrified of restaurants.  I think we do restaurants well. We turn over nearly 50% of our total business is bar, bar and restaurant. And it’s nearly 60 in Hotel du Vin.  And it’s almost a bed, it’s almost a restaurant with rooms. And I think that’s form a point of view of getting care and passion into business, because there’s so much flair and passion required in the artistry of providing food and beverage, that rubs off on all the whole, on all the staff and gives a hotel that edge. That is, is it’s as important to serve a great gin and tonic as it is to welcome and room a guest. And I think that’s why we’ve got that nice golden thread that runs through the whole business.  Because we’re a restaurant business, where the real passion lies. We call it the heart and soul of the hotel." At the time of filming, Robert Cook was CEO at Hotel du Vin and Malmaison.

According to Laurence Geller, CEO of Geller Investment Company, the key to great hospitality careers is to display boldness and passion at all times. Too many people want brilliant hospitality careers but display little enthusiasm. Laurence Geller on hospitality careers: "I would say that a very good example is Gerard Greene at Yotel.  Gerard, I’ve known him since he was a kiddie.  And what he did was he came … and this is so, this is what I would say, if you have a belief, and I always had my own beliefs, you stick to it, don’t let somebody tell you that’s not what happens.  Yotel shouldn’t have existed, my hotel shouldn’t have existed.  What I’ve done with the businesses shouldn’t have exited, if I’d have listened to everybody else they wouldn’t have.  If you’re right, be bold, be passionate, be honest and don’t give in, be very persistent.  I’m a Churchillian, he never gave in, I won’t and these kids shouldn’t and they won’t, because they’re going to change our world, and I just want to watch it and have a little piece of it."

Surinder Arora: "I always said that you can build buildings with gold bricks, but if haven’t got the right people running them, you haven’t got a successful business. And also make sure that you look after your customers.  I’ve always said that, treat your staff like family, and treat your guests like royalty, and then you have a successful model.  I used to referee football, people used to say “Well, there’s 17 laws, but there’s always Law 18 which is common sense.”  And of course you want people that can communicate, they can be smart, but people that can also be out there with that common sense, and the hunger to play big part of the family, to looking after the guests like royalty. And work in a team."

Michael Levie: "We qualify people on their degree of smiling. And their degree of friendliness, and we hire on that. And as we travel the world, we’re interested to find people that basically are cultured, have something interesting to add to our lives as we’re those nomads that travel the world.  And that is done with a friendly smile and warmth, and it’s not done with “Did you have a nice trip, sir?” So a friendly, “Hi” but a genuine “Hi” goes a lot further, we believe, and is perceived as luxury today.  So we screen and hire people on their degree of friendliness and smiling capacity. And we teach them how to make a barista made cup of coffee, how our systems work, how to shake a cocktail, but I cannot teach somebody to be nice."

Mark Wynne Smith: "Simple word here, passion.  I think whatever brand, whatever physical product you’ve got the management team in that hotel have to be passionate about their business.  And you can feel it so frequently, again having the good fortune to walk into a lot of places and how to perform a professional view on that, that you can tell how motivated the management team are.  And this ripples the whole way through to the guy who does the maintenance, the salesperson.  And I know that the one of the difficulties with the business at the moment is that the brands are getting very similar in terms of the product that you’re being offered.  So you can walk into a hotel and you can’t feel like you used to be able to, whether you were in a Marriott or a Hilton.  It’s all getting blurred.  So in fact the whole service and the whole experience and the whole welcome becomes far more of a differentiating factor.  And that’s very hard to price that into a business, but in terms of actually generating repeat and clearly winning sales for conferences etc, I think that’s one of the elements that’s often overlooked by the bigger groups."