Long Live Lodging

11/11/2021

Josh Ramsey is founder and managing principal of Prosper Hotels in Dallas, Texas. It’s a revenue-management company formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. If it’s true that opportunity is borne out of crisis, then Ramsey and his cohorts might be at the start of something big. Comprised of former executives at Hilton who found themselves unmoored in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, the team at Prosper Hotels believes it can draw on its collective expertise in pricing strategies and customer experience to navigate small to medium-sized hotels to profitability now and post-pandemic. In this episode of Lodging Luminaries, Ramsey talks about how he moved quickly to onboard seasoned experts in revenue management, the importance of remaining hands-on even when deploying technology and how providing great customer experience influences revenue growth.

If it’s true that opportunity is borne out of crisis, then Josh Ramsey and his cohorts at startup Prosper Hotels might be on to something big. Comprised of…

11/03/2021

Shawn Seipler of Orlando, Florida, founded Clean the World 12 years ago to fight life-threatening illnesses in children who had no access to soap and water. He started by collecting discarded guest-room soaps from a single hotel in his neighborhood. Today Clean the World has recycled 63 million bars of amenity-sized soap from more than 8,000 hotels and resorts and distributed them around the world Lodging Leader’s introductory episode in its special series, “Happy To Be Of Service: Stories of hospitality giving back,” features Seipler who talks about Clean the World’s beginnings and how a hospitality industry in recovery has helped the nonprofit pick up the pieces and move forward with its life-saving mission.

Shawn Seipler of Orlando, Florida, founded Clean the World 12 years ago to fight life-threatening illnesses in children who had no access to soap and water. He started…

10/27/2021

Sagar Shah is a graduate of the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Montreux, Switzerland, where he earned an MBA in hospitality management. While a student, Shah presented a thesis on developing affordable senior housing. He is especially interested in senior living’s middle market, where he believes demand will increase over the next decade. Shah is also a hotelier. His company’s investment in both hotel and senior-living assets demonstrates how the spirit of hospitality and its best practices extend into other real-estate-asset groups. Episode 343 of Lodging Leaders podcast is the second in a two-part series that explores the hospitality industry’s growing interest in senior living.

Hoteliers and allied vendors invested in both lodging and senior-living assets demonstrate how the spirit of hospitality and its best practices extend into other…

10/13/2021

Rainer Jenss of Nyack, New York, founded the Family Travel Association seven years ago to help parents and caregivers introduce children to the world through travel, whether that’s a yearlong trip around the world that Jenss and his family took or a weekend getaway to a nearby destination. To help the travel industry gauge what parents want when they take their kids on vacation, FTA conducts an annual study. The U.S. Family Travel Survey 2021 reveals the shift in mindset the COVID-19 pandemic has created in families planning a trip within the next 12 months. Episode 341 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores how hoteliers can use the information to generate business.

Families are driving the hotel industry’s recovery from the pandemic recession. A new report by the Family Travel Association reveals what parents are looking…

10/06/2021

Bella Silverberg has worked for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts for three years as vice president of development sales and marketing. Silverberg has had a lot of conversations with women who are invested in hotels as well as women who work in hotel companies owned by others. What she learned is that people who’ve served in allied roles in the lodging industry are just steps away from becoming owners themselves. Silverberg helped Wyndham create Women Own the Room, a program designed to inspire, encourage and support women interested in becoming hotel owners. It is one of several programs the industry has seen evolve over the past couple years to tap into often-ignored aspiring hotel owners and investors. Episode 340 of Lodging Leaders podcast examines new projects and updates the status of existing efforts by industry leaders to recruit women as owners and help them hurdle barriers such as access to capital.

Episode 340 of Lodging Leaders podcast updates the progress of efforts by hotel industry leaders to open doors and break down financing barriers for women who want…

10/01/2021

Long Live Lodging Celebrates: Lodging Leaders places as Podcast of the Year in the 2021 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business.

09/29/2021

Andrew Rubinacci leads revenue-generating strategies at Aimbridge Hospitality, the world’s largest third-party hotel manager. Squeezing every last ounce of profit from a hotel’s top-line revenue has always been a challenge but the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the mettle of even the most savvy revenue manager. One trend Rubinacci and other hoteliers are debating is à la carte or attribute pricing for amenities and services that are typically rolled into room rate. Some hoteliers are giving it a go while others are in a wait-and-see mode. Episode 339 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores how the industry may unbundle services and find ways to tap revenue from guests willing to pay extra to craft their own stay experience.

Squeezing every last ounce of profit from a hotel’s top-line revenue has always been a challenge for hotel operators but the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the…

09/27/2021

As the hotel industry shifts into a new era influenced by the coronavirus pandemic as well as the unleashing of younger travelers eager to get out and experience the world, new hospitality brands are emerging either in full or by creating novel concepts within their traditional frameworks. In Episode 8 of NextGen in Lodging, host Chris Henry leads a discussion among three hospitality innovators who share what’s next for a recovering industry.

As the hotel industry shifts into a new era influenced by the coronavirus pandemic as well as the unleashing of younger travelers eager to get out and experience…

09/22/2021

As an IT security analyst, Jen Stone has worked with different types and sizes of businesses, including hotels and restaurants. The very nature of hospitality can make a hotel vulnerable to cyberattacks. As the hotel industry adopts new technology to help it recover from the coronavirus crisis, the threats are greater and the number of attacks are growing. Episode 338 of Lodging Leaders podcast focuses on the pervasive cyber threats the hospitality industry faces as it deploys technology to modernize its business processes and improve guest experiences.

From the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, the hotel industry turned to technology to solve immediate challenges. The very nature of hospitality can…

09/15/2021

Kal Patel is president and CEO of Crestpoint Companies in Mason, Ohio. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. with full force in March 2020, Patel was building two hotels. He had eight properties open and operating. Amid the uncertainty, he decided to move forward with construction and to keep his other hotels open. It was a business decision that is paying off as the hotel industry is positioning for a recovery. In Episode 337 of Lodging Leaders podcast, we explore the challenges owners and managers faced in deciding to close hotels and what it took to reopen. We also talk to hoteliers who struggled with ramping up business at hotels that were at such low levels of occupancy, they might as well have been closed. And we feature owners who opened new properties during the pandemic. This report is part of Lodging Leaders’ ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

In spring 2020, more than 1,700 hotels in the U.S. were closed as the coronavirus pandemic shutdown the travel industry. Eighteen months later, hundreds of h...

09/09/2021

Sonesta Hotels CEO Carlos Flores has big dreams for the company he’s led since 2012. Over the past 18 months, he’s made some of them come true, shocking an industry in the throes of the coronavirus crisis. In Episode 10 of Lodging Luminaries podcast, host Jason Freed talks with Flores about how he decided to pull the trigger to propel the company as a major contender in the franchising space. He also shares his views on the franchiser-franchisee relationship as well as whether the adoption of new technology can enhance a hotel’s value.

Sonesta Hotels International’s CEO Carlos Flores has big dreams for the company he’s led since 2012. Over the past 18 months, he’s made some of them come tru...

09/08/2021

Sanjay Bedi was at work the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, managing a 440-room Marriott Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey. He lived nearby, but corporate leaders ordered Bedi and other GMs to remain at their posts until further notice. A few days later, Bedi took a cab home along the New Jersey Turnpike. From his passenger seat he could see the New York City skyline and the gaping hole where the World Trade Center once stood. Bedi is now senior vice president of operations at Real Hospitality Group, which manages nearly 50 hotels in New York City, a travel market hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. As America approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Episode 336 of Lodging Leaders podcast features industry leaders who were on duty that fateful day and can recall the shock of the attacks, how they cared for frightened guests and how the event changed hotel operations. They also draw parallels to the coronavirus crisis and remind listeners of the resiliency of the nation’s hospitality industry.

As America approaches the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on its homeland, Episode 336 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the impact 9/11 had on t...