The pandemic has created challenges for hotel owners like none they have ever seen.  STR reports that U.S. hotel profits fell almost 85% in 2020, making it the worst year on record for the industry. As you may have seen in an inspirational Instagram quote (or 17), every challenge brings new opportunities, and there are […]

Hybrid is the New Meeting Standard As the event industry progresses, there will be an emergence of new technology. This will allow a combination of in person and remote guests to attend events.  We see convention centers using robotic cameras everywhere so that you can lower the cost of labor and actually give more of […]

Let’s face it, the world is technology centric – there is no going back. As we move past the setbacks of 2020, a new year means new innovations. Enter: the convergence of artificial intelligence and the hospitality industry. A technology born in the 1950’s, AI has finally found its place in our home away from […]

For better or worse, the decimation of the hospitality industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has piqued the interest of investors.  Private equity firms are raising new rounds of funding; SPACs are being created for the purpose of buying up distressed restaurants; and all sorts of new, opportunistic capital is sniffing around. Among […]

Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth are commonly referred to as “The Seven Deadly Sins”. In the world of forensic accounting there is a somewhat similar collection of cautioning indicators called Red Flags. Unfortunately for us, the Red Flag list is not limited to seven “sins”. As you can imagine, for every hotel’s […]

Be bold in repurposing your hotel’s assets – from rooms to meeting space to kitchens – to keep your hotel in survival mode until post pandemic levels of demand for hotels and events return.

There is a reason why professional athletes practice so often. It isn’t that they don’t know how to play the sport they are being paid to play. The reason why professionals practice is so that they succeed the first time.  You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This same reasoning applies […]

Why is Congress dragging their feet? This is the reality… the lodging industry is estimated to report a “50 percent, nearly $125 billion-dollar loss in 2020 making this year the worst year in history for the hotel industry, just the hotels and not travel overall. Oxford also reported that this will equate to a total […]

The absolute best Hotel Strategy Meetings are many things – engaging, animated, results–oriented, productive, decisive, relevant, and maybe even enjoyable. We like to say that this meeting should be the single most important hour of the week for strategy and decision-making. So why would we want to bring scary into this meeting? Because the world […]

A few months ago, travel forecasts were optimistic, growing, carefree. Consider the following developments: New brands were being introduced at a never before seen pace (e.g., Hilton’s Tru and MOTTO, IHG’s Avid and VOVO) Existing brands were being upgraded, new companies were getting into the travel business (e.g., LVMH’s acquisition of Belmond and launch of […]