Our Services
/
Operations & Management
/
Hospitality Management Assessment & Organizational Development
Hospitality Management Assessment Organizational Development
Leveraging literally decades of field knowledge, the network of Cayuga consultants help you meet guest and employee expectations, all while maintaining a superior operational experience.
Meet Our Hospitality Management Assessment & Organizational Development Consultants
Charles Oswald
Hotel & Asset Mgmt, Hotel Underwriting
Shirley Whelan
F&B Concept Development & Management
Dr. Chekitan Dev
Hospitality Branding and Marketing
Haydn Kramer
Hotel Sales and Global Sales
Stewart Kiely
Design/Project Management/Sustainability
Rick Blackburn
Strategic Commercial Optimization
Ray Minias
Ultra-Luxury Development/Design Exec.
Dan Voellm
Asset Management & Valuations
Sean Flakelar
Luxury Boutique Resort & Restaurant Ops.
Holleigh Alexander-Ramsey
Spa, Wellness, Recreation, & Branding
Joseph Cozza
Catering Sales & Event Operations
Donald Hoover
HR training, development, deployment
Alan Someck
Expert Witness, Foodservice Operations
Katherine Moulton
Mediation and Dispute Resolution
Jay Landfair
Asset Management/PIP/Project Management
James Miles
Independent Resort Ops & Development
Alex Gould
Hospitality Leadership Recruitment
Peter LaFemina
Hospitality Finance and Owner Services
Susan Barry
Commercial Strategy
Seth Alexander
F&B Concept, Branding, Analytics
Sean Skellie
Hotel Development & Marketing Analysis
John Berndt
Operations & Asset Management
Brian Schoettes
Workforce Management Expert
Preston Rideout
Nightclub and Dram Shop Expert
Mandy Murry
Independent Hotel Coaching
James Samson
Food, Beverage, and Restaurants
Chuck Kelley
Positioning & Asset Operations
Martin Coghlan
Revenue & Distribution Management
Perry Smith
Restaurant & Club Operations, PR, Branding
Management Assessment and Organizational Development Consulting
Cayuga Hospitality Consultants assess managers and develop organizations with the owners and operators of hospitality facilities. Deep expertise stemming from leadership roles within the world of hospitality is with Cayuga during comprehensive assessments of your organization based on its own unique value. All aspects of your team will be thoroughly evaluated for effectiveness, and our knowledge is known to identify any cultural and procedural roadblocks that do or could hinder productivity.
By leveraging our literally decades of field work, a network of consultants, ready to support your goals, brings actionable solutions that elevate the quality of your service and overall operational efficiency in a clear and communicated timeline. Do you require a strategic review of hotel management agreements, policy checks, or targeted development programs?
For the integrated reader, discover also the related services such as Financial Analysis to bolster decision-making across your organization.
Hotel Management Assessment Consultants
Cayuga Hospitality Consultants are able to aid in this basic requirement of the hospitality industry through their knowledge and experience in key leadership positions throughout the industry and their years of consulting experience. Our consultants are able to quickly and comprehensively perform:
- A hotel management assessment
- Evaluate a management team
- Assess the culture of an organization
- Check for policies and procedures that may impede productivity
- Evaluate quality of service and facilities
- Bring actionable solutions to owners and operators
Hotel Management Agreement Consultants
Hotel management agreements among the large branded management companies follow what by now has become the standard formulation for fees, at least before the negotiation commences. The base fee and incentive fee are now well known in the industry and expected as the starting points in most manager-owner negotiations. Our consultants readily:
- Calculate the base fee in hotel management agreement
- Calculate the incentive fee in hotel management agreement
- Balance hotel owner objectives and a management company’s incentives
- Implement a hybrid formula to help calculate the incentive fee
Hotel Management Agreement Bargaining
The Hotel Management Agreement (HMA) forms the basis of the ‘bargain’ between the management company and the owner in a typical, full-service branded hotel management agreement. These are the provisions that are likely to be negotiated over a period of weeks, even months, assuming bargaining strength exists on both sides of the negotiating table. The trend is to set out the basic business terms first in a Letter of Intent (LOI) before proceeding to the ‘definitive document’ phase. Some basic terms:
- Brand selection
- Identification of the parties
- Description of your hotel or project residences
Once you have a fundamental understanding of these, you can then focus on what is actually negotiable in the HMA:
- Term length and conditions
- Performance testing
- Revenue-based fees
- Incentive fee
- Other charges such as technical service fees furniture, fittings, and equipment reserves (FF&E)
- Budget approval by the owner
- Capital expenditures
- Owner’s financing
- Credit enhancements: These are sometimes provided by management companies to enhance the owner’s ability to finance the hotel.
- Employees hiring and firing
- Key personnel indemnification and insurance: It’s typical for the management company to expect the owner to indemnify the management company against all claims, losses and liabilities, except for those arising out of the management company’s acts that constitute willful misconduct or gross negligence.
- Damage and destruction: Property insurance is provided by the owner with coverage acceptable to the management company.
- Sale of the asset
- Agency (termination and wrongful termination)
These are many but not all of the negotiating considerations. Many other areas are addressed in the HMA, such as governing law, dispute resolution, etc. They require experienced counsel as well as hotel development and operational expertise.
Training and Development Consultants
Cayuga Hospitality Consultants will offer results-driven solutions to:
- Elevate levels of service
- Support cultural change
- Create positive work environments
- Establish plans and deliver training and professional development
- Assist ownership and/or management through reorganization or rebranding transitions.
Cayuga’s consultants understand the complexities of managing a diverse workforce and provide prudent and comprehensive solutions to their assignments.
What is the Difference Between a Manager and Leader
As you may know, there is considerable discussion in the literature and at various forums about factors that distinguish a “Leader” from a “Manager”. Many people make no distinction, assuming that a person in a management position must be a leader as that is inherent in the position. Such people confuse “positionship” with “leadership”, for the mere occupancy of a position does not guarantee real leadership.
Managers tend to focus on the immediate situation as they function in the present and are usually measured in this way. While they are peripherally aware of the future, they really don’t spend a lot of time contemplating it.
Leaders, on the other hand, do look to the long term, realizing that the present is a fulcrum future direction and results. If they were chess players they would be thinking several moves ahead. Leaders mostly think strategically, managers mostly think tactically.
Managers focus on the process of management and immediate efficiency more than leaders do. Leaders think about how they invest their time creatively and surround themselves with, and develop, the strongest talent so that those talented people can grow and do more and more over time. Leaders believe that if they do so, their people will do a better job of watching and improving the processes than the leader could do himself or herself.
Leaders understand that compensation is a satisfier, not a true motivator. Once this satisfier is in place at an acceptable level, people are motivated by the nature of the work, the challenges, opportunities to learn and grow, and whether or not their bosses support and care about them. Managers, on the other hand, often think of their subordinates as responding best to financial rewards and incentives.
Leaders recognize that individuals are motivated differently and so consistency is not an absolute virtue in their recognition of people. Some people may like public praise, others may appreciate the opportunity for more flexible time, for example. Managers emphasize systems more than they do people or personalities. Many manages do not recognize that a policy is not a regulation and “hide” behind policy when a vexing situation arises, wherein the right thing to do is to deviate from established policy.
Managers tend to think more about what has been done before and try to make incremental improvements, while leaders like to challenge themselves and their people to bring out their best in ways they never thought possible, so quantum leaps can occur. They establish new paradigms.
A manager’s priority, from which he or she usually derives the most satisfaction, is based on process and efficiency. “Getting it done” is their byword. Leaders enjoy success too, of course, but tend to revel in it more when it leads to growth of individuals and the organization. Their greatest satisfaction comes from having others who succeed them rise to greater heights than they did.
Leaders use time as a reward and seek to invest their attention where it can have the most upside impact. People usually have the most opportunity to grow and become truly great where they already demonstrate strong performance, and so leaders tend to avoid remedial projects or the constant oversight of weaker performers. Instead, they spend more of their time with the people most likely to bring the greatest advances in the future. Managers tend to focus more on problems to solve than they do in boosting people to previously unachieved excellence. Leaders are “fire lighters” (passion), managers are “fire fighters.”
Some of the best managers are very good at studying “best practices” and ways to “build a better mousetrap”. Leaders tend to look for more of the “Einsteins” and star performers who are likely to find a better alternative to eliminating mice than the snap trap. Leaders possess and look for creativity. Managers are more conformity minded.
Leaders are all about finding and cultivating talent and are not threatened by it. Managers usually want to feel more in control of their surroundings, not the least of all because highly talented people can be very independent and often “difficult to manage”. Leaders often have stronger social skills than managers do and are better prepared to deal with strong egos. Many managers lean toward inflexibility.
As headstrong as many leaders can be, they know from experience that being headstrong can be a liability, and they have learned to listen and be accepting of other’s points of view. Managers may be more focused on what they believe to be the “right way” to do something and may be less open to hearing divergent views. Leaders may not always enjoy hearing opposite views, but they evidence the concept of “let the best idea win.”
