Siegel Sez: Not Your Father’s Power Socket
September 3rd, 2021
The Most Important Hotel “Salesperson” Right Now Is Working Behind Your Front Desk
Doug Kennedy | July 22nd, 2020
Rate Quotation Training Tips For Reservations and Front Desk Staff by Doug Kennedy
Doug Kennedy | August 6, 2014
August 6, 2014 While many hotel reservations and front desk training programs focus on converting inquiries into bookings, it is also important to train these teams on proven techniques for quoting rates effectively. Here are a few tips from our KTN training programs to share at your next meeting. * Don't automatically ask callers if they qualify for discounts. Many reservations and front desk agents are still routinely asking if the caller is a member of discount programs such as AAA or AARP as part of their initial questioning. This approach leads to unnecessary discounting and also potentially causes a price objection when the call...
The Fall Lull: Yours To Gain
Larry Mogelonsky | August 6, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The annual occupancy cycle is typically defined by its peaks and valleys - the December holiday high season, the winter lows (ski resorts excluded), school spring break, Thanksgiving reunions, Valentine's Day getaways, summer vacations and so on. One of the more fascinating aspects of hotel marketing - and something that has kept me up late at night many-a-times - is how certain properties are able to drive peak revenues during the traditional 'lulls' in the annual rotation. One such lull is the period starting roughly post US Thanksgiving (Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on Columbus Day) tr...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 127: Hotel History: Hotel Theresa: the “Waldorf of Harlem”
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | August 4, 2014
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: Hotel Theresa The Hotel Theresa opened in 1913 on 125th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem and closed its doors as a hotel in 1970. It was built by German-born stockbroker Gustavus Sidenberg to the designs of architects George and Edward Blum. The Blum brothers were trained at the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and they designed a full-blockfront all-white apartment hotel 13 stories high with 300 rooms. Like its façade, the newly-opened Theresa had an all-white clientele and staff for its first twenty-eight years. In 1940, reflecting the changing population of Harlem, the hotel accepted...
Hotel Development & EB-5 Financing: Why You Don’t Want to Form Your Own Regional Center
Jim Butler | August 4, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 4 August 2014 How should hotel developers go after EB-5 financing? Although the EB-5 immigrant visa program has been around since 1990, the current trend of using this as a source of financing for hotel development began only three years ago. We worked on one of the first hotel EB-5 financings for the W Hotel and Residences in Hollywood, and have since worked on more than 60 EB-5 projects all over the country. Now, use of the EB-5 financing program has gone mainstream. Headline grabbers include the $400 million financing of the SLS Hotel in ...
Excessive Outsourcing of the Hotelier’s Role: A Threat to the Trade
Georges Panayotis | August 1, 2014
by Georges Panayotis We can't ignore that the current situation for hotel operations is pretty morose. The profitability expected from a well-managed business is far from what it was a decade or so ago. How did this happen with the steadily increasing numbers of travelers? Where have these profit points gone that made this business one of the most interesting financially in addition to its human dimension? It is undoubtedly because some of the components that diversified and enriched the hotelier's trade were abandoned. Hoteliers answered –a bit too readily – the call of seductive Sirens beckoning with the promise of less work for m...
Hotel Development Financing: How to Win the Race for EB-5 Capital
Jim Butler | July 30, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 30 July 2014 A viable source of capital and now mainstream The EB-5 Immigrant Investment Visa program offers an alternative means of raising capital for hotel development projects in the U.S., and the lawyers in JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® and Chinese Investment Group™ have worked on more than sixty EB-5 projects all over the United States. Over just the past 3 years, the EB-5 program has quickly gained the support of some of the largest, institutional-quality developers as well as major hotel brands. Perhaps a bit late, many develop...
A Sense of Place
Larry Mogelonsky | July 30, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Helping a client organize a conference set in my hometown of Toronto, I sent several employees down to a big chain four-star hotel located in the heart of the financial district where the attendees were staying. Their job was to direct the attendees towards the evening's reception venue a dozen or so blocks away. When we all converged, I asked one of my team members, "What did you think of the hotel?" Although it may not seem significant to the layman, his response shocked me. "It was just a hotel," he said, shrugging his shoulders with a blasé tone. Just a hotel? He had just spent well ov...
Financing Hotel Development Today: 5 Questions Every Hotel Developer is Asking About EB-5 Financing
Jim Butler | July 29, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 29 July 2014 EB-5 financing has gone mainstream for hotel development The use of EB-5 financing has exploded over the past 3 years as an important funding source for new hotel development. It is clearly now part of the "mainstream" being used with great success by increasingly institutional companies. Marriott was among the earliest advocates for the program and has used it for many high profile hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott and Marriott Courtyard/Residence Inn hotels in DTLA. But more recently, other major brands have come on ...
Make Training Fun! by Doug Kennedy
Doug Kennedy | July 29, 2014
July 29, 2014 As experts in adult learning theory have told us for years, to achieve a transfer of training concepts from the workshop to the workplace requires an interactive, experiential learning approach. This is theory seems even more relevant when training the so-called "Millennials," who have grown up in an over-stimulated world with a keyboard, joystick, mouse pad and now a touch screen in their hands. When conducting training in the hospitality industry today, trainers find themselves facing a multi-generational audience that also includes Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, making it that much more challenging to find common gro...
17 Things I Hate About Guestrooms
Larry Mogelonsky | July 23, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The guestroom is the crux of the hotel experience, and there are many small things that can set a guest off but are often overlooked. Call this my pet peeve list, but see if you don't agree. This list is not in priority order. 1. Complex WiFi set ups. It is bad enough that I have to pay for WiFi, but what's worse is trying to set up a complex WiFi connection. Headache! Even with my MacBook Air, there are connections that just don't seem to work, no matter what you attempt. 2. Poor WiFi signal. I am differentiating this point from the set up and cost. What I am referring to is insufficient b...
Online Reviews Versus Hotel Class
Larry Mogelonsky | July 16, 2014
With guest-generated online reviews usurping expert appraisals, the only solution to show your hotel's class is branding By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The topic today is how online and peer-generated reviews affect the significance of the firmly established Forbes star rating and AAA diamond rating systems. With that on the back of your mind, let me pose a few broad questions. For one, does the average consumer these days still check up on the annual reporting of star and diamond ratings? Do they know the criteria that distinguish each class? What sort of guest would actively seek out these types of expert appraisals ov...
Chinese-Language Hotel Law Blog Launched by JMBM Global Hospitality Group® and HotelLawyer.com
July 10, 2014
By Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com July 10, 2014 LOS ANGELES-The Global Hospitality Group® and the Chinese Investment Group™ at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP are pleased to announce the launch of a Chinese-language version of the Hotel Law Blog. It is available as a new tab on www.HotelLawyer.com or it can be accessed directly at www.ChineseHotelLawBlog.com. "Since 2007, our Hotel Law Blog has been a valuable resource for the hospitality industry," said Jim Butler, author of HotelLawBlog.com and chairman of the Global Hospitality Group® and the Chinese Investment Group™. "We want to share some of the experien...
Five Things Every Hospitality Salesperson Should Master
Larry Mogelonsky | July 9, 2014
by Larry Mogelonsky Perhaps one of the finest hospitality sales professionals I know is David Brudney. In a career that spans 35+ years, David has had the pleasure of assessing, training and/or mentoring hospitality sales associates from major hotel chains and independents throughout the U.S. and abroad. Reflecting on his experiences, I asked David to outline some of the critical fundamentals of successful hotel selling skills. Preparation Know your product and the competition, and learn as much about the prospect as possible. Don't go to bat without a plan (e.g.: What is your goal? Secure an appointment, entertainment, site inspectio...
The Potential Additional Revenue From A Daily Quest For Just One More Booking
Doug Kennedy | July 8, 2014
by Doug Kennedy In speaking with hotel revenue and marketing managers at the HSMAI Revenue Optimization Conference last month, it seems there is an ever increasing list of tasks grabbing their attention. Analogous to what the military calls "mission creep," revenue managers are now calling this "scope creep" as in scope of work. Having been long ago tasked with managing online travel agencies since it's such a key distribution channel, it seems that anything to do with a hotel's online presence falls onto their agenda such as responding to each online guest review, rate-shopping for rate parity, and negotiating with online partners. The...
Executive Summary of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
Jim Butler | June 25, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 25 June 2014 Hotel Lawyer looking at the EB-5 program Over the past 5 years, JMBM's team has helped clients with more than 40 EB-5 projects all over the U.S. The program is more popular than ever and the standards continue to rise for sponsors who want to advantage of this funding technique. I asked Jonathan Bloch, a corporate partner and Senior Member of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®, to put together an Executive Summary and Overview of the EB-5 Program for investors and developers wanting to explore the funding source for new projects....
Global Hotel Leaders Are Not Always Who They Seem
MKG Group | June 24, 2014
Since the IPO of the global number 2 Hilton Worldwide in December 2013, the top global hotels are now all listed on the stock exchange. For these groups, the notion of leadership is no longer measured only against their hotel supply, but also through their economic model, their turnover, their operating profit (EBITDA), and above all the market value of the company tied to the price of their shares. Each of these elements offers new insight into the global ranking and also the fundamentals of the hotel sector. In terms of room supply, the ranking of leaders in 2014 is as follows: IHG is ahead of Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International...
Digital and Profiling are Just the Foam on the Wave of Marketing
MKG Group | June 24, 2014
by Georges Panayotis Is digital marketing turning clientele into veritable tyrants who dictate the law and do away with every new initiative? The subject deserves attention if we don't want to fall into a kind of dictatorship due to posts on community websites. Traumatized by the reactions of customers that hurt their average scores, hoteliers are getting used to reacting to the slightest solicitation from a dissatisfied customer by adapting their product. If it is a matter of correcting imperfections, making amends for a mistake on the spot, there is no need to say anything further. But when customer comments become the foundations fo...
Hotel Lawyer: What is Happening with Chinese Real Estate Companies Investing in Banks?
June 17, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 17 June 2014 Concerns over a real estate bubble in China For decades, China was referred to as the "sleeping giant." This reference is to the great potential impact of the country, its vast population, and its economy, but also to the fact that this potential was largely unrealized for hundreds of years. Well, the sleeping giant is awake! And the world financial press if now full of analysts following China and the international ramifications of its every action on the world economy. Recently, great concern has been raised by some over the i...
Hotel Lawyer: Growing Together – China and Los Angeles County
June 17, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 19 June 2014 The growth of outbound Chinese investment Earlier this month we posted an article about the surge in Chinese investment as reported by Tiffany Hsu in the Los Angeles Times. See, "China and JMBM's Chinese Investment Group™ are in the news again!" That article prominently featured the Sheraton Gateway LAX hotel, its 15% increase in Chinese travelers since the beginning of the year, and its purchase by our Shenzen Hazens Real Estate Group, and JMBM's role as counsel to Shenzen Hazens. Special Report Just Released: Growing Togethe...
Doug Kennedy Reservations Sales QUEST Workshop Series in New York City on June 30
Kennedy Training Network | June 17, 2014
Seats still open for a one day train-the-trainer workshop and a half-day workshop for frontline reservations agents. Hollywood, Florida - June 17, 2014 - KTN announced today the launch of a workshop series to be presented personally by Doug Kennedy. The first stop in the series is New York City, where Doug will offer a one-day train-the-trainer workshop on June 30, along with a half-day reservations agent workshop, repeated to allow for phone coverage, on July 1, 2014. The series will continue in Los Angeles in late fall of 2014. The workshop presents KTN's popular new Hotel Reservations Sales QUEST program, which helps hotel reservati...
Hotels Should Manage Their “Voice” Reputations by Doug Kennedy
Doug Kennedy | June 16, 2014
By Doug Kennedy June 16, 2014 Most hoteliers these days seem well aware of the importance of managing their online reputations by monitoring social media postings and online guest reviews. However many are neglecting the reputations they are making every day based on their agents performance on their "voice" channels. Although it can be argued that many more people will read an online review or social media message, those who make the effort to call the hotel directly either already are "customers" or are "hot prospects" seeking to become one. Perhaps this lack of focus on telephone hospitality represents the hotel industry's overall b...
China and JMBM’s Chinese Investment Group™ are in the News Again!
June 10, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 10 June 2014 As the significance of Chinese investment in the US continues its rapid growth, news articles regularly document new details of this major trend. And in the Los Angeles Times, Tiffany Hsu provided some interesting facts in an article entitled "Chinese tourism and investment in Southern California surges." Her article led off with the example of a 15% increase in Chinese travelers at the Sheraton Gateway LAX Hotel. We served as lawyers and business advisors to Shenzen Hazens Real Estate Group (a large Chinese construction company...
Hotel Lawyer in New York: Mood of the New York Hotel Conference
Jim Butler | June 4, 2014
By Jim Butler Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com 4 June 2014 2014 NYU Hotel Investment Conference On Sunday, June 1, 2014, the NYU hotel conference kicked off with its gala grand opening party. With about 2,300 people attending this year, the energy is high and a grounded optimism prevails. The increased conference attendance generally reflects the health of the hotel industry, and these numbers do not count the hundreds of "lobby lizards" who hang out at the conference hotel for meetings without registering. Mike Cahill of HREC, co-chairman of the Lodging Industry Investment Council ("LIIC") summed it up well at a pre-conf...
Digital Optimizes, but the Product Wins Loyalty!
MKG Group | June 3, 2014
by Georges Panayotis Today innovation lies at the heart of consumer expectations and how could it be otherwise? Brainwashed by advertising for increasingly intelligent cars, increasingly efficient smartphones, increasingly connected household appliances, for consumers it is only natural for all the objects and services in their daily lives to integrate new technologies, efficient energy consumption, improved comfort and security. So why should the hotel industry be any different? Why would their expectations be lesser? What's happening in hospitality, they ask themselves? And yet, we are far from it! The hotel industry has remained pris...
