hotel mogul
What Winesday Teaches Us About Restaurant Marketing
Larry Mogelonsky | February 14, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) One clever practice used in restaurants to drum up sales during the midweek druthers is to devote a given day of the week or period of each day (otherwise known as 'happy hour') to a special promotion, either in the form of unique offerings or unbeatable deals. While this a good start for boosting those slow midweek cycles, numerous other eateries already have these types of programs fully set up with established marketing engines. And when everyone else is running something like this, how will you stand out by directly imitating your competitors? You can't, not unless you change th...
Learning from Sushi Master Jiro
Larry Mogelonsky | January 24, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) I trust that many of you have seen the beautiful, 81-minute documentary called "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" which was produced in 2011 (if not, look for it on Netflix). The film discusses the life and opus of Jiro Ono, the 85-year-old proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 12-seat sushi restaurant located within Tokyo Ginza subway station. The restaurant does not even have its own washroom, and yet it has been awarded three Michelin stars, with Jiro being the oldest chef ever to obtain this level of prestige. How did he do this? While the movie will explain his methodology and philosophy in de...
Never Let Your Breakfast Be Boring
Larry Mogelonsky | September 27, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) It's about time that our chefs in the hotel industry collectively woke up to something different than the same old bacon and eggs or oatmeal and raisins. In this sense, breakfast is another overlooked opportunity to wow your guests and leave a lasting impression. Glass half empty, it's also an instance where you can irk customers by underserving them. Here's a simple test to see if your morning foodservice is staid. Order breakfast in your own restaurant and take a picture of what's served on the plate. Now, go to any Denny's – or any other well-known diner of this ilk –...
Eliminating the Offseason
Larry Mogelonsky | August 2, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Consider this your quarterly performance audit, but thinking a bit more ambitiously, it is already time to look ahead to 2018! Now that we have gone through three whole months of 2017, it's the perfect time to reevaluate the goal we proclaimed at the beginning of January, but there's also enough time to plan something bold for next year. A major issue that many hotels confront is the cyclical nature of their revenues and occupancies. Although seasonality affects resorts and rural properties more so than urban hotels, the latter can also suffer from week-to-week or intra-week fluctua...
July is the Month for Bourbon
Larry Mogelonsky | July 19, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) With the 4th of July come and gone, it seems only apt for this libation-centric article to discuss the spirit that is perhaps the quintessential American contribution to the world. Even though California and Oregon produce some spectacular wines and local craft beers that have taken the nation by storm, no other country on the planet makes bourbon. Yes, it is comparable to scotch, Irish whisky or Canadian ryes in all but the primary ingredient – maize instead of malted barley or wheat – but no other country has even a remotely sophisticated corn whiskey culture or variet...
Six Questions For Your Marketing Team
Larry Mogelonsky | June 7, 2017
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) No matter the time of year or how well your occupancy figures look for the quarter at hand, the prep and planning for next year's marketing budget is never too far away. Undoubtedly, it will include the usual spattering of KPIs established at the start of the fiscal period, which will be scrutinized and massaged to death until all senior executives are happy. This process makes me yawn. Not that it doesn't work, but it can take up too much time which would be better allocated elsewhere. How about a different approach? Here are six questions that I am encouraging you – as a gen...
