Steve Lapekas
The Road Ahead: How Hoteliers Can Adapt and Thrive in Uncertain Times
Steve Lapekas | November 7, 2023
By Steve Lapekas More often than not, owning a business feels like riding a rollercoaster – the highs are high, and the lows are low. One second, you’re at the peak of a climb, enamored with the view, and the next, you’re plummeting back down the other side, white-knuckling the restraints and questioning your decision to ever get on the ride in the first place. The ebbs and flows and the inevitable triumphs and challenges are simply your price of admission. Right now, we find ourselves in a period of relative uncertainty – with increased tensions in various locations around the world, the rising cost of debt – and, subsequen...
Ditch Your Legacy System: A Case for Making Your Hotel PMS a Strategic, Profit-Generating Asset
Steve Lapekas | September 27, 2023
By Steve Lapekas “You have to spend money to make money” – this advice that most of us will encounter at some point in our lives, especially regarding business. But as any successful business owner can surely tell you, strategically spending money is only half of the equation. In fact, most books or experts that promise to provide an easy-to-follow blueprint to financial success will inevitably start with one critical suggestion: save money and avoid unnecessary spending and debt. Simply put, “you have to save money to make money.” This becomes even more imperative when we focus on industries that historically operate on razor-th...
Southwest Airlines’ Christmas Catastrophe Is a Cautionary Tale for All Hotel and Travel Brands
Steve Lapekas | January 12, 2023
By Steve Lapekas Perhaps it goes without saying – Southwest Airlines did not have a particularly merry Christmas. While many beloved, nostalgic Christmas movies depict moments of seasonal chaos – especially those of the airport variety (missed flights, lost baggage, and sudden winter storms wreaking havoc on itineraries) – there was nothing redeeming or nostalgic about Southwest’s meltdown. Instead, the airline now finds itself licking major financial wounds in the wake of what is best described as a PR nightmare that left countless customers without a way home for Christmas. If you missed the barrage of news stories regarding Sout...
Are NFT Hotel Room Packages the Future?
Steve Lapekas | December 14, 2022
By Steve Lapekas Hotels and guests are already banking on initiatives that tap into the growing experience economy and Web3 If, at one point, you’ve found yourself muttering the words, “what in the world is an NFT?” Well, you aren’t alone. While the modern world has set an undeniable precedent for digital adoption and savviness in the face of frequent innovation, the introduction of the metaverse and, around the same time, the popularization of cryptocurrency and NFTs left some of us feeling perplexed. Seemingly overnight, NFTs (short for non-fungible tokens) became the talk of the town, with individuals scrambling to get a...
The Shepherd Hotel: A Case Study for the Meaningful Impact of Transformative Hospitality Technology From APS®
Steve Lapekas | November 8, 2022
By Steve Lapekas, Chief Operations Officer and EVP, Business Development for APS (Above Property Services) Our world runs on bold ideas – but bringing new ideas, especially those which aim to break the molds we’ve grown most accustomed to, is a feat that requires a great deal of heart. That is, perhaps, the best way to explain the evolution of The Shepherd Hotel – a one-of-a-kind luxury hotel located in downtown Clemson, which started as a big idea with an even bigger heart. Founded by Rich Davies, a third-generation real estate developer, and Rick Hayduk, a seasoned luxury hotel leader, the Shepherd Hotel not only fills a gap in the...
Is Your Hotel Tech Stack Weighing You Down?
Steve Lapekas | October 19, 2022
By Steve Lapekas, Chief Operations Officer and EVP, Business Development for APS (Above Property Services) “Sorry, you’ll have to give me a minute. I think I have to delete some things off my phone,” muttered my colleague, whom I had met up with for coffee, as he squinted at his iPhone in an exasperated fashion. “I have 128 GB of storage; I don’t understand how this always happens.” Of course, this is a familiar technological crux, as iPhone users frequently complain of operational dysfunction as their phone storage creeps towards its capacity limits. More often than not, this problem arrives not because we’ve all assumed the...
Where Should Hotels Start When Budgeting Tech for 2023?
Steve Lapekas | October 6, 2022
Why Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is one of the most important metrics when it comes to hotel technology and how to lower it without sacrificing best-in-class system capabilities or service By Steve Lapekas, Chief Operations Officer and EVP, Business Development for Above Property Services (APS) For the sake of this article, let me introduce you to a hypothetical young couple who, after four years spent living together in a rented condo in the city, plan to purchase their first home together. After meeting with their financial advisor, they’ve determined a comfortable budget that considers their combined income and monthly spending ha...
What Hoteliers Can Learn About Revenue Management From Shark Tank
Steve Lapekas | April 5, 2022
By Steve Lapekas In any industry, the measure of a brand’s success can be attributed to a number of factors, but perhaps none more important than revenue. In simple terms, a business is either profitable – or it’s not, and the ability of a company to consistently drive profit will, in many ways, determine the likelihood of its success and staying power. Let’s take, for example, Shark Tank, the popular reality TV show in which bright-eyed entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investments and business advice from them. Throughout each episode, viewers are intro...
