SHR Soundbites Jason Emanis

Natasha Nagar, Head of Employer Brand & Talent, with Kew Green Hotels, joins Jason Emanis, from Midlands, England. Natasha talks about the efforts that Kews undertakes to identify great talent and the brand pillars that make them so attractive to the best revenue talent in their markets. One of Kews brand pillars is they set out to train their staff—everyday. So, they train their GMs, Revenue Managers, and Sales Managers to build networks and know who are the great people working for their competitors and who they would want to recruit in the future and nurture that talent in advance of need.

Michael Grove, COO, for HotStats, joins Jason Emanis, from Cardiff, Wales. Michael talks about the changes to how hotels are run, the change in business models, even the fundamentals of revenue management, and the one key point when looking at a hotel’s new normal—the massive change to cost base of hotels, many having taken everything out and only putting back what is needed. Michael goes on to explain how HotStats is a team of specialists in profit and loss benchmarking, looking at the whole hotel, capturing the full P&L on a monthly basis from hotels around thew world. Their big differentiator is they specialize in this data, it’s all they do.

Jenifer Morgan, Revenue Manager, Leisure Hotels & Resorts, joins Jason Emanis, from Park City, Utah, where she's opening a new hotel, Black Rock Mountain Resort. With front-of-the-house staff shortages, Revenue leaders like Jenifer are having to juggle the business by adjusting length-of-stay restrictions and shutting down room blocks. And while some areas of the country are doing well others are being impacted by the COVID variant, including her two properties in Missouri. Meeting weekly with Marketing and Operations teams to discuss promotions, guest reactions to rates, productive social campaigns and develop short-term strategies, Jenifer and her cohorts developed a plan to market to different segments for their Nevada property, a corporate business hotel, and have have doubled their transient, leisure bookings. She's tackling pricing by referring to her Comp set from STAR but also reviewing similar amenities and ratings and frequently taking a look back to see how well they've done.

Kurt Weinsheimer, Chief Solutions Officer for Sojern, joins Jason Emanis, from San Francisco, California. While Google has pushed back the demise of 3rd-party cookies, Kurt talks about the inevitable and making way for better, permission-based marketing from hotels. What to do now? 1. Collect customer emails - put incentives on your website and incentivize your front desk staff 2. Activate historical booking data - go after OTA bookers and drive them direct 3. Venture into metasearch 4. Contextual targeting on social channels

Lori McNaught, Director of Revenue Management for Olympia Companies joins Jason Emanis, from Portland, Maine. Lori talks about how revenue managers moved from gatekeepers of revenue to generators of revenue during the pandemic, and in some markets, back to gatekeepers. Working closely with Sales it was all about, ‘Who is still traveling?’ ‘ Then there was that period of working with absolutely no data. No history, no future. In some markets, working with little to no data, remains. Her pricing focus is on length of stay, mostly to do with the staff shortages everyone is experiencing. And she’s packaging versus discounting, upselling for suites. Finally, her forecasting is all about short-term, continuing with the 21-day forecast she started.

Yunna Takeuchi, CMO & Co-Founder of City Unscripted, joins Jason Emanis, from London, England. Your guests want an experience beyond your hotel doors, to explore the city beyond the same old, same old. Yunna talks about how she works with hotels to help them drive ancillary revenue by adding value to the guest experience with non-traditional city tours, from passionate locals, who are not professionals but part-time guides. Whether your guest wants a food experience, see the main attractions with a few gems or go completely off the beaten path, City Unscripted can accommodate.