Views From the Deckchair Chevy Kelly

On the Views From the Deckchair podcast this week I was very lucky to sit down with Yvonne Brennan the superstar that heads up Marketing and Communications for RBH Hospitality Management the company that manages over 70 Hotels in the UK covering many IHG, Marriott, Hilton, Accor and independent brands. Yvonne has been Described as someone who truly gets ‘how marketing helps to solve business problems, creates new opportunities and the activities needed to impact the bottom line’ and in this podcast you really will see why. Yvonne truly is a delight to speak to.


We cover:

- Elevating brands through great content
- What makes a compelling story
- The importance of consistency
- Embracing new marketing technology
- The science of review response. Their previous mistakes and what they’ve done about them
- Setting yourself up for excellence through the RBH marketing academy
- Leveraging the power of tourism boards
- On property marketing is it a collective responsibility?
- Where will loyalty move in the future. Why unique experiences will continue to beat point burning for room nights within loyalty programs.
- The opportunities and challenges in the next 12 months
- Possible skill shortages of Brexit and what the means for business
- The power of a phenomenal training program
- How hospitality can open the door to the world

This podcast is worth your time as you put into action your hotel marketing strategy for this year. Understand what Yvonne and her team at RBH Hospitality Management are focussing on in the short term and how they are going deep on training to support their future.

In this episode I get to speak to a real life superhero, Fiona Jeffery, the Founder of the incredible charity, Just a Drop. Her organisation, which has its roots in the tourism and travel industry, has just celebrated 20 years of saving lives and helping hundreds of communities globally thrive and become self sustaining with safe water, education and life skills. Fiona believes that life without water is an endless struggle. With it, almost anything is possible.

Fiona took her lessons in business, her global experience with the world travel market and her inspiration from motherhood to founding Just a Drop but she is doing her very best to make herself and her organisation redundant.

I have had the great honour of raising money for Just a Drop in the past and working with Fiona and her team, but I have not had the privilege to sit down and fully understand her back ground, the history of Just a Drop, and the obstacles and the perseverance required to get to the 20 year mark and help so many people.

I am sure you will find Fiona’s her story as inspiring as I did. Enjoy.

If you would like to find out more about the amazing work Just a Drop does please find out our more here. www.justadrop.org

It was awesome to sit down with Adam Rowledge the award winning General Manager of the Georgian House Hotel in London. Adam is simply an in incredibly warm, driven and intelligent operator who just loves his industry and is able to transfer that passion to other people. I really enjoyed discussing his story from originally aiming to be a pro-cyclist to changing course to running an amazing hotel in London at such a young age. You’ll hear how they’ve made incredible revenues with a unique customer experience, the importance of educating and empowering staff, creating the right revenue balance, we talked AI, and personalisation in the booking process, turning online feedback into revenue, power of the Brexit effect on the London market, but most of all, understanding Adam’s story. Anyone in the hotel industry, leader or newcomer will really derive some inspiration from what Adam has to say. Enjoy

Steve Lowy is CEO of Anglo Educational Services, Chairman of the Hotel Marketing Association amongst many other roles. He has lived many lives in Hospitality. Chef, Hotelier, Founder of a Hotel Marketing Digital Agency, speaker, lecturer and much more.

In The Views From the Deckchair Podcast recorded in a London Bar close to Xmas 2018, Steve gives a great account of his early days and how this set his trajectory into the world of hospitality and how he embraces the chances he was given to do what he does today.

Understand:

- How investing in youth employment and travel is vital to the industry's future.
- Why you should treat technology as an enabler not a solution.
- How independent Hotels can learn from the hotel chains and go one better
- Lessons learned setting up 3 hotels and some cracking stories
- What as an industry we should get rid of and what we should retain
- How your growth is dependant on long term strategic plans not just an annual budget.
- How hotels can go from good to great through consistent amazing experiences.
- and the effects of ... ahem Brexit...

Steve is very passionate about helping people and by listening to this you'll be able to take something away that'll help you too!