Hoteliers’ Voice

In this episode we look at the important factors of hospitality today; the aspects that generate excitement and the role of digital services in delivering the ultimate experience. We’re joined by Don Bunnell, founder of the Swank Guide - a new travel curation/review platform across social media channels. They curate unusual, independent, and sustainable boutique hotel experiences.  Don has spent h...

Our next memory maker dreamed of being in hospitality, persuading her father to send her to hotel school. Christine Tan takes us on her journey from an Island in West Malaysia to Switzerland, London, Los Angeles and Singapore joining UTELL fresh out of college to coordinate the switch of hotels to GDS. Her souvenir is a press cutting from this time, and she reflects on how things have changed sinc...

Amanda Du, Head of eCommerce from Penta Hotels joins us to explain how they reimagined the customer journey to get the digital experience right.  Since 1971 Penta has combined style, substance and comfort with over 20 hotels across Europe and Asia.  Amanda applied her learnings and digitalisation frameworks to develop the digital infrastructure and utilisation of the CRM. With over a decade of int...

Social distancing, contactless technologies, new guest expectations and digitalisation - how much is it influencing the use of space in hospitality? Todd Lundgren, Principal at CRTKL talks about hotel design, the evolution of hospitality environments and the role of technology Todd shares with us the key developments worldwide to explain what we can expect from hotel buildings over the next few ye...

John Hubbs-Hurrell, Head of The Advantage Global Network joins us to talk about how accommodation supply is massively adapting to new demands with Travel Agents and TMCs at the front of this trend. Growth in demand of booking with travel agents is changing the dynamics of travel retail – what does this shift mean for the industry and packaging hotel product? In particular we look at the wider cons...

Born in Holland, our memory maker soon saw that the world was a great opportunity, offering the flexibility to come and go while learning about new cultures and places. Travel, early on, was part of her DNA. Kristie Goshow recalls her time on Zandvoort Beach collecting bottles where she met her lifelong friend, connecting across languages. See her photos in episode artwork, or click here: Kristie...

In this episode we’re joining by  Eric Hallerberg, VP EMEA Sales, Oracle Hospitality who presented at IHTF looking at ways to develop a full tech stack and framework in a modern hotel. He talks about the hospitality value chain the the importance of focusing on the common customer.  During this chat we cover Approach to thinking of the guest experience and journey The important factors to developi...

Exploring the world of coach travel and the luxury offering. We speak with VP Marketing and PR, Florencia Cirigliano of Red Coach  about  how to identify a new opportunity in the travel sector and the technology adapting the experience. Argentina's coach sector inspired Florencia to apply the model to the USA, going one step further she established  a high-end, affordable express motorcoach s...

Na’ím Anís Paymán, Chief Revolutionary of the Paymán Club explains the trends its seeing in hotels and holiday rentals and the differences he has learnt in managing the two accommodation types, Payman Club is a provider of hotels and short-term accommodation with 9 hotels and over 100 short term properties. Paymán has developed Zeevou a powerful PMS and Channel Manager for serviced apartment provi...

Digitalisation of the guest experience and building the guest journey was a common theme, covering guest communication, guest services and payment processing.  In this episode we here from Dado Ljumanovic, Group Director, Digital Media & CRM, SIRCLE COLLECTION  - who presented on the future of CRM and  talks about how he leads an inhouse team to capitalise on guest insights and the importance...

From multi to omnichannel, the industry has had to look at how it can really provide an experience for every guest. Sabrina Regner, Director of Guest Engagement & Reservations Management, Falkensteiner Hotels & Resorts, addresses guest communication, artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, helping demystify and simply the approach for hotels.  And Carsten Wernet, Chief Exec...

Transformation is about what the company wants to be, in this episode we look at how to bring change. We’ll be looking at the hotel metaverse and how 3D tours are proving real digital connection with bookers through digital twins of hotel properties and conference centres But first.  Tess Mattisson, Former Head Of Ecommerce & Digital Customer Development, Scandic Hotels and now CEO of Zaplox a...

During IHTF Marketing and Distribution programme stream, I hosted a fireside with Janneke Messiaen, VP Commercial Systems & B2B Digital for NH Hotel Group to discuss the new model of distribution and distribution processing. She explains why they moved to a concentrated distribution model and how she worked with her team to address challenges to devise the strategies that support growth. We lo...

In this episode , I speak to the panelists l addressing the role of OTAs, Robin Stangroom-  VP of Revenue, Reservations & Distribution of The Set Collection, and Jon Siberry – Group Revenue Manager at Sarova. We also hear from Marcel Stiller, Dir of business dev at Cendyn about some of the learnings from the conference floor.   Among the tools used by Strangroom and Siberry include Cendyn, P3,...

Tomeu Fiol, Global Hotels Technologies Director, Melia Hotels International speaks to us about the value of IHTF and the focus of tech strategies at the group and how they are deploying AI.  This year’s IHTF is an opportunity for the industry to come together in person, following two years of challenges and ongoing economic and social impacts across the world – the industry is now hampering down o...

Welcome to the pre-event chat for IHTF 2022 where we with Accor's Global Procurement director Guest technology, energy, CAPEX  and IHTF sponsor, CEO of Dan Magi, Daniel Lister about the focus of technology buying.   April's hosted 121 buyer event in Madrid will explore hotel retailing, digital experiences, tech application and tech evolution.  Watch out for upcoming episodes recorded at...

A growing hotel brand, family-run, expanding globally - a portfolio going through changes. Over the past two years, The Red Carnation Hotel Collection has reviewed its operations, centralised its team and addressed its digital strategy. Suzie Thompson, VP Commercial  explains how they brought sweeping changes to have a unified market approach.  This multi-award winning hotel brand launched a whole...

How do you run two hospitality brands 100% remotely? Tyan MarCink Hammond explains how she has adopted complete digital management of her two brands Branson Family Retreats and Missouri Haus. We learn the tools that she uses to manage 55 rooms across 13 sites - what hotels can learn from vacation rental.  Tyann has hosted over 20,000 guests since 2007 with the growing portfolio of award-winning pr...

How do you staff a seasonal hotel and make it run as efficiently as possible? Georg Gaag, Manager of myNext Hotels Hostels Apartments gives us some ideas for how we can truey digitalise aspects of operations, training and recruitment to reduce pressures and costs.  Key points include: Challenges of running a seasonal hotel Digitally managing staffing, training and onboarding Improving processes wi...

We speak to fellow podcaster Kristian Lupinski - the host of The Hoteliers podcast - and event lead of I Meet Hotel, to discuss the role of events in sales and procurement in hospitality technology.  I Meet Hotel is a global industry event connecting hoteliers to the future of hospitality providing audiences with the keys to higher revenue and a customer loyalty approach through insightful confere...

How do you maintain the human-touch in high-end luxury hospitality with digital tools? Sotiris Kopatsaris, CEO  & founder Future Hotels and MD, Carpe Diem Santorini explains how technology helps staff to create the magic and authenticity to provide individual experiences to every hotel client protecting experiences that are not disrupted but augmented by technology. Key points include: Evaluat...

With a full renovation taking the place the the need to look at guest experiences and staff resourcing differently, the CIO of RBH Management, Vibhu Gaind decided to take the opportunity to rework the techstack in one London hotel. With drastic change in hotel product and guest expectation, he was keen to Make the contact with the guest more meaningful and less transaction based. Vibhu explains wh...

In this episode we explore the commercialisation of wellness and sustainability and why it is now a hot commodity for hotels. Speaking to Celine Vadam, CEO of Wei think, we look at the impact of wellness, the environment and delivering innovation. Guiding us through the principals of wellness, Celine explains how to translate ideas into unique viable projects, bridging the gap between commercial c...

Scrapping an existing tech infrastructure is no easy feat, but Liutauras Vaitkevicius (LV),  Managing Director, Zetter Hotels, explains how he overhauled the tech stack and is using data intelligence, working with his team, to optimise performance.  LV tells us how they crafted the new experiences at its 3 centrally-located properties in London.  Key points include:  How to approach overhauling th...

In this episode we speak with Vicente Castillo, Project Manager at Zeus to talk about smart visual data. We explore a recent visual dashboard installed at hotel resort, Vivood and what that has enabled the luxury resort to achieve for its guests and its staff. Vicente talks through the importance of focusing on people before implementing data strategies to understand how it can help them make bett...