Checking In

In this episode we're joined by David Hayden, the General Manager at Mercure and ibis London Earls Court Hotel. In this episode, we talked about the hotel’s soft launch earlier this summer, David’s work in helping to refurb and reposition the hotel as a co-branded property, and how this project has helped boost personal and professional growth for him and the team.

In this episode we speak with Tony Barker, owner of hospitality tech platform, Chicostay. Tony tells us about his early career building software to help airlines modernise their ancillary businesses, how Chicostay can help smooth the confirmation and check-in process and free up front of house staff, and how thinking like a retailer can help hoteliers drive ancillary revenues higher than they expect.

In this episode we’re joined by Guy Ivesha, CEO of workspace and lifestyle concept Maslow's. Guy discusses how his love of hospitality runs in the family, his role in redeveloping one of New York's most iconic hotels, how New York hospitality inspired him to set up his own pioneering venture in the UK

and the interesting theory behind the name and concept of Maslow’s.

In this week’s Checking In we're joined by Andrew Kendrick, Managing Director of Hotels at Splendid Hospitality Group. Andrew talks about how his love of hospitality began at his family’s own hotel in Wales, the diversity of Splendid’s portfolio and how this enables it to be an agile and ever-developing business, and how those in hospitality can make positive impacts with the people around them to leave behind a lasting legacy.

This week we’re joined by Sean Wheeler, Hospitality Action Ambassador and a People and Culture Consultant at Sean Wheeler Consulting. Sean talks to us about the ways in which hospitality leaders can best support the mental wellbeing of their colleagues, how the Walk for Wellbeing initiative has grown to become a UK-wide movement, and how you can get involved in this year’s event.

This week we spoke with Louise Tawadrous, client services director at the insights and consultancy firm BVA BDRC. We discussed how Louise began her career with an 8-year stint at IHG climbing up the career ladder, how she pivoted into consultancy and now runs the VenueVerdict programme that she had encountered during her time at IHG, and how she she feels there are some straightforward practices hotels can adopt to really wow their guests.

In this week’s episode we’re joined by Marie-Paule Nowlis, the Area General Manager for Sofitel UK and General Manager of Sofitel London St James. Marie-Paule discusses her experience of hospitality in New York and London, and the differences between working in both cities, the importance of authenticity in luxury hotel brands and her own approach to leadership and building trust with her team.

In this episode of Checking In, we're joined by Mark Winter, the Pre-Opening General Manager of Holiday Inn Blackpool, which recently opened in May of this year. In this episode, we talked about Mark’s experience with opening branded hotels, his ingenious hiring initiative that resulted in 3,600 people registering interest in joining, and the perks of being a young manager.

In this episode we're joined by Tim Hentschel, the co-founder and CEO of HotelPlanner. We discuss the process of developing HotelPlanner, how Tim scaled and developed the company, how the platform works in practice and the development of AI and technology in the hotel space.

This week we are joined by Robert Holland, the managing director of HotelPartner Revenue Management. We discussed Robert’s journey in hospitality managing hotels and restaurants and what he learned along the way, what advice he would give to hoteliers looking to improve their revenue management strategies and how the rise of Airbnb offers hoteliers as many opportunities as it does challenges.