Lodging Leaders

Last week, Zoom, a video-conferencing program, was prime bait for hackers who infiltrated conversations taking place among people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

As if Zoom bombers weren’t bad enough, a day or two later, the internet-based program crashed because it could not handle the surge of users from businesses, schools and friends and families eager for face time.

Today, Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan is promising stronger security measures, but the fiasco is a stark reminder of how easy it is for bad actors to access public internet programs, especially those being operated by people unfamiliar with cyber security protocols.

In this episode, a continuation of Lodging Leaders special report on how the coronavirus crisis is impacting the hotel industry, we explore how the outbreak is revealing weaknesses in business technology platforms and what hotel owners and operators can do to head problems off at the pass.

We also look at how some technology providers are expanding their solutions to meet the fast-changing needs of hotel operations as well as those of essential guests traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain.

With most whole goods and components coming from China, the U.S. hospitality industry began to scramble in January to keep the supplies coming.

Manufacturing has resumed in China as the crisis has reportedly eased there, but the outbreak has yet to reach its peak in the U.S.

As COVID-19 continues its rampage across the country, factories are closing or retooling to make medical supplies.

It’s a fluid situation that changes day by day and hospitality procurement specialists have been working to stay ahead of the COVID-19 wave and find manufacturers and suppliers that can deliver goods to hotels throughout the country.

In this episode, which is part of Lodging Leaders’ special report on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the U.S. hospitality industry, we interviewed Alan Benjamin, a procurement specialist with Benjamin West, and Darlene Henke, a shipping and logistics expert with Audit Logistics.

We also feature sound bites of Anu Saxena of Hilton Supply Management who participated this week in an AAHOA webcast.

The U.S. hotel industry has practically grinded to a halt in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. As Lodging Leaders shared in our previous report, Episode 260, hotel business performance has declined to unprecedented levels.

Another area of the industry that the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting is hotel transactions. Properties remain on the market, but lenders have stopped underwriting new deals for the time being. So, if you’re eager to buy a hotel, bring your cash.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders we examine the current state of the hotel sales market. We feature Carter Willcox, sales associate with Mumford Company, and Daniel Lesser, president and CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors.

Last week, several hospitality-focused analytical companies released data that specifically show how the coronavirus pandemic is decimating the U.S. hotel industry.

The picture they paint is grim.

And – though experts say they believe the industry will eventually resurge – the months ahead will be hard.

In this report we review reports from STR, CBRE Hotels Americas Research and Hotstats.

We interview Jamie Lane, senior managing economist with CBRE Hotels research, and David Eisen, director of hotel intelligence at HotStats.

And we feature sound bites of a March 26 webinar on U.S. hotel industry performance with Jan Freitag.

While many of the country’s 57,000 hotels have closed during the coronavirus pandemic, owners and operators are spending limited resources and a whole lot of time on retooling their property systems and deep cleaning rooms and public areas.

They want to be ready when the nation starts traveling again. And that’s a message that needs to be shared with the world. Now is not the time to be silent.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders, hospitality marketing and business communication experts advise on what message hotels should be sending to consumers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Dave Shah grew up in his family’s hotel and watch is parents and other hoteliers struggle to stay in business during the Great Recession. He thinks the economic situation for hoteliers during the COVID-19 crisis is growing worse than that time. Shah founded Pineapple Capital Group five years ago to help hotels and other small business owners buy, sell and borrow. In Episode 258, Lodging Leaders examines what financial solutions are available to hotel owners during the crisis, including the SBA emergency loan programs.

We also talked to Paul Darrow of PHD Financial which specializes in helping small business owners in negotiate distressed debt with lenders. We also feature Jyoti Sarolia of Ellis Hospitality Group who reached out to her bank early in the crisis.

And in a special addition, you’ll hear a story of miracle that is keeping one hotel afloat in the short term.

s hotels in the U.S. are forced to dramatically scale back operations or close altogether because of the new coronavirus pandemic, government officials are looking to use the empty rooms to fight the spread of the virus or help patients recover.

Meantime, hotel operators are taking a fresh look at cleaning procedures to assure guests both now and in the future that their properties are focused on the health and safety of guests and employees.

In this episode, Lodging Leaders talks to Darshan Patel, a lawyer who also runs his family’s business – the Hotel Investment Group in San Diego, where the county government has claimed two of their independent hotels to deal with overflow from area hospitals.

We also feature Jyoti Sarolia, principal and managing partner of Ellis Hospitality Group in Temecula, California, who believes every hotelier needs to step up and help their community through this pandemic.

Also included is Adrian Chavez, regional director of operations for Kriya Hotels in Texas, who is overhauling the company’s cleaning protocols in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Cecil Staton has had his hands full to say the least. He has been at the helm of AAHOA, the world’s largest hotel owners association, for just four months.

The new coronavirus outbreak and its devastating effect on the travel industry has hotel owners turning to him for solutions.

This is the third installment of a special report by Lodging Leaders podcast that examines the impact the coronavirus is having on the U.S. hotel industry.

In today’s episode, Staton shares his views regarding the “heartbreaking” decisions owners are having to make in the face of steep business losses and what AAHOA is doing to navigate them through the troubled waters.

Also featured is hotelier Kal Patel, president and CEO of Crestpoint Cos. who wants franchisers to do more in the way of financial relief for franchisees.