Lodging Leaders

Rachel Sheerin is a public speaker and sales coach focused on helping hospitality professionals grow sales and enjoy their success. Training hotel, wedding, event and facilities teams all over the country, Rachel’s programs and workshops start by unlocking an understanding of ourselves so teams can be better for others. Before devoting herself to helping creatives sell more, Rachel served as Director of Sales for a multi-million dollar off-site caterer and has been featured in Inc Magazine.

In This Episode, Rachel Reveals:

* The biggest challenges she runs into when working with new clients, whether she feels there’s ever a disconnect between the owners and the sales department, and what you can do about it.

* Some things you can do to get your team to perform at a high level, how to find out what incentivizes them, and how to match the right reward to the person.

* Some things you can do when you need revenue fast, and what a strong sales pipeline looks like.

* What you can do to keep your high performers on board.

Resources & Links

Rachel Sheerin

* [email protected]

* LinkedIn

* She Sells, She Soars Website

* Rachel Sheerin Website

* Facebook page

As CEO and founder, TJ Person made OpenKey the leader in universal mobile key access technology. With more than 17 years of experience in technology, business management and marketing, TJ knows what it takes to make a company successful. He is known for both his strategic leadership and marketing innovation capabilities.

Under his leadership, OpenKey has partnered with the largest global BLE lock companies and successfully raised millions in strategic investments from some of the largest hotel management and ownership companies such as Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE MKT: AHT).

Prior to OpenKey, TJ was the founder and CEO of Koupon Media, the industry’s first one-time-use mobile coupon platform built for brands and agencies. In 2005, TJ co-founded Mango Mobile, a leading mobile marketing agency where he was responsible for global marketing strategy. Omnicom Group acquired the company in 2007 after record growth.

In This Episode, TJ Reveals:

* The vision behind OpenKey, the problem their solving and who they serve.

* The top things hotels should consider before moving to mobile locks, and why some hotels might opt to stay with traditional electronic door locks.

* How long the OpenKey check-in process takes, how secure it is, and what happens if the tech fails or the guest doesn’t wish to use it.

* Why it’s important for the door locks to integrate with other hotel systems, and how OpenKey integrates with a hotel’s ecosystem.

* The costs for their service.

Resources & Links

TJ Person

* [email protected]

* LinkedIn

OpenKey

* Website

* Facebook

* Twitter

* LinkedIn

* Instagram

Laleh Hancock is a transformational facilitator and business coach with more than 25 years of experience building companies and individuals that win. Whether partnering with a Fortune 500 company or a stay home mum, Laleh is dedicated empowering people and organizations of all ages and stages to grow and expand. Laleh is a Certified Facilitator for Right Riches for You, a specialty program of Access Consciousness. She meets people where they are and provides practical tools to empower people to create more joy, ease, and infinite possibilities in their lives. Laleh served on the Governor’s Maryland Caregivers Support Coordinating Council for four years.

In This Episode, Laleh Reveals:

* What the Right Riches for You program is about, what “right riches” are, and who the program is for.

* Whether money CAN make you happy, and whether making money is a valid life-purpose.

* How doing the things you enjoy doing vs the things you DON’T enjoy doing applies to your cash flow.

* A simple, practical strategy for clearing away the negative thinking, and opening yourself up to new possibilities.

And, I share my own personal story with Laleh, the back story on some of my limiting beliefs, and she helps me identify and let go my limiting thoughts around money, to create the space for more prosperity to come into my life.

Resources & Links

Laleh Hancock

* LinkedIn

* Belapemo Website

Mentioned in this Episode

* Right Riches for You

* Access Consciousness

* Episode featuring Gary Douglas – Money Isn’t the Problem, You Are!

* Erica Diverio, Account Director, McKell Media

Keely Law is Sales Manager for the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa in Florence, Alabama, and she has been part of the hospitality network for over 15 years. She is passionate about women’s empowerment and karaoke, in that order. Her personality can best be described as 1 part sales professional, 1 part skills developer, 2 parts community volunteer and 3 parts world traveler. (And 0 parts math genius?) Equipped with a degree from the University of Life, Keely creates authentic conversations that shed light on vulnerability, transparency, and truth.

In This Episode, Keely Reveals:

* How to cultivate the ‘spirit to serve’ in others, and whether some people just don’t have that hospitality spirit of service.

* Several hospitality strategies that can be practiced across the board, including the GUEST model, the 15/5 Rule, and the LEARN model.

* Tips to help you remain proactive in your search for new clients and repeat business, including setting goals, tracking progress, keeping detailed notes, setting google alerts for key clients and creating video testimonials.

* How a hospitality company can entice more women to join their sales force, and several things you can do to retain them.

Resources & Links

Keely Law

* [email protected]

* LinkedIn

* Facebook

Snay Patel is a 2nd generation hotelier born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His parents purchased a small 15 room Motel soon after immigrating to America, and he grew up living on property until the age of 26. Over the years, Snay learned the family business through hands on experience. Today, his company, Hospitality Solutions Group, Inc., operates economy and midscale hotels in California and Texas.

In This Episode, Snay Reveals:

* What it was like growing up as 2nd Generation Indian American, his experience living on property, and whether the hotel was a source of pride or embarrassment for him.

* What was it like transitioning into the family business, and whether Hospitality was always his passion.

* His struggle with depression along the way, and some examples of distorted thinking and limiting beliefs that he feels held him back.

* Several strategies he has used, including a cost benefit analysis, to work through times when he’s feeling stuck.

Resources & Links

Snay Patel

* LinkedIn

* Website

* Facebook

Nigel is CEO and Founder of When Labs: artificial intelligence for augmenting management, driving compliance, employee engagement, retention, and productivity.

Nigel’s passion for HR and management comes from over two decades of building and managing teams from two to thousands around the globe, and led to his acquisition of Kenexa, a human capital management company, the 6th largest acquisition IBM had ever made.

Nigel is a proven leader and innovator. As founding CTO of Footprint Software, a fintech startup, he engineered the largest retail banking system of its kind, building the fastest growing startup in Canada at the time, which sold to IBM. There, he architected IBM’s entry into Open Source software, making IBM the first major corporation to embrace Linux and Apache, and was founding product line manager for their most successful organic software product of the last two decades, WebSphere. Along the way, he founded one of the earliest commercial bot companies, liketribe, which used artificial intelligence and social graph data to provide personalized recommendations.

In This Episode, Nigel Reveals:

* The vision behind his company, Whenlabs, the problem they’re solving, and who they serve.

* What digital managers are, the benefit they offer hoteliers, and Nigel gives a couple examples of things a digital manager can fix.

* How their software connects within the existing technology at the property, how it works, how hard it is to use, and whether receiving direction by a digital manager feels inhuman to your staff.

* The cost for their services.

Resources & Links

Nigel Beck

* LinkedIn

When Labs

* Website

* Twitter

* Facebook

* LinkedIn

Marc Heyneker is the co-founder and CEO of Revinate, the leading hospitality SaaS company that helps hoteliers drive more direct revenue and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

Since being founded in 2009, Revinate has grown its offerings to include targeted marketing and data management, guest surveys, and online reputation management.

Prior to founding Revinate, Marc spent over nine years at Akamai Technologies in sales, channels and management roles before running their High Tech division in the US. Marc’s passion for travel combined with 20+ years experience in technology business growth and management led him to co-found Revinate, where he helps hoteliers make their promise of personalized hospitality a reality.

Erica Rich is the Sr. Hospitality Marketing Strategist at Revinate and is responsible for maximizing customer success through education and adoption of hotel marketing best practices. As the developer and instructor of Revinate’s Email Marketing Certification for Hoteliers, Erica has traveled around the world, educating hoteliers on how to become effective email marketers.

Erica has more than 15 years of experience in the hospitality and tourism industry, and she holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Arizona.

In This Episode, Marc and Erica Reveal:

* The vision behind Revinate, the problem they’re solving, and who they serve.

* Why Email Marketing is important, and the first step folks should take to get started.

* What makes a compelling email campaign, what hotels can do to make sure their campaigns stand out, and how you can measure the success of an campaign.

* Why list segmentation is important, how else email marketing can support the goals of a hotel besides driving revenue, and Erica reveals some best practices and advice.

Resources & Links

Mark Heyneker

* LinkedIn

Erica Rich

* LinkedIn

Revinate

* Website

* LinkedIn

* Twitter

* Facebook

* Google+

Keith is an award winning hospitality executive specializing in all phases of hotel and restaurant development from concept creation through opening.  Having developed over 10 highly successful bar and restaurant concepts inside hotels, he understands how to retain guests and draw locals back into hotels for amazing experiences. With his broad depth of knowledge he helps owners and developers achieve sustainability in today’s’ competitive landscape.

Keith credits having spent significant hours of endurance training to compete in IronMan and long distance cycling events, saying, “I applied the same mental focus and determination that I have when competing into hotel operations, and found great success”.

Endurance Management Group, LLC was born from this same philosophy, where we are business partners through every detail, to ensure we have alignment from owners to operators to the associates closest to our guests.

In This Episode, Keith Reveals:

* The concept behind his company, Endurance Management Group, and who he serves.

* How he would approach a rebrand of a restaurant and how to determine the right fit for cuisine, price point, branding, etc.

* How social media has become vital in business, creative ways to use social media, and whether there is a return on investment.

* How to attract more locals to you hotel restaurant or bar, how to bridge the gap between the restaurant and the front desk, and turn your hotel staff into marketing ambassadors.

* The most common mistakes hotels make with respect to their F&B, and Keith reveals one action listeners can take immediately to move the needle.

Resources & Links

Keith Halfmann

* [email protected]

* LinkedIn

Endurance Management Group

* Website

* LinkedIn

* Instagram

* Twitter

* YouTube

* Phone:  +1 414-899-8578

Today’s show is going to be a little different.

Several weeks ago, I reached out to my email list to ask industry folks to share a crazy hotel story. I’m sure most of us have dozens. Some hilarious, some heartwarming, and some may be downright disturbing.

I got a lot of great responses, and this episode will include 6 of them.

I’d love to do a show like this on a regular basis, so if you have a funny story, please share it with me. You can schedule a call with me at lodgingleaders.com/call, or if you story is less than 90 seconds, just leave me a voice mail at lodgingleaders.com/message.

In This Episode, You’ll Hear Stories From:

* Blanche Garcia

* Rupesh Patel

* Anne Boon

* Shep Hyken

* David Lund

* Howard Feiertag

Raj Singh is a Product Design expert from a family of hoteliers, and CEO at Go Moment, a company dedicated to making customer service instant. Go Moment’s Ivy is the world’s leading automated customer service platform for hotels.

Raj brings cross-discipline design, technology, and marketing experience from hundreds of large scale technology projects for leading brands like Virgin, Lady Gaga, and HEB Grocery Company. Blending his expertise in UX and market research, Raj works alongside leaders in hospitality to address the industry’s needs using next-generation technologies like Artificial Intelligence, automation, and IoT. In partnership with IBM Watson, Go Moment’s Ivy platform automates 75% of guest communication and is currently available to millions of hotel guests.

In This Episode, Raj Reveals:

* What Go Moment’s flagship product Ivy is all about and how it works.

* How guests opt in to the service, whether the platform integrates with the hotel’s PMS, and whether integration is required.

* How Ivy proactively checks in with the guest mid stay, and ultimately, how it can lead to an increase of favorable guest reviews.

* How quickly can they deploy a new client, whether they offer any analytics, and of course, what the typical cost is for their service.

Resources & Links

Raj Singh

* [email protected]

* LinkedIn

Go Moment

* Website

* Twitter

* Facebook

* Phone:  +1 (800) 701-0414