Lodging Luminaries

If it’s true that opportunity is borne out of crisis, then Josh Ramsey and his cohorts at startup Prosper Hotels might be on to something big. In this episode of Lodging Luminaries, Ramsey, founder and managing partner at Prosper Hotels, talks about how hotel owners and operators can blend rate, technology and customer service into a money-making enterprise.

Mitch Patel, president and CEO of Vision Hospitality Group, is repositioning his 25-year-old company to identify and execute on opportunities to grow its new management subsidiary, Humanist Hospitality. Patel shares the reasons behind the move, including teaming up with real estate developers in mixed-use projects. He also talks about how he’s parlaying his close relationships with hotel company CEOs and other top executives to redo brand standards.

Lodging Luminaries Episode 12 spotlights Peggy Berg, an industry veteran, entrepreneur and founder of Castell Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the career trajectories of women in hospitality industry leadership. Berg talks about how the pandemic crisis has affected Castell’s mission; how it’s changed the way women view their careers; and how employers need to respond.

In Episode 11 of Lodging Luminaries, host Jason Freed talks with Tracy Kundey about the steps Everwood Hospitality Partners is taking to not only get to the other side of economic downturn but to grow Everwood into an industry powerhouse by deploying technology to manage profitability and getting creative with delivering on guest services while seeking out opportunistic deals. Success today is a matter of ‘looking at things differently,’ he said.

Sonesta Hotels International’s CEO Carlos Flores has big dreams for the company he’s led since 2012. Over the past 18 months, he’s made some of them come true, shocking an industry in the throes of the coronavirus crisis. In Episode 10, Jason talks with Flores about how he decided to propel the company as a major contender in the franchising space. He also shares his views on the franchiser-franchisee relationship as well as whether the adoption of new technology can enhance a hotel’s value.

Episode 9 of Lodging Luminaries with Jason Freed features Elie Khoury, EVP of operations at Aimbridge Hospitality, who says, in every economic downturn, hospitality owners and operators learn new ways of doing business. The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the challenge of staffing a hotel operation and Aimbridge Hospitality is taking an unconventional route by embracing the “gig economy” and preparing for the inevitable cultural shift it will create in the hospitality workplace.

Episode 8 of Lodging Luminaries features host Jason Freed talking with Justin Jabara, president of Meyer Jabara Hotels in Danbury, Connecticut, about the significant steps he and the company took to adapt and grow over the past 18 months.

In this episode, host Jason Freed talks with Robert Cole, CEO of Hospitality Ventures Management Group, about how HVMG managed to do more than merely eke out a profit from the hotels in its portfolio during the pandemic. Over the past 18 months, it exceeded the industry’s average house-profit levels. Cole talks about the tough decisions that were made amid the crisis to save the hotels under HVMG’s care and how HVMG has adjusted its business model to succeed in post-pandemic America.

Michael Levie is co-founder and operations chief of Citizen M, a tech-forward luxury lifestyle hotel brand that caters to the frequent traveler, the mobile citizen. He has built a company culture that encourages creativity and ‘what-if’ thinking. In this episode Lodging Luminaries host Jason Freed talks with Levie about the importance of opening yourself to transformational ideas as the global hotel industry emerges from the wreckage of the coronavirus crisis.

In Episode 5, Jason talks with Talene Staab, global brand head of Tru by Hilton, about her experience as a global brand head of a new-build concept continuously undergoing tweaks and revisions and what she and Hilton are doing to encourage more women to invest in hotels. She also dives into the work Tru has done around augmenting the guest experience through design and personalization, turning a hotel into more than a place to rest your head but a key part of your overall travel experience.