Hospitality over time

Hotels have been my working world since the very beginning of my career. I started as a bellman, carrying guest luggage between lobby and guestrooms, and meeting every single type of person one can meet on the frontline of a hotel.

It’s been decades since I wore that uniform (nevermind how many, but I like to think it would still fit). In those years, I was lucky enough to go from hefting the bags to booking reservations to working the front desk. Eventually, I stepped into the back-office where an accounting position turned into sales, then global sales, then a directorship in sales and marketing.

One can imagine the amount of perspective that comes from this sort of step-by-step, full-career climb up the stairs of a specific industry. Like an airline pilot who learns each moving and static part of the plane they’re going to fly, I can tell you the source of every hotel squeak, bump and rumble you hear and feel, from negotiation to booking to billing.

I’m still in the industry I love, but now as something I like to call a Hotel Broker. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what that means (there wasn’t really a word for this kind of work when I set out to do it). Imagine a mortgage broker, but for hospitality; where a mortgage broker connects you to the best available mortgage rate, I connect multinational organizations across industries to the best room rates for group bookings—the kind of rates you will never be able to find on any travel-booking site, no matter how hard you search.

A key benefit to knowing precisely how every moving part in a hotel works is that one learns just how much more can be negotiated (there are more than 60 negotiable items in any given hotel contract), how to unpack liabilities, and where to bring down costs without sacrificing service.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how the hotel industry has changed over the years. In some areas for the better. In others, not so much.

Which brings us to why I’m stepping out to start this conversation. Hotels have left behind much of the human side of hospitality in favor of commodification. And we need to bring it back.

Upgrading the room

When I was a kid, a stay at a hotel could feel like going to Disneyland. I remember how people were taken care of, the feeling of a genuine please and thank you, that sense of generosity and welcome-to-your-home-for-the-night hospitality. Hotels provided more than a bed and a shower, more than a roof, they provided an experience. Since the pandemic (and even a little bit before that to be honest), this has become increasingly rare.

When I work with a hotel to ensure my clients get what they need from any kind of large-block booking, it’s that experience, at every level of the process that I’m looking for not just for my client, but for their guests too. The hotels who remember that the goal is to make people feel special are the ones that I love working with, because they get it. They’re setting the tone for a future hotel space that brings back what its like to be treated like an honored guest.

That’s precisely where this industry needs to go. What if its next iteration incentivized service and hospitality instead of cost-cutting and speed? Its guiding light would be simple: give guests more than a room. Give them the very best they have to offer, room or otherwise.

There’s a huge business opportunity in a human-focussed reset for hotels and hospitality. Follow along as I explore that opportunity, share tips and insights from my years in the industry, talk about the future, and how I think we can get there.

I’ll be highlighting client successes, talking to subject matter experts, and sharing some of the wild and strange stories that are peculiar to the halls (and back corridors) of a hotel.

To learn more about working with me, or to learn just what on Earth a hotel broker is, book a discovery call.