Friday Night Audit gives hotel company presidents a dangerous combination: cocktails, bad ideas and three people absolutely convinced they know how to run the business better. Red Roof President Zack Gharib made the mistake of joining us this week. We insisted our advice was genius. Zack knew better. Between drinks, Craig Sullivan started designing a…
Staypineapple Hotels President Dina Belon joined us for Friday Night Audit, and within minutes we were talking about underground printer-paper markets, retired Peabody ducks and why her early Google results once featured photos from the Playboy Club. So, a completely normal hospitality conversation. Craig Sullivan and Dr. Producer Suzanne Bagnera were along for the ride,…
LivAway Suites gives long-term guests more room while protecting the economics behind the hotel. Glenn Haussman and Dr. Producer Suzanne Bagnera speak with LivAway Suites CEO Mike Nielson about how the company builds rooms about 20% larger than typical economy extended-stay rooms without losing control of construction costs, housekeeping efficiency or hotel margins. LivAway places…
Derek Pacqué drove three hours from Manhattan to my house on Long Island for Friday Night Audit. In LIE traffic, you know it’s bad when the cars start passing you, then a horse and buggy passes you, then an elderly woman with a walker passes you. That’s Friday in the summer on Long Island. Derek…
James Hansen showed up with a Paloma. Sarah Becherer poured a digestif. Craig had a cocktail. Glenn was doing whatever Glenn does. This is how you open a conversation about parking. Sarah is SVP of Marketing at Ocra. James is our friend along for the ride. Ocra turns empty hotel parking lots into cash. We…
We had a guest cancel at the last minute, so Craig Sullivan, Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED, and I opened drinks and talked about my absolute disaster of a travel day. I’m not giving away the whole thing, but yesterday involved delayed flights, a plane too hot to board, a jammed wheelchair, Atlanta airspace doing…
Jonathan Tisch just retired as Executive Chairman of Loews Hotels & Co . After 45 years, here’s his final message: respect the housekeepers. He’s not being poetic. The housekeepers, kitchen staff, and pool servers do all the actual work. Executives sit in offices. You can’t exist without them. That’s the whole equation he told me…
Deena Baikowitz is a cat whisperer, networking extraordinaire, and the funnest, loudest (the good kind) person you’ll ever meet. She joins Friday Night Audit alongside myself, Craig Sullivan and Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED from Toronto (where she’s “in exile” from New York) and the crew immediately put her to work on the pet peeves…
Hotel operators don’t lack AI options. They lack a clear way to evaluate them. During this week’s HITEC, I talked with Shannon McCallum, VP of Operations at Resorts World Las Vegas, about the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) AI Collective and how operators can make smarter decisions around AI tools, robotics, chatbots, reporting, and…
Glenn Haussman talks with Charif Zahrane, Managing Partner at M7 Services, about the hotel technology mess sitting underneath the AI conversation. Everybody wants to talk about AI. Charif wants hotel operators to look at what sits below it first. Data. Infrastructure. Security. System connections. The unsexy stuff that decides whether the shiny new tool actually…
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