Shr Soundbites

Marcela Ceccacci Brown, Director of Sales, for Virgin Hotels, in Dallas, Texas, joins Jason on this episode of Soundbites. Marcela talks about the healthy uptick in not only social leads, but corporate as well, Virgin's sales org chart, their 'all hands on deck' mentality, and what photo shoots with local talent is doing for their social media presence.

Raul Moronta, Chief Commercial Officer, Remington Hotels, joins Jason from one of their properties in Santa Fe, New Mexico to talk about his new role. Raul talks about Remington's decision to create the CCO role, his background that led up to securing a the position, the necessary skill sets for the role, understanding customer behavior, the importance of understanding operations, and more.

Patty de Gruiter, Vice President of Revenue and Sales, for Sircle Collection, joins Jason from her office in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to talk about alternative revenue streams. Patty talks about the enjoyment and frustrations of managing revenue amid the pandemic, the adjustments she's had to make—running lean, minimizing risks, and then there's the creative campaigns: win a year-long stay, popup stores, music festivals, housing, and more.

Josh Spurlock, Client Success Manager, SHR, joins Jason for a quick chat on being hired in early 2020, only to be let go once the pandemic started taking its toll on hospitality, to then getting the call in early 2021, to come back.

Maria Corpas, hospitality and travel tech Copywriter, joins Jason from her office in Germany. Maria talks about messaging that turns lookers into bookers amid the pandemic: protocols in place, amenities, and nearby attractions, the mistakes she sees hotels are making, and how your love for your hotel gets in the way of good copywriting. She also suggests, oddly for a copywriter, that hotels compliment their written messages with video messages.

Sharon Vaughn, Associate Director of Sales, Hotel Effie Sandestin, joins Jason from her office in Miramar Beach, Florida. Sharon talks about being furloughed by Marriott, Effie's recent opening, a busy spring break (G-rated), lead volume increasing with groups, adjusting to the new normal, and more.

Garine Ferejian-Mayo, Chief Commercial Officer at Sonesta Hotels, joins me from her office in New York City. Garine talks about her background in Operations, Sales, Digital Marketing, and Revenue Management, Sonesta's rapid growth from 53 to 278 hotels, and how they came to the decision to create the CCO position.

Martin Reichenbach, Founder, apaleo, joins Jason from his office in Munich, Germany. Martin talks about the company's recent Series A Funding, what makes apaleo different, the 'closedness' amongst the PMS's, and what the 2nd half of 2021 looks like.

Nicolas Durand, Vice President, Revenue Strategy, S Hotels and Resorts, joins Jason from his office in Bangkok, Thailand. Nicolas talks about the lack of cases in Bangkok, but also the lack of travel, S Hotels moving from owners to a management company, with hotels in Thailand, Maldives (Hard Rock), and the U.K. He goes on about how his role has changed, doing more with less, and the putting together of their technology stack: channel manager, booking engine, BI, and optimizing all that he can, given the different markets.

Luis Weir, Director, Integrations and APIS Strategy, with Oracle Hospitality, joins Jason, from Royal Leamington Spa, England. Luis breaks down Oracle's Hospitality Integration Platform or OHIP, the streamlining and consolidating of all the interface technologies, to build integrations to Opera, simpler, quicker, cheaper.

Sean Lynch, Vice President, Revenue Management, for Graduate Hotels, joins Jason, on this episode of Soundbites, from Las Vegas, Nevada. Sean talks about his 30+ hotels across the US, located in dynamic university markets, and keeping a core revenue team focused on standardization and cancellations amid the pandemic. He explains how the revenue team restructured, collaboration increased between Sales, Revenue, Marketing, and eCommerce, and their adjusting to the triggers that help forecast.

Theodore Holloway, Vice President, Digital Marketing, with Remington Hotels, joins Jason, from Key Biscayne, Florida. Theodore talks about his 79, geographically diverse, up-scale hotels, branded and independent, taking on new hotels, hiring people back as well as brining on new-hires. He adds how his role has changed, how marketing, sales, and revenue now report to a Chief Commercial Officer, the heightened collaboration, and their efforts with the OTAs.

David-Friedemann Henning, CEO & Co-Founder, of Big Mama Hotels, joins Jason, from his office in Leipzig, Germany. David explains the ‘all-welcome’ experience that turn first-timers into repeat guests, talks about the adjustments needed for his city-center hotels (Berlin, Leipzig), using their CRM to keep guests informed, and a couple of sellouts in Nov-Dec. Though Germany continues to be in lockdown, he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, and is staying positive. Finally, he lets us in on how the name, Big Mama Hotels, came to be.

Ryan MacDonald, VP of Revenue & E-Commerce, with Palm Holdings, joins Jason from his home in Toronto, Canada. Ryan says GMs are the unsung heroes, from folding laundry, making breakfast bags, checking people in, everything within Operations. And, being prepared for travel's full comeback could prove tricky. Staff that stayed-on throughout the pandemic have not been busy and are out of practice, and trying to find staff that are willing to come back could be tough as well. Ryan will rely on their internal belief that 'everybody is responsible for revenue management at Palm,' and not hire right away, once demand reaches healthy levels, but stresses there's going to be a learning curve for frontline employees out of practice.

Amy Draheim, Owner, ABD Creative, joins Jason from her office in Bend, Oregon. Amy talks about her hotel clients shutting down at the onset of the pandemic, her conviction that hotels should not stop communicating with the market, despite the lack of travel, the origins of her How To Share podcast, and breaks down where hotels should be communicating their story, and the importance of video and user generated content.

Rika Robertson, Hotel Manager, with Citrus Hotel, joins Jason from her hotel in Eastbourn, England, home of the white cliffs and possibly, the stairway to heaven. Rika's been 'working her socks off' with staff being furloughed and their ability to stay open, hosting key workers. She talks about the changes that have had to take place, her opportunity to 'take stock,' and their marketing and sales efforts. She also wrote a book a while back that is so applicable to our current times, 'Life Happened.'

Jonathan Liu, Director of Revenue and Marketing Strategy with glh Hotels, joining Jason from London, England. Jonathan talks about glh's diverse 18 hotels, including the Hard Rock London, how and why revenue and marketing are falling under his purview, moving his website to a new CMS platform to have more dynamic activity, configuring a new CRM, and looking at revenue management systems, trying to bring everything they're doing from marketing perspective and relate it back to their revenue systems how they price and yield, trying to make a seamless eco-system of everything coming together.

Florencia Benaim, Founder, MOI consultancy, located in Argentina, joins Jason on this episode of Soundbites. Florencia talks about Argentina's struggles, her 3x rescheduled wedding, her boutique, revenue management consulting firm, the lack of RMS's in Latin America, how her clients in Mexico are doing, and how Instagram has brought lots of bookings!

Matthew Taormino, HGM, GM, Dunham's Bay Resort, from upstate New York, joins me on this episode of the Soundbites Podcast.   Matthew talks about his 20-room, 20-cabin, family resort on Lake George, parenting staff through the pandemic, the stall of their critical wedding business, but enjoying 75%-80% occupancy throughout June, July, August, and September.   Matthew also talks about their in-house management of social media and their successful campaign, '100 Days of Summer.'

Texas drops virus restrictions yesterday! So, let's talk to a Business Travel Manager in San Antonio. Jasmin Gutierrez, with the Valencia Hotel Group, joins me on the latest episode of the Soundbites Podcast. Jasmine talks about how they are handling Texas' move away from restrictions, and even though their business travel didn't complete dry up, her role now includes weddings and events. Old hat for Jasmine, back in the day, she worked her way up in hospitality, first as a hostess, then a restaurant manager, and catered for 8 years.