Posts

141 | Upping Your F&B Game with Keith Halfmann

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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”. Read more

140 | Crazy Hotel Stories by Industry Professionals

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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.

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139 | Engage Your Guests in Real Time Using Artificial Intelligence with Raj Singh

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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. Read more

132 | Practical Hospitality Consulting for Today’s Hotelier with Chip Elbers

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Chip is a hospitality veteran and he’s been serving the industry for more than 30 years. He’s done it all – from washing dishes, to the front desk, Assistant GM, General Manager, Sales Manager, COO, CDO, VP and more. For over 20 years, Chip served America’s Best Franchising as the brand grew from just a few properties to a portfolio of nearly 300. After ABF was acquired by Vantage Hospitality a couple years ago, Chip began his hospitality consultancy, and he has helped multiple development and management groups not only grow profits, but identify key areas for improvement.

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131 | Let’s Rock the Hotel with Holly Arora

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Born and raised in Rhode Island, Holly began her hospitality journey at the age of 13 as a housekeeper. Like many hoteliers, she slowly worked her way up through the ranks. By the age of 30, she was managing a hotel, and by 33, she became the General Manager at a Hampton Inn. Today, Holly is a full time mom and chief educator at Lets Rock the Hotel.

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130 | Hotel Safety and Security with Bill Frye

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William D. Frye, Ph.D., CHE, CHO, CHIA is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator at Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management and a doctoral graduate from the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management at The Pennsylvania State University. He teaches classes in hotel and resort management, hospitality and tourism law, and club management, and is the professor in charge of Niagara University’s club management and Disney internship programs. He holds a Master of Hospitality Management degree from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management at the University of Houston.

Dr. Frye has earned the designation of Certified Hospitality Educator from the Education Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. He also serves as the editor of the Electronic Journal of Hospitality Legal, Safety and Security Research. In 2008, he co-authored a textbook, Managing Housekeeping Operations, available from the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Read more

128 | Leadership and Service Go Hand In Hand with Roger Miller

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As a multi-unit hospitality veteran of 30+ years, Roger Miller has established himself as one of the hotel industry’s leading sales and marketing technical advisors who offers results-driven, sales & marketing expertise to the industry. He brings a depth of experience as a strategist, trainer, leader, coach, mentor and industry resource for full service, select service, extended stay, resort and independent brands.

Roger has represented more than 225 properties ranging in size from 60 to 600 rooms and $2.5 billion in assets across 42 states. His depth of knowledge across brands includes Marriott/Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Choice Hotels. He also has extensive experience with convention, resort and boutique independent hotels.

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124 | A New Generation of Lifestyle Hostels with Rafael Museri

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Rafael Museri has over fifteen years of experience in international real estate development. Eight years ago, Rafael moved from Tel Aviv to Panama City, Panama. In 2008, he founded the Dekel Group where his knowledge and expertise have been invaluable in the aggregation of Dekel’s extensive portfolio of real estate assets. Rafael’s vision has facilitated the growth of Dekel and its team – it took Rafael three years to find the village of Pedasi through careful research and then he found the correct team to help take his imagination and turn it into reality. He is the founder and CEO of Selina, a rapidly growing, new generation of lifestyle hostels with 13 locations in Latin America. His personal and successful business record has drawn a lot of successful business groups with great influences to invest in his company.
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123 | Hospitality Internships from the Students’ Perspective

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Last month, I featured Ron Whitfield and Dr. Kate Price-Howard, and we took a deep dive into How to Create an Awesome Internship Program. Click here to listen to that episode.

This is part two in the hospitality internship series.

Today’s guests are ResortQuest Interns Jordon Bonner, Nick Delaney, Allison Johnstone and Yaminah Cummings, and their Internship Advocates Ron Whitfield and Dr. Kate Price-Howard. Read more

122 | ‘5-Star Mentality’ for a 3-Star Brand with Suresh Chawla

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Suresh Chawla was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, and moved with his parents (Dr. and Mrs. V.K. Chawla) and brother Dinesh to America in 1977.

He has worked with Chawla Hotels since they opened their first property in Greenwood, MS in 1989. He currently serves as President and CFO of Chawla Hotels, which owns 17 limited service hotels, and is currently developing the first Scion Hotel in Cleveland, MS. Read more