The Food Gap There is a disparity today between food knowledge and food preparation skills. The pre-pandemic state of affairs, which is reasonable to expect will return as vaccines become more available and cases decrease, provided us the opportunity to...
Blog
Always Forward Thinking
A Case Study: Finding New Revenue Streams for a Big Box Hotel
Hotels that have traditionally relied on group and convention business have found themselves struggling over the pandemic period. Uncovering and maximizing new revenue streams, the way we did for the subject hotel in this case study, is a sure-fire way to...
Strategy Before Tactics: A Lesson for Hoteliers
We must be more strategic!You’re not strategic enough!Get out of the tactics and think strategically! Sound familiar? Let’s take a minute and ground ourselves first. Strategy = a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.Tactics =...
7 Hotel Commercial Mistakes and What to Do About Them
Jack Lindemuth, consultant at Strategic Solution Partners joined Stephanie Smith, Founder and Digital Matriarch of Cogwheel Marketing, on Trevor Grant's podcast, Revenue Hub, in May 2021 to discuss hotel commercial strategy and digital marketing. In a previous...
How the H-2B Work Visa Program Can Help with Hotel Staffing
If your hotel in the U.S. experiences major swings in demand based on the season you might be the ideal candidate for the H-2B Work Visa Program. As the U.S. hospitality industry looks ahead to a strong post-pandemic summer, finding qualified and motivated seasonal...
Three Ways to Make Your Hotel Company Attractive to Investors
As we emerge from the doldrums of the last year and watch demand trend upward, there is a great opportunity to create competitive advantages for your hotel company. Cash flow from new Investors can make or break any company’s runway to a sustainable forward...
Podcast: Paige Duke Discusses Evolving Hotel Sales with eHotelier
Paige Duke partook in a lively and informative discussion with Mathew Stephens from eHotelier to discuss what is changing for sales teams as travel returns and occupancy creeps back to normal. Paige Duke is owner and founder of Duke Consulting and a Strategic...
Why Now Is The Best Time To Finance
Winter is officially over, and although the capital markets for hotel and resort refinance, acquisition and new-build construction lending have been frozen, they have been stealthily thawing out since the first of the year. Since the start of the pandemic, short-term...
Ramping up Hotel Internal Controls Post-Pandemic
With two major “black swan” events within 12 years of each other, we can learn from the 2008 financial crisis to help ensure internal controls and business processes are working properly as the hotel industry ramps back up. To survive the COVID-19 pandemic, most...
A Yogini’s Way to Approach a Hotel Distribution Audit
Oh, what excitement a new trend inspires! In yoga, the trends range on Yoga HiiT fusion, Broga, Arial Yoga. “Competitive yoga” is even a new phrase gaining surprising traction. WHAT? Yoga is inherently personal and decidedly non-competitive, as a...
Podcast: Arrive at Happy Leaders with Jacqueline Villamil
On March 7, 2021, Jacqueline Villamil of SSP (Strategic Solution Partners) sat down with Tia Grahm founder of Arrive at Happy podcast for a lively discussion on how Jacqueline became the leader she is today, and how she creates happiness outside of her work life and...
The Hospitality Consulting Playbook: Choosing the Right ‘Head Coach’
There is an old adage: Those who cannot play, coach. Does it really take more skill to play than to coach? In terms of a measurement of talent, which is best? My answer? Both! The last two winning Super Bowl coaches were college football players but did not play...
How On-Demand Staffing Helps Hotel Recovery
Another Business Model for Independent Properties Independent hotels and resorts are resourceful by their very nature, but the current business climate is challenging even the best of them. Drive market resorts and those with easy direct flight access are...
The Top Ten “Blocking and Tackling Areas” Every Hotel Operator Needs to Hit During COVID19
While the Covid-19 Pandemic has devastated our industry in many ways, it has also served as a terrific opportunity to “get ahead of the curve” – allowing us to operate from a much stronger position when the tide turns. We have had to learn how to operate in a...
Moving from Revenue Management to Revenue Optimization
As the hospitality landscape continues to evolve and especially as we begin to see the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination and a return to normalcy, reliance on analytics and business intelligence is growing exponentially. The Revenue Management leader role has...
A Story About Spanish Tapas
Fernando Salazar started getting involved with Spanish tapas 15 years ago as VP of F&B of Omni Hotels and Resorts. He developed an annual international gastronomic trip for chefs and Food and Beverage directors of Omni Hotels. The first year consisted of a 10-day...
The Yoga of Revenue Optimization & Marketing Collaboration
The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root word yuj, and the most understood meaning of yoga is “union.” To unite implies a foundation of not only a shared philosophy, but the creation of common goals and objectives known as collaboration. This involves a great...
Does ‘Virtual’ Work in the Hotel Business?
Now more than ever, the utilization of home-based resources is key to maintaining a productive, and profitable, workforce. As the hospitality industry grapples with COVID-19, many companies are looking for ways to reduce overhead, maintain efficiencies and leverage...
A Yogini’s Take on Bravery in Revenue Optimization
Trying a new, seemingly complicated pose in a yoga practice is often terrifying. Fear of falling on our face in crow pose or perhaps just falling in front of other people oftentimes holds us back from reaching new goals. An outside view of the pose from a...
(Re)Alignment of Human Resources Value: A Case Study
The Human Resources department is notorious for making, or breaking, a company. The culture, employee extrinsic motivation, and more- is all on HR. No truer words have been spoken for Bob Holland, Associate Partner at Strategic Solution Partners, who has previous...
Fernando Salazar on Soria Gastronómica – The International Mushroom Congress
“... perhaps what’s more powerful than the actual mushrooms themselves, is the knowledge and passion gained from cooking and savoring them”, beams Fernando Salazar- the current Co-Founder and Executive Vice President at E-SPAIN and Food and Beverage Consultant...
A Yogini’s take on Hotel Revenue Optimization in a COVID19 World
Yogini:a female master practitioner of yoga. I see myself as a yogini, first, revenue optimist second. Having spent thousands of hours centering my mind, body and soul- my professional career within the revenue and consulting space has also benefitted immensely...
Giving Time: SSP’s Bob Holland Spends Easter Break Volunteering at Medhen Social Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
SSP’s Bob Holland and his wife, Nancy, get the most pleasure out of life and travels by giving back whenever possible. Most recently, over Easter Break in April, they returned for the fourth time to Ethiopia, to volunteer on behalf of a small New Jersey-based...
International Women’s Day: Hospitality’s Top Female Hoteliers Dish on the Rise of Women in the Hotel Industry
Recent research from Cornell’s School of Business showed that women now make up 25.5 percent of senior managers across the hospitality and travel sectors. While female leadership is growing, hospitality remains a male dominated industry. We asked some of the...
Time For Good: 72 Hours with Jacqueline Villamil at Huellas de Pan in Cancun, Mexico
Last year, and timed to Giving Tuesday, Strategic Solution Partners announced its commitment to give contractors the chance to give back to society with SSP’s Giving Time initiative. In partnership with Give A Day Global, a San Francisco-based non-profit that connects...