You know, we all have done it — worked our way up the ladder, pushed ourselves to physical and mental limits or sacrificed our personal plans — just to focus on our upwardly mobile hospitality careers. Over the last several decades, that is how industry leaders as...
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Always Forward Thinking
Resort and Urban Fees: Thinking of Implementing One? Here’s How to Ensure a Successful Execution
Hotel operational expense growth pacing higher than revenue growth has made it more challenging than ever for many hotel owners to achieve their profitability goals. The pandemic turned the previous labor shortage into a crisis and new types of accommodation, such as...
Ghost Kitchens and The Hotel Industry: A Tall Order?
One of the many changes to everyday living brought along by Covid-19 has been the meteoric ascension of food delivery, not only to homes and offices, but increasingly also to hotel guests. The trend really took off during the early stages of lockdown de-escalation,...
A Guide to Incorporating Non-Alcoholic Spirits and Botanical Elixirs Into Your Beverage Program
You never know what really is just a fad or what is signaling a change in the industry. But the rise in non-alcoholic (NA) spirits available on the market and the buzz around them is taking on a whole new momentum. The increased visibility of NA beverages...
Building a diverse service culture through the J-1 Visa Program
As the world opens back up to welcome leisure and business travelers alike, the J-1 Visa Program is also reopening – a program that embodies and embraces cultures from every corner of the globe. The J-1 Visa Program is an Exchange Visitor Program which offers...
Travel Agency Survey Results: From Survival to Revival
On a quarterly basis, Jim Schultenover of Strategic Solution Partners and JDS Hospitality surveys travel agencies to get a sense of trends and topics that the hospitality industry should be paying attention to. Our most recent survey, completed in May 2021, had...
The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
“The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence” is a phrase I have been using as my mantra since I was very young. It has helped me push my limits in pursuit of that excellence that my mother instilled in me at a very early age. Pursuit of Excellence in Hospitality How can...
Property Commercial Strategy: Why Independent Hotels Can Blaze the Trail
Independent hotels and resorts are notorious for being true trailblazers within the industry. This is due to the authentic brands at individual properties and smaller management companies with unique and entrepreneurial cultures. The secret sauce in their culture...
Buckle your Seatbelt: Horsepower for the Rebound
HOSPITALITY PANDEMIC EXHAUSTION Lately, everybody is “here for you” – the bank, the skincare retail shop, and even the furniture store. It is coming from all angles. At the same time, we no longer want to discuss the “need to pivot” or experience “unprecedented...
Podcast with Long Live Lodging: Hotel Labor Shortage Hamstrings Industry’s Comeback
April’s unemployment rate is at 6.1% but the lodging sector’s unemployment rate is at 13.8% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is where it was also 30 years ago. Although the industry is seeing a demand for jobs, the labor pool is shallow. The problem is leading...
A Hotel Owner’s Guide to Building Maintenance
Hotel asset value is determined using multiple calculations, math problems, and sometimes magic tricks, but there are three critically important aspects of the physical plant that can make or break a hotel investment. As an owner or asset manager, keep these...
The Yoga Of Change In Hotel Revenue Optimization
We have all been watching and waiting (however impatiently) for the trends to turn upward. Even though we are still experiencing softer booking trends, finally, STR data's moving average indicates that the weeks since January 23rd moved upwards and have leveled off...
How Hospitality Can Close the Food Gap
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...
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...