The Micrometrics Hospitality Webinar Series

Palm Holdings Webinar: The Supply Shortage Struggle

Summary

On our last Palm Holdings Hospitality Webinar, we discussed a hot button issue with Holiday Inn Express & Suites Halifax – Bedford’s General Manager, Carmella Facchin…Navigating Labor Shortages. On this webinar, we are following up with another significant challenge we at Micrometrics hear from our hospitality customers over and over again, The Supply Shortage Struggle!

Joining us is Holiday Inn Express and Suites Orlando – South Lake Buena Vista’s General Manager, Kelly Cowan, who has first hand experience developing strategies and processes for overcoming these hurdles. Kelly will walk us through the initial impact of supply shortages and procurement issues on the guest experience at her property, the steps she took to find creative solutions, and most importantly she will outline the operational considerations a hospitality leader must make to pull off these new approaches.

Palm Holdings Webinar: Navigating Labour Shortages

Summary

If you’ve been working in the hospitality industry these past…oh…19 months or so, one thing is guaranteed; you have experienced labour shortages!

At Micrometrics, we speak with a lot of industry leaders and this is probably the most common challenge we’ve heard since the pandemic began. Now, what happens if your property is not only experiencing low staffing numbers but has also seen its occupancy levels not impacted to the same extent as other hotels around the world? Well, if you’re Holiday Inn Express & Suites Halifax – Bedford’s General Manager, Carmella Facchin, this is exactly the situation you are faced with!

In this 45 minute Palm Holdings webinar, Carmella will share her experience navigating labour shortages at her property from the perspective of a GM whose occupancy levels still performed “okay” throughout the pandemic. How do you develop new systems and processes to maximize the output of your team? How do you keep culture and spirits up when everyone is working longer hours in a more stressful environment? What impacts did reduced staffing have on the guest experience? And what lessons have been learned that can carry on in a post-pandemic world?Join us live on Monday, October 25th at 1pm ET to learn from Carmella on these points and many more!

Palm Holdings Webinar: Community Care & Crisis Response

Summary

In the spring of 2020, with the pandemic impacting occupancy levels at the Radisson Kitchener, its General Manager, Nancy Keizer was presented with an opportunity to positively impact her community. But, sometimes, care can come with a cost…

For roughly seven months, House of Friendship’s Shelter program operated out of the Radisson Kitchener, which provided the space needed to safely house, and provide meals for, more than 100 individuals experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. While this more comprehensive approach to Shelter was a vision underway before COVID-19 began, the pandemic made it an instant necessity to keep those who are homeless, and the entire community, safe.

The program presented a tale of two realities for Nancy and her team:

On the one hand, the Radisson provided a safe and warm place to stay 24/7 with on onsite healthcare to address the physical, addiction, and mental health needs of these new guests as well as the opportunity to provide the tools and resources they need to find and maintain permanent housing.

There were other positive benefits, as well:

No positive COVID-19 cases within the ShelterCare program;
Overdose rates were down by over 50% despite increasing the number of individuals served from 51 to more than 100;
75% reduction in Emergency Medical Service visits; and
More than 56 men housed over six months, with none returning to Shelter.

But, as you can expect, there were also negative sentiments towards the program…

In this 45 minute Palm Holdings webinar, Nancy will share her experience both managing the intricacies of this unique program, while simultaneously responding to the challenges of the pandemic, and shed light on the lessons learned both in terms of the positive benefits her property has experienced by participating and also when dealing with both sides of the impact a community can experience.

Webinar: Escaping Industry Norms

Summary

Isidro (Sid) is an expert in the entire real estate development cycle of hospitality projects, large-scale master planned communities, and mixed-use and residential developments with hands-on experience in all stages of the process: site selection, project conceptualization, feasibility, financial underwriting, design, permitting, construction, sales & marketing, operations, asset management and divestiture.

He is currently Regional Vice President for Coldwell Banker in Northeastern US and previously occupied several senior level positions in major real estate companies around the world. So, with more than 20 years of hospitality experience from the outside looking in, last year Sid made the decision to purchase The Escape Inn and, since then, has been learning the ins and outs of the hospitality industry…from the inn-side.

In this 45 minute hospitality industry webinar, Sid will share his top insights as an industry outsider…what has he seen work well now that he is immersed in the day-to-day operations of his property and where can the industry find room for improvement?

We hope you’ll join us Wednesday, September 29th at 1pm ET.

Webinar: The Revival of Community

Summary

Hotel Revival’s purpose is a direct reflection of its name; the property brings renewal to the Mount Vernon neighborhood, embodies the rebirth of art and history, and it is committed to the ongoing restoration of Baltimore. Hotel Revival isn’t just IN the community, they’re OF it!

Long before the pandemic caused dramatic shifts in where hotels looked for revenue opportunities, often turning inward to their local markets in place of business and leisure travel, Hotel Revival was actively supporting the local businesses and people around them, creating day-to-day programs where local businesses are able to use their space to raise money for nonprofits in the area. The hotel employs a “Director of Culture & Impact”. And it makes a point to introduce its guests to Baltimore by building spaces with services and products from its community.

In this 45 minute hospitality industry webinar, Hotel Revival’s General Manager, Donte Johnson, will further expand on the programs, services, products, and partnerships his property has forged in their local community, the benefits of doing so, and how this proactive “investment” of energy and resources helped the hotel stay afloat through the last eighteen months.

We hope you’ll join us Friday, September 17th at 12pm ET.

Webinar: A Hospitality History Lesson

Summary

Palm Holdings’ expertise in hotel and restaurant development, construction, management, and commercial real estate has enabled the company to transform hospitality ventures across the globe through its landmark development projects in the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and the United States.

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, the company’s Vice President of Revenue, Ryan MacDonald, has dealt with his fair share of challenging situations, from 9/11, to the 2008 financial crash, and the SARS outbreak. With all of that experience comes many lessons learned, lessons that he was able to apply to Palm Holdings’ portfolio of 23 hotel properties as they looked to navigate operating through the pandemic.

In this 45 minute hospitality industry webinar, Ryan will share some of those lessons he’s learned while dealing with other challenging market conditions. We’ll discuss how he prepared his teams through different stages of the pandemic, and where he is focusing his energy heading into the future. Ryan will also discuss what he sees as the “poor decisions” other hotel operators, managers, owners, and brands have made, based on his best practices and insights, and what hotels and their management groups do to prepare for the next challenging situation.

We hope you’ll join us Thursday, September 16th at 2pm ET.

Webinar: "Staying Well"

Summary

With the world’s deepest geothermal hot spring at its core, Mother Nature is the star at The Springs Resort & Spa. At over 1,002 feet deep, “The Mother Spring” not only provides geothermal energy to The Springs Resort & Spa – constantly feeding mineral water to 24 smaller pools terraced along the riverbank, with water temperatures ranging from 80 degrees to 114 degrees – but also provides heat to schools, many municipal and county buildings and breweries in the town of Pagosa Springs.

Director of Wellness Operations, Sharon Holtz, was brought in to oversee the implementation of a two-phase program of wellness offerings over the next year at the resort, such as Forest Bathing Hikes, Aqua Yoga, Mindfulness & Meditation, Wetland Nature Walks and even Aqua Sound Bathing.

In this 45 minute hospitality industry webinar, Sharon shares the details of this program, walking us through her thoughts and strategies on how to deeply embed wellness programming into a resort’s broader offering, and what the unique challenges are of “operating” a geothermal hot spring!

Webinar: Turning Spas into Hotel Profit Centers

Summary

Founded in 2011 by beauty and spa pioneer David Stoup, Trilogy Spa Holdings’ portfolio of hotel brands includes Fairmont, Hilton, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Westin, Waldorf-Astoria and Four Seasons, in markets as diverse as New York City, Arizona, Texas, California and Puerto Rico.

Trilogy’s track record debunks the myth that resort spas can’t make a profit. Pre-pandemic Trilogy revenues were up by an average of 20% year-over-year at the spas they manage and post-pandemic all of Trilogy’s spas are profitable.

The company’s profit-making knowhow even extends to an often-overlooked segment of the typical hotel spa department- fitness. With innovative group events and classes, fitness centers in Trilogy spas become profit centers. And through mindfulness training, laughing yoga, nutrition education etc. the company boasts the ability to help hoteliers host a “different type of meeting”- a critical growth area in the not-so-distant future.

In this 45 minute hospitality industry webinar, Trilogy Spa Holdings’ John Grunbeck will discuss:

The nuances of hotel and spa management and marketing
How to mentor teams of spa professionals
The benefits of allowing property spa directors to focus on the guest experience, not the day-to-day management of the spa
How to build on a platform where there is an expectation that more than 50% of revenues will come from locals
And his go-to strategies for producing a reasonable return on invested capital.

Webinar: "Working with Local Businesses" with The Westin Edmonton's GM, Joumana Ghandour

Summary

The Westin Edmonton brings a new meaning to the term “support local”. For General Manager, Joumana Ghandour, that support is a give and take relationship with her city’s entrepreneurial, small business community.

Through the pandemic, as The Westin Edmonton’s reliance on local, staycationing guests intensified so too did the realization that the property would need to offer new programming, products, and services to enhance the guest experience.

In this 45 minute webinar, Joumana will discuss how she selected which local partners would offer experiences her guests would enjoy, how to nurture relationships in your local community, and how she thinks these efforts will evolve in the post-pandemic world.

"Integrated Innovation" with Mira Hong Kong's Alexander Otto Wassermann

Summary

Miramar Group’s Head of Hotels & Service Apartments, Alexander O. Wassermann, has transformed Hong Kong’s Mira Hotel into a miraculous “Wanderland”!

In an effort to retain market share and occupancy levels throughout the pandemic, Alex and his team collaborated to dream up new experiences for guests that could utilize unused space at the hotel. But many hotels did this, so what makes Mira so special? The extent to which they leaned in to this idea and leveraged “integrated innovation” in developing their concepts.

The outcome? An entertainment floor, daily wellness rituals, an array of culinary workshops featuring the tastes of the world. Electrifying experiences revolving around art, adventure & action. Themed escape rooms. F1 racing car simulations. Secluded, private movie experiences. The list goes on and on and on!

In this 45 minute webinar, Alex will walk us through how he inspired his team to think less like a hotelier and more like a holiday resort or theme park, utilizing his whole team to pull off this feat. His “integrated innovation” plan involved everyone from the culinary team, sales, events to the security staff; and he’ll explain how each area of the hotel contributed to the overall success. Most importantly, he’ll share the challenges and lessons learned, and how he plans to push forward with this concept into the future.

"Part Time, Passionate People" with Pittman Hotel Dallas' GM, Rajeev Gopalakrishnan

Summary

Kimpton Pittman Hotel Dallas’ General Manager, Rajeev Gopalakrishnan is joining us to discuss why he is EMBRACING the hospitality industry’s current staffing challenges. Some of the best people want to work part-time while pursuing other passions on the side. Rajeev feels you can either run from this reality, continuing to operate short staffed while trying to find the “perfect” candidates, OR you can lean into the problem with an optimistic lens. In this 45 minute webinar, he will walk us through how he has operationalized this shift toward part-time staffing, what he looks for in a candidate, how he maintains quality and solid engagement with these employees, and what benefits he is experiencing with this approach.

Business as Usual with Brookstreet Hotel and Marshes Golf Club's General Manager, Nyle Kelly

Summary

In this 45 minute hospitality webinar, Brookstreet Hotel & Marshes Golf Club’s General Manager, Nyle Kelly, discusses his thoughts on returning to “Business as Usual”. The Brookstreet Hotel, you see, relied HEAVILY on business travel to Ottawa’s Kanata North Technology Park (considered by many to be “Silicon Valley North”) and has seen this market shrink dramatically over the course of the pandemic. But, with vaccination rates rising, case counts lowering, airlines returning to the skies, and companies beginning their pilgrimage “back to the office”, this hospitality industry leader is preparing for the New Normal. Nyle shares his experience managing the decline of his property’s business travel and events business during the pandemic, what pivots they’ve made to keep occupancy levels up, and what his playbook looks like in the weeks and months ahead to regain consumer trust and marketshare in these areas.

Check-ins & Checklists with Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton's Front Office Manager, Ryan Ebert

Summary

When the pandemic hit, Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton’s Front Office Manager, Ryan Ebert, found himself, like many of us, locked in his apartment for weeks on end. Rather than sitting idle waiting for his property to reopen, Ryan used the forced downtime to tackle a project he had always wanted to accomplish; the creation of a detailed, 161 page on-boarding checklist and training procedures document for new front office hires!

In this 45 minute industry webinar, Ryan will share some of the main points of his plan. We’ll discuss his process for developing it, implementation best practices, and key takeaways. Ryan has also offered to openly share his process with everyone who attends, so you definitely don’t want to miss it!

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