October 13, 2025 • 27 mins
What happens when a 20-hotel operator treats brand data, RMS outputs, and labor costs as one system—and then points AI at it?
Takeaways:
- Build a single source of truth: How Hospitality America centralizes Amadeus/TravelClick market data, Hilton Grow & Marriott OneYield outputs, and Actabl (ProfitSword + Hotel Effectiveness) in a Microsoft data lake to power faster decisions.
- Make revenue meet labor—down to the penny: Practical ways to pair booking windows, LOS, and mix with staffing models to decide whether to take Group A vs. Group B—and know the profit impact before you say yes.
- Operationalize AI for the field (not HQ): A roadmap for using Microsoft Copilot on top of your own data so GMs can ask, “How many room attendants do I need Saturday?” and get defendable answers—without surrendering human judgment.
If this playbook sparked ideas for your portfolio, follow Hotel Tech Insider and subscribe for weekly, operator-tested tactics. Share this episode with your revenue and ops leaders, and visit HotelTechReport for the tools and case studies mentioned.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're giving that tool to our general managers and
(00:02):
directors of sales, and they'reengaging with that to make even
faster decisions because AI isable to look at that data and
tell us the trends that wouldhave taken us two, three days
worth of information to make thesame assumption.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Today, we speak with Ben Campbell, the president and
CEO of Hospitality America. Benbrings ten years of operations
experience to his role, and hecurrently leads a portfolio of
20 branded hotels in the EasternUS. Ben's approach to tech
centers on enabling people to dotheir jobs better and build
stronger relationships withguests and stakeholders. So
(00:48):
there's a lot in this episodeyou can take away and apply to
your own business. Let's diveThanks so much for joining us on
the podcast today, Ben.
Really looking forward tochatting with you. To kick
things off, I would love for youto introduce yourself. Tell us a
bit about your role and yourcompany.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah. First, thanks so much for having me. It's a
pleasure to be with you. My nameis Ben Campbell, president and
CEO of Hospitality America. I'vebeen with our firm for ten
years, almost eleven years now.
But most recently, I've been aspresident and CEO for the past
year and a half. We are based inGreenville, South Carolina. We
operate hotels for franchiseeowners. We have 20 hotels and we
(01:30):
operate today and about eightfifty employees.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Perfect. And can you share a bit about the hotels?
Are there specific brands thatyou mostly work with, and how
many keys in a typical hotel?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Sure. Yeah. We operate primarily Hilton and
Marriott hotels. They rangeanywhere from about a 100 keys
to 250 keys. And we primarilyoperate, East Of The
Mississippi, even though I amlooking to expand over the
Mississippi, probably into Texasand surrounding states.
(02:03):
But we operate a select service,full service, soft branded
tributes, tapestries, things ofthat nature. So we do it all.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I would love to dig into the tech component. I'm
curious based on a sizableportfolio of hotels and working
with a handful of differentbrands as well, what would you
consider to be the most criticalpiece of technology in your
hotels?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'll answer it kind of twofold. I mean, from my
seat, it's all the market drivendata that we get from our
Amadeus partner and TravelClick.You know, I'm able to really
fine tune where our markets are,where they're headed, what does
our pace look like, how are weperforming against our
competitive set, against ourmarkets. As we all know, it all
starts with top line revenue.You know, I have my finger on
(02:53):
the pulse pretty well there justto understand those market
dynamics.
And then from there, honestly,Actable and Prophet Sword and
Actable, which is Prophet Swordand Hotel Effectiveness. Without
those two pieces of technology,I think it would be really,
really hard for us to deliver onfinancial results for our
ownership. Those are the twomost critical. What I think high
(03:17):
level, it all comes down tostrategy. Where do we want to
win?
We're a hotel size that orportfolio size where we can't
spend unlimitedly on tech. So wehave to be pretty strategic on
where we invest our dollars orour owner's dollars for that
matter. And so today, what weare intently looking at is how
(03:42):
can we own more data? Thestruggle with a lot of the hotel
space or industry today is weisolated out each individual
issue or problem that we have inhotels, and there's a tech for
every single solution. But whatthat does is it your data now
lives in all these differentavenues.
(04:03):
And so for us, it's about howcan we get and tap into more of
that data on a centralizedlevel. So, that's where we're
ultimately focused from a highlevel. The tech pieces that I
talked about are the Amadeus andActable play a key role in.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So, let's talk through your tech stack a bit
more. What tools does your teamhave at their disposal to
manipulate rates, to generatedemand? I would love for you to
talk me through that componentof your tech stack.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think the important piece that first I wanna outline
is any tech is only as good asyou utilize it. And the way that
we look at tech is it's notgonna supplant boots on the
ground, the real activitydrivers, which is our general
managers and our directors ofsales. We want to empower them
with more information, betterinformation, and so that they
(04:54):
can make better decisionslocally. And so that's what we
do. We we're utilizing that datato be able to make quick
decisions, like with the travelclick that we're talking about
or translating that intoforecasting with profit sort.
And then once we understand thatforecasting, looking further out
thirty, sixty, 90, now we canstart making decisions with our
(05:15):
expense ratios quicker. And sothat's how we expect our general
managers and directors of salesto utilize this tech is to
engage with it, understand it.It's not all going to be
perfect, but the intent is tounderstand the data quicker so
that we can then make decisionsquicker and find marginal
opportunities with our bottomlines.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Totally makes sense. And are there any brand
guidelines that you need tofollow for, like, a revenue
management system or PMS?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You know, both with Hilton and Marriott, we use Grow
with Hilton and OneYield withMarriott. And I would say
they're very, very similar inwhat they're trying to
accomplish or how theyaccomplish the results or how
the tool is expected to be used.So we use that. Really, what
we're going forward now isdirect connections within Hilton
(06:12):
and Marriott so that we can getan API connection and get the
data that they have. They're notgonna share all their data.
That's some of the frustrationthat we have as a management
company. But we can get a lot ofthat data that is readily
available to us in a direct feedso that we're not having to go
source it, download itourselves. We want that we wanna
(06:32):
interact with that data as quickas possible. That's something
that we're trying to accomplishright now. We've achieved that
with one of them, and we'retrying to achieve it with the
other.
And I think that's where thepower is going to be for us is
not just in having the tools orhaving the tech stack, but
having our environment of thetech stack interact with each
(06:54):
other based upon ourexpectations or our involved.
Right? Our hotels portfolio isgonna be different. The makeup
of it is gonna be differentthan, you know, a bigger company
with more airport hotels or moreconvention hotels. We want to
understand the data that we havefor our hotels, how that
(07:14):
interacts, and then make thosedecisions.
For example, if you have anairport hotel, your booking
window is going to be muchshorter. Your length of stay is
going to be much shorter. Wewant to understand down to the
penny how that affects ourbottom lines when we source
different pieces of business. Soin order to do that, we need to
then take that data and applythat to labor data and
(07:38):
understand how those cost peroccupied rooms is different
based upon when we go after acrew piece of business or if we
go after a leisure transientbusiness at an airport hotel. It
all depends then on our staffingmodels, how we need to adjust
our staffing, or when we take alarge piece of business, what
(08:00):
type of changes do we need tomake right now to ensure that
that piece of business is asprofitable as possible.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I wanna rewind and dig into something you
mentioned, which is getting APIconnections to data that
Marriott and Hilton have. Whatdata exactly is that?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah. I mean, it could be something as simple as
our invoices from accountingstandpoint to the revenue
management data that we'retalking about with Grow and
OneYield. That data is availableto us today, but we're having to
manually download it and thenimport it into our environment.
Whereas if we're able to havethat API connection, same with
(08:41):
Profit Sword. That's our datathat lives in there that we
engage with it on a day to daybasis.
But we need to then be able toexport that quickly every single
day to then run those type ofregression models or run, you
know, scenarios around specificdatasets. And we're only able to
(09:01):
do that if data from ProphetSword and RMS data live in the
same place. So some of that isavailable in Profit Sword, but
we wanna be able to export thatout and work with it a little
bit more organically, if youwill.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Is there a system you're using to consolidate that
data? Is that in ProphetSword?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah. So, we try to feed as much into ProphetSword
as possible so that it can beour one single data of truth, if
you will. But out of that, wemade a decision to go hard in
with Microsoft a few years agoand not just, you know, for
Outlook or Teams, but a lot morebeyond that. We did foresee some
of the AI capabilities coming,but not to this level. And but
(09:48):
I'm happy with the investmentthat we've made with Microsoft.
Now we're getting thatinformation into our data lake
today. But in order for us toreally take that to the next
level to where eventually wewanna be able to put Copilot on
top of that data that we canthen engage with it. That's
gonna take another level ofsystem that Microsoft has, but
(10:11):
they're still working out a lotof the kinks with it. And so
that's the world in which we seeis that if we can get all of
that data into one singularplace, then eventually when AI
is to a place where we trust it,it's secure, we understand the
positives and the negatives, andwe have a lot of the fencing off
with that, then we're givingthat tool to our general
(10:34):
managers and directors of sales,and they're engaging with that
to make even faster decisionsbecause AI is able to look at
that data and tell us the trendsthat would have taken us two,
three days worth of informationto make the same assumption.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So thinking in the future when Copilot is kind of
the interface to get insightsthrough, are you thinking a GM
would be able to ask Copilot,what's my forecasted occupancy
for the weekend? Or how manyhousekeepers do I need on the
schedule? Or, like, those kindsof questions.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Exactly. Scheduling really I mean, and labor
planning really take care ofitself at that point. We all
know that an airport hotelrequires a different level and
different structure of labor.Right? But as things shift and
as things change either byseason, by week, then we should
be able to trend line that outto know exactly what when we
(11:33):
should be hiring for peakdemand, when we should be
scaling back on our labor, andhave that more fine tuned and
more specific than we do today.
A lot of it is off of a great GMwho's been at a hotel for a long
time and understands those ebbsand flows. But we have some
great GMs that have been intheir hotels for ten plus years,
(11:54):
but they've never seen theenvironment that COVID provided.
They've never seen theenvironment that we're kind of
in today where it gets rockybecause of politics or tariff
policy or whatever. So we wannatake the emotions out of it as
much as we can and just look atwhat the data is telling us,
then make the best decision.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah. Totally makes sense. And do you see sales and
revenue teams taking advantageof this as well? Like, could a
sales manager ask Copilot, like,should I take group a or group
b, or what should the rate be?Or
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's the nuances that, again, I mean, you know,
we have the vision. When I saywhen I say we, I do wanna give
the credit where the credit'sdue. Our chief strategy officer,
Lee Holloway, has just reallycrafted this vision that I can
understand enough to the pointthat we're talking about it
today. She really knows it to adeep, deep level, but that's the
(12:52):
scenario that you described thatwe are hopeful for. But we also
don't know what the AI is gonnabring.
Everything has to be vetted justlike we've always said with our
revenue management systems. Youknow, you validate the decision
that Grow is making. You don'tjust trust it 100%. AI, I think,
is gonna be the same way for theforeseeable future. But before
(13:14):
we just relinquish the reinsthere and just give it to across
the company, we gotta be verycareful with that.
And I think today, our mainmission is getting our arms
around the data. And we've spentthe last thirty six months
identifying the best tech stackfor Hospitality America and our
(13:34):
owners. And a lot of that wasbased upon who could give us the
data and what did the data looklike when it came over to us,
and what did it cost to get allthat. Now it's about phase two.
Okay.
Let's get our arms around allthis. How much is it gonna cost?
How quickly do we think we canaccomplish it? And then start
(13:54):
running the project in that way.We hope that we can get to the
other end of that rainbow oneday.
But I can tell you that thecompanies that do figure it out
and get to the other side ofthat are the ones that are gonna
have the competitive advantagebecause this climate is changing
very, very quickly.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I would love to learn a bit more about how you
think about tech from a guestfacing perspective. So if you
could talk me through thejourney from booking, pre
arrival, check-in, post stay,what are the different touch
points a guest interacts with,and what are the systems that
(14:32):
power those?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah. I'm happy to say that our VP of commercial,
Daniel Locke, has a great graspon all of that. And so a lot of
what I understand about that, Iunderstood as a GM and a
director of sales, but it's goneto another level based upon my
conversations with them. And sowhere that journey starts for us
is the brand positioning and thehotel positioning of the hotel
(14:57):
inside of all of our markets.Not every hotel appeals to every
single guest.
And so knowing how to sell aHampton Inn versus a Tapestry by
Hilton, Right? And who thatguest attracts, you have to
understand until you're notappealing to the wrong customer.
And so that's where the journeystarts for us first, identifying
(15:19):
that guest. And then from there,a lot of the tech is forward
facing on pre arrival, makingsure that we're communicating to
the guest exactly what they canexpect. We operate Amato by
Hilton, which is a micro roomhotel in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Great, amazing hotel with greatpublic area, but it is a micro
(15:40):
room. And so the average squarefootage of that room is about a
180 square feet. We have to bevery intentional of how we
communicate that to the guestsso that they understand and
those expectations are managed.From there, we are sending out
pre arrival. We're talkingthrough every segment.
We're communicating to theconsumer, the guest. You know,
(16:02):
if it's a Smurf group, a weddinggroup, a sports group, we are
taking it to another level inthat communication so that they
understand at that hotel andacross our company what they can
expect from us as a hospitalityAmerica brand hotel. Then it's
about delivery. One of the greatthings about being with Hilton
and Marriott is their apps arereally powerful. And so the
(16:23):
communication is now happeningmore frequently.
That said, you know, it probablydoesn't have the adoption rate
that the brands want because itjust begins it's another you
have to download the app, butthen also you don't always want
another app to be able tocommunicate through. So email is
a great way, but in some of ourinternational hotels, like in
(16:45):
Miami that we get a lot ofinternational, we've looked at
WhatsApp because that's the mostcommon app for international
guests to use. So it dependsagain on what you're identifying
the guest, who you're targeting,and then what is their preferred
method of communication. But thebrands have given us a lot of
tech to be like Kipsu to be ableto communicate with the guest
(17:08):
through. Yeah.
And then on the post, I wouldsay once we deliver on the
expectations with the guest anddeliver on those promises, It's
then about following up withthem, ensuring that we
understand how we serve them atour hotels and through our guest
surveys.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Do you have your own proprietary guest survey or do
you use TripAdvisor reviews, orhow do you gather that sort of
feedback?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So we gather that feedback through the brand
system. So they've been changinga few of their systems, but it's
very similar to how we the datathat we get from that is very
similar to the data that we getfrom EnerGauge, our employee
survey company. So that's reallywhat kinda sparked how we really
chose EnerGauge as a supplier ora vendor for our employee
(18:00):
surveys is because we do a lotof we get a lot of data on our
guests from, you know, the guestsurveys that we get back, and
that data is then spliced downto how they like breakfast or
the lobby or the bed or theshower. We wanted to know that
on our people side too. We wannaprovide just a good experience
(18:21):
for our employees as we do ourguests.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
In the typical guest journey, are they interacting
with any tech during their stay?Like, if they need to make a
special request, would they dothat through the app? Or is
there like a tablet in the guestroom or some other sort of
interactive tool for them?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
No tablet in the guest room. It's really the app
again to be able to, you know,make a request through the
hotel. We actually watch all ofour response rates from our
front desk to know how long it'staking to respond to the guest
pre arrival during their stayand post arrival to ensure that
(19:03):
we don't have guests that arewaiting. But, you know, some
guests like to use the app andrequest things, but I think when
it's more immediate, they'restill picking up the phone call
on the front desk or going downto desk. Some other apps or
technology that we've beenimplementing at our hotels is at
the Sweet Shop or our marketsbeside the front desk.
(19:23):
A lot of people just wanna beable to grab a soda and a water
and go and not have to wait atthe front desk to pay for it. So
we've been putting POS systemsthat can scan, charge directly
to the room, and then the guestscan go up to their room or
wherever they're going.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
So we've talked a lot about your tech stack. I'm
curious to understand how techfits into the broader strategic
objectives for HospitalityAmerica. Could you talk me
through one or two high levelbusiness objectives that you're
working toward and how tech fitsin there?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah. One of the big ones is on the accounting side.
I think we see that ouraccounting department, our
accounting future as being oneof the areas that we can
automate the most. And so wehave some great people inside of
our accounting department thatthat I think that then frees
them up to do a lot more andprovide a lot more detailed
(20:22):
level of service to our ownersand to our GMs. So I think
that's one of our biggestoverarching goals probably in
the short term.
And then after we automate, itreally then goes down to the
data piece. I know we've talkedabout it a lot already, but
everything is going to come downto understanding that data and
(20:42):
then utilizing it. And so alsothe other thing I can't
reiterate enough is that data isonly as good as you use it. The
tech tools are only as good asyou use it. We constantly remind
our GMs of that.
At the end of the day, it'sstill our decision makers that
drive our business forward.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And on the data side, how do you foster a sort of
culture of making data drivendecisions? I think it can be
intimidating for someone who ismaybe not in a primarily data
focused role. As a GM, maybeyou've had a very operational
background. Data might not beyour instinct. So how do you
(21:23):
build a culture where your teamfeels like they have all the
resources they need and the kindof coaching to make data part of
their day to day work life?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah. I mean, I think it all always comes down to
explaining the why. Why we seethis as powerful and how we
deliver on it to make itpowerful. And so a lot of times,
I mean, of course, we've hadpushback or, you know, some
people across the company notquite understand what we're
trying to achieve, and that'sfine. At the end of the day, it
(21:57):
proves that you have to be ableto show it to them and not just
talk about it.
You have to show them proof. Soat our tech stack, we've
definitely done that. And thenon the data side of things, what
we'll then end up showing themis the power of it. I think they
understand the why becausethey're utilizing it. They just
(22:17):
don't understand, which I don'tthink any of us really do, the
power of it when it lives in onecentral place.
And I think just being able tointeract with it. And, again,
the purpose of it is to empowerthem and support them in making
the best decisions. We're nottrying to take the decision
(22:38):
making away. We're just tryingto enhance their abilities.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Do you have, like, a business intelligence team?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah. So we're building it out. We have two
individuals that lead thatdepartment. We have a VP of
business intelligence, and thenwe have a director of business
intelligence. And, you know,with them together, again, ran
in the power of Lee Holloway'svision, we really feel that we
can accomplish this.
(23:07):
But, again, you know, I've had atech buddy tell me one time, you
know, it's gonna cost twice asmuch as you think it is, and
it's gonna take you twice aslong as you think it will. And
we're definitely walking intothat arena now, but we're not
losing faith that we canaccomplish it. We'll just
continue to work hard and workthe plan.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, on that note, kind of a good segue into my
next question. What would youfeel are or what do you think
are one or two of the mostimportant skills hoteliers
should have in today'senvironment, which is very
different than it was ten,twenty years ago, even five
years ago. What skills do youthink people should have to be
(23:52):
successful?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
The skill side, I think it's taking a look at your
business. At the end of the day,every hotel that we have is a
small business, and you have tolead. I can provide you with as
much information and data aspossible, but you still have to
be able to think about itcritically. You still have to
put forth the effort tounderstand your business,
(24:14):
understand your guest. A lot ofhoteliers I see today, they just
especially in our branded world,they just they demand comes in.
People come in, and they justand it becomes a monotonous type
of thing. Then that's how hotelslose. You have to continually
provide, unique experiences tothe guest and show them that
(24:34):
you're thankful they're there.And, you know, some of that may
sound, you know, elementary, butI think the core of the hotelier
hasn't changed. But what ithappens is then how do you take
that creative and criticalthinking skill and apply it with
(24:54):
the tools that a company likeHospitality America is giving
you?
And then the last, it's reallynot a skill. It's more of a
characteristic. It's continuingto be adaptable. That's the one
thing that I love about ourindustry is it always changes,
and it happens really quickly.And so every hotelier has to be
adaptable.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Last question before we wrap up. I would love to hear
from you. What is one thing youbelieve about technology in the
hotel space that your peers orcompetitors might disagree with?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think we've talked a lot about it. In our industry,
there's an unlimited amount ofchallenges and problems to be
solved. And as an industry,we've done a great job of
creating another solution toanother problem or the same
problem. What I think isdifferent is, you know, we have
(25:51):
to be able to take all thosesolutions and consolidate them
to make the best decision. Thegeneral manager or the
management company has alwaysbeen that glue between all of
those solutions to then, youknow, deploy the tactics to be
successful.
And that is, I think, theenvironment is changing to where
(26:14):
the management company or thecompany that's consolidating
that and then deploying it. Andso I think too many companies
out there today look at theirtech stack and are okay with all
of that information living inseven, eight different data
sources. So I'd probably saythat's one of the biggest.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Well, thank you so much, Ben, for being on the
podcast. Really great chattingwith you. I wish you all the
best in the future forHospitality America.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(27:12):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Do you
Speaker 2 (27:23):
know a hotelier who would be great to feature on
this show, or do you think thatyour story would bring a lot of
value to our audience? Reach outto me directly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
We're giving that tool to our general managers and
(00:02):
directors of sales, and they'reengaging with that to make even
faster decisions because AI isable to look at that data and
tell us the trends that wouldhave taken us two, three days
worth of information to make thesame assumption.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Today, we speak with Ben Campbell, the president and
CEO of Hospitality America. Benbrings ten years of operations
experience to his role, and hecurrently leads a portfolio of
20 branded hotels in the EasternUS. Ben's approach to tech
centers on enabling people to dotheir jobs better and build
stronger relationships withguests and stakeholders. So
(00:48):
there's a lot in this episodeyou can take away and apply to
your own business. Let's diveThanks so much for joining us on
the podcast today, Ben.
Really looking forward tochatting with you. To kick
things off, I would love for youto introduce yourself. Tell us a
bit about your role and yourcompany.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah. First, thanks so much for having me. It's a
pleasure to be with you. My nameis Ben Campbell, president and
CEO of Hospitality America. I'vebeen with our firm for ten
years, almost eleven years now.
But most recently, I've been aspresident and CEO for the past
year and a half. We are based inGreenville, South Carolina. We
operate hotels for franchiseeowners. We have 20 hotels and we
(01:30):
operate today and about eightfifty employees.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Perfect. And can you share a bit about the hotels?
Are there specific brands thatyou mostly work with, and how
many keys in a typical hotel?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Sure. Yeah. We operate primarily Hilton and
Marriott hotels. They rangeanywhere from about a 100 keys
to 250 keys. And we primarilyoperate, East Of The
Mississippi, even though I amlooking to expand over the
Mississippi, probably into Texasand surrounding states.
(02:03):
But we operate a select service,full service, soft branded
tributes, tapestries, things ofthat nature. So we do it all.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I would love to dig into the tech component. I'm
curious based on a sizableportfolio of hotels and working
with a handful of differentbrands as well, what would you
consider to be the most criticalpiece of technology in your
hotels?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'll answer it kind of twofold. I mean, from my
seat, it's all the market drivendata that we get from our
Amadeus partner and TravelClick.You know, I'm able to really
fine tune where our markets are,where they're headed, what does
our pace look like, how are weperforming against our
competitive set, against ourmarkets. As we all know, it all
starts with top line revenue.You know, I have my finger on
(02:53):
the pulse pretty well there justto understand those market
dynamics.
And then from there, honestly,Actable and Prophet Sword and
Actable, which is Prophet Swordand Hotel Effectiveness. Without
those two pieces of technology,I think it would be really,
really hard for us to deliver onfinancial results for our
ownership. Those are the twomost critical. What I think high
(03:17):
level, it all comes down tostrategy. Where do we want to
win?
We're a hotel size that orportfolio size where we can't
spend unlimitedly on tech. So wehave to be pretty strategic on
where we invest our dollars orour owner's dollars for that
matter. And so today, what weare intently looking at is how
(03:42):
can we own more data? Thestruggle with a lot of the hotel
space or industry today is weisolated out each individual
issue or problem that we have inhotels, and there's a tech for
every single solution. But whatthat does is it your data now
lives in all these differentavenues.
(04:03):
And so for us, it's about howcan we get and tap into more of
that data on a centralizedlevel. So, that's where we're
ultimately focused from a highlevel. The tech pieces that I
talked about are the Amadeus andActable play a key role in.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So, let's talk through your tech stack a bit
more. What tools does your teamhave at their disposal to
manipulate rates, to generatedemand? I would love for you to
talk me through that componentof your tech stack.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think the important piece that first I wanna outline
is any tech is only as good asyou utilize it. And the way that
we look at tech is it's notgonna supplant boots on the
ground, the real activitydrivers, which is our general
managers and our directors ofsales. We want to empower them
with more information, betterinformation, and so that they
(04:54):
can make better decisionslocally. And so that's what we
do. We we're utilizing that datato be able to make quick
decisions, like with the travelclick that we're talking about
or translating that intoforecasting with profit sort.
And then once we understand thatforecasting, looking further out
thirty, sixty, 90, now we canstart making decisions with our
(05:15):
expense ratios quicker. And sothat's how we expect our general
managers and directors of salesto utilize this tech is to
engage with it, understand it.It's not all going to be
perfect, but the intent is tounderstand the data quicker so
that we can then make decisionsquicker and find marginal
opportunities with our bottomlines.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Totally makes sense. And are there any brand
guidelines that you need tofollow for, like, a revenue
management system or PMS?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You know, both with Hilton and Marriott, we use Grow
with Hilton and OneYield withMarriott. And I would say
they're very, very similar inwhat they're trying to
accomplish or how theyaccomplish the results or how
the tool is expected to be used.So we use that. Really, what
we're going forward now isdirect connections within Hilton
(06:12):
and Marriott so that we can getan API connection and get the
data that they have. They're notgonna share all their data.
That's some of the frustrationthat we have as a management
company. But we can get a lot ofthat data that is readily
available to us in a direct feedso that we're not having to go
source it, download itourselves. We want that we wanna
(06:32):
interact with that data as quickas possible. That's something
that we're trying to accomplishright now. We've achieved that
with one of them, and we'retrying to achieve it with the
other.
And I think that's where thepower is going to be for us is
not just in having the tools orhaving the tech stack, but
having our environment of thetech stack interact with each
(06:54):
other based upon ourexpectations or our involved.
Right? Our hotels portfolio isgonna be different. The makeup
of it is gonna be differentthan, you know, a bigger company
with more airport hotels or moreconvention hotels. We want to
understand the data that we havefor our hotels, how that
(07:14):
interacts, and then make thosedecisions.
For example, if you have anairport hotel, your booking
window is going to be muchshorter. Your length of stay is
going to be much shorter. Wewant to understand down to the
penny how that affects ourbottom lines when we source
different pieces of business. Soin order to do that, we need to
then take that data and applythat to labor data and
(07:38):
understand how those cost peroccupied rooms is different
based upon when we go after acrew piece of business or if we
go after a leisure transientbusiness at an airport hotel. It
all depends then on our staffingmodels, how we need to adjust
our staffing, or when we take alarge piece of business, what
(08:00):
type of changes do we need tomake right now to ensure that
that piece of business is asprofitable as possible.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I wanna rewind and dig into something you
mentioned, which is getting APIconnections to data that
Marriott and Hilton have. Whatdata exactly is that?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah. I mean, it could be something as simple as
our invoices from accountingstandpoint to the revenue
management data that we'retalking about with Grow and
OneYield. That data is availableto us today, but we're having to
manually download it and thenimport it into our environment.
Whereas if we're able to havethat API connection, same with
(08:41):
Profit Sword. That's our datathat lives in there that we
engage with it on a day to daybasis.
But we need to then be able toexport that quickly every single
day to then run those type ofregression models or run, you
know, scenarios around specificdatasets. And we're only able to
(09:01):
do that if data from ProphetSword and RMS data live in the
same place. So some of that isavailable in Profit Sword, but
we wanna be able to export thatout and work with it a little
bit more organically, if youwill.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Is there a system you're using to consolidate that
data? Is that in ProphetSword?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah. So, we try to feed as much into ProphetSword
as possible so that it can beour one single data of truth, if
you will. But out of that, wemade a decision to go hard in
with Microsoft a few years agoand not just, you know, for
Outlook or Teams, but a lot morebeyond that. We did foresee some
of the AI capabilities coming,but not to this level. And but
(09:48):
I'm happy with the investmentthat we've made with Microsoft.
Now we're getting thatinformation into our data lake
today. But in order for us toreally take that to the next
level to where eventually wewanna be able to put Copilot on
top of that data that we canthen engage with it. That's
gonna take another level ofsystem that Microsoft has, but
(10:11):
they're still working out a lotof the kinks with it. And so
that's the world in which we seeis that if we can get all of
that data into one singularplace, then eventually when AI
is to a place where we trust it,it's secure, we understand the
positives and the negatives, andwe have a lot of the fencing off
with that, then we're givingthat tool to our general
(10:34):
managers and directors of sales,and they're engaging with that
to make even faster decisionsbecause AI is able to look at
that data and tell us the trendsthat would have taken us two,
three days worth of informationto make the same assumption.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So thinking in the future when Copilot is kind of
the interface to get insightsthrough, are you thinking a GM
would be able to ask Copilot,what's my forecasted occupancy
for the weekend? Or how manyhousekeepers do I need on the
schedule? Or, like, those kindsof questions.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Exactly. Scheduling really I mean, and labor
planning really take care ofitself at that point. We all
know that an airport hotelrequires a different level and
different structure of labor.Right? But as things shift and
as things change either byseason, by week, then we should
be able to trend line that outto know exactly what when we
(11:33):
should be hiring for peakdemand, when we should be
scaling back on our labor, andhave that more fine tuned and
more specific than we do today.
A lot of it is off of a great GMwho's been at a hotel for a long
time and understands those ebbsand flows. But we have some
great GMs that have been intheir hotels for ten plus years,
(11:54):
but they've never seen theenvironment that COVID provided.
They've never seen theenvironment that we're kind of
in today where it gets rockybecause of politics or tariff
policy or whatever. So we wannatake the emotions out of it as
much as we can and just look atwhat the data is telling us,
then make the best decision.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah. Totally makes sense. And do you see sales and
revenue teams taking advantageof this as well? Like, could a
sales manager ask Copilot, like,should I take group a or group
b, or what should the rate be?Or
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's the nuances that, again, I mean, you know,
we have the vision. When I saywhen I say we, I do wanna give
the credit where the credit'sdue. Our chief strategy officer,
Lee Holloway, has just reallycrafted this vision that I can
understand enough to the pointthat we're talking about it
today. She really knows it to adeep, deep level, but that's the
(12:52):
scenario that you described thatwe are hopeful for. But we also
don't know what the AI is gonnabring.
Everything has to be vetted justlike we've always said with our
revenue management systems. Youknow, you validate the decision
that Grow is making. You don'tjust trust it 100%. AI, I think,
is gonna be the same way for theforeseeable future. But before
(13:14):
we just relinquish the reinsthere and just give it to across
the company, we gotta be verycareful with that.
And I think today, our mainmission is getting our arms
around the data. And we've spentthe last thirty six months
identifying the best tech stackfor Hospitality America and our
(13:34):
owners. And a lot of that wasbased upon who could give us the
data and what did the data looklike when it came over to us,
and what did it cost to get allthat. Now it's about phase two.
Okay.
Let's get our arms around allthis. How much is it gonna cost?
How quickly do we think we canaccomplish it? And then start
(13:54):
running the project in that way.We hope that we can get to the
other end of that rainbow oneday.
But I can tell you that thecompanies that do figure it out
and get to the other side ofthat are the ones that are gonna
have the competitive advantagebecause this climate is changing
very, very quickly.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I would love to learn a bit more about how you
think about tech from a guestfacing perspective. So if you
could talk me through thejourney from booking, pre
arrival, check-in, post stay,what are the different touch
points a guest interacts with,and what are the systems that
(14:32):
power those?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah. I'm happy to say that our VP of commercial,
Daniel Locke, has a great graspon all of that. And so a lot of
what I understand about that, Iunderstood as a GM and a
director of sales, but it's goneto another level based upon my
conversations with them. And sowhere that journey starts for us
is the brand positioning and thehotel positioning of the hotel
(14:57):
inside of all of our markets.Not every hotel appeals to every
single guest.
And so knowing how to sell aHampton Inn versus a Tapestry by
Hilton, Right? And who thatguest attracts, you have to
understand until you're notappealing to the wrong customer.
And so that's where the journeystarts for us first, identifying
(15:19):
that guest. And then from there,a lot of the tech is forward
facing on pre arrival, makingsure that we're communicating to
the guest exactly what they canexpect. We operate Amato by
Hilton, which is a micro roomhotel in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Great, amazing hotel with greatpublic area, but it is a micro
(15:40):
room. And so the average squarefootage of that room is about a
180 square feet. We have to bevery intentional of how we
communicate that to the guestsso that they understand and
those expectations are managed.From there, we are sending out
pre arrival. We're talkingthrough every segment.
We're communicating to theconsumer, the guest. You know,
(16:02):
if it's a Smurf group, a weddinggroup, a sports group, we are
taking it to another level inthat communication so that they
understand at that hotel andacross our company what they can
expect from us as a hospitalityAmerica brand hotel. Then it's
about delivery. One of the greatthings about being with Hilton
and Marriott is their apps arereally powerful. And so the
(16:23):
communication is now happeningmore frequently.
That said, you know, it probablydoesn't have the adoption rate
that the brands want because itjust begins it's another you
have to download the app, butthen also you don't always want
another app to be able tocommunicate through. So email is
a great way, but in some of ourinternational hotels, like in
(16:45):
Miami that we get a lot ofinternational, we've looked at
WhatsApp because that's the mostcommon app for international
guests to use. So it dependsagain on what you're identifying
the guest, who you're targeting,and then what is their preferred
method of communication. But thebrands have given us a lot of
tech to be like Kipsu to be ableto communicate with the guest
(17:08):
through. Yeah.
And then on the post, I wouldsay once we deliver on the
expectations with the guest anddeliver on those promises, It's
then about following up withthem, ensuring that we
understand how we serve them atour hotels and through our guest
surveys.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Do you have your own proprietary guest survey or do
you use TripAdvisor reviews, orhow do you gather that sort of
feedback?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So we gather that feedback through the brand
system. So they've been changinga few of their systems, but it's
very similar to how we the datathat we get from that is very
similar to the data that we getfrom EnerGauge, our employee
survey company. So that's reallywhat kinda sparked how we really
chose EnerGauge as a supplier ora vendor for our employee
(18:00):
surveys is because we do a lotof we get a lot of data on our
guests from, you know, the guestsurveys that we get back, and
that data is then spliced downto how they like breakfast or
the lobby or the bed or theshower. We wanted to know that
on our people side too. We wannaprovide just a good experience
(18:21):
for our employees as we do ourguests.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
In the typical guest journey, are they interacting
with any tech during their stay?Like, if they need to make a
special request, would they dothat through the app? Or is
there like a tablet in the guestroom or some other sort of
interactive tool for them?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
No tablet in the guest room. It's really the app
again to be able to, you know,make a request through the
hotel. We actually watch all ofour response rates from our
front desk to know how long it'staking to respond to the guest
pre arrival during their stayand post arrival to ensure that
(19:03):
we don't have guests that arewaiting. But, you know, some
guests like to use the app andrequest things, but I think when
it's more immediate, they'restill picking up the phone call
on the front desk or going downto desk. Some other apps or
technology that we've beenimplementing at our hotels is at
the Sweet Shop or our marketsbeside the front desk.
(19:23):
A lot of people just wanna beable to grab a soda and a water
and go and not have to wait atthe front desk to pay for it. So
we've been putting POS systemsthat can scan, charge directly
to the room, and then the guestscan go up to their room or
wherever they're going.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
So we've talked a lot about your tech stack. I'm
curious to understand how techfits into the broader strategic
objectives for HospitalityAmerica. Could you talk me
through one or two high levelbusiness objectives that you're
working toward and how tech fitsin there?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah. One of the big ones is on the accounting side.
I think we see that ouraccounting department, our
accounting future as being oneof the areas that we can
automate the most. And so wehave some great people inside of
our accounting department thatthat I think that then frees
them up to do a lot more andprovide a lot more detailed
(20:22):
level of service to our ownersand to our GMs. So I think
that's one of our biggestoverarching goals probably in
the short term.
And then after we automate, itreally then goes down to the
data piece. I know we've talkedabout it a lot already, but
everything is going to come downto understanding that data and
(20:42):
then utilizing it. And so alsothe other thing I can't
reiterate enough is that data isonly as good as you use it. The
tech tools are only as good asyou use it. We constantly remind
our GMs of that.
At the end of the day, it'sstill our decision makers that
drive our business forward.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And on the data side, how do you foster a sort of
culture of making data drivendecisions? I think it can be
intimidating for someone who ismaybe not in a primarily data
focused role. As a GM, maybeyou've had a very operational
background. Data might not beyour instinct. So how do you
(21:23):
build a culture where your teamfeels like they have all the
resources they need and the kindof coaching to make data part of
their day to day work life?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah. I mean, I think it all always comes down to
explaining the why. Why we seethis as powerful and how we
deliver on it to make itpowerful. And so a lot of times,
I mean, of course, we've hadpushback or, you know, some
people across the company notquite understand what we're
trying to achieve, and that'sfine. At the end of the day, it
(21:57):
proves that you have to be ableto show it to them and not just
talk about it.
You have to show them proof. Soat our tech stack, we've
definitely done that. And thenon the data side of things, what
we'll then end up showing themis the power of it. I think they
understand the why becausethey're utilizing it. They just
(22:17):
don't understand, which I don'tthink any of us really do, the
power of it when it lives in onecentral place.
And I think just being able tointeract with it. And, again,
the purpose of it is to empowerthem and support them in making
the best decisions. We're nottrying to take the decision
(22:38):
making away. We're just tryingto enhance their abilities.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Do you have, like, a business intelligence team?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah. So we're building it out. We have two
individuals that lead thatdepartment. We have a VP of
business intelligence, and thenwe have a director of business
intelligence. And, you know,with them together, again, ran
in the power of Lee Holloway'svision, we really feel that we
can accomplish this.
(23:07):
But, again, you know, I've had atech buddy tell me one time, you
know, it's gonna cost twice asmuch as you think it is, and
it's gonna take you twice aslong as you think it will. And
we're definitely walking intothat arena now, but we're not
losing faith that we canaccomplish it. We'll just
continue to work hard and workthe plan.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, on that note, kind of a good segue into my
next question. What would youfeel are or what do you think
are one or two of the mostimportant skills hoteliers
should have in today'senvironment, which is very
different than it was ten,twenty years ago, even five
years ago. What skills do youthink people should have to be
(23:52):
successful?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
The skill side, I think it's taking a look at your
business. At the end of the day,every hotel that we have is a
small business, and you have tolead. I can provide you with as
much information and data aspossible, but you still have to
be able to think about itcritically. You still have to
put forth the effort tounderstand your business,
(24:14):
understand your guest. A lot ofhoteliers I see today, they just
especially in our branded world,they just they demand comes in.
People come in, and they justand it becomes a monotonous type
of thing. Then that's how hotelslose. You have to continually
provide, unique experiences tothe guest and show them that
(24:34):
you're thankful they're there.And, you know, some of that may
sound, you know, elementary, butI think the core of the hotelier
hasn't changed. But what ithappens is then how do you take
that creative and criticalthinking skill and apply it with
(24:54):
the tools that a company likeHospitality America is giving
you?
And then the last, it's reallynot a skill. It's more of a
characteristic. It's continuingto be adaptable. That's the one
thing that I love about ourindustry is it always changes,
and it happens really quickly.And so every hotelier has to be
adaptable.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Last question before we wrap up. I would love to hear
from you. What is one thing youbelieve about technology in the
hotel space that your peers orcompetitors might disagree with?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think we've talked a lot about it. In our industry,
there's an unlimited amount ofchallenges and problems to be
solved. And as an industry,we've done a great job of
creating another solution toanother problem or the same
problem. What I think isdifferent is, you know, we have
(25:51):
to be able to take all thosesolutions and consolidate them
to make the best decision. Thegeneral manager or the
management company has alwaysbeen that glue between all of
those solutions to then, youknow, deploy the tactics to be
successful.
And that is, I think, theenvironment is changing to where
(26:14):
the management company or thecompany that's consolidating
that and then deploying it. Andso I think too many companies
out there today look at theirtech stack and are okay with all
of that information living inseven, eight different data
sources. So I'd probably saythat's one of the biggest.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Well, thank you so much, Ben, for being on the
podcast. Really great chattingwith you. I wish you all the
best in the future forHospitality America.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
That's all for today's episode. Thanks for
listening to Hotel Tech Insiderproduced by hoteltechreport.com.
Our goal with this podcast is toshow you how the best in the
business are leveragingtechnology to grow their
properties and outperform theconcept by using innovative
digital tools and strategies. Iencourage all of our listeners
to go try at least one of thesestrategies or tools that you
(27:12):
learned from today's episode.Successful digital
transformation is all aboutconsistent small experiments
over a long period of time, sodon't wait until tomorrow to try
something new.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Do you
Speaker 2 (27:23):
know a hotelier who would be great to feature on
this show, or do you think thatyour story would bring a lot of
value to our audience? Reach outto me directly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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