Author

Robert Herr

General Manager at The Bürgenstock Selection

Robert Herr is a graduate of École hôtelière de Lausanne with an MBA from Henley Business School and has many years of experience in the luxury hotel industry in seven countries on three continents. Most recently, he was Area General Manager for InterContinental Phenicia and Le Vendome Beirut.

Is the wolf scratching at the door? Lessons learned so far from the COVID era...

Our key learning in 2020 as hotel brokers was the value of being nimble, allowing us to pivot and refocus our resources very quickly. As a large part of the transactions market froze, we transitioned from a number of forward-sale deals with developers to working with hotel operators needing to free up capital from owned assets, particularly in the resort market.

Is 'data scientist' the next hot position in hotels/hospitality?

In short, yes, but the problem hotels will have is the quality of the data and getting it into a repository in a meaningful, normalized, standardized way. Many legacy hotel systems are hell-bent on not allowing hotel staff to get at their own data, at least not at a reasonable cost.

In Step: Owners and Operators moving forward, together (or not)

There is no magic wand or a specific solution that fits all situations today. Regardless of the type of contractual relationship the parties should be communicating on a regular basis and working together to find the solutions that work for both parties if their relationship is to stand the test of time.

2020 Hotel Transactions and RevPAR

As travel becomes more accessible, it makes sense that lodging options need to grow, thus transactions increase. RevPAR may not follow this ongoing growth, yet a savvy investor will know that other KPIs, like guest satisfaction and overall profitability are more important long-term metrics to look at.