The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the leader in advocacy and education for hospitality revenue growth, will host its 11th annual Revenue Optimization Conference (ROC) June 23 at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.
Mr. Bowles joins La Quinta after holding senior development positions at Hotel Managers Group, LLC and Hilton Hotels Corporation (now Hilton Worldwide, Inc.). At Hilton, he was Director of Franchise Development responsible for the development of all Hilton brands in the Western Region. Bowles is based outside Los Angeles and reports to David Wilner, La Quinta's Senior Vice President of Development. Mr. Bowles began his duties at La Quinta last month, and can be reached at [email protected] or at (310) 529-3040. He is a graduate of San Diego State University and is active in the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) as well as other professional organizations in the hotel industry.
Exhibit space for the 2014 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), a service of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), is sold out. A waiting list is available on a first-come, first-served basis for booth space. HITEC 2014 is June 23-26 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. USA.
The Residences at W Hollywood has recruited a key Starwood executive to take over Residential services. Juan Molina, who has been named Director of Residential Services, comes from the award-winning St. Regis, Mexico City. Molina's role is to institute elevated service offerings and ensure flawless delivery of 24-hour residential services and amenities offered to owners of the 143 homes in the private residential tower that adjoins the W Hollywood hotel tower at Hollywood and Vine.Molina brings extensive experience to his new role with The Residences at W Hollywood, having joined the Mexico City St. Regis in 2011 to oversee all residential services, including expert coordination with all hotel departments, such as Housekeeping, Food & Beverage, Catering, Transportation, Engineering and Security.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – today announced Richard H. Anderson, chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines, will be a featured speaker at Center Stage at the GBTA Convention 2014 to be held July 26-30 in Los Angeles, Calif.
L'Ermitage Beverly Hills has named Nicholas Rimedio as Food & Beverage Director, overseeing all culinary efforts and partnerships for the property. No stranger to Viceroy Hotel Group, Rimedio previously served as a project consultant on two separate occasions for L'Ermitage, as well as on the primary task force for the opening of Viceroy Anguilla in 2009.
Along with its efforts to prevent pirate exhibitors from devaluing the conference,Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals(HFTP®) is educatingHITEC2014 attendees about housing pirates. A housing pirate is an unauthorized housing provider that may approach exhibitors and attendees with fraudulent offerings of hotel rooms, request credit card information for "existing" reservations and provides false information regarding extended show dates. Only the officialHITEC Housing Bureaucan guarantee room reservations. To ensure attendees have time to make hotel room reservations, the HITEC Housing Bureau is deadline is May 23.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)—the voice of the global business travel industry—today announced Academy Award winner, Kevin Spacey, will be a featured speaker at the GBTA Convention 2014 being held July 26-30, 2014 in Los Angeles, CA. Spacey will be speaking at Convention Arena on Monday, July 28. His appearance is made possible by Sabre Travel Network.
Bradford joined Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in early 2011, where she gained experience and expertise in several areas of the Hotel before joining the Spa. Prior to joining Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Bradford worked in food and beverage at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, helping to manage three restaurant outlets and supervising 30 employees. Prior to that, she worked as a human resources assistant at the Statler Hotel in Ithaca, New York, where she was an instructor in the training of more than 20 employees. She also worked in operations at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, where she helped to manage three upscale restaurant concepts.
Hotel amenities just keep getting better/crazier. With features like WiFi and flatscreens becoming standard (and now practically a requirement), fancy hotels are now in a position where they have to get creative to set themselves apart. Here are Los Angeles's most insane hotel guest perks...
Jaclyn Groendyke has joined the Montage family as Director of Learning. Here she will be responsible for the execution of Montage's learning and development programs and initiatives. She began her hospitality career at the St. Regis Monarch Beach as Human Resources Manager. From there she went on to become Director of Front Office and a Service Culture Trainer for the St. Regis brand. As an instructor within the School of Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism at Orange Coast College, she facilitates a class that prepares students for placement in the hospitality industry using American Hotel & Lodging Association standards.
Masato Kominami joins Montage Beverly Hills as Resident Manager. In this role, he oversees the day-to-day operations of the rooms division for the hotel, ensuring seamless service from all areas including: front desk, communications, reservations, concierge, valet parking, guest services, laundry, housekeeping, Paintbox and residential services. Previously he was with The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, as Executive Assistant Manager and had a significant impact on overall revenues and operating expenses. His previous experience includes roles as Director of Rooms at Conrad Miami, Director of Rooms at Regent South Beach and in the Rooms Division at Four Seasons Chicago and The Peninsula Chicago.
Masato Kominami joins Montage Beverly Hills as Resident Manager. In this role, he oversees the day-to-day operations of the rooms division for the hotel, ensuring seamless service from all areas including: front desk, communications, reservations, concierge, valet parking, guest services, laundry, housekeeping, Paintbox and residential services. Previously he was with The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, as Executive Assistant Manager and had a significant impact on overall revenues and operating expenses. His previous experience includes roles as Director of Rooms at Conrad Miami, Director of Rooms at Regent South Beach and in the Rooms Division at Four Seasons Chicago and The Peninsula Chicago.
CIM Group and Denihan Hospitality Group announced today an agreement to bring The James hotel brand to the Los Angeles area, where it will be situated in the heart of the iconic Sunset Strip at the southeast corner of Sunset and La Cienega Boulevards in West Hollywood. The James Los Angeles, the first new ground-up hotel in West Hollywood in approximately 30 years, will be comprised of two 10-story towers with 286 rooms, two restaurants, rooftop and lobby bars and approximately 10,000 square feet of meeting space – with spectacular views of the Los Angeles area.
Former Google CIO, Douglas Merrill will address the 2014 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) attendees during the opening session on the relevant topics of organizational security and data protection. Merrill will speak to on Monday, June 23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. In addition, HITEC has secured two other experts to give keynote presentations later in the week.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – today announced Jeffery A. Smisek, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of United Airlines, will be a featured speaker at Center Stage at the GBTA Convention 2014 to be held July 26-30 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Prior to joining W Los Angeles - Westwood, Eberwein was W San Francisco's Director of Operations. While there, Eberwein gained extensive experience managing a Starwood hotel property. Mark was instrumental in leading Green Initiatives at the recently certified Silver LEED-EB property.
With deployment of its Mobile Key front-desk bypass solution well underway at hotels around the world, and its OKIDOKEYS solution now released into the residential market, OpenWays is hiring more talent. To apprise properties, managers, owners and brands on the mobile-strategy enhancement capabilities of Mobile Key — a technology that enables travelers to use any of the 6.8 billion cell phones or smartphones worldwide as a mobile room key — OpenWays Founder and CEO Pascal Metivier has hired 30-year hospitality industry veteran and hotel technology advocate Peter Klebanoff as Senior Vice President, Business Development. Prior to joining OpenWays, Klebanoff spent 16 years with LodgeNet Interactive Corp. (SONIFI Solutions) where he played numerous executive roles and developed a customer-satisfaction index program to help measure and improve hotel satisfaction, including ways to speed check-out. On the hotel operations side, Klebanoff played front office and housekeeping roles for Holiday Inn, Ramada, Sheraton and Marriott (where he went through their management training program as well). He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in hotel management from the University of Massachusetts and received executive education at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business. He has numerous professional affiliations, and served on the American Hotel & Lodging Association E-Business Committee and Tradeshow Task Force. Klebanoff is a published author, contributing several articles for hotel and security trade publications.
At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) awards luncheon, executives and companies responsible for the most influential hotel industry deals in 2013 were honored with prestigious ALIS awards. Nominees are considered for the awards based on outstanding business performance in various industry sectors and determined by ALIS sponsors and delegates. This year's winners included:
The tagline at this year's Americas Lodging Investment Summit here at L.A. Live is "Going Up?" Printer deadlines and other such mundane logistical tasks forced organizers to append the question mark. But had they chosen the tagline closer to show time, that question mark would have been replaced with a resounding exclamation mark. Such has been the feeling at this year's ALIS, which has attracted the second-highest number of attendees since the record year of 2008. At the opening session, delegates were serenaded by a local Los Angeles choir belting out a gospel rendition of "Happy Days are Here Again."