Should We Abandon Tipping? Here’s What Would Happen.

A question that has been on the minds of many in the restaurant business of late is whether or not eateries should abandon the concept of tipping.

To discuss the arguments for and against dropping this long-entrenched practice, we invited Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell University’s Hotel School, to join eCornell’s Chris Wofford as part of our Hospitality WebCast series.

Wofford: Michael, thanks for joining us. Restaurants have been around forever, tipping has been around forever. Why is this suddenly such a hot topic now?

Lynn: Well, the debate over whether we should tip has also been going on forever. There’s a guy named William Scott who wrote a book in 1916 called The Itching Palm: A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America. All the way back then, he was saying that Americans should get rid of tipping and that it was undemocratic.

In the 1980s there was a bunch of interest within the industry in getting rid of tipping because the tax law made restaurants more liable for paying taxes on cheap income. Today, the increased interest in raising the minimum wage is creating price pressures on restaurants. So it’s a perennial kind of debate.

Wofford: Let’s get right to it: should restaurants abandon tipping?

Lynn: If I had to give a quick answer, I would say that if you’re a mid-priced or lower-priced restaurant then no, not yet. But if you’re a really upscale high-priced restaurant, you should consider it.

Wofford: You and I have both worked in restaurants for years. Something that always comes up is that there’s a big disparity between the money that servers make compared to those working in back. So as you talk about the minimum wage thing, is the idea to ultimately bring the wages of these groups a little bit closer?

Lynn: Well, let’s just take New York City as an example. Servers there are making about $25 to $30 an hour. Cooks are making $13 to $15 an hour. Yet the skill sets are not that different. There might be an appearance of difference in the kind of language used to describe the minimum requirements to be a server – you have look a certain way, you’ve got to be able to speak properly, etc – but serving is not a skilled job. Cooking is perhaps more skilled, but those people are making less money.

If restaurants, through higher prices or through service charges, were able to pay servers more than $15 an hour but less than the $30 they’re currently making, they could take that money and redistribute it to the back of house or keep some of it for themselves for more profit. Servers are making upwards of 25 percent of a restaurant’s gross sales while the owners don’t make anywhere near that level of profit despite taking all the risks. It’s a model that people need to start thinking about.

Wofford: Michael, you wrote ‘The Business Case for (and Against) Restaurant Tipping’. Let’s talk about the years-long research behind that: how do you go about it, who did you talk to and what were you hoping to learn?

Lynn: My very first study was standing outside of an IHOP restaurant interviewing customers and asking them to rate their service experience and tell me what their tipping point was. I was simply interested in whether or not tips really are affected by the service quality. And the answer is that people do tip more for better service but not a whole lot more. To give you some sense of the magnitude, if someone rates the service at 3 out of 5, they’re likely to leave on average a 14 percent tip. If they rated the service a 5, they might leave a 16 percent tip.

Wofford: When we talk about the idea that maybe we should eliminate tipping, what kind of behavioral changes might take place within a within a staff?

Lynn: Theoretically, if servers start making less money, they’re going to leave and go elsewhere to make the money that they’re accustomed to making. So you might lose your top-level employees. On the other hand you ought to be able to replace them with equally competent people. I’ve done a lot of research that shows that experience is not that strongly correlated with the quality of service. It doesn’t take that long to learn how to be a good waiter, and a lot of it has to do with disposition, not skill set.

So restaurants could expect to lose some current employees, but you ought to be able to replace them with equally competent people. You’d pay your back of house more, making it easier to attract higher quality back of house people, and you should be able to keep them.

Wofford: Let’s say tipping’s gone. What happens?

Lynn: You’re either going to replace tipping with higher services, including menu prices, or you’re going to add on an automatic service charge. The advantages of an automatic service charge is that it separates the paying of services from the payment for food, and it keeps your menu prices low.

Wofford: Would the charge be related to the overall cost of the meal?

Lynn: Sure. Let’s say I’m going to charge an 18 percent service charge. I have a choice: I could add the charge to every bill or I could increase my menu prices by 18 percent. Functionally it’s the same thing from the standpoint of the total expenditures by the consumer, but consumers won’t perceive them the same. Because when consumers judge the expensiveness of a restaurant, they’re looking at the menu prices. And when they see 18 percent higher menu prices, all they know is that their burger now costs a lot more than what it used to. But if there is an 18 percent service charge, they’re still seeing a normally priced burger. So, the perceptions of expensiveness are not going to be harmed by adding a service charge.

Wofford: Ok, but might customers’ perceptions of that service charge have a negative effect on them? You’ve basically mandated an 18 percent tip, which might rub people the wrong way.

Lynn: I have just completed two studies looking at the impact that moving away from tipping has on restaurants’ online service ratings. In one study, I looked at Joe’s Crab Shack, which recently replaced tipping with higher prices at 12 of its restaurants. I looked at the Yelp reviews and found that their service ratings declined when they abandoned tipping. In another study, I looked at a bunch of restaurants across a variety of states, mostly upscale, that replaced tipping either with service charges or by raising the menu pricing. What I found was that their declines in online service ratings were stronger if they replaced tipping with service charges than if they replaced it with service-inclusive menu pricing, and it was stronger for downscale restaurants than upscale restaurants. The only group that was able to do this without suffering a decline in online service ratings were the upscale restaurants that replaced tipping with higher menu prices. Why? I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s because customers hate service charges and that hatred translates to lower service ratings.

Replacing tipping with higher menu prices makes things seem more expensive, but that’s not so bad if you’re already a super expensive restaurant catering to a pretty wealthy, not price-sensitive clientele. But if you are a restaurant with customers who are a little bit more price sensitive, then the extra expensiveness that’s perceived when you raise menu prices will lower your ratings.

Wofford:So we are back to where we started – if you’re a downscale restaurant, you probably shouldn’t abandon tipping just yet. What about the fact that customers actually seem to prefer tipping? Tipping is empowering in a strange way.

Lynn: Absolutely. You get all kinds of perceived benefits from tipping. There’s assurance that I’m going to be treated well, otherwise I can withhold payment. There’s status and power that some people get off on. There are a lot of benefits to the consumer psyche from tipping.

 

Want to hear more? This interview is based on Michael Lynn’s live eCornell WebSeries event, Should Restaurants Abandon Tipping?. Subscribe now to gain access to a recording of this event and other Hospitality topics. 

Commercial real estate certificate launches

Faculty from the School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business have partnered with eCornell to develop an online program focused on commercial real estate investment projects. From property development to valuation and management, the new Commercial Real Estate certificate program prepares real estate professionals to successfully develop and manage real estate assets.

“We walk students through the entire real estate process, from start to finish, unifying the specialized knowledge and principles in a very intentional way,” said faculty co-author Jan deRoos, the HVS Professor of Hotel Finance and Real Estate. “Whether you’re new to real estate or looking to move up in the industry, this certificate provides a robust overview grounded in application.”

The Commercial Real Estate certificate, offered online through eCornell, comprises six courses designed to be completed in three to five hours per week. DeRoos collaborated with Hotel School colleagues Jeanne Varney and Bradford Wellstead on the curriculum. Participants will learn and practice:

  • Planning a real estate development project;
  • Managing a project budget, schedule and contingencies;
  • Developing a real estate investment strategy;
  • Structuring and financing real estate investment deals;
  • Effectively leasing and maintaining real estate properties, and
  • Managing real estate assets.

The program is ideal for real estate developers; professionals with responsibility for real estate investments; financing and asset-management professionals; and people aspiring to work for real estate funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs) or real estate advisory firms. Students who complete all courses receive a Commercial Real Estate Certificate.

New eCornell WebSeries Highlights Breakthrough Opportunities at the Intersection of Health, Hospitality, and Design

— Experts from Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures broaden ways to do well by doing good. —

In the United States, an aging population is living and working longer, while many adults struggle with lifestyle diseases and stress over money, safety, and an uncertain future. At Cornell University, experts at the innovative Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (CIHF) are striving to meet these challenges and uncover entrepreneurial opportunities by combining hospitality, environmental design, and health policy and management to improve service in healthcare, wellness, and senior living. Now, professionals can explore this transdisciplinary approach with eCornell’s newest WebSeries, the Innovations in Health, Hospitality, Design, and Senior Living channel.

“By the numbers, senior living, healthcare, and wellness are industries poised for growth. But those numbers are people, and good business means serving people well in all settings and throughout their life. These WebCasts explore how CIHF is collaborating across disciplines to uncover breakthrough solutions for all stakeholders,” said Rohit Verma, CIHF executive director.

Through monthly one-hour WebCasts, subscribers to the Innovations in Health, Hospitality, Design, and Senior Living channel gain insights from experts in Cornell’s School of Hospitality Management, and its College of Human Ecology and renowned Sloan Program in Health Administration. Live participants also can go deeper with Q&A sessions and audience exercises.

Future WebCasts will cover:

  • Entrepreneurship in health, hospitality, and design
  • Innovations in senior living design and care
  • Service excellence in home health care
  • Behavioral health environments
  • Wellness and medical tourism, including hotel design and operations

The Innovations in Health, Hospitality, Design, and Senior Living channel is eCornell’s newest WebSeries, a service providing professionals with on-demand insights from Cornell experts that spark interest, spur education, and advance careers.

About eCornell

As Cornell University’s online learning unit, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including data analytics, management, marketing, human resources, and leadership. Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, while earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

About the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (CIHF)

The Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures is the first academic center in the country to combine hospitality, environmental design, and health policy and management into a broad-based platform to improve service in healthcare, wellness, and senior living. To achieve this goal, the institute develops and supports multidisciplinary educational programs, sponsors and disseminates research, and hosts conferences, roundtables, meetings, and practicum projects.

Centerplate Invests in Guest Experience: Entire Management Team Completes the Cornell University Service Excellence Program

Centerplate today announced the training of its entire leadership team through Cornell University’s Service Excellence On-Demand Training program. Centerplate’s management team successfully completed the eight Service Excellence lessons, and then a multi-day capstone session in Nashville, TN featuring hospitality industry veteran Jayne Griswold of Griswold Hospitality and Elizabeth Martyn from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Centerplate will be using this research-based approach to service as it sets new goals and objectives to enhance the quality of the guest experience.

In collaboration with eCornell, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration delivers innovative research and educational opportunities in a format appropriate for industry leaders and executives. By leveraging the Cornell partnership, Centerplate is committing to investing in its employees, its front-line service standards, and honing the core of its service experience. During the training process, Centerplate managers learned a critical thinking framework for service, including necessary tools that can be applied to both service delivery and service process design for any interactive situation with both internal and external customers.

Griswold Hospitality specializes in customer experience by establishing service and facility standards that prioritize the guest’s journey and provide a well-defined framework for employees to operate within. This provides a tool for service measurement and establishes the basis for a robust employee recognition program. Centerplate’s alignment with Griswold Hospitality positions the company to improve its guest experience through metrics and data analysis, tracking the impact of its investment, and taking strategic action through service training.

“Hospitality is not just what we do. It’s how we make people feel. This partnership with Cornell reinforces that for all of us, and gives us a tangible education that enriches our skills as hospitality providers,” said Centerplate CEO Chris Verros. “The Cornell program, from one of the most respected hospitality schools in the country, really helps us stay true to our mission of providing a superior level of human service in each and every one of our venues.”

The Service Excellence program distills leading industry research and data-backed approaches to service delivery into a format that is appropriate, relatable, and applicable to operators. The training was authored by Elizabeth Martyn, SHA ‘07 School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, and features eight online lessons, each 30 – 45 minutes in length, with content covering topics including as contextual sensitivity, verbal and non-verbal communication, listening, empathy and more.

Over 250 participants, all Centerplate employees at the managerial level and above, were tested and graded on their mastery of the content. Each Centerplate team member was recognized for successful completion of the Service Excellence training from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. On-going implementation of standards and data tracking continues at Centerplate’s 300+ venues.

About eCornell
As Cornell University’s online learning unit, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including hospitality, management, marketing, human resources and leadership.  Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, ultimately earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

About the School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

The School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business is shaping the global knowledge base for hospitality management through leadership in education, research, and industry advancement. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the school provides management instruction in the full range of hospitality disciplines, educating the next generation of leaders in the world’s largest industry. Founded in 1922 as the nation’s first collegiate course of study in hospitality management, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration is recognized as the world leader in its field.

About Griswold Hospitality Partners

Griswold Hospitality is a customer experience firm that believes that differentiation is found through memorable service delivery. A foundation of service standards follows the customer journey and the employees’ path to delivering a product or service, ultimately bringing your brand promise to life. Add measurement, training and recognition programs to foster a culture of engaged employees who have clear deliverables and result in an improved customer experience. Leveraging over twenty years in the luxury hospitality industry, with leadership roles at both Forbes Travel Guide and United Airlines, Jayne Griswold brings an acute attention to detail, passion for excellence and an intuitive sense for what is critical to the customer experience.

About Centerplate

Centerplate is a global leader in live event hospitality, “Making It Better To Be There®” for more than 116 million guests each year at more than 300 prominent entertainment, sports and convention venues across North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. Centerplate has provided event hospitality services to more than 30 official U.S. Presidential Inaugural Balls, 14 Super Bowls and 22 World Series. Visit the company online at Centerplate.com, connect via Twitter @centerplate, Instagram @Centerplate_ or Facebook.com/centerplate.

Cornell University Launches New Service Excellence On-Demand Training

Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and eCornell have launched new on-demand training in service excellence targeting front-line employees. The training consists of eight online lessons, all of which are available 24/7, and is complemented by a Workshop Guide to promote onsite, face-to-face discussion and application of the online lesson concepts. The training explores the foundations of service delivery and empowers employees through practical tools that can be applied to any situation involving internal or external customers.

Service Excellence On-Demand Training provides groups and organizations with a straightforward framework to increase effectiveness for all customer interactions. It provides employees with the skills needed to connect service excellence concepts to the execution of their daily duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Individuals who successfully complete all eight lessons will receive a recognition of their achievement from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

“Amazing service experiences are the result of relationships built between the organization, its employees, and its customers. Every interaction counts, and for employees to be successful they must possess tools and strategies to deliver excellent service. Cornell’s online training creates a low-cost, scalable approach that will elevate an organization’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality customer service.”
– Kate Walsh, Interim Dean and E. M. Statler Professor, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University

The training was authored by School of Hotel Administration alumna Elizabeth Martyn ’07, in collaboration with a Cornell faculty advisory committee. Martyn helps learners understand the important role they play as service providers within their organizations and introduces the Cornell Service Experience Cycle to guide customer interactions.
“The new Service Excellence program gives organizations a simple and effective way to deliver the highest quality training to customer-facing employees distributed around the world. As you would expect from Cornell University, the on-demand training goes beyond a to-do list and encourages critical thinking to exceed customer expectations.”

– Paul Krause, eCornell’s CEO and Associate Vice Provost of Online Learning for Cornell University

This Service Excellence On-Demand Training can be used by any group or organization with team members who are responsible for delivering service, including organizations focused on hospitality, healthcare and senior living, financial services, retail, and consumer services. To learn more or to speak with an enrollment expert, visit sha.cornell.edu/service-training.

About the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University

The School of Hotel Administration (SHA) at Cornell University is shaping the global knowledge base for hospitality management through leadership in education, research, and industry advancement. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the school provides instruction in the full range of hospitality disciplines, educating the next generation of leaders in the world’s largest industry. Founded in 1922 as the nation’s first collegiate course of study in hospitality management, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration is recognized as the world leader in its field.

For more information, visit sha.cornell.edu.

 

About eCornell | Cornell University

As Cornell University’s online learning subsidiary, eCornell provides many of the world’s leading organizations with online professional development in the areas of finance, healthcare, hospitality, human resources, leadership, management, and marketing. eCornell has delivered flexible, engaging, and immediately applicable learning experiences crafted by Cornell University faculty to over 90,000 students in more than 200 countries.

For more information, visit www.eCornell.com.

 

Pinterest Best Practices for Hotels

Recently, Pinterest launched an analytics dashboard for businesses, which gives brands the ability to more closely monitor their presence on the platform. If you haven’t started using Pinterest, it is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, hobbies and interests. Users can browse other pinboards for images, ‘repin’ images to their own pinboards, or ‘like’ photos. Hotels and restaurants can have their own boards where they can ‘pin’ images, track which users have repinned their images, and identify followers.

Best Practice Tips for Hotels

If you are just starting out with Pinterest, we recommend the following best practices tips for hotels and restaurants:

1. Start off strong with a visually striking profile. 

Choose your brand logo as your profile photo on the website (160×165 pixels in size) to maintain brand consistency across all social media platforms. If you haven’t done so already, take a few minutes and make sure that you are using the same high-quality image on all of the different social media sites your hotel is on. This will increase your brand recognition and will clue your followers in that the profile is the official one.

2. Organize boards that make sense for you.

The biggest power of Pinterest is that it gives your brand the ability to tell a highly visual story that drives real website traffic. Pinterest users have the ability to choose which pinboard that they want to follow, so not every one of your boards has to appeal to the broadest of audiences. That said, each of your boards should consist of at least 10 photos so that it’s substantial enough for a user to follow. Also, when naming your board, make sure that your title reflects the content accurately and is 20 characters or less.

3. Get creative with your pinning.

Similar to photos you share on Facebook or Instagram, the photos you share on Pinterest should reflect the fun and personal side of your brand and ought to tell a story that you couldn’t otherwise tell on your traditional website or OTA presence. Accordingly, some best practice pinboards that we’ve come across in the hospitality industry focus on seasonal events, specific hotel offerings and amenities, vacation themes and quirky destination tips from the hotel or restaurant. Here are a few examples:

Waikiki Scenes Inspiring Hotel Interiors Aqua's Hawaii Hotels Quintessential Austin

4. Spread the wealth and stay active.

In addition to pinning your own images, your hotel or restaurant should also repin photos from others to add to your boards. This will allow you to tell a richer brand or destination story. Also, you will want to keep your pin descriptions as concise as your board descriptions. Pinterest suggests that, for the travel industry, you simply identify the location in the image and the kinds of things you can do there. Keep it to no more than a few sentences in length.

5. Activity is rewarded.

Pinterest is similar to many other social platforms in that its home feed feature is how users discover and share new content. Accordingly, if you hotel is serious about managing a Pinterest account, you should commit to pinning new imagery at least a few times a week if not once a day. By doing so, you will give your brand a better chance to be discovered and engaged with. Once you have an active presence established, make it easy for people to pin your content by adding Pinterest’s follow and pin it buttons to your website and add a Pinterest link in your emails.

Measure Your Pinterest Activity

Pinterest’s new dashboard now gives business owners the ability to see all of their Pinterest traffic activity in an intuitive, cleanly laid out display. Your Pinterest data will show your pins/week, repins/week and followers. In close, it’s never been more apparent that Pinterest has become a major social media platform that can effectively augment your overall social media strategy.

Mastering the Hotel Marketing Ecosystem at the Property Level

Today’s hotel visitors have never been more connected. With multiple devices and countless online resources to consult during each phase of the guest lifecycle – from the point they make their booking decisions to well after they check-out – travelers’ hotel expectations have shifted.

Long gone are the days when the hotel marketing tactics were all deployed pre-stay and offline. Today, easier access to guest preference data, past purchase behavior and social media profiles has made the hotel marketing discipline a multi-phase and multi-channel practice that requires involvement from many different key stakeholders at the brand and hotel-property level.

In this webinar, Greg Bodenlos, social media and digital marketing hospitality consultant, walks us through this complex hotel marketing ecosystem. In the process, Greg reveals strategies and tactics for mastering the innumerable amount of hotel marketing priorities. The following are just a few of the questions that will be addressed:

  • What are the most important marketing focus areas at the property level?
  • How has the definition of hotel marketing evolved in the hospitality industry?
  • Where should hotel marketing live in the overall hotel operation ecosystem?
  • Who are the various key stakeholders to involve in hotel marketing initiatives?
  • What new hotel marketing challenges are on the horizon?

Greg Bodenlos is a passionate hospitality marketing consultant and HSMAI leader based in Boston, Massachusetts. With a passion for digital trends, social media and innovation – and over five years of hotel and technology work experience – Greg possesses a unique perspective on the hospitality digital marketing landscape. Playing digitally-focused marketing roles at the destination resort, luxury independent property, and now city center hotel has allowed Greg to play an active role in shaping hotel marketing best practices at the property-level as well as help bring hoteliers closer to creating more meaningful, personalized travel experiences for their guests. It was in his marketing role at Revinate – a SaaS start-up in Silicon Valley that designs and develops technology to improve the guest experience – where Greg was able to help hoteliers and academics better understand the power of leveraging consumer intelligence to drive better service and maximize revenue streams across the entire guest lifecycle.

Greg is a proud graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has been featured as a hotel marketing expert on National Public Radio. Greg has been featured as a contributor in Crowdcentric Media’s Social Media Week New York blog, eCornell’s Blog and HotelMarketing.com, as well as played a co-authored role in an award-winning piece for Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research with Chris Anderson entitled Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing and Optimization.

Greg can be reached by phone at +1 781 686 2177, email at gregbodenlos@gmail.com, on Twitter @gregbodenlos or LinkedIn.

What to Expect from the 11th Edition of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry

The purpose of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, or USALI, is to establish a uniform set of accounting guidelines for the lodging industry. A new edition is released every 10 years to keep pace with an evolving business environment and to address ambiguities found in previous editions.

In conjunction with the rollout of the 11th edition of the USALI, eCornell presents this video panel discussion, moderated by Cornell Prof. Jan de Roos, which highlights changes and provides guidelines for best accounting practices.

About the panelists:

Jan A. deRoos is HVS Professor of Hotel Finance and Real Estate at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, where he has taught since 1988. He is also faculty author of eCornell’s online certificate program for the hospitality industry, Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management.

He has devoted his career to teaching and research related to hospitality real estate, with a focus on the valuation, financing, development, and control of lodging, timeshare, and restaurant assets. He co-developed a free tool, the Hotel Valuation Software, with Stephen Rushmore of HVS International and has developed a respected on-line executive education curriculum for hotel real estate professionals. His book on hotel management agreements, co-authored with James Eyster, is the seminal academic publication on the topic. Prior to joining Cornell, deRoos worked extensively in the hotel industry as a construction and engineering manager.

Robert Mandelbaum is the Director of Research Information Services for PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR), a CBRE company. He is based in the firm’s Atlanta office, where he is in charge of Research Information Services. Research Information Services produces the annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry statistical report, along with customized financial and operational analyses for client projects. On a quarterly basis, PKF-HR produces five-year forecasts of performance for six national chain-scales, six national location categories, and 55 major U.S cities using its proprietary Hotel Horizons® econometric forecasting model. Mr. Mandelbaum began his hospitality industry career with Holiday Inns, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee.

He serves on the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s (AH&LA) Financial Management Committee that is responsible for preparing the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). In addition, he is a member of the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) association. He is on the executive board of the Cornell Hotel Society, the author of articles for industry trade publications, a guest lecturer at college and university hotel school programs, and a speaker at industry forums.

Greg Remeikis, CPA, is a partner in Cohn Reznick’s Accounting & Auditing practice; co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Hospitality Practice; and a member of the firm’s National Hospitality Industry Leadership Committee. He has been providing professional services in the hospitality industry for 20 years to hotels and quick service restaurant owners. He has been involved in the planning, fieldwork and reporting for external audit services for two publically traded hospitality entities and numerous privately hospitality clients. He has also led two internal control risk assessment, documentation, testing and remediation engagements related to Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance. He serves as the firm’s quality control partner related to the hotel area of the hospitality practice. Greg has provided a variety of consulting services to the industry, most notably – real estate development and construction services to boutique hotels, internal control consulting to both public and privately held companies, audits and due diligence related to hotel acquisition and fraud audits for fidelity bond claims.

Dynamic Content Personalization: Hoteliers’ Powerful New Tool to Maximizing Website Revenue and Conversions

Traditionally, hotel and resort websites have served the same content to all site visitors regardless of their preferences, demographics, past booking behavior, or even geographic location. Today, technology allows us to personalize content for property website visitors, making for a more intimate brand experience, and a profitable one at that.

HeBS Digital’s Mariana Mechoso Safer and Sara O’Brien discuss how you can use dynamic content personalization to deliver unique and relevant website content to specific customer segments. When dynamic content is delivered effectively, travelers enjoy service that is tailored specifically for them, while hospitality organizations enjoy more website engagement, greater conversion rates and increased revenues. You’ll learn to:

  • Recognize and reward specific customer segments by displaying personalized and relevant content that speaks to their preferences and expectations.
  • Differentiate your resort or hotel from the competition and the OTA channel.
  • Deliver higher levels of consumer satisfaction from the direct hotel website experience.
  • Significantly increase website conversions and revenues

Mariana Mechoso Safer is Senior Vice President, Marketing at HeBS Digital, overseeing advertising, marketing and public relations. Mariana heads the Las Vegas office, developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for HeBS Digital’s West Coast partners. She frequently conducts industry research and publishes in major travel and hospitality publications, and is also a guest speaker and presenter at hospitality events and conferences.

Mariana can be reached by phone at +1 702 463-1857, email at mariana@hebsdigital.com, on Twitter @mmechoso or LinkedIn.

Sara O’Brien is Senior Marketing Manager at HeBS Digital. She manages the development and execution of all HeBS Digital advertising, marketing and public relations. Starting with a position in consulting and client services, Sara has a solid understanding of hotelier’s business needs and objectives, including how to help them generate the highest ROIs from their most cost effective channel – their own website. Sara’s professional experience includes over nine years of advertising and marketing experience. Sara has a Master’s Degree in Global Marketing from Emerson College in Boston and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Hotel Marketing Summit 2015

Three of the hotel industry’s most creative and forward-thinking marketers joined eCornell for a live YouTube summit on hotel marketing in February, 2015. Access the video below.

ReviewPro’s Josiah Mackenzie, HeBS Digital’s Mariana Mechoso Safer, and hospitality marketing consultant and HSMAI Boston Chapter leader Greg Bodenlos discussed, debated and dove into emergent technologies and practices to predict what’s most likely to influence hotel marketing strategies for the year ahead. They also covered:

  • The hotel marketing ‘ecosystem’, from guest experience design to multi-platform marketing and operational feedback analysis.
  • Personalizing the customer journey, from the inspiration stage to booking and beyond.
  • How to leverage user-generated content to increase customer engagement.
  • What you should focus on when analyzing your ‘reputation’ online, and how to use that data to improve your business.

Josiah Mackenzie leads business development at ReviewPro – helping partners across the hospitality industry use 360-degree guest intelligence to create better travel experiences for their guests and unlock new areas of revenue growth for their businesses. The rise of data from the social web – where people are leaving digital data trails wherever they go, 24/7/365 – has given the hospitality industry a dramatically expanded ability to understand consumer sentiment and trending new demand areas.

Featured as a hotel technology trends expert by media outlets such as CNN, PBS, MSNBC, The Washington Post and Entrepreneur Magazine, Josiah is also a frequent keynote speaker at conferences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Josiah can be reached by telephone at +1 415 671 9629, via email josiah@josiahmackenzie.com – or on Twitter @Hotel_Intel.

Mariana Mechoso Safer is Senior Vice President, Marketing at HeBS Digital, overseeing advertising, marketing and public relations. Mariana heads the Las Vegas office, developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for HeBS Digital’s West Coast partners. She frequently conducts industry research and publishes her major travel and hospitality publications, and is also a guest speaker and presenter at hospitality events and conferences.

Mariana can be reached by phone at +1 702 463-1857, email at mariana@hebsdigital.com, on Twitter @mmechoso or LinkedIn.

Greg Bodenlos is a passionate hospitality marketer and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Chapter leader based in Boston, Massachusetts. With a passion for digital trends, social media and innovation – and over five years of hotel and technology work experience – Greg possesses a unique perspective on the hospitality digital marketing landscape. Playing digitally-focused marketing roles at the destination resort, luxury independent property, and now city center hotel has allowed Greg to play an active role in shaping hotel marketing best practices at the property-level as well as help bring hoteliers closer to creating more meaningful, personalized travel experiences for their guests. It was in his marketing role at Revinate – a SaaS start-up in Silicon Valley that designs and develops technology to improve the guest experience – where Greg was able to help hoteliers and academics better understand the power of leveraging consumer intelligence to drive better service and maximize revenue streams across the entire guest lifecycle.

Greg is a proud graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has been featured as a hotel marketing expert on National Public Radio. Greg has been featured as a contributor in Crowdcentric Media’s Social Media Week New York blog, eCornell’s Blog and HotelMarketing.com, as well as played a co-authored role in an award-winning piece for Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research with Chris Anderson entitled Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing and Optimization.

Greg can be reached by phone at +1 781 686 2177, email at gregbodenlos@gmail.com, on Twitter @gregbodenlos or LinkedIn.