Hotel operators can navigate continued uncertainty by returning to operational fundamentals, empowering property-level teams and using technology to improve efficiency, according to panelists during the latest Hotel Business Hot Topics webinar.
“Planning Through Uncertainty: A Resilience Playbook for Hotel Leaders,” presented in partnership with Entegra, featured Will Loughran, COO, Concord Hospitality Enterprises; Beau Benton, president, LBA Hospitality; Eric Rubino, COO/principal, Extreme Hospitality; Daniel Block, SVP, operations, full service, Hotel Equities; and Amar Doshi, VP, supply growth and procurement, Entegra. The session was moderated by Glenn Haussman, founder/host, No Vacancy Live Podcast.
For Block, resilience starts with the basics, particularly when it comes to labor productivity.
“Well, I think it goes back to the basics: the blocking and tackling,” he said. “We all know that labor is our biggest expense, and I think sometimes we manage labor dollars as opposed to productivity. We need to take a deep dive into productivity and make sure the people we have on staff—housekeeping, lobby attendants, front desk, F&B—that we’re getting the most out of our investment in those people.”
Benton similarly stressed preparation, noting that operational discipline should be maintained during both strong and challenging periods.
“You’ve got to be prepared,” he said. “You play as you practice, and are you doing these things in the good times and in the bad? When you do have the shocks to the system, you’re ready for it.”
That can mean making sure storage rooms are organized, housekeeping carts are properly equipped and properties have functioning vacuums and sufficient linen. Benton said those seemingly basic issues can affect both productivity and employee morale.
Loughran noted that associate engagement surveys can help identify whether employees have the tools and resources they need to do their jobs. He said Concord faced a similar need to return to fundamentals as food costs changed.
“I remember the beginning of this year when we were going through a lot of the tariff movement, particularly in F&B resources,” Loughran said. “We kept meeting with my F&B leader, and I said, ‘Oh, it’s tomatoes this week, and it’s avocados this week.’ We were reacting to that, and after a few weeks, we just came back and said, ‘We’ve got to get back to the basics of everything.’”
The panelists also discussed the challenge of reducing costs without undermining the elements of the hotel experience guests notice.
Doshi pointed to bedding and coffee as areas where operators need to understand what matters most to guests.
“There are pillars of the guest experience that you’re not going to want to mess with,” he said. “Everyone wants coffee at a hotel. But what you can do is take a more deliberate approach and say, ‘OK, we need to optimize our operations, and we may need to right-size the menus.’”
Loughran used bacon as an example of a product that can significantly affect guest perception.
“What we have done to bacon as an industry since COVID is embarrassing,” he said. “We’ve reduced, we’ve scaled back, we’ve gone down a tier in many cases. When you cut too close, or you cut too far, that is something that guests really pick up on and really experience in a powerfully negative way.”
Rather than simply cutting quality, Loughran said operators should evaluate what is selling, reduce inventory, simplify menus and rebuild expertise around procurement, menuing, portioning and food control.
Block agreed that food quality cannot simply be sacrificed to reduce costs.
“When it comes to food quality, we can’t save our way to prosperity,” he said. “We have to serve a quality product, but it goes back to how we prep that product,” he said.
He pointed to food waste and labor as areas where operators can look for savings. A hotel that prepares two cases of bacon for breakfast but has half a case remaining at the end of the day, for example, is left with a hard cost.
The panelists repeatedly returned to the importance of allowing hotel-level teams to respond to changing conditions.
Rubino said procurement systems can become increasingly rigid as companies grow, with approved vendors and ordering lists sometimes limiting a property’s ability to respond to market changes.
“I think for us it’s a heavy push on empowerment at the property level to make sure that our teams feel they have the ability to pivot and to be able to do what they need to do to control cost,” Rubino said. “Oftentimes, as you’re scaling, it’s easy to say, ‘Here are approved vendors, here’s who you should work with, here’s what items to order.’ But the feedback at the property level might be, ‘That item is rising from that vendor, but I can get it over here.’”
Loughran said some functions can be centralized while customer-facing decisions should remain with GMs who understand their individual guests.
“We want the GMs leveraging procurement resources, but also saying, ‘I know what my customers want,’” he said.
Benton said understanding the customer and brand is important when balancing guest expectations with cost savings. He cited the example of a Diet Coke in a guestroom, which may be meaningful to a particular guest but may not need to be provided to every guest.
“It comes back to communication,” Benton said. “You’ve got to balance those expectations with the customer and what they’re expecting, and then empower the teams to meet those expectations in the most cost-effective way.”
Block said Hotel Equities takes a property-specific approach, looking at factors such as P&Ls, productivity and turnover. In one example, an apparent turnover issue was traced to basic operating deficiencies, including having too few vacuums and insufficient uniforms and linen.
“We don’t drive the conversations,” Block said. “We ask a lot of questions, and then we drive the answers from there, along with the hotel team.”
AI was another area of discussion, with panelists pointing to opportunities to streamline administrative work while cautioning that technology should not replace operational knowledge.
Block described using AI to compare three elevator contracts, each 25–35 pages, and reduce the differences and similarities to a shorter summary. He also said the technology can analyze menus and guest comments.
“I think situations like that with AI are great,” Block said. “I also think you can take a menu, put it into AI and ask it to look at the pricing based on your region or your market. Where are we high? Where are we low? Not that we’re going to go and just follow AI 100%, but it’s another tool in your toolbox to make smart decisions.”
Doshi said Entegra is using AI across its data and digital operations but stressed that human input remains important.
“It’s only as good as the person that’s operating it, and it’s only as good as the prompt and the way that you build it,” he said. “If you’re not very thoughtful, it can come back with some challenges.”
The panelists ultimately pointed to preparation, property-level empowerment and disciplined cost management as ways operators can respond to changing conditions while maintaining the guest experience.
