Popular Podcasting
Podcasting has hit the mainstream, and in the hospitality industry it’s quickly become the way people love to learn while working out, walking the family dog, or heading to or from work. SkyTouch Technology, along with other hospitality tech partners, recently hosted an evening dedicated to this exciting medium.
Held at The Time New York hotel, the event featured two live podcast recordings for two hotel industry shows: Checking in With Anthony and Glenn, and the Hotel Tech Podcast, which appears as part of the No Vacancy News network.
Recording #1
The Hotel Tech Podcast featuring host Glenn Haussman and his guest Michael Zayas, Corporate Director of Digital Marketing and ecommerce with Real Hospitality Group. In it, Haussman and Zayas discussed the best strategies that forge an emotional connection with potential guests by getting them excited about the destination before promoting a specific hotel. To them it’s about creating an authentic story that engages.
“We’re all about getting people on board with the strategy of telling the authentic story, and then doubling down on video and content. It’s really about content creation,” said Zayas. You have to take the bull by the horns and actually create that content yourself. Put the time and effort into creating authentic content, then at the same time you should set the stage with the experience on the property level that will encourage people to create those social media moments that they’re going to share with their family, friends and whatever.”
To get the guests to actually book, Zayas explained it’s essential to have someone who has marketing or copy writing experience to write descriptions of rate plans to appearing in the hotel’s booking engine.
“You don’t want to leave it up to someone at the front desk. This is not their skill,” he said. The next step is focusing on when we’re building those tools, like the booking engine to make sure your digging into every piece of that booking engine, making sure that what you’re writing in there and what you’re showing in there, whether it’s video there, whether it’s photos and descriptions and even names.”
Click here to listen to this episode of the Hotel Tech podcast.
Recording #2
The second live show recording featured several of the most recognizable personalities in the hospitality business; Jay Stein, CEO of Dream Hotel Group, and Anthony Melchiorri, host of Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible and co-host of the Checking In with Anthony and Glenn Podcast. Haussman was back on stage in his role as co-host of Checking In.
Turns out Stein and Melchiorri met 25 years ago when Stein turned down Melchiorri for a job. It was a pivotal moment for Melchiorri and led to a great conversation on the merits of being a strong, motivational, and effective leader. But equally important, the lessons they learned transformed them into great leaders that earn respect, not demand it.
Back when he was in his mid-20s, Melchiorri said he managed by command, the way he learned it while serving in the Air Force. He terminated an employee who didn’t listen to him. “I was the boss. He didn’t listen to me and I was very insecure. and I was really rude. I remember he went to the change after I dismissed him, and he comes back up. I’m at the front desk and he opens up the door and from the doorframe looks at me and said, ‘you can fire me, but you can’t take my spirit. You stole my spirit and you’re not allowed to do that.’
“I realized I handled that situation all wrong. Why would I do that to somebody? Why would I feel that I’m so much more important? I grew up on welfare, food stamps. Why do I think I’m that much better? Because I’m the Front Office Manager at the Plaza Hotel? That was the moment I was humbled, and I was like, alright, I got this. I’m not that important.”
Melchiorri said that event transformed his management style and ever since he’s approached leadership in a much more effective manner.
For Stein, being a great leader is about helping people achieve their potential. That means managing multiple personality types. “Give people their space, let them be creative, let them get the limelight, let them do what they do and reap some rewards. But not everybody’s that way,” said Stein. “Other people are much more passive, so I have to work to bring them in. I don’t want them to be overshadowed by these strong people, so I’ve got to be that protector. I’ve got to be because I have enough clout in the room to call the shots and then try and build a team where there’s really great dynamics, and hopefully achieving great success.”
Click here to listen to this episode of Checking In with Anthony and Glenn
Overall, it was a terrific evening of positive conversation, networking and peer to peer sharing of best practices.
Ready to see how a partner like SkyTouch can impact your operations and your revenue? Contact us today and book a demo of the SkyTouch Hotel Operations Platform.
