If it’s true that opportunity is borne out of crisis, then Josh Ramsey and his cohorts at startup Prosper Hotels might be on to something big. Comprised of former executives at Hilton who found themselves unmoored in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, the team at Prosper Hotels believes it can draw on its collective expertise in pricing strategies and customer experience to navigate small to medium-sized hotels to profitability now and post-pandemic. In this episode of Lodging Luminaries, Ramsey, founder and managing partner at Prosper Hotels, talks about how hotel owners and operators can blend rate, technology and customer service into a money-making enterprise.

Mitch Patel, president and CEO of Vision Hospitality Group, is repositioning his 25-year-old company to identify and execute on opportunities to grow its new management subsidiary, Humanist Hospitality. After forming Humanist in early 2019 to manage VHG’s boutique and lifestyle hotels, the company in September announced a shift in strategy in which Humanist is managing all of VHG’s assets as well as seeking third-party agreements. In Episode 13 of Lodging Luminaries podcast, Patel shares the reasons behind the move, including teaming up with real estate developers in mixed-use projects. He also talks about how he’s parlaying his close relationships with hotel company CEOs and other top executives to redo brand standards and rewrite such things as cancellation policies to increase profitability for all owners.

As the hospitality industry recovers from the devastation of the pandemic, advocates for diversity in leadership say now’s the time to shake off obsolete methods of building executive teams and deploy more inclusive strategies. Lodging Luminaries Episode 12 spotlights Peggy Berg, an industry veteran, entrepreneur and founder of Castell Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the career trajectories of women in hospitality industry leadership. Berg talks about how the pandemic crisis has affected Castell’s mission; how it’s changed the way women view their careers; and how employers need to respond.

Although Tracy Kundey has several decades of experience in the hospitality industry, he’s not one to look back. You can’t change history, he says. And that goes for hotels that lost business during the coronavirus pandemic. The only direction to go is forward. Everwood Hospitality Partners recently enlisted Kundey to help lead it beyond the pandemic recovery. In Episode 11 of Lodging Luminaries, host Jason Freed talks with Kundey about the steps Everwood is taking to not only get to the other side of the economic downturn but to grow Everwood into an industry powerhouse by deploying technology to manage profitability and getting creative with delivering on guest services while seeking out opportunistic deals. Success today is a matter of ‘looking at things differently,’ he said.

Sonesta Hotels International’s CEO Carlos Flores has big dreams for the company he’s led since 2012. Over the past 18 months, he’s made some of them come true, shocking an industry in the throes of the coronavirus crisis. In Episode 10 of Lodging Luminaries podcast, host Jason Freed talks with Flores about how he decided to pull the trigger to propel the company as a major contender in the franchising space. He also shares his views on the franchiser-franchisee relationship as well as whether the adoption of new technology can enhance a hotel’s value.

Elie Khoury, executive vice president of operations at Aimbridge Hospitality, has faced many operational challenges over the 25 years he’s been serving in the industry. With each downturn, Khoury believes, hotel operators grow smarter and wiser. The coronavirus crisis has forced hospitality owners and leaders to rethink ways of doing business, including figuring out how to staff an operation amid a shallow labor pool.

In Episode 9 of Lodging Luminaries, host Jason Freed and Khoury dig into how Aimbridge Hospitality is taking an unconventional route by embracing the “gig economy” and preparing for the inevitable cultural shift it will create in the hospitality workplace.

Justin Jabara took the reins as president of Meyer Jabara Hotels in Danbury, Connecticut, in March 2020. He rose to the challenge and led the company through a time like no other. Meyer Jabara Hotels grew during the pandemic year 2020 as it was able to clearly identify assets with business models that proved relatively resilient. Most of all, Jabara said, Meyer Jabara faced a challenge in recruiting employees, a new problem for the 44-year-old enterprise. In response, Jabara led a dramatic shift in the company’s thinking and practicality. The company can no longer be the best employer in hospitality, it has to be a world-class employer that competes for talent across all industry sectors.

Episode 8 of Lodging Luminaries features host Jason Freed talking with Jabara about the significant steps he and the company took to adapt and grow over the past 18 months.

Robert Cole is CEO of Hospitality Ventures Management Group, a third-party management company he founded 20 years ago. HVMG manages more than 40 hotels. Since establishing HVMG, Cole has led hotel teams through various crises, including 9/11, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of Lodging Luminaries, host Jason Freed talks with Cole about how HVMG managed to do more than merely eke out a profit from the hotels in its portfolio during the pandemic. Over the past 18 months, it exceeded the industry’s average house-profit levels. Cole talks about the tough decisions that were made amid the crisis to save the hotels under HVMG’s care and how HVMG has adjusted its business model to succeed in post-pandemic America.