1028: Public-Private Hotel Deals: How Cities Finance Headquarters Hotels

Food and beverage drives nearly half of annual revenue at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort. Glenn Haussman tours Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort with Michael Cook, Director of Sales & Marketing. The property is managed by our friends at Davidson Hospitality Group! 🩴 The flip-flop entrance sets the tone and drives social content 🏖️ The boardwalk + beach location fuels energy and local demand 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The guest mix shifts by season: couples vs families vs groups 🏢 Meetings live on the 9th floor with ocean views and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom 🔁 Meeting attendees return later for leisure stays with family Thanks to Actabl for supporting this episode. Actabl gives you the power to profit. Visit Actabl.com. Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from hashtag#NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Front desk upsells didn't just add revenue — they cut turnover by 40% in one operator's portfolio. In video 2 of this series, Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group, and Sloan Dean, former CEO of Remington, break down how hotels train front desk teams to build rapport, tailor offers, track performance, and pay incentives that actually keep people. 🧠 Train the conversation: ask a few questions at check-in, then match the offer to the guest's reason for travel 📊 Use data for daily coaching: agents see their stats, managers coach in real time, performance improves fast 🎮 Gamify the front desk: recognition + accountability + reward drives behavior 💵 Pay commissions that matter: Remington paid about 10% of upsell revenue to agents; some agents boosted pay 50% 📉 Reduce turnover: Sloan says the program drove about a 40% reduction in front desk turnover 🚀 Promote your best sellers: Geoffrey says hotels can move top front desk performers into sales and banquets Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Hotels don't need another system; hotels need the systems they already run to talk to each other. I talk with Alex Zoghlin, CEO of Duetto, during Duetto PERFORM about profit-first revenue decisions and connected hotel data. 🧩 Disconnected systems force teams to act on partial data 💰 Profit-first decisions require coordination across departments 🔗 Better access to existing data beats adding "one more tool" 🤖 AI speeds integrations and shortens decision cycles 🎯 Dynamic pricing and build-your-own packages lift total revenue and GOP Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Profitability keeps getting squeezed even after years of strong revenue growth, so hotels can't live on RevPAR alone. I'm at Duetto PERFORM at Margaritaville Resort, and I talk with Michael Grove, CEO of HotStats, about what his data shows right now—and what hoteliers can actually do about it. 📉 Michael says cost pressure stays the story: labor, wage inflation, loyalty costs, and credit card costs don't go away 💰 He points to the opportunity: ancillary revenue grew 5.8% globally last year while RevPAR grew about 2.5% 🧠 He pushes a total revenue per customer mindset instead of obsessing over rooms revenue alone 🍽️ He says hotels need more creativity to help guests spend money on-property in ways they actually enjoy 🤝 He also talks the HotStats + Duetto connection: insight, tools to act, and measurement in one package Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from hashtag#NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Oliver Shah is a first time guest, and we suspect after having drinks with Glenn, Craig and Suzanne itll be his last. Join us for some laughs and Happy Hour fun where Glenn is at Margaritaville Resort Hollywood Beach.

I'm at Duetto PERFORM at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, and I grabbed Olly Lynch, CMO at Duetto, to explain what Duetto built this event to do. 🚀 Duetto built PERFORM to give "hotel performance" its own space—not a back-room trade show conversation 📈 Olly lays out the idea: connect revenue and profit into one operating model, one story, and ultimately one technology 🧠 Duetto pulled in voices from outside hotels—airlines and casinos—to push new thinking on revenue + profitability 🛠️ I like the focus: actionable takeaways you can actually implement, not theory 📣 Duetto plans to publish key takeaways for people who couldn't attend and bring PERFORM back next year Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from hashtag#NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Last week, Suzanne Bagnera brought one of 11 student teams from nine schools to the AAHOACON Collegiate Championship, and the students ran the kind of decisions real GMs deal with. During AAHOACON 2026, where No Vacancy was the official podcast, I interviewed Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED about the competition and what she saw as the professor who brought the students. 🎓 Year three of the Collegiate Championship, with teams from schools including FIU, Virginia Tech, Grand Valley State, University of South Carolina, Cornell, Oklahoma State, and Kennesaw 🧠 Russell Partners ran an online simulation where students operated as GMs, made decisions before the conference, then ran two more simulated years on site 🎤 Students got pitch training, presented to judges, then moved through top four + semifinal rounds with both Judges' Choice and People's Choice awards 🏆 Judges' Choice went to Grand Valley State; People's Choice went to the University of South Carolina 🎙️ Show-floor reality: PA announcements and the lost Chrysler Pacifica keys provided the background noise Thanks to Red Roof for sponsoring the studio space on the AAHOACON show floor. Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Public-private hotel deals don't run on a private equity playbook. Cities use them to create demand and pull outside dollars into the market. Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED joins me, and we talk with Walter Peseski, Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Garfield Public/Private, about how these projects get financed and why brands matter. 🏛️ Why cities build headquarters hotels and convention-adjacent product 🏨 Why bondholders and ratings agencies push projects toward branded hotels 📈 Abilene example: a DoubleTree plus a demand curveball from the Stargate data center ⏳ The real friction: public timelines, extra stakeholders, and council calendars Thanks to Actabl for supporting this episode. Actabl gives you the power to profit. Visit Actabl.com. Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

They flipped the first Sonesta hotel in a couple of hours. That's what a real partnership looks like when the operator needs speed and the vendor shows up. During AAHOACON in Philadelphia, I talked with Patty Jefferson from Visual Matrix and Chris Trick from Sonesta about how they built the relationship, scaled it, and kept it practical for hotel teams. 🤝 They started with trust, then proved execution fast with that first flip 🏨 The rollout now covers 120+ installs across multiple Sonesta brands 🖥️ They cut friction at the desk: move from two screens to one, so staff works faster 🎯 They keep the partnership grounded in outcomes: recognize guests faster and grow loyalty enrollment Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.

Two hotels on one piece of land, two separate buildings, two separate lobbies—and the demand mix flips in a way you wouldn't expect. During AAHOACON 2026, No Vacancy is the official podcast, and I caught up with Hanan Anand, a Red Roof owner, on the show floor to talk about his dual-property setup in Cortland, New York, and what actually drives the business. 🏨 Hanan runs Hometowne Studios and Conference Center plus a Red Roof Inn side-by-side in Cortland 🔧 He converted Hometowne Studios via a full gut renovation, then opened a banquet hall about a week ago 🏟️ Sports tourism drives the market, with teams and families using the meeting space 🔄 The mix flips: Red Roof skews more extended stay, while Hometowne Studios skews more transient because of amenities like the pool, gym, and meeting space 🛣️ Location adds demand: right off I-81, between Syracuse and Binghamton, plus business travelers and traveling nurses 🤝 He says Red Roof support feels hands-on—procurement, design/construction, development—people pick up the phone and know you Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.