This week’s Partner News is highlighted by Driftwood Capital’s Carlos J. Rodriguez receiving the 2020 Hilton Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Drury and SureStay Hotel Group earning top honors for their respective chain scales from J.D. Power. Read about all that and more below.
Driftwood Capital CEO receives Hilton Lifetime Achievement Award
Driftwood Capital, a vertically integrated commercial real estate investment, development and lending platform specializing in hospitality, has revealed that founder/CEO Carlos J. Rodriguez has received the 2020 Hilton Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his contributions and lasting achievements with Hilton and the hospitality industry as a whole.
The annual Hilton Legacy Awards program celebrates owners and development partners in the Americas for their contributions toward brand excellence and development efforts. The awards recognize the passion, creativity and innovative spirit of Hilton’s partners who are committed to quality projects that meet or exceed brand standards and have a positive impact on communities around the world. The leadership of Hilton’s development and brand teams select the winners based on strict criteria including, but not limited to, hotel quality and commitment to guest experience.
Rodriguez is also the former chairman/CEO of Cardel Hotels, a group of affiliated hotel management, ownership and development companies based in Miami. In 2003, Cardel merged with Driftwood Hospitality Management (DHM), and Rodriguez helped grow that company into one of the largest hotel operators in the country. Today, DHM employs more than 5,000 associates and manages more than 15,000 rooms.
Drury Hotels, SureStay Hotel Group earn J.D. Power top spots
Both Drury Hotels and SureStay Hotel Group ranked No.1 in their respective segments in the J.D. Power 2021 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.
Drury Hotels ranked highest in guest satisfaction among upper-midscale hotel chains. The recognition marks its 16th consecutive guest-satisfaction award and sets a record for most consecutive wins in the J.D. Power travel and hospitality category.
Drury performed well in all seven J.D. Power hotel factors, which include reservation, arrival/departure, guestroom, food & beverage, services & amenities, hotel facilities and cost & fees.
Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ SureStay Hotel Group was named No. 1 in the economy segment for the second consecutive year. The brand achieved the highest scores in the segment across five critical factors including arrival/departure, guestroom, services & amenities, hotel facilities and cost & fees.
Gillis publishes new book
Gillis, a consulting, training and sales performance organization for hoteliers, has launched a new book, “Room to Grow – Not Leaving Sales to Chance.” After 28 years of working in the industry, Gillis founder/CEO Tammy Gillis saw the need to reinvigorate sales by authoring a strategic, business-focused and actionable primer to help hoteliers meet revenue goals regardless of the economic environment by not leaving sales to chance.
The book was specifically written for hoteliers and management companies that have struggled with finding and keeping good salespeople. “Room to Grow” is dedicated to elevating the sales function at a time when the industry needs it most. It covers important sales fundamentals such as the art and science of sales, processes, systems and tactics that are missing across the industry when salespeople are onboarded and trained. It also re-iterates that while today’s digital tools can help hoteliers work smarter and appear more tech-savvy, everyone— from the front desk clerk to the general manager — needs to be more fluent and proactive when it comes to sales.
Tammy Gillis is a sales performance expert and has presented and led workshops for Best Western Hotels and Resorts, Choice Hotels International, GBTA, Hotel Association of Canada (HAC), AAHOA and Coast Hotels.
Streamsong Resort partners with SONIFI Solutions
Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, FL, has teamed up with global technology partner SONIFI Solutions to enhance guest experiences at its golfing destination. The resort, a secluded getaway amid 16,000 acres featuring three world-class golf courses, recently upgraded its 228 guestrooms and suites with SONIFI’s interactive TV platform.
The new TVs feature custom channel lineups and sports packages, as well as STAYCAST, which gives guests the ability to cast content from 2,000+ streaming apps on their mobile devices to the in-room TV. Customizable features on the TV also showcase the golf courses and amenities available throughout the property, eliminating the need for printed compendiums in the room and allowing Streamsong staff to easily update promotional information and videos as often as needed.
Also being added to the interactive platform are in-room dining services, which offers a seamless way for guests to order room service from the TV, and enhanced group services, which allows organizers of meetings, special events, golf tournaments and more to target specific room blocks with engaging content and up-to-date details about their event.
DZS selected by Dolce by Wyndham Hanoi Golden Lake Hotel
DZS, a provider of optical and packet-based mobile transport, broadband access and software defined networking solutions, has revealed that the new Dolce by Wyndham Hanoi Golden Lake Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, has selected the DZS FiberLAN solution to deliver a hyper-connected experience to its guests. Known as the first “luxury tech hub hotel” in Asia, the property will feature lightning-fast broadband, extensive WiFi coverage and top-notch video and voice services throughout its facility.
Since the 420-room property opened in 2020, 100% of surveyed guests reported their satisfaction with internet service performance, helping to build loyalty among target customer groups. The hotel also reports 38% operational cost savings versus a copper-based network. All hotel video, voice and data services are cloud-based and run over the DZS FiberLAN, minimizing complexity and downtime.
The core of the Hanoi Golden Lake’s GPON solution is the next-generation DZS V5816, a compact, cost-effective, maintainable and future-proof GPON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) platform that is optimized to deliver FTTx services to multi-unit hospitality and commercial spaces. This connects to DZS H660EWOptical Network Terminals (ONTs) located in each hotel room, providing a high-speed, highly affordable data interface for bandwidth-intensive multimedia services that supports 1.25 Gbps upstream and 2.5 Gbps downstream. This combination is easy to deploy and maintain, requires minimal energy and space and can readily be expanded as the hotel’s bandwidth needs continue to grow.