Meeting professionals regularly negotiate with the sales organizations of big hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt to find host hotels that fit their groups and their budgets. However, it’s important for planners to understand that behind the management company, these properties usually have ownership groups who face an array of business challenges.
Today, rising interest rates and increasing operational costs are two big factors creating an uncertain landscape for hotel owners. But challenges around staffing, seasonality, and a drop-off in post-pandemic leisure travel are among other issues that also keep them up at night.
For pharmaceutical and life-science meeting professionals attending the Pharma Forum conference in Tampa from March 24 to 27, a session moderated by Jeff Patton, vice president of sales, Americas, for Hilton, will put hotel owners’ issues into the group-business context. A panel of four executive-level representatives from hotel-ownership firms will discuss today’s operating environment, trends impacting future development, working with groups, and much more.
Panelists will include Cristina Little, CRME, senior vice president, revenue & profit optimization, BRE Hotels & Resorts (property sample: Hotel del Coronado); David Craig, senior vice president, asset management, Pebble Brook Hotels (Westin Copley Place, Boston); Jennifer Rutkowski, vice president, marketing, Brookfield Properties (Pendry Manhattan West); Jeremy See, chief commercial officer, HEI Hotels and Resorts (Kimpton Monaco Denver).
More information on the agenda and on-site experience for the upcoming Pharma Forum conference in Tampa is available here.
