LODGING LEADERS
026 | Redefining the Technology Toolbox with Mark Lewis-Brown
LODGING LEADERS
Mark Lewis-Brown is a hospitality industry veteran with 25 years of experience in online distribution, hotel operations and airline sales. He’s recognized as a visionary for product development, client services and marketing efforts at Vertical Booking, Centric Hospitality Group and Genares.
Mark founded InnPoints in 1995, giving independent and boutique properties the chance to establish a loyal client base and compete with the major hotel chains through a frequent stay program. One year later, the company merged with Bed&Breakfast Direct to form InnPoints Worldwide, an electronic reservation distribution and marketing company. After fifteen successful years of developing reservation technology and services including Qube Hotels and StayCredits, Mark played a key role in the creation of Centric Hospitality Group, designing a powerful parent company for InnPoints Worldwide and long-time partner CARINO Hotels and Resorts.
Prior to founding InnPoints, Mark owned and operated several successful lodging properties in Salt Lake City, UT and Albuquerque, NM and spent 13 years at Delta Airlines.
In This Episode, Mark Talks About:
- how his experience with the GDS (Global Distribution System) in the airline industry early in his career inspired his applications of it in the hospitality space
- how owning and operating a bed and breakfast led to the vision of his company, InnPoints.
- his entrepreneurial journey with InnPoints – from inception to sale, and the many stages in-between
- why he chose to join Vertical Booking, leading their expansion of services in the United States as President of Vertical Booking USA
- the various pieces of technology required to connect hotels to the world, from the PMS, to the CRS, the GDS and the OTAs, and how he manages to tie them all together to make running a hotel a whole lot easier
Resources & Links
- Email: mark.
lewisbrown[at]verticalbooking. com - Mark on LinkedIn
- Mark on Facebook
- Verticalbookingusa.com (U.S. site)
- Verticalbooking.com (Internal site)
LODGING LEADERS
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346 | Repositioning For Recovery: Hotel conversions to outpace new builds
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
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345 | ‘Rosy View of Future’: Hotel industry sees unleashing of pent-up investor demand
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.