Forbes Travel Guide Ceo Jerry inzerillo CELEBrATES 50 YEArS IN THE HOTEL BUSINESS nexT year . |
Next year , larger-than-life Jerry Inzerillo will celebrate his 50th anniversary in the hotel business , starting when he was 13 as a banquet busboy for Local Union 6 in New York City . He has stood tall at the Gotham Hotel in New York ( now the Peninsula ), at Sun City with Sol Kerzner , and from Four Seasons and Hilton to years working along side Ian Schrager . Inzerillo has seen it all , developed and stewarded some of the greatest concepts and must know just about everyone in the luxury business . Today , the unforgettable character is perfectly suited for his position of two years as CEO of Forbes Travel Guide ( FTG ). So far , he has visited some 600 hotels and taken the struggling brand — which uses a 890-point inspection process to award the coveted 5-star rating — from representation in four countries and 25 cities to 50 countries |
and 250 cities . This year , that includes Paris , Milan and cities across Latin America . And he says he ’ s just getting started with a new vision for FTG ’ s future .
To gain much-needed traction with the tech-savvy traveling public , Inzerillo finally has FTG involved in social media . By the end of 2018 , when he expects the organization to have representation in 238 countries , it will launch a mobile app engineered by FTG owner Jeff Arnold , a tech icon whose claim to fame is the WebMD platform . Inzerillo says the bookable app , on which all member hotels will be represented , will charge a fraction of what the OTAs bill for a booking .
Inzerillo says the Pricelines , Expedias and TripAdvisors of the world have destroyed price-value integrity because they misrepresent the star system , leading to disappointed consumers who vent on social media and take out
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their anger on hotel management .
This is partly why FTG has adjusted its mission , according to Inzerillo . It remains a team of experienced hoteliers serving hoteliers with a goal to raise standards up to expectations and to help restore credibility between the luxury guest and the luxury operator . “ So instead of us being in judgment , all the standards now are transparent ,” he says . “ And you will no longer be judged by people who are not from the industry with at least 10 years ’ practical experience .”
FTG has also created a high-profile Standard Advisory Committee , which has analyzed the 800-plus standards to make sure they are fair , culturally applicable and take into account trends such as the need for bedside ports to charge devices .
Next comes further growth , the mobile app and improving a program that , he says , luxury consumers can truly trust .
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18 hotelsmag . com July / August 2016 |