THE BULLETIN
Setting Up for Success
I
take Orangetheory Fitness classes to stay fit . Or try to stay fit because I also have a fondness for cheeseburgers and french fries . If you don ’ t know , Orangetheory is a circuit of three activities : running , rowing and floor exercises . One of the things Orangetheory is known for is its wearable technology . Attendees wear heart rate monitors that track five heart rate zones : grey , blue , green , orange and red . The monitors are synchronized to a screen displaying performance metrics and attendees try to accumulate “ splat points ,” which are based on the amount of time spent in the orange and red zones , to achieve excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC . ( Which makes it sound like you should be allowed to eat more post-workout cheeseburgers .) Statistics are delivered to each member after each workout via email and on the mobile app .
I usually wear my monitor , but , one day recently , I forgot to charge it so had to go to class sans device . Classes are led by coaches and one of my favorites , the always-peppy Angie , saw that I wasn ’ t wearing it and said to me — half joking and half serious —“ You can ’ t get better if you don ’ t know where you have been .”
She , of course , was right ( it was Angie , after all ) and before I entered the studio , it dawned on me that this entreaty had application well outside my little workout . And I ’ m talking hotels . Because that is our trade . And one of the best ways to get better , is by benchmarking : where you are and where you came from .
Full disclosure , in between my writing vocation , I worked for a benchmarking firm , whose main purpose was to help hotels and hotel companies perform better through understanding data , up and down the P & L . What is my hotel ’ s profit margin in Q2 2023 v . Q2 2022 ? Has it improved sequentially quarter by quarter ? How about year-over-year ? And if it hasn ’ t , are there cost pressures impacting it ? A colleague of mine made a brilliant analogy , comparing benchmarking to a car ’ s GPS : it shows your current position , where you need to go and how to get there .
It ’ s been a long drive since 2019 with steady traffic . Quarterly reports have relied less on comparison to 2019 times , which makes sense : it was four years ago ! The hospitality industry is a seasonal business , which makes sequential quarterly comparisons difficult , but also a way to track goals and adjust methods accordingly . What did you do differently in each period , and how did that affect your outcomes ?
Sequential monitoring is like a short-term health check-up , while the more traditional YOY comparison is better at seeing how far you ’ ve come . At Orangetheory , for example , I ran a mile in six minutes and 39 seconds in August — ahem — so with that as my baseline , I ’ ll see if I can match it or beat it in September , then , next August , see how I compared to the year prior . ( I will be a year older , so cut me some slack .)
This month , I ’ ll be at The Lodging Conference in Phoenix , where we will get a gauge on the health of the industry . We are still in precarious times , so it ’ s vital to track performance now and beyond and to identify areas for improvement . As management guru Peter Drucker once said : “ What ’ s measured improves .” And if you are up for it , let me know if you want to go for a run . Just as long as it ’ s sub 100 degrees . This is Phoenix .
EDITORIAL David Eisen Editor In Chief
Kathakali Nandi Editorial Writer
Tatiana Valenzuela Editorial Coordinator
Juan Cruz del Val Designer
Contributing Writers Derek Herscovici , Stefani C . O ' Connor and Micah Solomon
PUBLISHING Ali Jahangiri CEO
Brian Levine Publisher
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Gilda Perez-Alvarado Global CEO , JLL Hotels & Hospitality
Arash Azarbarzin CEO , Highgate
Danny Hughes President , Americas , Hilton
Jeanelle Johnson Partner , PwC
Raj Chandnani EVP & CDO , WATG
Mike Deitemeyer President & CEO , Aimbridge Hospitality
Cindy Estis Green Co-founder & CEO , Kalibri Labs
Raúl González CEO EMEA , Barcelo Hotels & Resorts
Alan Fuerstman Founder , Chairman , CEO , Montage International
Patrick Scholes MD , Lodging and Leisure Equity Research , Truist Securities
ADVERTISING Caroline de Donnea
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