Leutwyler

HOTELS: How do representation services stay relevant in this 
Web 2.0 era?

Leutwyler: The challenge is really for everyone. Let’s look at the customer side of it: It is getting more and more complex every month. There are more players in the marketplace, and the technology continues to change. From a hotelier’s standpoint, they can get overwhelmed very easily.

It is our job to bring together the most relevant aspects. We are bringing together the technology, we are bringing together the tools, we are putting together training programs. We have relationships with a lot of technology providers, and we can make sure that as technologies and strategies evolve we can help the person running the hotel to do it better.

Web 2.0 is just so difficult for the average person to keep up with. We are trying to make sure that we filter what is important and what is not important and to help them figure it out.

HOTELS: Which sectors are best served by the representation model at this point?

Leutwyler: The Middle East is certainly an area where we’ve seen a lot of growth for a lot of different reasons. It has evolved into a place where there are a lot of opportunities. To some extent, even though a lot of people focus on the instability issues in Africa, we are also seeing a lot of interest taking root there. The first movers in that area will be able to put themselves in a position to benefit for some time.

HOTELS: Give us your candid take on Best Western.

Leutwyler: It is a brand that is strong. It has been, especially most recently, very focused on quality. There were a number of properties exiting the brand over the past few years, and it wasn’t about trying to shrink or grow the brand by any given numbers, it was about trying to say, 'This is the quality that we want to give to our customers and the other members.’

They are going to continue to focus on that area. They are trying to continue to leverage that asset of the sense of ownership that all of those hotel owners have, and I think they are doing a good job with it. It was fun to be a part of.

HOTELS: How did your time at Best Western inform your approach at Pegasus?

Leutwyler: I have never been a part of an organization that has more of a focus on the customer, when you think of the customer as being a hotel owner. It is a member organization—they own the company and run the company—it is a very interactive company that is very in tune with the owners’ needs, and that is part of what shaped my thinking coming over here. I wanted to make sure we take that aspect of Best Western and work it on a larger scale.

HOTELS: What do you see as the future of e-marketing for the hotel industry—what are the passing fads and what are the future standard practices?

Leutwyler: The fads have to do with a lot of the rich media that allow people to do very interesting things, but they aren’t necessarily such a great return on investment. Video posting, and the rich media that allow very complex ways of presenting your images and your story—to the extent that those are being used in a relevant manner, then they really have value. But we are seeing people using them just to do it, and they are confusing the consumer.

Things that are definitely going to stick are the ways that the consuming public is expressing its opinions and the way [people] are looking at ways others are expressing themselves. Hoteliers are taking those user comments and turning them into an asset for their properties, and the properties that aren’t stepping up to that are losing relevance because there are some negative comments out there that aren’t being addressed.

The hotels that are really going to be successful in that area are the ones that understand the ways to deal with that trend and who leverage the right tools to do so.

Direct comments to: adam.kirby@reedbusiness.com