Editorial Board   Guest Author

Mr. Parker

Jeffrey Stephen Parker

Vice President of Technology , Stout Street Hospitality/Magnolia Hotels

Currently the Vice President of Technology and Chief Funologist for Denver-based Stout Street Hospitality, Jeffrey Parker's responsibilities include all communications and technology projects for the management company and its core brand, Magnolia Hotels, including System and data security, and infrastructure design and operations support for over 500 employees. Some of his recent high-profile projects include the deployment of VMware, Libra on Demand, HotSOS, Airwatch, and Google Apps for Business. Parker is a nationally recognized leader in data security; notably with relation to PCI compliance. He holds a bachelor's degree in Technical Communications from Metropolitan State College of Denver and has been working in the industry for over 25 years. As VP for Stout Street, Mr. Parker has championed the commitment of the company to invest in technology that lowers the cost of compliance while maintaining high-security and accessibility. As Chief Funologist for the company, Mr. Parker is also responsible for the company executives morale and teamwork initiatives. Denver-based Stout Street Hospitality, a privately held hotel management and development company operates upscale boutique hotels catering to the sophisticated traveler. The company focuses on development, management, acquisition, re-branding, new construction and conversation of existing hotel properties. The core product line consists of award-winning, independent boutique hotels under the Magnolia brand that offer a style unlike that of trendy or branded hotels. The company currently operates hotels in Denver, Colo.; Dallas, Houston, and Bryan, Texas; and Omaha, Neb., and is exploring other markets for additional growth opportunities.

Mr. Parker can be contacted at 303-351-1649 or jparker@stoutstreethospitality.com

Coming up in February 2019...

Social Media: Getting Personal

There Social media platforms have revolutionized the hotel industry. Popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Tumblr now account for 2.3 billion active users, and this phenomenon has forever transformed how businesses interact with consumers. Given that social media allows for two-way communication between businesses and consumers, the emphasis of any marketing strategy must be to positively and personally engage the customer, and there are innumerable ways to accomplish that goal. One popular strategy is to encourage hotel guests to create their own personal content - typically videos and photos -which can be shared via their personal social media networks, reaching a sizeable audience. In addition, geo-locational tags and brand hashtags can be embedded in such posts which allow them to be found via metadata searches, substantially enlarging their scope. Influencer marketing is another prevalent social media strategy. Some hotels are paying popular social media stars and bloggers to endorse their brand on social media platforms. These kinds of endorsements generally elicit a strong response because the influencers are perceived as being trustworthy by their followers, and because an influencer's followers are likely to share similar psychographic and demographic traits. Travel review sites have also become vitally important in reputation management. Travelers consistently use social media to express pleasure or frustration about their guest experiences, so it is essential that every review be attended to personally. Assuming the responsibility to address and correct customer service concerns quickly is a way to mitigate complaints and to build brand loyalty. Plus, whether reviews are favorable or unfavorable, they are a vital source of information to managers about a hotel's operational performance.  The February Hotel Business Review will document what some hotels are doing to effectively incorporate social media strategies into their businesses.

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