Phil Tufano, partner and COO of Kokua Hospitality, says that the company is in the process of rolling out a proprietary "profit optimization" software platform that goes beyond just revenue managing hotels.
TravelDailyNews: What are the benefits for a hotel to be under the umbrella of Kokua Hospitality?
Phil Tufano: We have the unique ability to couple our third-party management expertise with the asset and development management oversight of Chartres Lodging, making our company truly a one-stop-shop for turnaround hotel investing.
As a full service organization, Kokua has all the bells-and-whistles as the larger 3rd party managers, including Corporate Purchasing pricing, Sales & Marketing resources, Revenue Management oversight, IT assistance, full accounting staff, Social Media, Transition specialists, state-of-the-art reporting systems (Portfolio 1), etc. We believe our smaller size allows for more focused oversight of every hotel by senior staff. Based in Chicago, with additional offices in Jacksonville, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis; Kokua has a highly experienced operations team, with industry veterans throughout our organization. With 8 hotels (2,700+ rooms) currently under management/receivership, Kokua’s operation team has a proven track-record of operating both independent and branded hotels. As an approved operator of virtually every major brand, we pride ourselves as turnaround and transition specialists, having been part of repositions, renovations, rebrandings, de-flaggings, grand openings, and dispositions.
TDN: What are your plans for 2014?
P.T.: We are in the process of rolling out a proprietary “profit optimization” software platform that goes beyond just revenue managing hotels. We are digging deeper into understanding the most profitable business segments and the daily demand of these segments to optimize our revenue management yield. Kokua is also on a growth spurt and has secured our second management contract with one of the largest hotel REIT’s in the U.S. Evolving our technology platforms, service culture and growing our company is the prime focus.
TDN: As it is soon your 8th anniversary what are the challenges of a rising hotel management group in the USA?
P.T.: I see the challenge primarily to be how do we set ourselves apart from the hundreds of other management companies out there. What differentiate us. How do we remain owner centric and continue to provide the senior level focus that our owners are looking for.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
