This month chief engineers representing 56 hotels owned and operated by Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG) met for the first time at the company’s inaugural Engineering Conference in St. Augustine, Fla. Spearheaded by VP of Engineering Jamison Conrey, the event provided critical education on the role today’s engineers are playing and how their performance is impacting operations, guest satisfaction, and the bottom line. The conference also provided a forum for chiefs to share best practices, receive policy and procedure updates, meet collaborative suppliers, and recognize top performers based on their engagement with HVMG’s exclusive asset management and service optimization solution, OpsTechPro.
“Housekeeping may be the heart of the hotel, but engineering is the backbone,” Conrey said. “For guests to have frictionless stays, all furnishings, fixtures and equipment must be routinely maintained, otherwise they will deteriorate, along with stay experiences, online reviews, and guest satisfaction scores.
“Having had the opportunity to attend an engineering conference in the past, I felt it was important to create an event where our chiefs can meet face to face, pose questions, share ideas, and brainstorm ways to improve efficiency,” he said. “Engineers should not be siloed. The role they play and the tasks they perform – from interior/exterior beautification and pool maintenance to equipment repairs and guestroom upkeep – are integral to the overall success of our company.”
Protecting Owners’ Investments
One way that HVMG is supporting its engineers and protecting owners’ investments is with technology. The OpsTechPro asset-management system streamlines operations by automating and tracking the entire interactions cycle. This includes guest requests, workflow communication, front-desk management, lost and found, room inspections and deep cleaning projects, vehicle management, water intrusion and safety management, inclement weather prep, contracts/permits/license management and more. There are modules for onboarding and training, corporate analytics (performance overview portfolio-wide in a single report), and corporate level reporting (by property ranking).
While preventive maintenance was the initial focus of HVMG when it first partnered with OpsTechPro in 2020, Conrey said he quickly came up with different use cases for the technology. In addition to creating a checklist of daily tasks for maintaining mandatory safety protocols during COVID-19, OpsTechPro created similar worksheets for managing capital expenditures, transitioning from one flag to another, and buying/building new hotels. Before long, the IT department also began using the platform for hardware, software, and networking tickets. Most recently, safety programs, insurance procedures, and risk management practices were implemented.
“This asset management and service-optimization platform is vital to our operations,” Conrey said. “All 56 hotels in our portfolio are using it, and those with the best performance record were recognized at this event.”
HVMG Engineering Awards
The HVMG leadership team, along with Jay Visnjic, Founder and President of OpsTechPro, presented the following Engineering Awards:
- “Full-Service Hotel of the Year” — the Embassy Suites, St. Augustine.
- “Full-Service Chief of the Year” — Csaba Tari, Delta Daytona Beach
- “Select-Service Hotel of the Year” — Springhill Suites, Orange Beach
- “Selec-Service Chief of the Year” – Gerardo Caledron, Homewood Suites, Cathedral City
“We are honored to be HVMG’s exclusive technology partner for all things engineering,” Visnjic said. “OpsTechPro does far more than just provide digital checklists to engineers; we provide financial benefits with a sizeable return on owners’ investments. Unfortunately, a lot of hotels are still managing engineering tasks with pen and paper. If they don’t automate soon, the physical and financial risks can be catastrophic.
“As technology and AI continue to build momentum across the hospitality industry, OpsTechPro will continue to innovate to meet our customers’ demands,” he said. “I commend Jamison on his vision for this much-needed conference — there should be more like it — and thank HVMG for their continued support as we work collectively to amplify guest happiness, supercharge team efficiency, slash costs, and streamline communications between departments. The end result will be pristine rooms and amenities, happier teams, and lowered equipment costs system wide.”
To date, more than 1,000 properties representing 150,000 guestrooms are using OpsTechPro, with a significant revenue savings increase annually in front desk labor savings, a decrease in guest complaints and rooms comps, plus a 30% increase in the lifespan of the asset.
