Posted by Frances Boscacci on Jan 12, 2018

Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation

The Pledge of Allegiance was enthusiastically lead by the woman for all seasons, Cheryl Fama.
 
Our first invocation of 2018 was hurriedly and beautifully vocalized by our own, Father Michael Mahoney. Thanks, Father Mike for being able to talk extemporaneously (a talent needed during this administration).

Guests and Visiting Rotarians

Mike Rudolph, who is a financial advisor and lives in Burlingame was a guest of the club. Visiting Rotarians in attendance were Phillip Larson and sweet Patricia.
 

Announcements

Jim Shippert, with his “Sunshine” report, announced that our esteemed member, Bonnie Bertetta fell off her horse. Sending our collective good wishes for a full recovery to Bonnie.

 

Newscast

Fritz Brauner and Emily Matthews spoke enthusiastically as gleefull representatives of the “fun” committee. They cheerfully introduced an “audience participation” newscast activity, a challenge that is sure to stimulate the creative juices of some if not all in attendance. The challenge is the “Kimball’s Cartoon Contest”. They thanked Mike Kimball for lending his name and support to this contest, in absentia. A blank (no caption) cartoon was handed out to all. The creative genius to come up with the best cartoon caption will be discovered by Mike Kimball and announced at the next meeting. If not done yet, cartoon captions are to be entered to the contest by submitting ASAP to fritz@braunercompany.com or emily@nolamarketing.com.

Program

Emily Mathews introduced our program speaker, past President Stan Moore.  While Stan was in the Coast Guard he read a book called “Hotel” which partly inspired him to study hotel management in college. After his time in the coast guard, Stan enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He then “crammed” four years of study in five and half years of his life, as he put it. He was attracted to a hotel career by the energy he perceived in it. In few words, he survived and thrived in hotel management, with a very successful career that spanned many decades, with 42 years working for Marriott Hotels alone. Stan is now Principal at “Real World Coaching and Associates” mentoring and coaching upwardly mobile executives. 
Stan’s presentation was particularly interesting as he shared fascinating information about how hotels are operated, how they manage their “supply management” challenges, how hotels have grown and how they have changed with the times in corporate structure and ownership. He recounted a few amazing anecdotes, which must remain confidential, “Hotel Confidential” that Is! Some of the milder ones below, shh!
He was working at the “Westward Ho” (or something like that!) in Las Vegas back in the days when room rates started at $8.99. One incident involved a drunken hotel guest mistakenly attempting to open the wrong hotel room door late at night and facing a gun pointing at him through a small opening of the door by the threatened hotel guest! In another occasion, another hotel guest, a man having been shot down and laying in his hotel room was greeted with a handshake by a sleek, Las Vegas hotel executive who would not miss an opportunity to introduce himself to the guests.Stan spoke of the “Devil in the Details” as a very big part of operating hotels, and how a hotel is really many different companies in one: hotel, (keys, laundry!) restaurant, catering, grounds engineering and maintenance, reservations/supply management to name a few. One of the greatest challenges and tests is how hotels manage their room supply, and how well they can keep a promise to a customer on a reservation. He referred back to the days in Las Vegas when “Casino” movie like practices dictated whose reservation was honored, or not, given an “under departed” (namely “overbooked”) situation and the many embarrassing interactions with guests in a lodging pickle… and some generous tips handed by the lucky guests who received special treatment.   
Stan expressed how much he enjoyed working in San Antonio, Texas for Marriott. And how much he disliked working for a country club in Northern Texas where each and every member could act as a nagging boss any given moment. His fruitful career in hotel management culminated as a very senior manager while at the San Francisco Airport Marriott. But this was not without having survived a few years of managing the bankruptcy and receivership of the San Mateo Marriott, which Bill Marriott ended up rescuing, by way of a $63MM Glendale Federal transaction among other sharp moves. 
When Stan started at Marriott, the company operated 80 hotels. Today, Marriott operates 6,500 hotels, under different brands of course. These include Ritz Carlton and Courtyard. What is Stan’s suggestion for making sure you find room availability when you call or search, for a reservation? Say you are staying 4 nights! And what is the way to get the cheapest price: If you don’t need to know where you are staying, use “Priceline.com” , which is the only site that beats Marriot’s website. One more tidbit: don’t worry about bed bugs, perhaps they are found in less than 1% of hotel beds!