An Interview with Steve Rushmore, Founder and Chairman of HVS

March 21, 2016 – The Master of Global Hospitality Business students embarked on a four-day intensive “Hotel Market Study & Valuation Seminar Bootcamp” with HVS Global Hospitality Services in late February. HVS, a specialized hotel consulting and valuation firm, conducted an exclusive seminar for the MGH students, covering a range of topics including hotel valuations, hotel appraisals, study and demand room night analyses, income and expense forecasting, and the structure of the hotel industry – franchising, management contracts, and segmentation. The bootcamp, held at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management, was taught by Mr. Steve Rushmore, Founder and Chairman of HVS, and Mr. Daniel Voellm, HVS Managing Partner Asia Pacific.

Over the course of four days, the students were given an in-depth look into the valuation and appraisal aspects of the hotel industry. They were given the rare opportunity to learn about the history of HVS and hospitality consulting methods from the perspective of the founder of HVS himself. Upon completion of the seminar, Mr. Rushmore gave an exclusive interview to the 3continents3semesters blog to allow the students to gain a better understanding of his expert view of the industry.

What recent changes have you seen in the hotel industry?

“The industry has become more advanced since the invention of technology and the Internet. From a consulting perspective, the availability of data is significantly higher now, which definitely helps and makes everything more sophisticated. It is interesting to see the recent consolidation of hotel companies, which had led to a stimulating increase in the number of brands in their respective portfolios. However, I feel some companies now almost have too many brands. This causes confusion among the customers, and in turn, might reduce customer loyalty.”

According to you, what are the major trends that the industry is bound to experience in the near future?

“A big trend that the industry will experience is “Who owns the customer –  the individual property, the brand, or the OTAs?” In effect, brand loyalty will keep slipping away. Furthermore, the introduction of companies like AirBnB and Uber will keep causing changes in the industry. Going forward, brand affiliation will continue to lose relevancy due to OTAs and it will be particularly interesting to see if Google ever decides to come into distribution.

In consulting, HVS needs to get more into technology and social media consulting as digital marketing is gaining momentum in the industry. Furthermore, we need to start focusing on revenue management and distribution consulting. Finally, to give hotel operators the biggest slice of the pie, we need to start looking at optimising guest loyalty through consulting services.”

After spending the past few days with the MGH students, what are your thoughts on the all-new, unique master’s program?

“I think it’s an incredible program. The opportunity to understand three different continents is fascinating and is in line with the recent demand of multi-cultural associates in the industry. The mutual learning experience is very important in a Master’s program.”

MGH students are assigned to a “Capstone Consulting Project” with various hospitality companies where they gain hands-on experience throughout the course of the Master’s program, as well as during an in-residence period with the company. Do you feel such projects are imperative to a conducive learning experience?

“I think the opportunity to undertake such a project is great for an initial learning curve. It is important to learn to work in diverse environments and multi-cultural groups. At the end of the day, it really comes down to the project and the company, however, in order to make sure that the time you are devoting is worth the learning experience, the environment needs to be real-time and industry-driven.”

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-Mohit Dang, Kristina Park
Students, MSc Global Hospitality Business