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On this episode of Hospitable we get back to the basics of hospitality… the guest experience.
We sit down with Claudia Meglin, Director at CMC Software and Global Director of Systems at Generator, as she shares her insights and experiences in using technology to enhance the guest journey. We discuss the challenges of connecting different systems and the importance of data privacy in the age of AI. Join us as we explore the future of hospitality and how technology can revolutionize the industry.
Claudia emphasizes the importance of experiencing a hotels operational processes and shares her passion for those "aha" moments when things click into place.
Tune in to hear more of Claudia’s journey + get back to basics of the hotel guest experience!
Don’t forget to subscribe and review.
Don’t forget to subscribe and review.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Importance of Hotel Operations Insight
00:00:35 - Introduction of Guest Claudia Meglin
00:02:10 - Claudia's Career Journey in Hospitality
00:07:44 - Differences Between Boutique Brands and Big Chains
00:10:02 - Training and Empowering Hotel Staff
00:14:36 - Hospitality Trends for 2024
00:18:16 - Balancing Digital and Traditional Guest Experiences
00:22:31 - Back to Basics: Training for 2024
00:27:03 - Initiatives and Training Focus for 2024
00:30:49 - Evolution of Hotel Technology Post-COVID
00:33:39 - Seasonal Dynamics in Hospitality
00:35:12 - Anticipating AI's Practical Use in Hospitality
00:38:03 - Claudia's Connection with Omniboost
00:41:01 - Omniboost's Growth and Future Plans
- Omniboost: www.omniboost.com
- Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
- Claudia Meglin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-meglin-377766a7/
- CMC Hospitality Software: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cmc-hospitality-software-ltd/
- Generator: https://staygenerator.com/
Creators & Guests
What is Hospitable?
Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.
Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.
Hosted by Rob Napoli
00:00:00:02 - 00:00:20:19
Claudia Meglin
I think sometimes it's really crucial to have a feeling for the hotel as well. You can make the biggest theory and they can explain you all. And then. But if you see it, operation or if I go sometimes to hotel, it is so important. Then you have these moments which I personally love so much, and they look at you like I did not know that.
00:00:20:21 - 00:00:33:23
Claudia Meglin
Yes. Great. Now you know, and it's like, Oh my God, that makes my life so much easier. These are the moments I live for.
00:00:34:01 - 00:01:02:01
Rob Napoli
Hey, how we doing? We are back for another episode of Hospitable. Coming to you today from New York and London. We've got a wonderful guest, Claudia Meglin she is the director of CMC Hospitality Software Group. She's also the global director of Systems and Training at Generator, the Free Hand Hotels, which is super cool. And I've been to a few of the free hand bars in New York City.
00:01:02:03 - 00:01:18:09
Rob Napoli
But you're sitting in London. I'm sitting in New York City today. I know we've been trying hard to have a beer together and get in person, but we'll do that next year, I promise. When I swing it through London, unfortunately, with the end of the year and all this stuff, we just couldn't make it work but Claudia.
00:01:18:11 - 00:01:21:02
Rob Napoli
So wonderful to have you on the podcast and thank you for joining us.
00:01:21:07 - 00:01:37:00
Claudia Meglin
Well, thank you so much for having me. And this beer, definitely we need to have it because Kees actually promise to have beers and your podcast. I think that will bring the little sprinkle towards the end. So the next time we make it very sure.
00:01:37:03 - 00:01:54:05
Rob Napoli
And for the listeners out there, Claudia, I was telling her stories as you know, talking beforehand, just kind of catching up. So Claudia also works for free hand hotels. There is free hand hotels here in New York City. She calls in New York City and it's like, Hey, can we have any branded beer cans or whatever that we can send over?
00:01:54:07 - 00:02:05:12
Rob Napoli
And, you know, at the time this recording, it's 9 a.m. for me, and if you had sent me beer, I would have been drinking on this podcast with you at 9 a.m. on a Thursday. Not even that was the plan.
00:02:05:14 - 00:02:09:15
Claudia Meglin
Second decline that I was sorry for that Next time.
00:02:09:19 - 00:02:33:04
Rob Napoli
Hey, you know, next time we know that we're going to have a lot of fun and a few pints soon. So, Claudia, thanks for coming on. You know, you've had an amazing kind of directory. You've been in this space for a while and that kind of working is is, as you know, opera and micros and working at Piazza Hotels and now Global Generator and also running your own hospitality software business.
00:02:33:04 - 00:02:41:10
Rob Napoli
So talk to me a little bit. Give me your high level two minute overview. Who is Claudia and how did the hell did you get into hospitality industry?
00:02:41:10 - 00:03:10:06
Claudia Meglin
Yeah, well, actually, it's it was very interesting right from the start. I had to choose between when I was young. I chose between Hospitality or Physiotherapy which is literally the same phrase that was the two choices, right? And at a certain stage I come from a very countryside part of Germany, Bavarian forest close to Munich, a lot of individual family hotels.
00:03:10:08 - 00:03:36:21
Claudia Meglin
And I decided to go for the hospitality, started my career with IHG in Germany. We have a fantastic training program. So three years you learn hospitality inside out on your first day in hospitality, you're not gonna clean the guest toilets? No, I cleaned the staff toilets on my day, number one in hospitality. And then you kind of go through all the departments, which was super, super interesting.
00:03:36:23 - 00:04:03:03
Claudia Meglin
And I decided to settle after that three years towards reception rooms division, and then I moved on. I've been in Dubai for two years for a hotel opening. Interestingly, that was really great and came back to Germany, went through different parts, reservation, front of house and so on. And all of a sudden, and please don't ask me, it must have been like a boring Sunday afternoon.
00:04:03:04 - 00:04:20:17
Claudia Meglin
I did so many hotel openings in the time and there have been these opera people and they were actually coming and telling me how to configure the software. And then they go to the restaurants. They have a nice deal on the house, they go out and explore the city. And I said, That's a fantastic job. I want to do that.
00:04:20:19 - 00:04:53:11
Claudia Meglin
So I applied with my crusty the in the old days and I became an apprentice starter and changed the site. And after I met Spencer, I came back to the hospitality side because I was a little bit missing. The family side of being in hospitality and after came to generator. So the journey has just been going on, but I just switched the site to really specify myself on hospitality is software in particular and mainly the property management system.
00:04:53:11 - 00:05:19:12
Claudia Meglin
But every system which obviously communicates its API, integrates familiar to the very or not. So that's kind of my daily business and I had a super, super exciting last year with opening my own company because generator and free hand have like a very fortunate situation to have a person like me taking care of order systems. And I realize a lot of small organizations, they don't have that.
00:05:19:14 - 00:05:46:08
Claudia Meglin
And I could help them to figure out is their tech stack, right? Are they doing the right things? Is everything correctly configured? So that's what I do for CMC Hospitality have a lot of different clients, which is amazing. I see different operations, different software. I come a little bit back to opera, but I do a lot of news as well and recently became even our official Mews implementation partner, which is also fantastic.
00:05:46:08 - 00:05:56:04
Claudia Meglin
So I gone do support Mews and some of their onboarding, which is really exciting too. It's been extremely crazy two years.
00:05:56:06 - 00:06:25:17
Rob Napoli
Yeah, it has. Sounds like it and it's really cool. Honestly, you know, your, experience with the different systems and doing that is is amazing and kind of that's how OmniBoost right with all of our systems the connecting and you know it is interesting because you know I love that is you talk about coming from Bavaria actually one of I have a lot of love for Bavaria cause I got to spend a Christmas in Munich and do other Christmas markets and, all those things when I was living abroad in Italy.
00:06:25:17 - 00:06:33:22
Rob Napoli
So I absolutely loved it and actually got my gluehwein cups sitting up over here.
00:06:33:22 - 00:06:36:08
Claudia Meglin
I was just about to ask.
00:06:36:10 - 00:07:02:10
Rob Napoli
Oh, trust me, we drink plenty of gluehwein and like our tree behind me has it's all of our ornaments our travel memories, right So everywhere we travel get somewhere. We write the year that we did it. So there is a few, you know, Germany ones from when we spent Christmas in Munich, which was amazing. Well, you know, talking about the hotel space, you have kind of the big hotel chains and brands that you started IHG, Right.
00:07:02:10 - 00:07:27:03
Rob Napoli
Working in opera systems, these usually bigger hotels that also you started and love that kind of family boutique hotels. As you look at kind of the landscape of 2023 going to 2024, what do you see as the big differences between like independently operated more boutique brands versus these big chains? And why do you tend to like more of the boutiques?
00:07:27:05 - 00:07:43:00
Rob Napoli
Right. And I know free hand is quite larger, but they have a boutique feel to they now try to be you know they're not stock same thing and there's a boutique feel at least a one in New York for me is feels boutique and it's only in New York way you know.
00:07:43:02 - 00:08:03:10
Claudia Meglin
Wow 100% it's such a great friend and it has such a cool life and you can do so many things with it. And I think as a boutique brand or a smaller organization, you just have ways more liberties to operate. The major difference I would see between that's call them the big boys, the big chains.
00:08:03:12 - 00:08:29:00
Claudia Meglin
They have started to set up their tech softwares in a long time ago and then they have been hospitality. We've operate a lot under the umbrella of never change a winning system. I never change a running system. And that would happen in hospitality for such a long time at work do you have your memberships, which is obviously a crucial part for chain hospitality
00:08:29:00 - 00:08:56:19
Claudia Meglin
Is there membership part? And it is very tough to replicate that maybe with a later newer technology. So that makes it very tempting, which if you have a vibrant, cool, hip brand with, you know, smaller hotels or not so many hotels in the chain, then you can do ways cooler things. You can push in different direct, you can do a little bit more try and error which I think is a really cool thing to do nowadays.
00:08:56:19 - 00:09:18:05
Claudia Meglin
On the hospitality market. You have marketplaces, you have integration partners, you try something out, it doesn't work like that or let's say it doesn't work because that might be unfair, but let's say it doesn't work the way you expect it. You just try another provider because there are plenty out there and you have this liberty if you have a smaller organization.
00:09:18:05 - 00:09:36:11
Claudia Meglin
But if are a chain and you implement something, you better make sure that works, that works the way you expect it. And this is why this is like moving a tank rather than having a little sports car just flipping around in the industry. I think that's the major difference.
00:09:36:13 - 00:10:01:12
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that. And so true. I mean, you know, adaptability and speed is everything and that makes a big difference in the size and scale. So, you know, you started your own business to help work with any smaller companies. What is it that excites you? Get you out of bed every day to work with, you know, these smaller brands and and help them understand the right tech stack
00:10:01:14 - 00:10:35:00
Claudia Meglin
It's so interesting because it has so many different facets. So you go to different clients and every organization has different needs. And I think that is what makes hospitality so special and that what makes my job so special as well. Because I have clients as a resort hotel in Ibiza and I have a client who is chain organization on Oprah with Marriott franchise, and they have a client which is a villa.
00:10:35:00 - 00:11:07:03
Claudia Meglin
They only have one villa like a massive villa with five bedrooms and they using Mews as well and you're trying to help them. So to figure out their operations and to see how they operate their hotel or chain and then to find a way to replicate that in the software that the software is actually working similar sleep for them effortlessly, that they can take away administrative work to automate processes as much as possible.
00:11:07:05 - 00:11:29:20
Claudia Meglin
That actually gets me out of my bed every morning and trying to to really help them. And sometimes if they have found their text back already is sometimes as well a matter of just looking into that, if it has been configures the right way because it does happen that you have the systems getting messier, if you use it for a longer time, then you need to clean it up.
00:11:29:20 - 00:11:40:19
Claudia Meglin
And all these parts are playing a major role and I don't know why that excites me so much. It just happened to be in my life.
00:11:40:21 - 00:12:08:20
Rob Napoli
I love it. I mean, sometimes you don't understand what excites is I mean OmniBoost built the business on this right helping connectivity and giving, you know, more time back to humans to be creative at their jobs. And you know, this the idea of this podcast right, is how to make hospitality more human through technology. What are the things that we can do with technology to allow more of that human interaction that you expect and want when you go travel?
00:12:08:22 - 00:12:25:06
Rob Napoli
Yeah, So I think it's fun to understand how those things work together. And as you said, there are so many different systems, but all the time you love systems like to play nice in the sandbox and that's you got to figure out how to connect them and how to configure them and how to make them automated better so that everything is clean.
00:12:25:06 - 00:12:50:02
Rob Napoli
And you're getting like, as you said, gets messy over time. How do we make that smoother, easier and not have issues at the end of the year or, you know, so on and so forth. So super fun sounds, you know, having clients and all over the world and, you know, fun and things like that. I mean, hopefully you get to go visit and travel a little bit cause that sounds that doesn't sound like it sucks at all.
00:12:50:04 - 00:13:09:02
Claudia Meglin
Yeah. You know, this is that little downside of since covid. You can do a lot of things remotely, and I definitely can. I do travel, of course, and I visit my clients because I think sometimes it's really crucial to have a feeling for the hotel as well. You can make the biggest theory and they can explain you all.
00:13:09:02 - 00:13:33:03
Claudia Meglin
And then but if you see it operationally or if I go sometimes to a hotel, it is so important. If I just stand behind the receptionist and I watch them, the reception team for, you know, maybe a couple of minutes, 30 minutes max, I can already tell where they have issues or where they are not using software the way they're supposed to use it.
00:13:33:04 - 00:13:52:16
Claudia Meglin
And then you can tweak it. And a lot of times it's like missing trainings Or then you have these moments, which I personally love so much when they look at you. It's like I did not know that. Yes, great. Now you know, and it's like, Oh my God, that makes my life so much easier. These are the moments I live for.
00:13:52:18 - 00:14:19:23
Rob Napoli
And that's the whole point of the software and things like that. So that's amazing. Yes. As we look at 2024, you know, in your free hand and generator and also with the clients you have, you know, we're looking at 2024 is going to be an interesting year I think in this space and always try to figure out how do we do things smoother more digital natives are traveling or kind of getting into that workforce.
00:14:20:01 - 00:14:36:23
Rob Napoli
Gen Z, starting to travel more for work. What are some of the big trends that you're seeing in 2024 from a systems perspective that hotels may be doing, paying attention to are already starting to do that. You're going to see is like a big trend for next year.
00:14:37:01 - 00:15:02:21
Claudia Meglin
I think a big trend is for most of my clients personally I'm working for, they are looking at improving their guest experience and a lot of times and that comes from different angles. A lot of times it could be to actually remove or redo actually your check in area, which is the arriving area for the guest and to a property is like ripping off the reception.
00:15:02:21 - 00:15:29:14
Claudia Meglin
Go away with the classic reception desk put in like either kiosks to check in or maybe just a QR code where you can download something and then you can process your check in and you have somebody in the lobby quick to support you with. But also it gives you a nicer guest experience when I say that, I mean especially for generate and free and we have this big theme.
00:15:29:16 - 00:15:49:05
Claudia Meglin
We are in the most popular places you can be in Europe or even in America. And what we want our clients our team is if a guest asked you what to do in Los Angeles or what to do in Berlin, don't tell them to do the obvious. Don't tell them, you know, to go to the most obvious touristic place.
00:15:49:05 - 00:16:07:08
Claudia Meglin
Tell them where you go on a Saturday to spend your day and how to have a fun day. And the entire aim most of the time is to really make or provide an experience to the guests. So they're walking out of your property and they're not saying, Oh, I had a great weekend in Los Angeles, so I had a great weekend in Berlin.
00:16:07:08 - 00:16:17:13
Claudia Meglin
No, they should go out and say I had an amazing experience. This is what you are looking for. So I believe this is coming.
00:16:17:15 - 00:16:34:04
Rob Napoli
I love that so much. Like I'm the same person I know I am you tell me you can have here that all TripAdvisor that I'll sign the who. You tell me what I can Google. I can you tell me somewhere I can google. No, no. I want that like I want that local place and feel.
00:16:34:06 - 00:16:37:19
Rob Napoli
And I love that so much because experiences are everything right now.
00:16:37:21 - 00:16:56:09
Claudia Meglin
I look, if I would visit you in New York and you would, you know, take the day with me, you would not bring me to the most obvious points. You would bring me to your most favorite point since the same of you would come to me to London, where wouldn't do the most obvious. No, we would go to the really coolest places.
00:16:56:11 - 00:17:17:08
Claudia Meglin
I think I experience to provide you with that experience, and that's what we're trying to tell the teens to say, like, Look, give that. Behave like a friend would visit you and you would give them suggestion what to do. So I think that just creates a completely different environment for the guest as well. Makes it a bit more familiar.
00:17:17:10 - 00:17:37:12
Claudia Meglin
So they are feeling cozy. And then if the technology, you know, you need to have time to do that with your guests. So the technology actually needs to cover the boring administrative thing. And you know, you can do that all at once while the guest is just typing in their details on the tablet and signing their registration card digitally and it's saved to the guest profile.
00:17:37:13 - 00:18:01:15
Claudia Meglin
And then maybe they receive their key on their phone and they just go up to the room and that was it. And the meantime, they've actually had an amazing conversation with somebody from the hotel team. So that's what we're trying to train and push, because sometimes that doesn't come naturally, obviously. So it needs it's a bit of a training we are looking for, as of the guest experience.
00:18:01:16 - 00:18:15:01
Claudia Meglin
I think that will come more and more to revamp your front office, check in areas to make them cooler and nicer. That would be a big focus for next year for a lot of my clients.
00:18:15:03 - 00:18:19:23
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that. So my wife's an interior designer for an Italian architect here in New York city.
00:18:20:01 - 00:18:22:13
Claudia Meglin
May call her.
00:18:22:15 - 00:18:40:00
Rob Napoli
Yeah. So it's funny because she just did a couple properties, one in New York and one in Escondido and when you walk in, the actual reception desk is hidden, you actually can't see it. So yeah, because they want you to like, feel the space and look and feel and you have kind of the, you know, the nice check in and they make it really smooth.
00:18:40:00 - 00:18:55:19
Rob Napoli
You actually can't even see any of the computers and super clean, but they're able to easily knock everything out and then have that conversation with you. And it's not like they're looking at a computer talking like, you know, not looking at either computers down here. You can't see what they're doing because they can look you in the eye and have that conversation.
00:18:55:21 - 00:19:24:05
Rob Napoli
The something that the hotel really wanted. It was that great experience. I love that they talk about that savvy because that's what I'm hearing from her as well. So they're getting a lot of calls to redesign the front of the experience that that moment you walk in. And I think that's really interesting as we look at 2024, right, with the guest experience and, you know, digital natives who want everything on their phones but they're still those travelers that wants that specific human touch, right?
00:19:24:05 - 00:19:50:08
Rob Napoli
They want to go check in. They want to have somebody help them. They want to be taken care of. They don't want to have to, like scan a QR code. They want everything to be, you know, tangible analog. How do brands deal with, you know, and maybe it's just in their branding, but how do they deal with like a digital native versus, you know, the older generation that still wants that kind of high touch experience?
00:19:50:10 - 00:20:15:11
Claudia Meglin
Yeah, I think it really comes with what kind of friend are the organizations and what's your guest client to you? So if you talk about brands like Generator or Freehand or anything, which is like in this hybrid hostile social have, you know, area kind of these organizations, they are they have these people. They don't really need to worry about the coolest things they can find on the market.
00:20:15:16 - 00:20:38:07
Claudia Meglin
You do it, you will be fine. They're good. But if you are like more classic three, four star hotel and you have a client who which does come with an expectation and you have also travelers, you have to imagine they are not traveling every every month. They might travel every once or twice a year. They come into hotel for them.
00:20:38:07 - 00:21:13:09
Claudia Meglin
It's just totally normal that you go into the hotel, you have a reception, you check in, you ask, Where can I park, where can I go? And so on, and where's the restaurant, how long it's open. So it's totally standard for them. I think it's a little bit of there's so many technology out there which can help you if you still want to go with like, let's say, the more natural approach towards it, you could still make it a bit more automated and you can still make it into offering it into the new technology world whilst having like maybe a registration card, which is digital.
00:21:13:15 - 00:21:32:13
Claudia Meglin
So the guest doesn't need to put in a piece of paper and then somebody or the night all of these poor people in a lot of hotels today sitting every night and typing all the information from a registration card in the computer, that's that happens. So you can just take smaller approaches, not go with the latest funky tech.
00:21:32:13 - 00:21:59:07
Claudia Meglin
There is also tech, which can help like a digital registration card, which helps a lot to save time and you should always be prepared. But for emergency situations anyways, you should always be prepared to cut a normal key rather than just giving digital keys out and expect that everybody will understand. Because it happened to me as well in some hotels I was finding and I come from this technology, I've tried so many of those and it happened to me.
00:21:59:07 - 00:22:18:14
Claudia Meglin
I was standing in front of a door like this, like, okay, how does that work now? So if you're not very familiar with that, do you need to touch it? Don't you need to touch it? Does the door go automatic? You know, if you don't know, then it is a bit more complicated. And I think we need to be careful depending on which organization or type of hotel you are.
00:22:18:16 - 00:22:29:01
Claudia Meglin
But whatever it is, there is always something which can help you out and use technology to free up time for your people at the desk.
00:22:29:03 - 00:22:50:11
Rob Napoli
I love that. I think that's so unique. And it's actually kind of funny because I was at a hotel and spa and you had a wrist bracelet and you touch get in. But because the way the wrist bracelet, unless you got it for surface contact, it wasn't like I kind of like I said, those cards you can kind of tap on versus the card, you have to do full thing.
00:22:50:13 - 00:23:05:12
Rob Napoli
And so I was kind of like, it was nice at the same point, like I would be like carrying food or something. And I couldn't, you know, I had to like the whole thing all song and dance. And it didn't actually negatively affect the experience that much, but it's one of those things where that should be a little bit more smoother.
00:23:05:12 - 00:23:24:01
Rob Napoli
There, right? Like that easy tap. You should be able to have it within a certain range versus needing to be right on then. And I think that gap of that experience of like how people respond to that is widening as more digital hotels versus classic. And I think that's also part of your choice of the traveler, right.
00:23:24:01 - 00:23:40:09
Rob Napoli
And you know which brands are going more digital and which one is name or classic. And so you kind of have to balance out what you expect in that guest experience and walking in and as a guest. Right. Because a lot of people are back and traveling and there is there's a lot of people who haven't traveled in a while.
00:23:40:11 - 00:23:49:16
Rob Napoli
I understand that our guest experience has changed in a positive way, but also in a way that might confuse you. And I think from.
00:23:49:18 - 00:23:52:17
Claudia Meglin
Searching for reception, if there is not like what happens.
00:23:52:19 - 00:24:10:05
Rob Napoli
Sometimes you're like, I don't know, where am I? And there's like a bunch of questioning, you know, Yeah. So just have to understand that. And it was funny because this actually happened to me in Sweden and I was up in that up north, in Sweden, in Umea and in the hotel, they had three different big restaurants. So they check in.
00:24:10:05 - 00:24:32:02
Rob Napoli
You have to walk past like the market. There's like the market nice restaurant here, the bar, and then another kind of restaurant at the back and the check in is like past all that and there's no on there. So digital check and it was super nice but they had a sign is like how are you checking in and they had the URL and then like if there's a number you could call if you had a question.
00:24:32:02 - 00:24:47:19
Rob Napoli
And for some reason my registration wasn't anything on. So I called and they walk you back this cute little office, and we sat down and said, Oh yeah, here you go. And they got me up and then they walked me upstairs. So super, nice is kind of fun. They kind of I experienced. I walk in, I was like, This is my hotel.
00:24:47:19 - 00:25:03:16
Rob Napoli
Like people were having dinner and I kind of just like, Oh, this walk around and ask is super cool, but you don't know. And you walk in. You're like, I'm in the wrong place versus I walk in, I know I'm in the right place. I just got by then. I think that's such a unique experience and I love to talk about guest experience.
00:25:03:16 - 00:25:26:07
Rob Napoli
I've heard a lot of people talking about guest experience. I think that's something that hotels really need to understand next year, but also travelers to understand that if you want a certain experience, you also have to put in some research to find the brands and hotels to give you that experience, because they are also it's not every hotel is a hotel like it used to be.
00:25:26:09 - 00:25:46:02
Rob Napoli
Hotels have a unique, eclectic funkiness, especially the independent hotel hoteliers. And that's what that's how we see in there, something like this boutique. That's why I like those experiences. And so making sure that, you know, travelers understand how to search for that and understand what brands are doing, what.
00:25:46:03 - 00:26:06:12
Claudia Meglin
So I think there will be still a lot of travelers that just go on purpose. Does that okay, I just want to have a weekend away. I don't really bother where I sleep. I might go for the obvious they used to. But then you have these travelers to say, okay, I want to go, let's say to Paris this weekend and I really want to have an experience.
00:26:06:14 - 00:26:29:08
Claudia Meglin
So they would look out and then go, You need to make sure as a hotelier, obviously, to have the right content out there, to have the right pictures out there, to have the funky techy stuff, to actually really grab that people and say, Here we are, this is what we do. We're going to give you that experience and use it, make that our already with your pictures and your web publications.
00:26:29:11 - 00:26:33:10
Claudia Meglin
So that I think that was that's very important.
00:26:33:12 - 00:26:51:01
Rob Napoli
So as you're working with his clients and both generated freehand and on your own, what are you training them on for next year? Like, you know, you talk about guest experiences, kind of a big trend. What are some of the big initiatives that you're really you're working with them on training and said hey these are and systems right here is how you need to implement those systems.
00:26:51:03 - 00:27:01:19
Rob Napoli
Here's how you need to train. Like what are some of the trends that you're running into? What are the things that you're really working on for next year and getting people ready to rock for 2024 for travel?
00:27:01:21 - 00:27:22:01
Claudia Meglin
Yeah, that unfortunately is not so exciting because we're still catching up off the COVID, I think in literally every organization. So it was a big shake up and a lot of experience have been lost. So sometimes you really start from scratch. You have a lot of new people. They came in. Sometimes there have been hand over missing.
00:27:22:03 - 00:27:48:12
Claudia Meglin
So it will be really a lot of going back to basics. And you have a lot of organization. They do offer online trainings and online programs. So make sure that everybody's been through the online programs. And what I was looking for in specific or in particular from a training perspective, I think for a lot of organization, it makes total sense to have champions on site and the software.
00:27:48:14 - 00:28:18:04
Claudia Meglin
So with Generator, I've done that last year, not even two years ago we made like a champions program. It was like an online training with me and we walked through and we made like very, very specific training points, even something in configuration where their hotels would learn how to help themself in case they have to. And then one day, then they got like a certificate and their Mews champion and outside the box with a lot of Mews merchandise.
00:28:18:06 - 00:28:37:17
Claudia Meglin
That was fantastic. And they all loved it. But now, even though it was just one or two years, I can't really remember to be honest. But I think half of the people are already gone. So, you know, sometimes it feels like spinning the wheel again and start from scratch. And for other clients, it's really sometimes going back to basics.
00:28:37:19 - 00:29:17:03
Claudia Meglin
So many new team members make sure that they actually do the trainings because they're operating and they've never done software trainings, and that shouldn't be the case. Like learning from somebody who is not very experienced as well leads into a problem. So if whatever software it is, and all of them nowadays have trainings material available for online watching on demand, whatever feels comfortable and fits in, I would recommend everybody to make sure that everybody who works at the desk with the computer, with the software needs to be through that training session because otherwise it will turn up and no problem.
00:29:17:05 - 00:29:20:23
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that. Kind of the back to basics.
00:29:21:00 - 00:29:22:19
Claudia Meglin
Unfortunately.
00:29:22:21 - 00:29:38:04
Rob Napoli
Yeah, but I think that's not a bad thing too, because when you look at some of the technology and the way it's changed, like when you talk to people who used to work a, you know, front desk back in the old days with the old IBM systems, you had all the hot keys and like that knowledge got lost versus a lot of the new technology.
00:29:38:04 - 00:30:04:06
Rob Napoli
Now it's like simple clicks of a button. You don't need to learn 50 different hotkeys that get lost. If I leave tomorrow, it's like, you know, making that system or moving that to make it smoother, easier. So it's one button and you're back to talking to the guests, right? We can talk with that guest experienced. So I think the technology has come a long way, you know, working with you know, you talk to mews here, we have a lot of different partners on the PMC side and POS side and accounting side.
00:30:04:06 - 00:30:20:18
Rob Napoli
And you know, what we love to do is help make that all smoother. And how does that just turn on at the click of a button so that you don't have to think about all those things? I think the technology has come a long way as well to help make it so. I like that this I like this idea of back to basics.
00:30:20:18 - 00:30:44:04
Rob Napoli
I do think 2024 is going to be a very unique and interesting year in the hospitality space, specifically hotels as some of the chains are, especially here in America, where there are still a lot of on prem all technology that is changing into the cloud. I think Europe has moved quicker to the cloud adoption for PMC system.
00:30:44:04 - 00:30:49:13
Rob Napoli
So it's gonna be interesting to see how those kind of changes happen.
00:30:49:15 - 00:31:14:04
Claudia Meglin
Technically speaking, I think 2023 in that sense kind of blew my mind a little bit. I was really surprised to see bigger organizations now actually taking that step and really go into a new time, like the strawberry going with a new post provider. And then you have people organizations. I mean, even Marriott is considering to get rid of Marsha.
00:31:14:04 - 00:31:43:05
Claudia Meglin
I can add, that blew my mind. Like I could not believe it that they would ever come. Nobody would have ever believed that. So I think this is a really, really interesting point now that even the big organizations and we talked about that in the beginning. Right. It's very complicated for them to renew their tech stuff, but somehow they are now going into that space and it might have been covid that they had time to research and find out and watch the space.
00:31:43:05 - 00:32:02:10
Claudia Meglin
And maybe, you know, because usually you're always busy and it's such a big effort. You can't imagine for big organizations to change, the software's a nightmare and they doing it now and I'm super excited to see that. And even coming more very likely.
00:32:02:12 - 00:32:26:19
Rob Napoli
To be honest. And I know I have a bit of a hotshot I gave her for very long, but I think that the evolution of the POS and accounting side of things and in the adoption of getting new processes in realize that the PMS system needed to be updated. So that's where this I think a big push is on a number of different systems, other systems that you need to run the hotel and then you realize that that big main thing that PMS is the thing that's clunky.
00:32:26:19 - 00:32:42:19
Rob Napoli
And I think having the time to take a step back and realize that having a time to take a step back and research, having implemented the other things like okay, we were able to do this smaller scale on the POS side that we're able to do it with without as many, many headaches as we thought. It's going to be interesting.
00:32:42:19 - 00:33:00:03
Rob Napoli
I think you're right. 2023 was very unique. You know, I stepped into this world fully year 2023. It was like everything's changing. And I was like, Wow, drinking from a firehose. Now it's like 2024 you know? I love that you bring it back to basics and guest experience. I've been talking to a lot of different people through this podcast and through my role
00:33:00:05 - 00:33:15:22
Rob Napoli
OmniBoost everyone saying the same thing. And so how do we simplify the process to bring it back to basics? How do we let technology do the work for us? So we started creating all this technology we're laying on top of each other. It's like, this helps you do this thing switch this and do this thing.
00:33:16:00 - 00:33:34:01
Rob Napoli
And this thing do this thing. Why can't wants us to do it? All right. So it's going to be interesting and it's exciting. And this is what I think's exciting about the space, right? It's just that there's all these things happening all at once and it's also never slow. I don't like. Is there a slow time in hospitality?
00:33:34:01 - 00:33:37:12
Rob Napoli
Is it ever not really. Kind of like a busy season.
00:33:37:13 - 00:33:56:18
Claudia Meglin
It's actually well, depends on the organization. But yes, there is. Usually you always have a low season, but that's actually the time when you actually happy to breathe because you know it's not going to last long. So it's yeah I think covid that's why I think that would be a big or good reason during covid
00:33:56:20 - 00:34:21:16
Claudia Meglin
People have time, their time to research, they had time to investigate and to software where you usually during a normal operations, you don't have much time to really do that. And that might be a reason why. Now there is a lot of changes coming across. Took a little bit of time, you know, recovering money and getting in budgets and now it's a good time to really rock and roll and get the changes over and go onto that.
00:34:21:16 - 00:34:49:02
Claudia Meglin
And I just want to say one more thing to what is that making the systems work for? You know, everybody talks about A.I and I love it and I do use it, but for me, I'm waiting now in 2024 that would actually seriously and effectively help my daily work. So how can we actually bring it into a stage that it's not just a fun tool to play with, but also to help me do my things
00:34:49:02 - 00:35:09:20
Claudia Meglin
I'm not saying that because I used chat gpt a lot like a lot for a lot of different things and it does help me. It's just in the sense like I can imagine that if this is getting better and I think it will get even more practical and more reliable in the next maybe half a year. What that can do, I'm really excited to say.
00:35:09:22 - 00:35:48:18
Rob Napoli
Yeah, me as well. And you know, we're playing around with some different, you know, we're an automation company, right? OmniBoost does I mean, just as we're playing around with some different fun things that we're testing out as well. So like, we're excited about that as well. And you know it's funny, it's interesting. We had, you know, a lawyer from Eversheds on talking about data privacy and A.I and that one of the things that will be interesting for hospitality as generative AI becomes a bigger piece and all this data flow is making sure that all that data is protected and that systems are being built with standards in mind, thinking about data privacy, so on and
00:35:48:18 - 00:36:08:19
Rob Napoli
so forth. So I think that 2024 for us that makes lots of year what's really cool new ideas. How do we molds into the environment? Because when you travel and all the information you need to travel, it's very personal information, right? So you need to make sure that's protected and other things. So I'm oh, we're having a little fun with that and we're testing some stuff out and super exciting.
00:36:08:21 - 00:36:31:03
Rob Napoli
And so I love that you share that. And it's going to be really interesting too, for you and for us to, like, learn from each other and the fact that you're out there doing it and in similar but different ways, which is why, you know, it makes sense for us to be partnered together. And I never asked the question and we talked on the topic three or four times, How did you find OmniBoost or how did you get connected to the Kees and Peter and the teams at OmniBoost because they're like, hey, come on.
00:36:31:04 - 00:36:42:04
Rob Napoli
And I started the podcast like, Hey, you need to have I need to have Claudia. Claudia is amazing. Like, we need to go to Claudia. I was like, Let's go. And then you and I had a great conversation. I don't think I ever asked how you met Kees and team.
00:36:42:06 - 00:37:05:22
Claudia Meglin
Yeah, that's true actually. We've met via the Mews installation by the time one generator and start Mews. And that's like six years ago. Very in the beginning and we were in Canada struggling with the finance integration, make it all work at Mews and doing end of days and you need to bring your finances in the right way that finances some other stuff.
00:37:06:00 - 00:37:24:02
Claudia Meglin
So we actually were like in the beginning, we were so much struggling that we had to get Kees involved. And by the time OmniBoost was very smaller than it is now as well. So I was the Kees was like all hands on. And coming into our meetings, this is how we met. And then we had a very funny interview.
00:37:24:02 - 00:37:45:12
Claudia Meglin
I will never forget I've done this with them. I think it was in W2 a couple of years ago and they did an interview and we did it in the Bay Call and the sound was so bad that they actually had to rerecord my voice. And then I had a Dutch accent and I was laughing like hell when I saw that interview.
00:37:45:12 - 00:38:00:19
Claudia Meglin
The first 5 seconds you need to check it. There is it's somewhere on youtube. There's the interview with OmniBoost to me in the hall. And then you have I have under title, I'm under titled and I have a Dutch voice. Oh, my goodness. That's hilarious. Really.
00:38:00:23 - 00:38:23:06
Rob Napoli
I will go look it up right after this. Don't even worry. And that's awesome. Like, I forget that generator is like an O.G like orginal customer. And the funny thing is, six years later, OmniBoost has grown a lot and Kees still does. I have to pull back because he'll jump in and he'll get all excited. I want to be all hands on my Kees
00:38:23:06 - 00:38:47:11
Rob Napoli
Like, so we're here for we got a team for this. He get so excited. Like, that's what he does best, right? Like, that's like if, you know, for those out there listening, if you don't know Kees go check his interviews that we've had Like he gets so excited about problem solving and thinking creatively and coming up with new solutions like he just he wants to be involved in hearing a problem because we can build that, make a fix that we can do that it's amazing.
00:38:47:13 - 00:39:05:16
Claudia Meglin
I think it's his mentality because we had so many problems in the beginning and then I always called Kees and said, Kees, I got a problem. And he's like, okay, tell me. And then I said, You can fix it, right? And he's like, I would never say no to you. Of course I can fix that. So this is literally how the relationship started.
00:39:05:16 - 00:39:13:09
Claudia Meglin
And so whenever I have a problem, I just call him and he cannot say no because he told me one day he would never say no to me. And so.
00:39:13:12 - 00:39:13:21
Rob Napoli
Yeah.
00:39:14:02 - 00:39:15:13
Claudia Meglin
Here we are.
00:39:15:15 - 00:39:35:14
Rob Napoli
Here we are I love it. And, you know, it's exciting to see what you're doing. And I love that you get to have an amazing opportunity with generator and, you know, really taking that experience, but also launching your own business and helping those who don't maybe have the organizational size to have that isn't a part of their structure to still have that.
00:39:35:14 - 00:39:55:22
Rob Napoli
I think that's really cool and really excited to see what you do in 2024. And obviously I'm sure we'll be in touch as you do more things that need OmniBoost So we're excited that you're part of the OmniBoost family and network and, you know, super excited too that we've had so much history together, even though it's pretty my time.
00:39:56:00 - 00:40:09:02
Rob Napoli
But I know like that energy from Kees that he bring because I met Kees almost four years ago now and we met through our program and we I always joke I talked about he told like right after he met me and we had a meeting and he's like, one day I'm going to hire you.
00:40:09:04 - 00:40:11:00
Claudia Meglin
Yeah. If he says he does it
00:40:11:01 - 00:40:24:12
Rob Napoli
Everybody that it took him a little while to convince me, but he did. And you know, it's just that's a mentality and mindset that really, you know, it's hard not to like him and want to want to work with him. You know.
00:40:24:14 - 00:40:48:19
Claudia Meglin
I love the energy, but I love the energy of the entire company. You know, it's like such a technical focused company. Doing middleware is like sometimes not the most funky stuff, especially for finance software, but your people are just absolutely amazing. So whenever I deal with you guys and we literally whenever, whenever I do an onboarding, I always need somebody from OmniBoost
00:40:48:20 - 00:40:58:18
Claudia Meglin
If it's finance, if it's POS you know, there's always somebody need it from OmniBoost. And luckily I know my people. Yeah, I skip the queue. I know my people.
00:40:58:19 - 00:41:25:12
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I guess what happens when you're one of the OGs and you know Yeah, yeah. You know, we started out as a middleware company in our platform and it's amazing to see how far we've got based. There is other integrations. We still have tighter links, but it's fun to see how, you know, again, the systems and technology has changed and that's why I love talking these trends is just like so much stuff that's going to come and changes to happen and we're excited to be on that journey.
00:41:25:12 - 00:41:47:03
Rob Napoli
And I think what makes OmniBoost special is our energy and our willingness to serve. And just like, you know, we're a small company at 35, we're going to 50 people next year, but we still innovate. We're fast as hell or adaptable, but, you know, are still are cranking and we're excited to step up.
00:41:47:09 - 00:41:51:21
Claudia Meglin
Expanding your product as well. So that's and that's great and amazing to see and.
00:41:52:00 - 00:42:09:10
Rob Napoli
Product, team we have an office in New York City now. We've got that team over there and no longer on an island, figuratively and literally. So yeah, we've got some cool stuff happening and it's all Thanks to people like you and our network who believed in us from day one and gave us a chance to solve some problems. So I appreciate you for that.
00:42:09:10 - 00:42:37:08
Rob Napoli
Excited to see what you do. And I promise when I'm in London next, which is in a couple of months, we'll grab a beer and we'll also have some more like chillin content with. We'll talk some travel stories, myths and best and worst in class, some travel stories over some beers. I think that'll be a fun episode and get a few other people from the London area and we'll do it at the hotel if you Mike's gone, get a few beers going.
00:42:37:10 - 00:42:39:18
Rob Napoli
We're all around. I mean, a little bit there.
00:42:39:19 - 00:42:42:22
Claudia Meglin
I'm in, I'm in. I can’t wait definitely
00:42:43:00 - 00:42:51:03
Rob Napoli
Awesome Claudia well, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining. How do how do people find you? Where should I direct them to when they go to get in touch with you?
00:42:51:08 - 00:42:53:23
Claudia Meglin
Hit me up on LinkedIn definitely.
00:42:54:01 - 00:43:09:14
Rob Napoli
I would make sure to link your LinkedIn profile in the show notes. All you got to do is click it. I can tell you if you have any questions at all. Claudia is the person to go to, even if it's just asking a simple question she's got she is amazing. Claudia, once again, thank you so much.
00:43:09:14 - 00:43:13:09
Rob Napoli
Have a wonderful holiday season. I will see you in 2024 for that beer.
00:43:13:10 - 00:43:16:12
Claudia Meglin
This definitely can't wait. Merry Christmas to you.
00:43:16:14 - 00:43:28:17
Rob Napoli
Thank you so much. Everyone out there, please remember to be a tier one like subscribe rate review. All those things happen and make this podcast is what it is and share it to the world. So thank you all out there for listening.