Hotel Business has published its account of the latest Hot Topics webinar, "Planning Through Uncertainty: A Resilience Playbook for Hotel Leaders," presented in partnership with Entegra. The publication posted the account on 30 September 2026. The panelists put preparation, property-level empowerment and disciplined cost management forward as their answers to changing conditions.
The session had five panelists and one moderator. The panelists were Will Loughran, COO of Concord Hospitality Enterprises; Beau Benton, president of LBA Hospitality; Eric Rubino, COO and principal of Extreme Hospitality; Daniel Block, SVP of operations, full service, at Hotel Equities; and Amar Doshi, VP of supply growth and procurement at Entegra. Glenn Haussman, founder and host of the No Vacancy Live Podcast, moderated.
Labor productivity over labor dollars
Block opened on the basics. He said the work "goes back to the basics: the blocking and tackling." He said labor is the largest expense in the business and that operators sometimes manage labor dollars in place of productivity. He named housekeeping, lobby attendants, the front desk and food and beverage as the roles where the return on the payroll decision shows. His instruction was to dig into productivity and to get the most out of the investment in those people.
Preparation in the strong periods
Benton put preparation before the shock. He said "you play as you practice" and asked whether a team runs its routines in the good times and the bad, so that it is ready when the system takes a hit. He named the storage room, the housekeeping cart, working vacuums and adequate linen as the items to check. He said those items touch both productivity and employee morale.
Engagement surveys and the food-cost swing
Loughran pointed to associate engagement surveys as the way to learn whether employees have the tools and resources for the job. He described Concord's own return to fundamentals as food costs moved through this year. He said the company met its food and beverage leader through the tariff movement and found a new ingredient leading the conversation each week, first tomatoes and then avocados. After several weeks, he said, the answer was to get back to the basics of everything.
Where a cost cut reaches the guest
Doshi named bedding and coffee as the areas where the guest notices a change. He said operators keep the pillars of the guest experience intact, and that everyone wants coffee at a hotel. He proposed a deliberate approach: optimize operations and right-size the menus.
Loughran used bacon as his example. He said the industry has reduced, scaled back and dropped a tier on bacon since the pandemic, and he called that record embarrassing. He said a cut that goes too close or too far is something guests pick up on and experience in a strongly negative way. His replacement list was to evaluate what is selling, reduce inventory, simplify menus and rebuild expertise around procurement, menuing, portioning and food control.
Block agreed on food quality. He said operators "can't save our way to prosperity" and that a quality product has to be served. He named preparation, waste and labor as the areas for savings. He gave a breakfast service that prepares two cases of bacon and leaves half a case at the end of the day, which leaves a hard cost.
Empowerment at the property
Rubino described procurement systems that stiffen as a company grows. He said approved vendors and ordering lists can limit a property's ability to respond to the market, and he called for a heavy push on empowerment at the property level so teams can pivot on cost. He described an approved vendor raising the price of an item while the property can source the same item elsewhere. He said that feedback arrives from the property first.
Loughran split the decision by function. He said some work can centralize while customer-facing choices stay with general managers who know their own guests. He said he wants general managers to use procurement resources and to speak up with what their customers want.
Benton tied the balance to communication and brand. He gave a Diet Coke in a guestroom as an example of an item that can matter to one guest. He said an operator has to balance the expectation with the customer and then empower the team to meet it at the lowest cost.
Turnover traced to the operating basics
Block described the Hotel Equities method as property-specific. He said the company looks at profit and loss statements, productivity and turnover, one property at a time. In one case, an apparent turnover problem traced back to operating deficiencies that included too few vacuums and short uniforms and linen. He said the company asks a lot of questions and then drives the answers with the hotel team.
Where AI fits
Block described one use of AI on contracts. He took three elevator contracts of 25 to 35 pages each and had the tool reduce the differences and similarities to a shorter summary. He said the same approach can read a menu against regional or market pricing to show where a property sits high and where it sits low. He said the tool makes decisions easier.
Doshi said Entegra uses AI across its data and digital operations. He said the output is only as good as the person operating it, the prompt and the way it is built, and that a careless build returns challenges.