The expectations of would-be investors were that distressed hotel deals would rapidly occur in 2021, similar to the results in 2020, however, this did not come close to what was expected.

At some point, lenders won’t continue to play nice. Loans will eventually come due, and the equity is going to run out on troubled hotels and will have a negative carry. Owners can only modify their loans so many times and kick the can so far down the road, he said. At some point, time will run out. In many cases where owners don’t have access to liquidity, which was the situation for many private owners, they already used up their furniture, fixtures, and equipment reserves to keep the lights on and pay for the cash burn. Not only have they used that all up, but they also didn’t invest in their hotels before and now they have no capital to invest in their hotels during the recovery.

That puts these hotel properties at an extremely competitive disadvantage against hotels that have recently been updated or are undergoing renovation now. That’s also where you may find some opportunities because those assets start losing market share because they haven’t kept their properties in good order. You continue to lose more market share because your competition is reinvested. You have to do more discounting and performance goes down and then it just continues to repeat.

The hotel industry recovery is going to come around, but the question remains whether group, meeting and convention businesses will return to pre-pandemic levels. That may result in money chasing distressed opportunities for big-box hotels and taking them down at compelling prices. Investors could break those 1,500-room hotels into three different brands or carve out some rooms for residences.
The 24/7 markets used to be the darling markets of the industry with high barriers to entry and being where people wanted to go and that’s not the case right now.

All in all, there is always a deal to be made and this is where the smart investors will be looking while everyone else is chasing select-service hotels. While select-service is a great segment choice, there is no shortage of the big-box assets that will open up opportunities to figure out what to do with real estate.

1. Monitor devices connected to your wireless network

Updating your operating system sounds like a tech nuisance to most, however, as older systems may have security loopholes when not updated. Next, limit access to those devices with a PIN or passcode and train staff to only use those devices for business. A lot of times you may see your employees on the POS device browsing the internet and that is exactly how a lot of malware gets onto a network unintentionally.

2. Educate employees about phishing emails

The first thing some cybercriminals will do is attempt to send you or your staff phishing emails that can result in infecting the device it is opened on with malware. You and your Employees should be on their guard to avoid clicking on suspicious emails or attachments. Devices should have antivirus protection and malware detection software. It is highly suggested to set up two-factor authentication for things like vendor payments so it’s harder for crooks to authorize a fraudulent payment.

3. Examine your third-party vendors

Most restaurants work with at least one outside vendor such as an employee payroll service, online ordering app, or loyalty program. With any sort of third-party vendor that is going to have access to consumer payment information, make sure they are PCI compliant, that their security measures are equivalent to what would you have. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards requiring all companies (regardless of size) that receive, process, store or transfer credit card information to do so in a secure environment. For vendors with access to employee information, such as a payroll vendor, find out how that information is stored and protected. By managing third-party access privileges, those vendors can spend more time supporting customers while you can spend less time worrying about security issues.

4. Securely store passwords

Never store passwords in a Word document or on paper stored near a computer. It is recommended to use an online password manager such as Dashlane or LastPass. A password manager will provide logs of people accessing the password information, this helps with finding out who was the last one who went in there before there was a problem.

5. Employee background checks

The U.S. moved to EMV technology (credit card chips) a few years ago, while most other countries use the more secure chip and PIN technology. Another difference: in most other countries, restaurants process credit card transactions with a portable terminal at the customers’ table. In the U.S., most restaurant servers take credit cards from customers and process transactions behind the scenes. This is a potential security loophole because employees acting in bad faith can potentially use a camera phone to snap a photo of the credit card for fraudulent use while the credit card is out of sight.

6. Give each employee a unique identifier

Your POS system should be configured so that each server logs in with a unique identifier. That way, you can track patterns and identify potential bad actors if customers complain about fraudulent credit card use after visiting your restaurant. You can quickly see going back through the data if there are employees that pop up more often in cards that are breached.

7. Use a firewall to separate devices

A correctly configured firewall can (among other things) keep malware-infected devices from infecting other devices on your network. Your kiosks never need to print to your main office printer, so they should not be on the same network. The back-office computer doesn’t need to communicate with the credit card chip reader. Network bifurcation helps significantly.

PCI compliance and other aspects of cybersecurity can be complicated, so unless you’re a large restaurant brand with a staff person or department dedicated to cybersecurity, you may want to hire an outside firm to help you go beyond the basics outlined above.

Digital Security 101 and 201 recommend best practices for protecting data in restaurants.

Phishing, ransomware, “denial of service” attacks, and malware are only a few of the ways cyber thieves attempt to access and steal valuable data. Recovery is expensive—financially and in loss of reputation.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity with version 1.0 in 2014 and updated it to version 1.1 in 2018.

1. A Chef that understands the concept

Make sure that you hire a head chef who has many years of experience in preparing the dishes with wonderful feedback. Chefs are like superstars that can gain a following. People go to a particular restaurant because it has the services of a chef who has a reputation for preparing unique dishes.

The location of your dining establishment is also crucial in determining the success of your business. Visit many places and do some research to find out which location will be very important for the restaurant. Find out what local people are missing when they want to enjoy going to a restaurant. Make sure that your restaurant is in a busy area that has parking space.

2. Choose your concept wisely

Think about what type of concept would be best for the area of your restaurant. Do you want to target only a few rich tourists and people of the area? Or, do you want to target the middle-class consumers? Know your target consumers to decide before launching your restaurant project.

Some Of The Concepts You Can Choose Are:

• Fast food restaurant
• Fast casual dining such as a café and a pub and a family style dining
• An upscale dining
• Food trucks
• Pop Up restaurant with no long time commitment

3. Design your menu with thought

First impressions are everything, the first thing they come across with is your restaurant menu. The menu has the prices and dishes displayed for the customers. They can pick a dish that suits to their budget after carefully scanning the menu. But a professionally created menu has the ability to speak a lot about your restaurant business.

4. Be aggressive with your marketing

Aggressive marketing of your restaurant business online or offline is crucial to get a brand recognition amongst your target demographic. They will immediately come to know about a new restaurant in their locality. There is no huge fund involved for the publicity. All you need to do is to adopt some cost-effective marketing means. If you can’t be found on the internet, you do exist. Branding with the thought of brand recognition is the most important when it comes to food service. This is because with food people want to feel “safe” and “trust” the brand that they are choosing to consume.

5. Run Your Restaurant As A Corporate Entity

The bottom line is, this is a business. With may restaurateurs there is an artistic and creative passion that comes with the creation of their restaurant, however sometimes creative doesn’t pay the bills. Be sure to feed off of the feedback of staff and restaurant patrons, ultimately they may have the best insight on menu changes and atmosphere. You will need many ideas from many people for a steady growth of the business. You need to find out those smart people with smart ideas. Once you get the ideas and the people, establish a strong emotional relationship and partnership with them. You must take good care of them. Their ideas are the basis on which you will build a reputation of your restaurant.

Brand Loyalty is Key

To form brand loyalty is the key to success for any industry. The bond that someone has to a brand can outweigh the competition by miles. Consumers rely on their trust in a brand far more than the convenience or even cost especially when it comes to the hospitality industry. Think about it, this is the industry that revolves around vacations, fun, family, food and where someone may ultimately lay their head out at night.

Compare your hotel performance to your competitors

It is important to evaluate the statistical data can help you see the actual hotel positioning on the market and understand if your financial results were optimal in the market realities.

Invest in your team


Take the time to instruct you team on how your business should be conducted, this includes extensive training and a company handbook can be helpful. Invite a professional business coach to hold training. It doesn’t matter if your hotel is small or large, it is extremely important to pay attrition to your team’s needs.

Do not ignore guest feedback

Hotel reviews have a major impact on success rates. In this day and age you are only as good as your digital reputation. Management response to guests’ comments is everything to the hotel’s reputation, take your time to understand the negative feedback and thank guests for their positive ones.

Good attitude equals good profit


During the marketing strategy process pay special attention should be paid to the issue of personal relationships. Do not try to do everything yourself. Spending a little time building interaction with key counter-parties and corporate clients, including travel agents and tour operators, will significantly increase your chances of successful sales.