New CEO to helmet NZ Cruise Association –
The New Zealand Cruise Association (NZCA) has announced the retirement of CEO, Kevin O’Sullivan, effective June 30, 2023.
O’Sullivan has been the association’s CEO for the past four and a half years. Prior to that he was on the NZCA board for 15 years while holding the role of Regional Harbourmaster at Environment Southland.
Former Chair Debbie Summers said “Kevin will be missed immensely by all in our industry. He has worked tirelessly and in particular, throughout our battle to restart these past years. NZ Cruise is in a better place for all his efforts.
“As chair I particularly appreciated Kevin’s relentless positivity and sheer determination as he liaised and negotiated with the many stakeholders required to enable the sector’s post-COVID recovery.
“He has led NZCA through the most turbulent time the sector has ever experienced, and both the board and wider cruise industry stakeholders are deeply appreciative of the tireless work he has undertaken to facilitate and support the recovery of the sector.”
Current Chair of NZCA, Jacqui Lloyd, has been named as O’Sullivan’s successor and will take up the CEO position in June 2023.
Lloyd has more than 20 years of tourism, cruise and senior management experience, including his most recent role as General Manager of Destination Marlborough.
“Jacqui is the perfect person to lead NZCA through the next phase of the sector’s recovery,” said Tansy Tompkins, NZCA’s deputy chair. “Jacqui’s extensive tourism background, senior leadership experience and relationship skills will help NZCA to further develop strategic alliances, unite our sector and expand our presence on the world stage as the cruise industry rebounds.”
“I am very excited to be taking up the CEO role at NZCA,” said Lloyd. “Largely due to the excellent leadership of Kevin O’Sullivan over the past four years, I believe the NZCA is in a brilliant position as the industry returns.
I’m looking forward to working with members, stakeholders, and our local communities to ensure New Zealand is both positioned as the best cruise destination for industry, and that it’s an industry that contributes to the economic, social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of New Zealand.”
Lloyd will continue as NZCA chair until she starts her new role on June 1. A new chair will be announced in due course.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/H5R2GFFI5BG7BBLPB6BD2GZ5OM.jpg "Hotel WiFi can be terrible. Here are some tips to deal with it.")
Hotel WiFi can be terrible. Here are some tips to deal with it.
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Maybe you’ve experienced road warrior panic, as I did last week.
I was traveling for work and during one important video call in my hotel room, the WiFi flaked out and we disconnected. Early the next morning, my laptop kept getting booted off the in-room internet while I was trying to meet a deadline.
I was sleepy, still in my pajamas and stressed.
Crummy WiFi in your hotel room isn’t the world’s most pressing problem. But when you pay for a home (and an office) away from home, you expect some comforts: a comfortable bed, a hot shower and reliable internet access.
You can’t fix the internet in your hotel. But you are not completely powerless over that flaky hotel WiFi.
Why is the internet often terrible in hotels?
It’s complicated to spread internet access to all rooms, and hotels haven’t typically treated WiFi as a priority.
Many hotels know their guests expect internet access, but that doesn’t mean it has to be any good. Hotels’ internet equipment and software may not have kept up with your love of video streaming, Zoom calls and other data-hogging activities.
“They didn’t necessarily invest in the best WiFi,” said David Henry, president and general manager of connected home products and services at Netgear, which makes internet equipment.
Hotels are also stuffed with WiFi-blocking obstacles such as walls, electrical equipment, and other humans all sharing limited internet bandwidth.
That’s not an excuse, though. It’s also tricky to pipe hot water to 100 rooms of people taking showers at the same time. You don’t put up with balky plumbing, and you shouldn’t accept unreliable internet.
What you can do: Try to move around
If you’ve been having trouble, experiment to see if some parts of your hotel room have a stronger internet connection. On my flaky video call, it seemed to help when I moved away from the window.
Parking yourself in an uncrowded hotel lobby or business center with a separate internet connection might be a step up from the in-room WiFi shared among 50 rooms.
Some hotels offer basic internet service included in the room price and speedier WiFi if you pay extra. I hate this, but a couple of internet experts said the paid tier might be a good bet.
If most people don’t pay for the zippy service and you do, then you’ll be using a less crowded internet lane.
Ask for help
Sascha Meinrath, a telecommunications professor at Penn State University, suggested asking hotel staff (nicely) if you can switch rooms.
He said that hotels may set aside rooms for loyal guests or VIPs, and internet service is likely to be better there. I’m not bold enough to ask for an upgrade, but you could try.
Front desk staff are not your tech support, but it might also be worth asking them about your in-room WiFi troubles. They might know areas of the hotel with better internet service.
Use your phone as a WiFi hotspot
Depending on your mobile service plan, you may be able to use your phone to beam WiFi to your laptop.
You may need to ask your phone provider or look up instructions for using your phone as an internet hotspot. (Here are FAQs from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.)
This isn’t a great solution if you travel a lot. Using your phone as a WiFi hub chugs through data and your battery, you might be charged extra and the phone company may slow down your connection.
You can also buy dedicated mobile hotspots, although that adds another phone bill to your budget.
Don’t keep crummy hotel WiFi a secret
Not everyone cares about the same hotel amenities. Having a pool at the hotel might be important to you, and it isn’t for me. Unreliable WiFi is a dealbreaker for me and maybe not for you.
But if quality internet service matters to you, let the hotel know in customer feedback and reviews.
“The ball is in the court of the consumer to elevate the importance to the hotel operators,” Henry said.
Travel websites aren’t necessarily helpful in empowering you.
After my hotel stay, I wanted to see if other people complained about the hotel’s balky WiFi on sites including Hotels.com and Travelocity. It was almost impossible to shift through reviews for specific amenities or terms like “WiFi.”
And while those travel websites tend to list whether a hotel offers internet service and whether it costs extra, they don’t appear to assess the quality.
Expedia Group, which owns travel websites including Expedia, Hotels.com and Travelocity, said search results on Hotels.com include a “traveler experience” filter for properties with “business friendly” amenities including WiFi. You can also choose to read only reviews written by business travelers. I didn’t find these options helpful.
After I checked out of my WiFi dead zone hotel, it emailed me a feedback survey. I usually ignore those things. This time I responded and said I probably wouldn’t stay in the hotel again because I couldn’t rely on the WiFi.
I felt like I did my small part to help future pajama-clad guests trying to meet work deadlines.
One tiny win
I love rules. Here’s my colleague Chris Velazco’s golden rule for gadgets:
“If it isn’t seriously broken, and you got whatever it was less than two years ago, don’t even think about replacing it.”
For phones both new and old, repairs might be a good return for your investment, Chris says. You might spend $100 at a repair shop having your battery replaced or more to fix your busted screen. That’s not cheap, but it’s a bargain compared to the cost of a new device.
Shira Ovide writes The Washington Post’s The Tech Friend, a newsletter about making your technology into a force for good. She has been a technology journalist for more than a decade and writes for a tech newsletter at the New York Times.
Active NZ market a beacon for hotel investors says JLL –
The momentum in the hotel sector has been carried through into 2023, with the value of deals that have gone unconditionally this year, already passing $100 million and are currently under negotiation.
Having transacted the record $170 million sale of Auckland’s Stamford Plaza late last year, now refurbished and re-opened as the JW Marriot Auckland, JLL Director Hotels & Hospitality Nick Thompson says the active New Zealand market is once again a beacon for investors seeking stable, long-term performance.
“Through the first quarter of this year, we’ve already seen five major deals go unconditional for a combined total of over $100 million – and there’s more to come. While other commercial sectors are still encountering headwinds, hotels continue to perform strongly with rebounding international tourism fueling their desirability both domestically and internationally.”
The most recent of these deals transacted by JLL is the purchase by Distinction Hotels Group of the 253-room Mount Cook Hotel Collection, consisting of the Mackenzie Country Hotel, Heritage Gateway Hotel and Countrytime Hotel in Twizel and Omarama.
Geoff Thomson, owner of Distinction Hotels Group, says the return of international visitors was a key factor in acquisition, and a growing influence on activity up and down the country.
“More tourists back on our shores is great news for the hotels and hospitality industry. Adding three well-positioned assets to our portfolio in the South Island is exciting and we’re looking forward to integrating the Distinction Hotels brand into the beautiful Mackenzie District.”
JLL head of Debt Advisory, Mark Farrands, says counter-cyclical activity in the hotel and accommodation sector is supported by appetite from the funding market remaining strong.
“At the end of 2022, we received a very strong response from the funding market for a well-occupied student accommodation asset, with 15 lenders providing attractive indicative terms across a range of banks and non-banks, both onshore and offshore. Hotels and accommodation, especially in New Zealand, is a market segment that has performed better and better since 2022 when the rest of the market slowed down.”
According to a Real Capital Analytics report, JLL was the most active broker in the capital markets sector across New Zealand in 2022, transacting over NZD$500 million. The analysis also placed JLL as the top-ranked hotel broker in New Zealand based on sales volume, and the top broker for hotel transactions across all of Asia Pacific.
First Table serves new reservation system –
Foodie tech company First Table is changing the way people book dining experiences with the launch of its latest product, Regular Table.
The new product simplifies the reservation process by offering real-time availability for all participating restaurants, making it easier for diners to find and book a table, all in one place, without the First Table offer.
With Regular Tables, there’s no longer a need to search multiple websites for restaurants open in a city or call around to find a restaurant that can accommodate large parties. The platform seamlessly checks live availability and inserts bookings directly into the restaurant’s reservation system, providing an efficient and streamlined experience for both customers and restaurants.
“We understand that due to the current staffing shortage and restaurant capacity issues, finding a restaurant and making a reservation can be a time-consuming and frustrating process,” said the founder of First Table, Mat Weir.
“That’s why we’re excited to be launching this new product, which allows users to search participating restaurants’ availability and book a table, all in one place.
“First Table was able to achieve this as they have the largest number of integrations with restaurant reservation systems in New Zealand, offering a smooth and efficient booking experience.”
First Table’s integration strategy is uncommon in the industry where single connections between reservation systems and booking websites are typical, and the team is continually working on new exciting functionalities to enable real-time searching across multiple systems, streamlining the reservation process even further.
As a bonus, Regular Table bookings receive five times the amount of Status Points as First Table bookings, giving users a greater opportunity to reach Gold and Platinum status levels in the company’s national restaurant loyalty programme, Frequent Foodies™.
Launched on 1 February, the loyalty program rewards users for making bookings, sharing the platform with friends, and writing reviews. The new product is live in Queenstown, Christchurch and Wellington, with more restaurants being added daily. For more information, visit the First Table website at https://www.firsttable.co.nz/magazine/regular-table
From banking to hospo – meet Queenie Lai –
Claiming to have more eateries per capita than New York, Wellington has no shortage of restaurants and cafes to choose from. Fortunately, there are plenty of women-led restaurants in the capital which is fitting this week as we celebrate and support International Women’s Day, which was March 8 this year.
If you’re finding it hard to choose what to eat – you might want to do a DoorDash and support women-led businesses in the city!
If you’re after chicken waffles for breakfast, scrumptious burgers, mouth-watering milkshakes, and classic American-style cheesecakes, Wellington institution, Mama Brown, might be just the ticket.
Mama Brown is led by Queenie Lai, who swapped a career in banking and technology for hospitality. As General Manager, she is focused on making Mama Brown an inspiring place to work and delivering a standout experience for customers.
Queenie has been in hospitality for enough time to see the change that the pandemic and evolving dining preferences have brought to the industry. Technology has changed the way people dine – from how they make reservations and orders, through to where they eat. Given the last few tumultuous years for the industry, Queenie has observed how technology has helped restaurants like themselves survive through lockdowns.
“Mobile delivery apps such as DoorDash have been a game-changer for Mama Brown, and a lifesaver during the pandemic. They have enabled us to reach a broader audience and expand our reach beyond our physical location, meaning we can share Mama Brown’s goodies with more Wellingtonians.
“In my experience, using DoorDash has been fantastic – who doesn’t love having delicious food delivered right to their doorstep for a marathon Netflix session or a brekkie in bed after a fun Saturday night out, right?”
Having seen Mama Brown make it through the pandemic, Queenie and the team are excited to see what the next few years have in store.
When asked what tips she’d give to other women considering careers in hospitality, Queenie has some simple advice.
“Do not hesitate to speak up and demonstrate your capabilities. Always stay true to your values, be persistent, patient, and always be yourself.”
Montana Group appoints Mark Wylie as new CEO –
Montana Group has announced the appointment of Mark Wylie as its Chief Executive Officer, effective from 23 February 2023.
The new position was established to lead the company into its next phase of growth and development as the Montana Group looks to meet the growing needs of its customers and stakeholders.
Announcing the move, directors and shareholders, Dallas Fisher and Troy Reid said they are thrilled with the appointment and are confident that Mark’s leadership and vision will help Montana Group to achieve its strategic goals and lead them into the next chapter of its growth and success.
“We believe that this is the next step in the evolution of our company and will enable us to continue to grow and succeed in a rapidly changing environment, and Mark’s experience and vision make him the perfect candidate to lead our company into the future” says Dallas Fisher, Director of the Montana Group.
“Having someone of his caliber leading the team, along with the timing of this move, has set a perfect platform for all of the Montana Group to work together to take our success to the next level. Very exciting times ahead.”
Mark has been General Manager, Montana Food and Events for the last 10 months and brings thirty-five years industry experience to the role. He has a proven track record in hospitality operations and management with a varied and interesting career working in reputable kitchens across New Zealand and internationally. On return to NZ, he has been part of SKYCITY Auckland, Hip Group, and Southern Hospitality in an array of sales, operations, and leadership roles.
”I’m honored and excited to take on the role of CEO for Montana Group,” explains Mark.
“This is an incredible opportunity to work with such a diverse and talented team to continue building on the group’s success and momentum. I truly believe that the Montana Group is an employer of choice with development pathways and opportunities for growth.
“We are known as innovators in the market, with a focus on collaboration and partnerships that have led us to where we are today. I’m personally very excited for the future and the opportunities this will present for our staff and customers.”
Mark will also act as Executive Director, and alongside Dallas and Troy will form part of a six person board with three final board members currently being recruited.
About Montana Group:
Montana Group (MG) is a specialist food and events management business, operating several brands in the upper North Island with a range of food, service, and event operations.
With 10 brands and more than 30 kitchens across two cities, the Group is now recognized as the largest, privately-owned caterer in New Zealand, employing close to 1,000 people across Auckland and Waikato.
Ready for the ultimate toastie taste test? –
Think your toasties taste top? The Great NZ Toastie Takeover is back and organizers of the annual competition are once again on the hunt for the country’s supreme toasted sandwich.
With free entry, the popular competition has gained momentum year on year, with 2022 attracting more than 180 entries and a whopping 140,000 toasts served up over the duration of the search.
Now in its sixth year, and after a big jump in entries last year, organizers Cook & Nelson and McClure’s Pickles have made the call to cap entries at 250.
As always, the competition remains open to all New Zealand eateries, from cafes, bistros and hotel eateries, to bars, pop-ups, hole-in-the-wall eateries and food trucks.
Like last year, food truck entries will be judged on a designated weekend in May with the entrant required to provide exact date, time, and location details prior to the judging weekend.
Other competition rules remain the same. Each creation must be sandwiched between two slices of bread and able to be eaten by hand if necessary. The toasted sandwich must also contain cheese – or an acceptable vegan substitute, and pickles from the McClure’s Pickles range. Everything else is up to the toastie maker’s imagination.
Each entry must be on the establishment’s menu for the full duration of the competition, during lunch hours and/or dinner hours, from Friday 14 April to 31 May 2023 inclusive. Finalists must have their toastie on the menu until 20 June 2023 inclusive.
As in previous years, each toastie will be scored using set criteria. This includes presentation, effectiveness of preparation technique, eat-ability, taste, provenance and innovation.
The People’s Choice Award will also return in 2023 giving Kiwis the power to vote for their favorite participating eatery and toastie. The eatery with the most votes from the public will take away this year’s People’s Choice Award.
Entries open today (February 28) and close on March 31. Judging will begin from April 14, with the competition finalists announced on May 31. And the supreme winner will be revealed on June 20.
Last year’s battle saw finalists hail from Auckland, Ngatea, Okere Falls (Rotorua), Ohakune, Havelock North, Palmerston North, Greytown, Nelson, Christchurch, Queenstown, Twizel and Dunedin, and encompass local eateries, rural roadside cafes, breweries, a food truck , a fish farm, a burger bar, an artisan food store and a dedicated toasted sandwich shop.
Head judge Kerry Tyack said last year’s challenge saw imaginations run wild, presenting his team of 30-plus judges with an extremely tough task in choosing the finalists and eventual winner.
“With the competition heating up and a record number of toasties served up to last year, it really feels like the humble toastie has reached the lofty heights of the great Kiwi pie, the whitebait fritter, the perfect pav and the South Island cheese roll.
“In 2023, we’re expecting even more delicious and exciting entries, with the Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover now a firm feature on the local foodie calendar and those taking part reporting a notable increase in custom.”
Chef Rich Johns from Rotorua’s Okere Falls Store and Craft Beer Garden won the hotly contested title of the country’s top toastie for 2022 and had this to say at the time.
“Winning the 2022 Great NZ Toastie Takeover has been a wild ride, going from selling 10-15 toasties a day to 60+ every day, with over 10,000 toasties sold since winning! Best of all we still love making the toastie and seeing the delight on people’s faces upon the first bite.”
To submit your own entry or view the full terms and conditions of the competition, go to the entry page on www.toastietakeover.com.
Cordis Auckland joins EarthCheck Master class –
The saying ‘many hands make light work’ couldn’t be more relevant for Cordis Auckland on its sustainability journey, as they recently received EarthCheck Master status, one of just 15 hotels globally to do so.
The Managing Director of Cordis Auckland, Franz Mascarenhas said the hotel has been on a continuous journey to become more sustainable. It’s all about consistency and the small actions from the team in the hotel daily, from recycling to effective waste management to water usage.
“Fifteen years ago we made a commitment to be a sustainable business and we have been working in incremental steps to achieve this. This accolade is a testament to that, showing that small, consistent steps can make the biggest changes in the long term.
“This is the way forward for business, and we want to lead the way in the hospitality industry. Change however cannot be done in isolation, it’s a global effort to ensure the world we live in is sustainable for future generations.”
Since 1987, EarthCheck has been a world leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism. The world is scrutinizing with increasing urgency the way in which the hospitality industry monitors and reports on its sustainability performance, and credible measurement and reporting are essential in order to be accountable and demonstrate year-on-year improvement.
Using a science based approach, EarthCheck helps travel and tourism organizations to increase efficiencies, maximize guest experience and minimize their environmental footprint.
Most recently, Cordis Auckland launched its new Pinnacle Tower, bringing an extra 244 rooms to the hotel. With this comes increased resources, so the hotel wanted to ensure sustainability was front of mind in the planning phases.
A number of initiatives have been implemented, including high performance glazing, energy efficient LED lighting and controls, water metering, thermally environmentally efficient façade glazing, biking facilities, e-charging stations for electric vehicles, easy access to public transport and much more.
EarthCheck CEO and founder, Stewart Moore, congratulated the Cordis Auckland team on their long-term sustainability commitment over the past 15 years at an event held at the hotel on Thursday 16 February.
“Achieving EarthCheck Master Certification is not an easy task and it takes the commitment of the whole team to deliver improved operational results across the business. There are no shortcuts and there needs to be an ongoing commitment to both measurement and improved performance,” Mr Moore said.
“Cordis Auckland has persistently worked towards optimizing its energy performance, improving water usage, integrating responsible waste management systems and reducing its carbon footprint with science-based targets.”
Notable key achievements at Cordis Auckland include;
Cordis Auckland Beehive
Cordis Auckland has a beehive on level 7 of the hotel, to assist with pollination and support the rehabilitation of bees in urban areas. Auckland is an ideal environment for bees due to the climate, the number of parks close to the city and the number of bees in the city are starting to outnumber those in the rural areas of New Zealand.
The hive can produce 45kgs of honey, which is harvested once per year and the honey they produce is known as Pohutukawa Honey, which has a delicate flavor with a slightly salty tang and creamy texture. The harvested honey is used in the hotels food and beverage outlets.
One bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers per day and if bees cease to exist, we would not be able to consume the foods we eat such as broccoli, asparagus, cucumber, watermelon, almonds and apples.
Soap Recycling
Cordis Auckland works with Beyond Skin Deep to recycle their hotel soaps in the rooms, as an estimated five million bars of unused soap in hotels is thrown away every day. Redistributing these soap bars to the community helps to promote hygiene and reduce the spread of disease, and all this soap collected is donated to the Rapid Relief Team for distribution around NZ and across the globe.
Cordis Auckland was the first hotel in New Zealand to partner with Beyond Skin Deep, and in 2018 and 2019 they collected 597.1kgs of used soap from the hotel’s guest rooms and suites, to be recycled. There was a pause on this initiative with Covid, however it is now being picked up in the second half of 2023.
With the launch of the new Pinnacle Tower, Cordis Auckland also removed single-use amenities where possible, including their toiletries, and swapped liquid re-usable pumps, reducing the plastic waste.
Sustainable Seafood
Cordis Auckland buys seafood that is caught sustainably from reputable companies, with approximately 80% of their seafood completely sustainable. The seafood they source and use in their food and beverage outlets is all managed under the Quota Management system by the Ministry of Primary Industries.
The Quota Management System was introduced in 1986, to conserve NZ major fishery stocks and to improve the economic efficiency of the seafood industry. In future the hotel has targets to make all their seafood only sustainable and fresh and have no endangered species on their menu, including tuna which is not currently available in the hotel.
Green Meetings by Cordis
Cordis Auckland’s new ‘Green Meetings by Cordis’ program offers sustainable meeting solutions to assist organizers in integrating environmental considerations and promoting positive social impact.
The new event considerations include green and environmentally friendly resources, including LED walls, electronic signage, compostable drinking straws, and healthy and delicious food and drink options prepared with fresh, locally sourced, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. There’s also the option for carbon neutral meetings, in collaboration with the South Pole. The carbon footprint of the event will be calculated and offset via a selected green project and organizers will be awarded a carbon-neutral certificate.
What’s next?
The hotel is looking at a water bottling machine on site as an alternative to plastic water bottles, in an effort to phase out single use plastics. Water bottling machines will sanitize the glass bottles, fill and seal them.
Cordis Auckland has also used ORCA in the past and are re-introducing this post-Covid. ORCA is an innovative food waste solution that mimics a natural digestion process. It uses mostly water, along with water and microbiology to turn your food waste into an environmentally safe liquid that goes down the drain. Once at the waste water treatment plant, the liquid can then be used to create renewable, sustainable energy.