the hotelier

Harold "Q" Queisser
"Seek First to Understand"

Spring 2010

HAROLD “Q” QUEISSER, a 34-year veteran of the hospitality industry, recently moved from San Diego, California, to become the opening director, sales and marketing for the new Omni Dallas Hotel.

MPG : What attracted you to the hospitality industry?
Q: I was a football coach at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, I’d been fired twice in four years as a major college coach and thought I probably needed to look in a totally different direction.

I had a first cousin who was the president of the hotel division for Marriott so I called him and said, “This coaching thing just isn’t working out.”

What year was that?
It was 1976. Marriott only had 28 hotels. He was kind enough to set up some interviews and I was hired into a management ID (individual development) training program. My first job was in
Los Angeles and I oversaw the physical set-up of the guestrooms and banquet rooms. I worked the graveyard shift.

Tell us about your new property and how you see Dallas as a convention destination.
The new Omni Dallas Hotel makes Dallas a totally new destination and will help bring back conventions that left this city because there was no major headquarter hotel at the convention center.

If you look back to the late ‘80s, Dallas was averaging over 40 large conventions per year. As competing cities built new hotels and expanded their centers, a number of groups left Dallas and haven’t returned.

The Omni will be a new landmark in downtown Dallas. It’s a luxury product with extraordinary meeting facilities. We offer a 31,700 sq.ft. grand ballroom and a 15,400 sq.ft. junior ballroom. The coolest thing is that is will have a direct connection into the Dallas Convention Center.

When will you be welcoming your first group?
Construction is on schedule and we have the approval to begin booking groups into the hotel beginning on April 1, 2012.

Hotel sales & marketing has certainly evolved during your career. Are relationships still key in successful hotel sales and, if so, what are your suggestions to your team for developing relationships?
I believe that this business is and will always be relationship driven and relationship earned. Planners are still relying on their hotel sales partners to help make things happen for them – to help make them look good - to allow the planner to hear this comment from their attendees, “This meeting was AWESOME!”

The sales person becomes an extension of the planner. Our sales managers are trained to ask planners this key question, “How can we help you make this meeting successful?” They then work with the planner and the event management team to make it all happen.

I always ask my people, “Who has the best relationship with this client?” It may not be the sales person, it may be someone outside of our team who can help us bring the group to Dallas. Ed Netzhammer, regional VP for Omni and GM of our hotel, has wonderful relationships with many of our clients and is always ready to help.

How has technology changed the sales process?
When it comes to communication technology and email, I’ve found it useful to ask our clients, “How and when do you want to hear from us?” At the recent Southwest Showcase in Austin, a planner told me that she talks with hotel people on Wednesdays from noon to 4. OK, I thought, now we know when and how to communicate with her.

Describe the “superstar” sales person in 2015.
They will need technology skills in areas that have yet to be developed. But, even five years from now, I believe our sales people will still need to be relationship driven. That may
be a problem for our younger generation.

From your hotel perspective, what advice do you have for CVBs that could help them in their efforts to promote a destination?
First of all, CVBs have a lot of constituent groups. Heading up a bureau is a tough job.

I believe in one of Stephen Covey’s theories. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” If I’m a hotel company paying dues to a CVB, I want to understand what they are doing with the money and how it is being used to satisfy all of their constituent groups. I look at their strategic plan – seeking first to understand – then I say, “Here are our needs in filling this building. You’ve addressed half a dozen of them and here are a few more for you to consider.” You must work together as a team and become a positive spokesperson for your bureau.

What are some of the sales trends you see?
There is an effort among the major hotel companies to consolidate their sales organizations into fewer people on property and more people in market positions. It’s called ‘account management’ and its purpose is to provide better sales coverage.

Also, the third parties have experienced tremendous growth. Hotel owners are asking why there has been such big increases in third party commissions while their sales staff costs are remaining constant. Some of the larger hotel groups are reducing property sales positions and consolidating sales organizations to provide more direct sales opportunities and to rely less on
third parties.

What advice can you share with meeting planners to help them insure the success of their meetings?
I think planners need to embrace their hotel sales people to an even greater degree. Our people experience so many different meetings every week. They’re learning how other people are doing business and planning meetings and, with this experience, they are a truly a great resource for the planners.

What are your thoughts about the future?
It’s unprecedented what’s happened to this industry in the last two years but, as always, I believe the strong will survive.

I’m optimistic that our industry will recover, soon I hope, and I know we will have fun here in Dallas showing off this dynamic
city and the Omni Dallas to lots of new and returning conventions.

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