HSMAI Boston Chapter

🤩 THANK YOU to our generous raffle prize donors! Your donation will make the September 15 Commercial Strategy Reboot, Meeting People Where They Are event even more engaging and fun!

👏 NEW ENGLAND INNS AND RESORTS ASSOCIATION - One - $250 Gift Certificates 🤸♂️
👏 Sun & Ski Inn and Suites - One Night Stay Gift Certificate 🤸♀️
👏 Hilton Boston Park Plaza- $450 Gift Certificate 🤸

**If you are interested in donating a raffle, it's not too late! Donations of $75+ receive one free registration.**

📅 Join us at The Seaport Hotel, September 15 @ 5:30PM for Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
👉 Register: https://cvent.me/Malb8a
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
Where: The Seaport Hotel

🎤 Meet the Moderator! Join us for an engaging discussion TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 15, moderated by Rachel Vandenberg, PCC, Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel

📅 Join us at The Seaport Hotel, September 15 @ 5:30PM for Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.

👉 Register: https://cvent.me/Malb8a
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
Where: The Seaport Hotel

Meet The Moderator: Rachel Vandenberg, PCC is a business leader whose career spans hospitality, aviation, and leadership development. She is co-owner of the Sun & Ski Inn and Suites, Stowe Bowl, and Stowe Golf Park in Stowe, Vermont, and a Dutch-speaking flight attendant for United Airlines. She is also the founder of Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel, a leadership platform that creates transformational experiences designed to strengthen alignment, agency, and impact for women across travel, hospitality, and tourism.

Meet the Panelist Lakota Forosisky, Complex Director of Revenue Management Highgate! Join us for an engaging discussion moderated by Rachel Vandenberg, PCC, Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel.

📅 Join us at The Seaport Hotel, September 15 @ 5:30PM for Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are

👉 Register: https://cvent.me/Malb8a
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
Where: The Seaport Hotel

Meet The Panelist: Lakota Forosisky is a hospitality professional with more than 25 years of experience in the Boston hotel market. As Complex Director of Revenue Management for Highgate Hotels, she oversees commercial strategy for The Newbury Boston and The Verb Hotel. Over the course of her career with Highgate, Hyatt, and Hilton, Lakota has worked across luxury, lifestyle, and full-service hotels, specializing in revenue optimization, forecasting, and commercial strategy. Her deep knowledge of the local market and passion for developing future hospitality leaders make her a trusted voice in Boston's lodging community.

🚀 Meet the Panelist! Award winning author Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC, Professor of the Practice Hospitality Marketing, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration 👏

📅 Join us at The Seaport Hotel, September 15 @ 5:30PM for Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are, moderated by Rachel Vandenberg, PCC Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel!

👉 Register: https://cvent.me/Malb8a
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are
Where: The Seaport Hotel
When: September 15 @5:30PM

👏 Meet The Panelist: Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC is a globally recognized hospitality marketing strategist, educator, and author. She wrote Developing Your Marketing Mindset: Real-World Lessons from Hospitality (2025), an Amazon International Best Status title, New England Book Festival Business Book of the Year, and Marketing Mindset in Motion: Inspired by Hospitality (2026). Both books were honored with International Impact Book Awards! 🏆

Leora is Professor of the Practice at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, where she teaches Experiential Marketing and Hospitality Digital Marketing Strategies. Since joining BU in 2015, she has held senior academic leadership roles and developed and launched new courses, concentrations, and graduate programs.

Previously, Leora founded LHL Communications and spent 15 years as Global Director of Marketing & Communications for global hospitality consulting giant HVS. Her career also includes senior PR roles with ITT Sheraton Hotels of New York and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau (today, Meet Boston). A board member of the Center for Responsible Hospitality, she has received numerous industry honors for leadership and education.

AI can make hotel group sales faster—but will it make them better?
A thought-provoking piece from CoStar raises an important question about AI-powered RFP responses in today's HSMAI insight.

A few takeaways:
⚡ Speed is becoming table stakes. If every hotel can respond instantly, speed alone won’t differentiate you.
🤖 Automation can create sameness. When proposals start looking and sounding alike, buyers may default to comparing price.
❤️ People are still the differentiator. The human connection, understanding of the planner’s needs, and ability to build trust can’t be overlooked.
🎯 The best use of AI may be augmentation, not replacement. Let AI handle the repetitive work—then give your sales team more time to personalize, connect, and sell.

The real opportunity isn’t choosing between AI and people.

It’s using AI to help people become better at sales.

What do you think: Will AI make hotel sales more personal—or more commoditized?

News | Are AI-powered RFP responses really good for hotel group sales? While the new tech might help hotel salespeople respond quicker, their pitches might not stand out

🤩 We are excited to welcome some special panelists share insight at the September 15 Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are, moderated by Rachel Vandenberg, PCC, Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel!

👉 Register: https://web.cvent.com/event/3f624df1-526a-4ade-b649-caf70fa6466f/register
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
Where: Seaport Hotel Boston
When: September 15 @5:30PM

👏 Meet The Panelist: Deborah Burns, IOM Executive Director, New England Inns & Resorts Association (NEIRA)
Deborah Burns is the Executive Director of the New England Inns & Resorts Association (NEIRA), the regional trade association that has represented over 300 New England resorts, inns, bed and breakfasts, hotels, and motor inns since 1907. In this role, she leads NEIRA's strategic direction, membership programming, and industry advocacy across the region's hospitality community.

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👉 Top 25 Extraordinary Minds 🧠
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HSMAI Top 25 | HSMAI Americas Every year, HSMAI spearheads an effort to identify the “The HSMAI Top 25: Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales, Marketing, Revenue Optimization” as pick ...

📅 Join us September 15 at The Seaport Hotel! HSMAI Boston Chapter looks forward to welcoming Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel and a Boston hospitality leadership panel.

Register: https://web.cvent.com/event/3f624df1-526a-4ade-b649-caf70fa6466f/register
Event: Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are.
Where: Seaport Hotel Boston
When: September 15 @5:30PM

Following the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference and a period dominated by AI, major events, changing demand, and economic uncertainty, this panel returns to a fundamental hospitality principle:

Commercial strategy begins with understanding people. The discussion explores what it means to meet people where they are today.

💡 WHY THIS CONVERSATION NOW
➡️ Major events such as the World Cup can create extraordinary demand - but the more important question is what happens when the event is over.
➡️ Travelers remain selective about where they spend, making relevance, value, trust, and meaningful experience increasingly important.
➡️ Commercial teams shape the promise, but frontline teams deliver the experience. Guest experience and employee experience are therefore inseparable.
➡️ Employees are being asked to adopt new technology, build new skills, and work differently - often while already under significant pressure.

Personal Information - Commercial Strategy Reboot: Meeting People Where They Are

Fall is a critical season for hotel group and event business—and this year, the opportunity may be hiding in later-than-usual bookings.

This weeks Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) insight comes from Revenue Hub, answering the question on how to optimize group & event bookings:

• Expect shorter booking windows. Economic uncertainty hasn’t eliminated demand for meetings and events, but it has made planners more cautious—and many are booking later.

• Don’t wait for the RFP. Proactive outreach to local businesses, meeting planners, associations, venues, and travel partners can uncover demand before it reaches your competitors.

• Treat group pricing dynamically. Group business shouldn’t automatically mean a discounted rate. Evaluate each opportunity against forecasted demand, booking pace, compression, and the value of the dates.

• Sell value, not just price. When rate flexibility is limited, thoughtful concessions—upgrades, complimentary rooms, flexible cancellation, or meeting-space incentives—can strengthen the proposal without unnecessarily eroding ADR.

• Look beyond rooms. Groups can drive meaningful ancillary revenue through meetings, catering, F&B, and other on-property services, while also helping stabilize occupancy during shoulder periods.
The bigger takeaway?

Group business deserves the same revenue-management discipline we apply to transient demand. The goal isn’t simply to fill rooms—it’s to capture the right business at the right price, with the right total value to the hotel.
For hospitality commercial teams, fall is a great reminder that sales strategy and revenue strategy need to be working from the same playbook.

Read the full article here 👉 https://revenue-hub.com/here-is-how-to-optimize-hotel-group-event-bookings-this-fall/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io&utm_campaign=newsletter

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