Bennett Brown has 20 years of hospitality industry experience, providing operating management and experienced counsel to hotels, resorts, conference centres, and food service establishments throughout Canada, the UK, and the Caribbean. A large part of his consulting work includes assignments for institutional, entrepreneurs, independent and chain hotel owners and operators, commercial lenders, funding agency and public sector clients. These have included:
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Business, financial and investment analysis for:
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Business (including market) planning for lodge and resort projects
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Project and salaried management of hotels
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Project coordination and management of resorts
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Market feasibility studies with financial projections for hotels, resorts and attractions
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Tourism planning and strategy development
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Workshops for private and public sector tourism stakeholders including BC Parks, Vietnam Airlines and the Organisation of American States (OAS)
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Property inspections, operations reviews, financial analysis and business valuations for Canada, UK and Caribbean hotels and resorts
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Development of market-driven standards for Caribbean small hotels
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“Market Readiness” assessments of small hotels
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Leases and agreements reviews and development for both private and public sector clients.
Bennett is a member of the team whose mandate is the development and delivery of a wide range of assistance to Caribbean small hotels, sites and attractions. This multi-year project, sponsored principally by the OAS and US Aid, has deliverables that include: a system of regional marketing brands and standards, occupational (training) standards for Educational Institute (of the American Hotel and Lodging Association) certification, operations counselling, business modelling, marketing, and access to affordable financing.
Bennett was a part of the OAS team that undertook extensive assessments of the needs of the Caribbean region’s small hotel sector to improve its competitiveness in a number of participating member states of the OAS. Assessments were conducted in the Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Belize, and St. Lucia. The team created a website dedicated to the needs of the region’s hotel community, www.caribbeaninnkeeper.com, and developed a new brand for Caribbean hotels, caribbeanexperiences™. The Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) have endorsed these standards as the definitive standards for Caribbean hotels). Seventy-five properties have been evaluated against these standards, with 37 qualifying for inclusion in the CHA’s new “Caribbean” website powered by Travelocity. Bennett was a leading member of the OAS team throughout the development of the caribbeanexperiences™ brand and standards, as well as the subsequent property evaluation process.
Bennett facilitated four-day workshops for Caribbean hotel owner-managers in all of these named countries as well as Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks & Caicos. Developed in conjunction with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the themes of the workshops were “Operations Management for Caribbean Hotels” and “Food and Beverage Management for Caribbean Hotels.”
Bennett is familiar and current with the Caribbean region’s tourism and hospitality industries, their infrastructure, needs, and solutions to improve competitiveness.
Education
- Diploma in Hotel Management (1st Class). Scottish Hotel School, Ross Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
- Wine Making — Louis Eschenauer, Bordeaux, France
- Hotel Accounting — Cornell University, Ithica, New York, USA
Languages
- Fluent in English and French
Career Summary
1986–Present Owner, Senior Consultant, Bennett Brown & Associates Inc., Vancouver, BC
1997–2002 Associate, ARA Consulting Group Inc/KPMG LP., Vancouver, BC
1983–1986 Consulting Partner, Hospitality Division, Laventhol & Horwath, Vancouver, BC
1980–1983 Consultant, Laventhol & Horwath, Vancouver, BC
1979–1980 Contract General Manager, Kanke Restaurant Ltd. (Viva, Mulvaneys, The Cannery), Vancouver, BC
1972–1978 General Manager, Hotel MacDonald, CN Hotels
1968-1972 Executive Assistant Manager, General Manager, Hotel Fort Garry, CN Hotels
1968–1968 Executive Assistant Manager, Jasper Park Lodge, CN Hotels
1964–1966 Assistant Front Office Manager, Rif Hotel, Tangier, Morocco
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