Right From the Start, A World Tour on Behalf of HFTP

Many people in the hospitality industry, as well as my family and friends, know that I travel quite a bit with my Crestline responsibilities; assuming the role of HFTP Global President has me traveling even more! Starting in early November, I was fortunate to travel as an HFTP representative for almost four weeks. I started my tour on November 9 at the International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show® (IHMRS) and American Hotel & Lodging Association Fall Conference in New York City. With approximately 18,000 industry professionals in attendance at the IHMRS, it was a phenomenon to behold! While this was my fourth attendance at the IHMRS, the people, products, and plethora of education and networking opportunities never cease to amaze me.

Moving on to more familiar territory, I concluded my trip to New York by presenting the HFTP Global Update at the Mid-Jersey Chapter meeting on November 14 at the Upper Montclair Country Club where I chatted with other HFTP members and spoke about HFTP’s strategic plan and goals for the coming years. It was quite fun to meet one-on-one with members, some of whom I knew and others whom I met for the first time.

Leaving the United States, I went on to travel to London on November 16, where I met with our allied friends from HOSPA at their annual HOSPACE event. It was a high quality one-day annual conference and exhibition that offered sessions on hospitality finance, IT and revenue management. It is great to be associated with a group of people who share the same love of education and networking in hospitality finance and technology as we do!

Continuing east to Hong Kong, I met with another HFTP allied group, the Hotel Controllers and Accountants Association of Hong Kong (HCAA) for their annual dinner on November 29. This meeting was especially significant, as HCAA unveiled the Chinese language version of the Hong Kong Guide to the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, 10^th edition. A publication published by HCAA, this edition is a follow-up to HCAA’s English version of the Hong Kong Guide to the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, 10^th edition, and is a guide to the widely adopted USALI, tailor-made to the business practices of hospitality companies in Hong Kong.

During my trip to Hong Kong, I had the opportunity to speak at the November chapter meeting of the HFTP Hong Kong Polytechnic University student chapter, along with Howard Field, a hospitality consultant and HFTP Member, and Martin Lew, HFTP Member and head of Operational Financial Control for Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, which owns and operates The Peninsula brand of hotels. It was great to see Howard present hotel financial statement analysis to the students, after which Howard, Martin and I spoke to the students about our career paths in hospitality finance. The students enjoyed learning about the various ways that we had developed our careers and we enjoyed being with future leaders of our industry!

My grand tour really reinforced my enthusiasm for HFTP and made it clear to me that HFTP is evolving in a way that will provide quality support to hospitality finance and technology professionals across the globe. I witnessed great interest for a global community of colleagues who are seeking to share experiences and grow knowledge specific to hospitality finance and technology.

Jerry Trieber, CPA, CHAE, CFE, CFF, CGMA, is a regional director of accounting for Crestline Hotels and Resorts and HFTP Global President.