Interview with Carmen Mallo, Co-founder of Rems Hospitality

REMS Hospitality is a newborn project. Behind the scenes, Carmen Mallo is the Co-founder and the passionate CEO of REMS. Together with her team, they invested countless hours to help restaurants stay ahead of the competition and achieve their true potential. This is an exciting project. In the next 5 minutes, you can read what is behind the purpose of her journey with REMS.

Why is REMS so important for you?

REMS is a project that represents a combination of personal and professional things. Since I was small I have always imagined myself running a business or creating something that could bring value to someone else.  REMS is important because it has the potential of creating unprecedented value simplistically. I am very grateful for having learned revenue management and market share from one of the best hotel companies in the world.

Why do you always keep talking about benchmarking or market share?

Benchmarking is critical to understand your position in the market and your opportunity to strive for success. No matter what you do, there is always competition around that fights for what you do.

What is your inspiration for benchmarking?

STR Global. This company provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for global hospitality sectors. They primarily work with hotels and as an ex-hotel revenue manager, I have studied STR report and benchmarking data inside out. It is hard to imagine a hotel running with no market share data nowadays.

What makes you believe REMS can be successful?

I have seen it and it works. Having a clear picture of what your position in the market is and what you lack can immediately transform your results and where you focus your energies.

Why would you say REMS is a good fit for the restaurant industry?

Because we have created a solution focusing on how restaurants operate daily. We are aware of what the priorities for a restaurant owner vs a general manager are. So we have built a product that can be easily read and interpret at any management level.

When did you realise something was missing in the restaurant world?

When I was interviewed for a role in a restaurant company, one of the first questions I asked was: How do you measure success and how do you know what your competitors are doing?

The answer to measuring success was easy. We have a budget required to meet and we aim to grow sales year on year by a %.

In regards to the competition, the answer was not that clear. - We are not sure who our competitors are-, they said.

What is your opinion regarding data analytics?

Data is only relevant if you can read it properly and extract valuable conclusions. There is an upcoming explosion of industries demanding data scientists, analysts, etc. This is also happening in restaurants. Unfortunately, often time there is no time or adequate people to break down thousands of lines into something readable and meaningful. Most of the companies I have studied end up implementing a simpler relationship with data. “A proper data decluttering leading into a minimalist approach”

What do restaurants and hotels use to drive decisions?

 In hotels, you can generate revenue by either selling more rooms (occupancy) or selling them more expensive (Average room price).

Hotels make daily decisions based on what these results are in comparison to their competitive set. They choose a few hotels to get compared against and they all jump on the race of capturing as much market share (clients) as possible.

In restaurants, you can generate revenue by either selling more seats (Occupancy) or selling them more expensive (Average daily spend).

Restaurants make daily decisions based on what these results are in comparison to previous weeks or years. This might work only when the market remains steady as in times of recession or pandemic, sales will most likely decline. During this period, the market you share should become the primary focus.

We heard you saying, you are here to challenge how restaurants measure success. Could you please explain what you mean by this?

Growing sales should never be a sole indicator of success. I always kept in mind the hours I spent learning to understand market share for hotels and how to build strategies around those results.

What would happen if your restaurant grew sales year on year by 2% but on the other hand lose market share by 100k? I am sure your approach to how you run the business might change.

Lastly, what would you like to say to restaurants that are new to this concept and unsure of the benefits?

I understand current times have made us all go through exceptional challenges, however, it is time to look at the future with optimism and explore new paths. We understand that. That is the reason why REMS is simple, inexpensive and very secure.

We are here to transform the restaurant industry with smart benchmarking.

Thank you very much for your time. We wish you all the best.

Thank you