Rich Siegel Talks with Dan Kornick, CIO of Loews Hotels & Co, to Find out What Keeps a CIO of a Luxury Hotel Brand Up at Night in the Wake of a Global Pandemic. 

On the latest edition of the HU High Five, Rich Siegel talks to Dan Kornick, the Chief Information Officer of the upscale hotel brand Loews Hotels & Co. 

With 27 hotels in North America, Loews’ CIO Dan Kornick admits they weren’t ready for what was in store when the pandemic hit early last year. “Unprecedented is the only word that comes to mind,” Kornick said. “Within a month we had to shut down most of our hotels, we had to work from home 100% across our workforce … you know, you have downturns, but this was truly an inflection point,” said Kornick. 

Loews took a progressive approach to re-opening, because Kornick explained “as owners/operators we had to take re-opening on a case by case basis … based upon demand, partnerships and where COVID-19 was most prevalent.”

Prior to the pandemic, the chain had completed some updates and system upgrades that would prove to be beneficial to their operations re-boot. “Lucky for us we had just come off our cloud migration, so we had moved all of our systems to the cloud, and set the infrastructure for the company,” Kornick explained, making it easier to focus on tasks like mobile check-in and check-out, mobile F&B and enhancing remote chat for team members and guests. 

So where is the industry headed in 2021? Kornick and Rich discuss it all, including cyber security, the future of the industry and even how they feel about legalizing marijuana.