David M. Brudney is currently the principal of David Brudney & Associates of Carlsbad, CA, a marketing consulting firm specializing in the hospitality industry since its inception in 1979.  As a veteran professional consultant, Brudney has advised developers and lenders, hotel owners and operators, chains and independents, mega-resorts and conference centers, limited service and B&Bs alike, throughout the U.S. on issues relating to performance evaluation and enhancement, strategy, structure, direction and execution. 

Brudney’s area of expertise is sales, marketing and operations and his primary consulting work the past 28 years has focused on producing top line improvement, strategic planning, structure and direction, performance evaluation, result measurement, research and litigation support. 

Brudney’s extensive body of work covering four decades includes hands on directing, sales and catering department restructuring and redeployment, strategy and program implementation, production of heavy-actionable marketing plans, marketing overviews, competitive analyses and user analyses along with solid credentials in training and teaching. 

Brudney has become an accomplished teacher and speaker at colleges and universities and industry events on subjects relating to hospitality sales and marketing.  He has appeared as an expert witness in disputes between hotel owners/lenders and hotel operators on issues involving marketing and operations. 

Brudney’s career in the hospitality industry began in 1960 as a tour escort for Greyhound Highway Tours in San Francisco and following a brief career in commercial broadcasting he became a hotel sales manager.  From 1964 to 1979 he held sales and marketing positions including national sales manager for Westin’s Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, director of sales for Westin’s North Michigan Avenue Hotel, Chicago, director of sales and marketing, Grand Hyatt San Francisco and western regional sales manager, Hyatt Hotels, Los Angeles. 

He was with Hyatt during its accelerated Regency growth in the ‘70s and his work experience involved direct sales, pre-opening, multiple unit supervision, regional sales, client junkets, promotions, and corporate development marketing studies.

Experience

Brudney consults regularly for owners, lenders, operators and managers advising clients with recommendations, ideas and opinions on specific ways of improving overall sales and marketing performance and measurement. Brudney’s research skills produce helpful tools for management in assessing competition, overall market conditions, primary and secondary feeder markets along with invaluable hotel user feedback.  He produces hands on actionable marketing plans and, in order for owners and management to make certain that dollars are being spent wisely and that staff is meeting expectations, he performs annual and quarterly reviews and evaluations of entire sales and marketing operations. 

Brudney is called upon at various times to speak or facilitate for clients, bringing in a “fresh set of eyes” and new and different perspectives on hotels and business in general.  He continues to teach classes in hospitality sales and marketing and is a regular lecturer at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. 

He has successfully performed litigation support engagements at times when disputes between owners and operators required an independent, professional expert to render opinions relating to specific case issues. 

Brudney has distinguished himself over the past 28 years by assisting clients to improve performance by virtue of Brudney’s advice and counsel, direction and execution.

Education 

Brudney earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts from San Francisco State University and has successfully completed more than 50 professional development courses in selling, marketing, hotel operations and management during his long career. 

As a teacher, he has designed curriculum and instructed classes in hospitality sales and marketing (and various other related and non-related subjects) throughout the University of California extension program (UCLA and Cal-Berkeley) and the California Community College system for more than 25 years. 

Affiliations 

Brudney is Chair Emeritus of ISHC’s Marketing Committee. David was a past board member, and marketing committee chair of the prestigious International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC).  David serves on the BECA Industry Advisory Board, Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts Department, San Francisco State University. Also, a past member of the AH&LA’s marketing committee, past allied member of the California Hotel & Motel Association, past president of the Northern California chapter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International and has served on the advisory board of the Hotel and Restaurant Management School at City College of San Francisco.

Professional Activities - Teaching 

Brudney has developed curriculum, instructed classes and produced and conducted seminars on “hospitality industry sales and marketing” for the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, U.C. Riverside, San Diego State University, Cal Poly Pomona and L.A. Trade Tech since 1975 and holds a lifetime teaching credential with The California Community Colleges.  He has appeared frequently as a guest lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and he developed the curriculum and taught the inaugural marketing and sales management classes as part of the California Tourism Industry Association and U.C. Berkeley’s “The Berkeley Series in Travel and Tourism Management” program. 

Recent Projects Completed by David Brudney & Associates 

DB&A conducted Sales & Marketing Operations reviews, validated owners, asset managers and operators’ expectations, produced preopening Sales & Marketing plans, monitored and mentored Sales teams: 

580 room, luxury resort and spa, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles, CA

167 room, limited service, branded hotel, Santa Clara, CA

386 room, full-service, branded hotel, adjacent to JFK Airport, Jamaica, NY

135 room, limited service hotel, Schaumburg, IL 

553 room, full service, downtown branded hotel, Seattle, WA 

558 room, branded, luxury resort, Kapalua, HI 

1,176 room, branded, full service, downtown hotel, Chicago, IL 

998 room branded, upscale resort & spa, Hollywood, FL 

1,620 room branded, full service upscale resort, Dallas, TX 

254 room branded, upscale, I.A.C.C. designated conference center resort, Stevenson, WA 

• Downtown Atlanta, GA, six (6) first class, full service hotels 
• Kohala Coast, HI, four (4) luxury, full service resorts 

David Brudney and David R. Evans formed a business partnership in 2003, FRONTLINE, and have been performing operational and sales and marketing reviews for hotel owners, asset managers and convention and visitors bureaus.  Evans is a 40-year veteran of the hospitality industry who retired in 2000 as senior sales and marketing officer for Westin and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.  Brudney and Evans first worked together from 1966 to 1970 in the opening of the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Recent FRONTLINEProjects Completed: 

• Phase II Best Practice Review, Tempe, AZ Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Best Practice Review, Colorado Springs, CO Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Sales review, San Diego North Convention & Visitors Bureau, Encinitas, CA 
• Marketing Review, Branding, Positioning analysis and opinion, Jacksonville, FL 
• Best Practice Review, Tempe, AZ Convention & Visitors Bureau 
• Best Practice Review, Evansville, IN Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Best Practice Review presentation, IACVB, Boston, MA 
• Sales & Marketing review, mentoring, monitoring, Wyndham Wilmington (DE) Hotel 
• Best Practice Sales & Marketing Review, Memphis, TN Hotel & Lodging Association’s Convention Committee
• Sales & Marketing Review, the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows, Kamuela, HI 
• Sales & Marketing Review, The Pan Pacific, San Francisco, CA 
• Best Practice Sales & Marketing Review, Tourism Vancouver, Vancouver, B.C.

David R. Evans, CHME, Managing Director 
David R. Evans & Associates 
7408 91st AVE SE 
Mercer Island, WA 98040 
(t) 206-232-7086 
(f) 206-230-8122 
(Cell) 206-930-7087 
huskees@comcast.net

Brudney has appeared frequently as a featured speaker, motivator, teacher, lecturer and facilitator throughout his long career because of his powerful communication skills and his unique ability to inform, entertain and inspire his audiences. 

Brudney uses an engaging manner and puts his audiences at ease quickly, drawing upon past experiences as a child actor, baseball player, tour escort, radio and television newsman and teacher prior to his distinguished career as a hotel sales and marketing director and today as a professional management and marketing consultant. 

Brudney is a masterful storyteller who has regaled audiences worldwide with his most welcomed style of honest candor, deep passion, classic anecdotes, compelling arguments and always with the right touch of humor.  He never fails to get his audiences to think nor to come away with something with which to relate. 

Wide Range of Audiences 

While Brudney’s primary focus is consulting with and advising his hotel, resort, conference center and restaurant clients, he has frequently been hired to advise and speak before non-hospitality professional clients such as physicians, dentists, attorneys, accountants and designers along with manufacturing companies. 

Brudney’s Topics

Brudney’s topics cover a wide range of issues dealing with all aspects of sales and marketing, management, leadership and mentoring.  A sample of topics from recent speeches, seminars, presentations and interviews include:

• “Sales Training Presentation for G.M.s”, Opus Hospitality Advisors, San Diego, CA, Oct. 18, 2006
• “Developing & Updating Your Competitive Set”, Destination Marketing Organization University (DMOU.com Teleseminars), Madison, WI, Sept. 6, 2006
• “Sharing Professional Sales Prospecting Tips”, Facilitator, International Society of Hospitality Consultants, San Diego, CA, Oct. 21, 2005
• “What’s New, What’s Next in Sales & Marketing,” Dow Hotel Company Senior Management meeting, Anaheim, CA, August 30, 2005
• “Managing Today’s Sales Team”, Pacific Valley Investors Hotel Group Management Retreat, Lake Tahoe, CA, June 21, 2005
• “Professional Sales Workshop,” telephone selling skills, effective use of voicemails, working with gatekeepers and screeners, Jenny Craig, 2004-‘05 
• “Professional Sales Workshop,” Seattle Renaissance Hotel, Seattle, WA, August 17, 2004; also Wyndham Wilmington Hotel, Wilmington, DE, July 27, 2004 
• “Thinking Outside the Box!  Best Practices from Tourism Vancouver,” IACVB, Boston, MA, July 17, 2004 
• “Memphis Destination Sales & Marketing Review,” Memphis Hotel & Lodging Assn., Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau and Memphis Cook Convention Center, Memphis, TN, March 30, 2004 
• “Backyard Basics/Neighborhood Marketing, The Westin Pasadena, CA, May 7, 2003 
• “Backyard Basics/Neighborhood Marketing” Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 11, 2003 & The Westin Pasadena) 
• “Professional Sales Workshop”, Northwoods Resort & Conference Center, Big Bear Lake, CA, July 9, 2002 
• Produced and moderated panel on “Marketing Resources, Are Independents Leveling the Playing Field?”, International Society of Hospitality Consultants annual conference, El Dorado Hotel, Santa Fe, NM, October 12, 2001 
• Conducted 4-hour professional selling workshop “Return to That Zone,” Kinseth Hospitality Companies national sales meeting, Holiday Inn & Suites, Overland Park, KS, March 26, 2001 
• “Road to Success 2001, Building a ‘Toolbox’ for a Successful Career,” Cal Poly, Pomona, Collins Hotel & Restaurant School, Pomona, CA, January 25, 2001 
• “Primer on today’s hotel G.M., sales & marketing director”, Wilmer Communications, Seattle, WA, Jan. 8, 2001 
• “Neighborhood Marketing,” California Lodging Industry Association Annual Educational Conference, Santa Clara Westin, Santa Clara, CA, September 15, 2000 
• Conducted half-day professional selling workshop retreat, Sales, Catering, senior management, Beverly Hills Nikko Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA, January 1999 
• Conducted 2-day professional selling workshop, Sales and Catering departments, Beverly Hills Nikko Hotel, Stouffer Esmeralda Resort, Indian Wells, CA, July, 1997 

• KSL/La Quinta v. Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, Los Angeles, CA 
• ESA Management, Inc. v. Tufo Associates, Phoenix, AZ 
• Geyser v. Excell Legacy Corporation, San Diego, CA, 2002 
• HomeBase v. The Broadmoor, Costa Mesa, CA and Denver, CO, 2001 
• U.S. Grant v. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, San Diego, CA, 2000-‘01 
• Huntington Hotel Partners v. Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Los Angeles, 1996-97 
• Radisson Hotels v. J. Bartels & Westin Hotels, Minneapolis, MN, 1997 
• Healthdyne v. Hilton Pointe Resorts, Phoenix, AZ, ‘95-96 
• AmeriTel Inns v. Hampton Inns, Boise, ID, 1994 
• 6th & K Ltd. v. HFS/Ramada Hotels, San Diego, CA, 1993-94 
• Waterfront, Inc. v. Jones Construction Co., Santa Ana, CA, 1992 
• Ojai Valley Inn & Crown Family v. Vista and Hilton Hotels, New York, 1991 
• Governor Hotel Associates v. Cobblestone, Portland, OR, 1991 
• Homestead Savings v. Registry Hotel/HMC, Santa Ana, CA, 1989 
• Larry Chan & RHA v. Ramada Renaissance Hotels, San Francisco, 1988 
• La Mansion Hotels & Resorts v. Met Life, San Antonio, TX, 1987-88 

• Dec./Jan. 2007, Hotel & Motel Management, “Business Outlook 2007”, Stacey Higgins, Associate Editor (extensively quoted)
• August 10, 2006, Florida Today, “Higher Park, Hotel Prices Help Boost Disney Profits,” Pg. C-1, by Donna Balancia (extensively quoted)
• June 25, 2006, Wall Street Journal, “Ritz-Carlton, Leader in Luxury, Relaxes its Service Rules,” by Peter Sanders (contributed but not quoted)
• April 1, 2004, Association Meetings/Meetings Net, “Meet The Attrition Buster,” Pg. 2 (extensively quoted) 
• March 2004, Meeting News, “Hilton Promo Seems To Be From Another Era,” pg. 24 (extensively quoted) 
• Summer 2003, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International Marketing Review, “The Sales and Marketing Audit: A Proven Way to Build Business,” by Harvey Chipkin, pg. 33-35 (extensively quoted) 
• 2003, “How to Develop, Market, and Operate a Bed & Breakfast or Small Inn,” by Drew Dimond, ISBN 0-9673618-1-8, contains three Brudney articles (“Front Desk Fails to Catch America’s Hospitality Spirit,” pg. 151-153, “More Theater, Less Zombies,” pg. 164-166, and “David vs. Goliath, Leveling the Playing Field in Attracting, Retaining Hotel Guests”, pg. 173-175) 
• December 9, 2002, Hotel & Motel Management, Consultants Adapt to New Business Realities," pg. 4, 37 (extensively quoted) 
• March 24, 2002, Six Continents Hotels, Atlanta, GA, included three Brudney articles (“Front Desk Fails to Catch America’s Hospitality Spirit”, “It’s the Experience, Stupid!” and “More Theater, Less Zombies)” in participant workbooks for Holiday Inn Express regional workshops nationwide titled “Delivering S.M.A.R.T. Service” (SCH Hospitality Training Network) 
• March 11, 2002, Los Angeles Business Journal, "Mum's The Word as Downtown Boutique Inn Nears May Debut," pg. 8 
• March 4, 2002, Meeting News, "Destination Choice: It's Back To The Basics," pg. 8 
• December 2001, Corporate Meetings & Incentives, “Cancellation and Attrition,” pg. 13 
• July 17, 2000 Hotel & Motel Management, “Community Involvement – high gas prices drive properties to boost local awareness,” (extensively quoted) 
• June 19, 2000 Hotel & Motel Management, “Newcomer Tops ISHC’s Latest Issue List,” (extensively quoted) 
• February 2000 Hotel & Motel Management, “Getting To Know All About You,” “Low Rates and Internet Access, Too,” (extensively quoted) 
• May 1999 Hotel & Motel Management, “Hotel Amenities - Adding Value to Guest Experience,” (extensively quoted) 
• October 1998 Meeting News, “Hotel Rate Growth Likely to Slow Up” (extensively quoted) 
• September 1998 Lodging, “How To Get More Bang For Your Consulting Buck,” David Brudney authored, pg. 82 
• September 1998 Lodging, “Making an Impact” (extensively quoted) 
• July 1998 Timeshare Management, “Marketing To Generation Xers” (extensively quoted) 
• May 1998 Meetings In The West, “Executive Retreats: Small Getaways Let Groups Get Down To Business” (extensively quoted) 
• March 2, 1998, Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel, “Marcus Corp. Tries Its Hand At Palm Springs Luxury Resort” (extensively quoted)