Senior Advisory Team

Senior expertise, directly involved.

The Hotelier Lab brings together experienced hospitality executives across three complementary disciplines: operations, performance and owner advisory; leadership, training and hotel openings; technology, systems and digital infrastructure. On an assignment they work as one team.

Serdar Güntekin

Senior Advisor – Hotel Operations · Pre-Opening · Performance Advisory

Expertise

  • Strategy
  • Operations
  • P&L
  • People & Culture
  • Pre-Opening
  • F&B

More than thirty years of international hospitality leadership across city hotels, resorts, cruise and ferry operations in Türkiye, Europe and the United States.

General Manager at MP Hotels & Resorts, Labranda Excelsior Side and Design Plus Seya Beach Alaçatı; Training Director at Kaya Hotels & Resorts and Human Resources Director at Hapimag Resort Seagarden Bodrum.

Founding Partner of Brand Management Turkey for four years, involved in the opening and advisory of twelve hotels, alongside asset-management, pre-opening and training assignments.

Selected consulting & project experience
  • Sabiha Gökçen Airport Hotel — training consultancy
  • Hilton Garden Inn Adıyaman — hotel & asset management
  • Rebis Bodrum
  • Hilas Thermal Resort & Spa
  • Hay Hotels — Alsancak, İzmir Business Hotel
  • Hay Hotels — Alaçatı Boutique Hotel
  • SarıKonak, Amasya — boutique hotel advisory
  • Sirius Boutique Hotel, Fulya, Istanbul — pre-opening & opening consultancy
Selected experience

İsmail İnözü

Senior Advisor – Commercial Strategy & Hotel Operations

Expertise

  • Hotel Operations
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Commercial Performance
  • Revenue
  • Pre-Opening & Openings

More than thirty years in hospitality management and operations, following studies in Tourism & Hotel Management at Marmara University.

From Front Office at Crowne Plaza Ataköy to Sales & Marketing Director at Lares Park Hotel Taksim, then around ten years at DoubleTree by Hilton Istanbul Old Town from its 2010 opening, first as Sales & Marketing Director and later as General Manager.

His advisory work focuses on commercial strategy, hotel operations and pre-opening — including boutique hotel openings and consultancy, pre-opening and post-opening operational advisory, and hospitality instruction at Vatel Istanbul.

Selected consulting & project experience
  • Zerzembe Boutique Hotel — pre-opening consultant & post-opening operations advisor, six months
  • Vatel Hotel & Tourism Business School, Istanbul — hospitality instructor
  • Kozyatağı ByOtel — meeting & banquet facilities operation, 2020–2025
  • Boutique hotel openings & consultancy — independent assignments
Selected experience

Rıza Uğur

Senior Advisor – Hotel Technology & Digital Infrastructure

Expertise

  • Hotel Technology
  • IT Infrastructure
  • PMS & POS
  • Network Architecture
  • Cybersecurity
  • Systems Audit
  • Pre-Opening

A hotel IT career covering hotel IT infrastructure, PMS/POS, networks, cybersecurity and firewall systems, pre-opening technology and IT audits.

Fifteen years as IT Director for Accor Türkiye, involved with approximately 35 openings across ibis, Novotel, Mercure, MGallery and Pullman alongside head-office IT. Earlier IT management at Emirates Palace Kempinski Abu Dhabi and Çırağan Palace Hotel Kempinski Istanbul.

For the past five years he has run his own consultancy, providing IT consultancy to more than thirty businesses: pre-opening budgeting and rollout, Opera PMS, Micros POS, network and firewall infrastructure, guest networks, systems security and IT audit.

Selected consulting & project experience
  • Accor Türkiye — IT Director, fifteen years; approximately 35 hotel openings from ibis to Pullman
  • Own IT consultancy — five years, IT consultancy for more than thirty businesses
  • Emirates Palace Kempinski Abu Dhabi — IT management
  • Çırağan Palace Hotel Kempinski Istanbul — IT management
  • Çırağan Palace Kempinski — VLAN & network segmentation, IT support
  • Mercure Trabzon Hotel — IT consultant, hardware & software, A–Z project
  • ibis Styles Istanbul Merter — IT consultant, hardware & software, A–Z project
  • Bodrum LOFT (Akfen Holding) — opening & IT support
  • Papermoon Restaurant, Bodrum LOFT — opening & IT support
  • Nobu Restaurant, Bodrum LOFT — opening & IT support
  • Sunset Restaurant, Bodrum LOFT — opening & IT support
  • Marriott Istanbul Asia — IT support & consulting
  • Swissôtel Kobuleti, Georgia — IT consultant
  • Hyatt Hotel Tbilisi, Georgia — IT consultant
  • Ramada Istanbul Kartal — IT opening, Opera & hotel applications
  • Tashan Sultanahmet, Istanbul — IT consulting & opening
  • Elite World Hotels Türkiye — IT consulting, Palo Alto firewall replacement
  • Rotana Hotel Group / Arjaan Hotel Istanbul — IT consulting & support
Selected experience

The Hotelier Lab is presented as a senior advisory team. Brands named in advisor biographies describe individual career and project experience and are not clients of The Hotelier Lab.

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