Harmeet Mann Featured on Hertelier After ALIS 2026 Session

Women in hospitality aren’t waiting for the future. They’re building it now.

That message was front and center when Mehr Consultancy CEO Harmeet Mann took the stage at ALIS 2026 in Los Angeles and was later featured on Hertelier.com. On January 27, Harmeet joined Wyndham Hotels & Resorts President and CEO Geoff Ballotti for the Meet the Future session, hosted by Jeff Higley for the "Meet the Future" session, hosted by Jeff Higley.

The conversation focused on what women's leadership in hospitality actually looks like in practice. Not aspirational goals or distant timelines. The work women are doing right now to reshape how hospitality companies operate.

What Came Up

Harmeet addressed the structural barriers women still face in the industry. Access to capital. Networking opportunities that have historically favored male colleagues. The gap between capability and connection.

"Women are great operators," she said during the session. "But they may not always have the same opportunities, the same connections, the same networking muscle development that their male colleagues have."

She highlighted programs working to close that gap: Women Own the Room, Women in Hospitality Leadership Alliance, Female Founders in Hospitality, and AAHOA HerOwnership. Mehr manages three of the 60 hotels now operating under Wyndham's Women Own the Room program.

How Mehr Operates

When Ballotti asked what sets Mehr Consultancy apart, Harmeet pointed to how we support our general managers. We use technology and standardized processes to handle procurement, hiring support, and quality assurance prep. This frees GMs to focus on what matters: building relationships with their teams and guests.

Our approach to accountability reflects this philosophy. "We don't grill our general managers and say, where did you go wrong?" Harmeet explained. "Because if they went wrong, it's actually because we went wrong."

Support flows down. Accountability starts at the top.

Flexibility for Owners

Sitting at the intersection of ownership and operations, Harmeet addressed what brands could do differently. Get more specific about what actually moves the needle in different markets. Not every market needs the same experiential elements. Flexibility on property improvement plans and brand standards in markets where they don't drive revenue lets owners reinvest in what genuinely improves guest experience.

"At the end of the day, ownership priority is profitability," Harmeet said. "Nobody is doing this because it's so fun. It is fun but not enough to willingly do it at a loss."

Thank You

We're grateful to Hertelier for the coverage, to ALIS and Jeff Higley for the platform, and to Geoff Ballotti and the Wyndham team for their partnership through Women Own the Room.

Most of all, thanks to the general managers, teams, and ownership groups who trust Mehr to do this work alongside them. That trust makes everything else possible.

You can read the full article at Hertelier.com.