Bryan Hammer is vice president of IT at Belmond, a global leader in luxury travel with a diverse portfolio of 43 properties across hotels, trains, boats and lodges across 24 countries and territories. In this role, he is responsible for the development and implementation of IT standards for Belmond’s brands, operations and information security including PCI compliance.

Hammer has built a prolific, well-travelled career in hospitality technology, having spent 26 years working in the industry across the globe including the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

However, he had originally earned his degree in finance from the University of South Florida. “My career [in hospitality technology] started when I hauled my surfboard from Florida to the Virgin Islands,” Hammer recalled — not to surf the oncoming hurricane, but to shut down and protect the data room at the resort that had just hired him as their IT manager.

The next six years gave him many valuable opportunities to work on numerous projects throughout the Caribbean and Florida. In 2006, Starwood Hotels moved him to their divisional office in Brussels, where Hammer managed technology for the company’s properties in Europe, Africa and the Middle East (while, at the same time, exponentially increasing his personal “countries visited” count).

Following Marriott® International’s acquisition of Starwood in 2016, Hammer collaborated with the Marriott team on an extensive project to migrate the former
Starwood systems to Marriott’s technology platforms. He then transitioned in 2018 to his current position as global VP of IT for Belmond (which was acquired by leading luxury goods conglomerate LVMH shortly after).

“Our mission at Belmond has been to ‘centralize, standardize, and integrate’ its technology,” Hammer said. A crucial part of this mission has been a multi-year overhaul of their systems — going property by property to simultaneously install an above-property PMS, standardized POS, and integrated payment and tokenization platform. Belmond IT is a very customer-focused team that prides itself on being easy to do business with, building trust and credibility to foster effective collaboration internally.
Hammer has also overseen the development of several custom, in-house solutions for Belmond including a booking engine, API and data platform. “This gives us incredible control over integrations and data, and the innovations they can unlock.” And it makes Hammer excited about the future. “All this work has set the stage for some very, very exciting AI initiatives underway!”

Bryan's Best:

• Family: A wife of 20+ years who also works in hospitality and: “together, we have three children — two already in university, and one soon on his way. [We also] have two dogs, several cats, chickens, bees, and whatever stray animals show up…”
• Hobbies: Travel (visited 80+ countries). Mountain/trail running: “I’ve completed many Ultra Trail running events and now doing SkyRaces.”
• Go-To Periodical or Website: Favorite podcasts include Stuff You Should Know, Acquired, Inner Cosmos [and] anything physics related with Brian Cox.
• Book: How to Tie Knots by Will Guidara. “I haven’t read it yet, but once I do, it will be my favorite, and the most useful.”
• Music: The Allman Bros Band Travel Destination: Many places in Africa, and anywhere in the mountains.
• Advice to Young People: “Create your own opportunities; don’t wait for others to do it for you.”
• Dinner With: All 35+ of his cousins. “It’s pretty wild when we all get together!”