Tuesday | February 21
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Dedicated to Social Media, Part I: citizenM Hotels | By Daniel Edward Craig
In this three-part series I interview the individuals leading social media efforts with these companies to gain insight into how they're taming the social media beast and staying true to brand. Whether you're a B&B, boutique or big box, there are ideas and inspiration to be drawn from all three models. Today we kick things off with Diego Sartori of citizenM.

Will Meetings Market Recovery Continue In 2012? | By Robert Mandelbaum
According to Smith Travel Research, group demand (measured as a percent of total demand) began to grow year-over-year in March of 2010. Since then, the group occupancy rate has steadily increased, but has yet to reach the pre-recession levels observed in 2007 and 2008. While greater numbers of conventioneers may be seen roaming the lobbies, pre-function space, and banquet halls of U.S. hotels, operators and owners are telling us that negotiations with meeting planners are still contentious and concessions are being made to attract events to their hotels.

TripAdvisor Business Survey Reveals U.S. Hotels Optimistic on 2012 Economy
TripAdvisor, Inc. today announced the results of the annual TripAdvisor Industry Index - one of the world's largest hotel business surveys, incorporating responses from more than 9,000 accommodation owners and managers worldwide, of which 1276 were from the U.S. The Index, TripAdvisor's first of this size and scale, gauges the industry's outlook for the year ahead. Among the survey's key findings: the discovery that 65 percent of U.S. respondents are optimistic about the prospect of an economic recovery in 2012, a full 27 percent higher than the global average of 38 percent.

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STAFF MOVEMENTS

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JOBS

Market Manager France - Getaroom.com (Barcelona based)To grow its European performance Getaroom.com is looking for a market manager for the French market. A driven no-nonsense personality, together with a basic understanding of the hotel and travel industry is required. Previous experience in wholesaler / FIT contracting is a pl...

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PHOTOS

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FEATURED EVENT

HOSPA Hospitality Finance and Technology Master Classes at Hotelympia 2012
26 February-1 March 2012

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WHAT ELSE WAS NEW TODAY

RateGain's Hotel Rate Parity Trends - Australia - New Zealand (Feb - Apr 2012)
Hotel rate parity trends for February to April 2012 of three, four and five star hotels across some of the major cities in Australia & New Zealand. The report shows the percentage of hotels with cheaper rates on their own brand site compared to their rates on other OTAs.

RateGain's Hotel Pricing Trends - Australia - New Zealand (Feb-Apr 12)
Data trends on cheapest hotel rates as well as median rate for three months of three, four and five star hotels across some of the major cities in Australia & New Zealand. This set covers February to April 2012, taken on the 2nd week of February 2012 (all rates are in US dollars for two adults for a one-night stay).

Paula Zahn to emcee Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards gala
The Cornell School of Hotel Administration (SHA) has announced that eight-time Emmy Award winner Paula Zahn will serve as master of ceremonies at the fourth annual Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards on June 5, 2012 at the American Museum of Natural History in New Y...

Dubai-owned Travelodge Denies Bankruptcy Risk
Travelodge will get financing from two New York-based hedge funds as the UK budget hotel chain owned by Dubai International Capital restructures debt. Avenue Capital Group and GoldenTree Asset Management have underwritten a medium-term facility of £60m ($95m), James Leviton...

Hyatt Announces Plans for Hyatt Place Omaha Downtown/Old Market, First Hyatt-Branded Hotel in Nebraska
Slated to begin construction early in the second quarter of 2012, Hyatt Place Omaha Downtown/Old Market will have 159 rooms in a stand-alone nine-story building located on the northwest corner of Jackson Street and 12th Street in the Old Market district. The hotel, designed...

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SUPPLIER & PRODUCT NEWS

Luxury Property and Residences at Trump International Hotel & Tower® Toronto Debut with MICROS OPERA and MICROS POS
MICROS Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRS), a leading provider of information technology solutions for the hospitality and retail industries, is pleased to announce that the latest TRUMP HOTEL COLLECTION™ property, the Trump International Hotel & Tower® Toronto, which opened on Jan...

Easy InnKeeping™ clients implement Smart Device interface for their property management software
GRACESOFT, provider of Easy InnKeeping™ reservation and hotel software, announced adaptation of their Smart Device interface, now available to all clients. Many hospitality developments in smart technology have centered around the guest's interaction with the hotel or motel...

Six New OTAs Connect with SiteMinder
Offering online bookings to hotels from the budget sector right through to the luxury end of the market, the six new reservation sites now connected to SiteMinder include:* Atrapalo – a leading hotel booking site in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in South America –www...

APPOINTMENT RELEASE: Your Hotel™ Worldwide to Focus on German Expansion
Stockholm, Sweden, February 21, 2012: Your Hotel™ Worldwide, provider of strategic electronic sales, marketing and booking solutions and services, is expanding its brand and portfolio in Germany and Austria with the appointment of Ulf Guldi as Regional Sales Director – Germ...

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BLOGS

TripAdvisor Advertising – CPC Case Study and ROI
A great guest post by Piotr Majdan from Mirai Espana, that takes a deeper look at the performance of TripAdvisor PPC (not to be confused with Business LIstings) activity. Piotr had also published a case study on the ROI of TripAdvisor Business Listings as while back. These conclusions wer...

Gen Y and User-Generated Content
The following post is from Meghan Veroneau, TIG Global Marketing Coordinator. Fact: The annual spending power of Gen Y (aka the Millennial Generation) already exceeds $200 billion. Gen Y has integrated social media into their everyday lives, sharing opinions and seeking recommendations fr...

Could $5-a-Gallon Gasoline Cripple Tourism?
Many hotel industry pundits, me included, have discussed the things that could stall or even reverse the industry’s steady march back to prosperity. The list includes the U.S. economy, the world economy, CMBS debt coming due, even terrorism. One thing left off the list that could be a rea...

Weekly Top 10: Whitney Houston's hotel No. 1 post
Hotel Check-In's latest Weekly Top 10 list includes stories about Wall Street's spending habits and Whitney Houston's hotel room.

Leading Hotels experiments with removal of transaction fees
Three-and-a-half years after he took up the reins at Leading Hotels of The World and shook things up at the 84-year-old luxury hotel collective, Ted Teng (left) may be shaking up things again. He is piloting a project to remove transaction fees and move to a flat membership fee. With tran...

Thomas Cook loses position to Lastminute.com – Top UK travel sites, February 18 2012
Lastminute.com is the latest online travel agency to make a recent strong run in the list of leading UK, overtaking Thomas Cook to steal third place last week.

Top Hotel Execs Reveal Their Negotiation Tactics: Register For Cvent’s Live Videocast
The proper handling of group business RFPs is critical to your success as a hotelier. In order to get more group business on the books in 2012 and beyond it is important to understand your meeting and event planner clients. As planners become more strategic in their venue sourcing and exp...

Study: Hotels on mobile, social media and in-room services
Interesting a wide-ranging study published today by TripAdvisor after it surveyed close to 10,000 hotels around the world to understand more about their plans for 2012.

Love this photo of Dimitrios Buhalis
From Dimitrios Buhalis in Aveiro February 19, 2012 Professor Dimitrios Buhalis Bournemouth University www.buhalis.com

Finishing touches for your hotel guests
Identify the little finishing touches that you can give guests at the end of their stay that will leave them with that wow factor. This might be picking up on an earlier conversation you've had with the guest that enables you to give them a personalised memento of their stay. For example,...

Speed of Resolution Affects Customer Retention, Loyalty
A recent research project presented in a Harvard Business Review article suggests that the top priority for companies should be to provide quick, simple resolutions to problems. The focus of service must be on reducing ...

Hotel Spotlight: Radisson Blu Goa
Though it’s been open for only a few months, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s newest Radisson Blu already is making waves in India’s typically laid-back beach town. The 132-room Radisson Blu Resort Goa Cavelossim Beach is typical of Blu’s development strategy. While the brand is establis...

4 Lessons the Hospitality Industry Can Learn from Susan G. Komen
Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation had it all, until they didn't. They were synonymous with the color pink. They had several co-marketing deals with retail products. They had terrific sponsors. And most importantly: they mobilized thousands of women and their supporters to raise money...

Brands Face Stream Fatigue as Consumers Look Beyond Gimmicks in Social Networks
Part of an unpublished appendix for The End of Business as Usual... The mystique of Twitter, Facebook and Google+ causes a momentary lapse of reason where businesses are surprisingly acting first and addressing “the why” at a later point in time, if at all. Without careful consideration a...

The curse of too much choice
A great TED talks video by Sheena Iyengar that talks about the perils of too much choice. To quote from the video blurb: We all want customized experiences and products - but when faced with 700 options, consumers freeze up. With fascinating new research, Sheena Iyengar demonstrates how b...

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