I can see dignified concierges everywhere clutching their golden keys and gasping in indignation at the title of this article. But hear me out. Technology has placed a world of resources at the fingertips of travelers. Mobile applications allow us to walk out of our hotel, point our phone into the street, and find local restaurants and entertainment, peruse reviews, consult maps and make reservat...

The Rocco Forte Collection today announced that it has appointed Karim Naffah as the company’s new managing director with immediate effect. Naffah, 47, has acted as a consultant to the company since July 2009 during which he has assisted with the company’s successful refinancing and helped drive improvements in the performance management and corporate governance of the group of luxury hotels and ...

The negative environment that the sector suffered in the 2009 financial year presented a very positive advance in the first half of 2010. The Group income reached €646.5M, a rise of 7.2%, and the EBITDA, which shows the operational evolution of NH Hoteles, reflected the significant market recovery and an increase in productivity which is worthy of note. The Company generated an EBITDA of €68M, pr...

Visiting a variety of travel-related websites has become a fundamental part of the travel planning process for many consumers. Understanding what motivates travelers to visit particular websites is vital for travel companies wishing to attract more consumers to their sites, products, and services. One might expect, especially in today's price-conscious environment, that price would be the dominan...

Sol Meliá announced results today for the first half of 2010, during which the company made a profit of 13,5 million euros compared to the 1.2 million euros in the same period of 2009, thus meeting market expectations after registering revenues of 581 million euros, compared to 544.9 million euros in the first half of 2009. EBITDA grew by 13% to 97 million euros compared to 85.9 in the same perio...

Hospitality trade journalists have a unique perspective on travel because we know communicating information about hotels and destinations is crucial. If people don’t know about your property, after all, they won’t come. That’s why press trips, or fam (for familiarization) trips, are essential: They spread the word. The good ones are great, the bad ones, nightmarish. I’d like to reduce the second ...

How often have we heard the expression that “Life is a journey.”? Global authors and writers have noted that that travel is one of humankind’s most enduring symbols of freedom and ability to enjoy life. The concept of travel is inbred into the human experience, and we as hoteliers need to be proactive in how we deliver that experience to each one of our guests.

I came across a piece I'd written about 17-18 months ago on the future of hotel internet marketing. The article talked about 5 broad tech trends that I thought would radically alter the way we approached digital / internet marketing for hotels back at the end of 2008. I thought it'd be fun to take a re-look at the article and see how far we've actually come in the last year or more and if those p...

ARLINGTON, TX July 29, 2010—E-Guide Services, Inc. (EGS) announced results of an independent Arbiton Inc. study of its innovative E-GuideTV service, an in-room hotel television channel guide. Results prove the Out-of-Home advertising medium to be both a valuable and popular amenity to hotel guests and an outstandingly effective medium for advertisers.

TeleAdapt, a global supplier of hotel guest connectivity products, is pleased to announce its MediaHub Extender™ connectivity panel is included as part of the "modern hotel room" set design for the new movie Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ: INFA), the world’s number one independent provider of data integration software, today announced that Libra OnDemand, a web-based application designed to drive sales and increase revenues for the world’s premier hotel organizations, has signed an agreement with OEM Informatica Cloud Services for its comprehensive suite of hospitality specific applications. Informa...

The ASEAN Hotel Review launched in May 2010 is the latest sub-regional report from STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the global hotel industry. The monthly report compiles year-to-date and current month hotel performance information for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam within the economic, social and cultural bloc of the Association of Sout...

This newsletter provides a snapshot of the evolution of the performance of Greek hotels, based on a sample of approximately 180 hotels & resorts in Greece. The hotel performance data is compared with data regarding international arrivals in Greece as well as international hotel data, so as to place the Greek hospitality industry in the context of Greek tourism and of the International Hospitality...

Hotels in London have recorded a rarely achieved room occupancy of 90% during June driving a year-on-year profitability increase of 16% for that month, according to the latest HotStats survey from TRI Hospitality Consulting. The extremely high room occupancy levels in addition to a 12.8% increase in achieved average room rate to €188.16 resulted in a year-on-year growth in Revenue per Available R...

Naffah, 47, has acted as a consultant to the company since July 2009 during which he has assisted with the company’s successful refinancing and helped drive improvements in the performance management and corporate governance of the group of luxury hotels and resorts. The new appointment will enable Sir Rocco Forte, founder and executive chairman of the group, to devote more time to spearheading ...

Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, has appointed Cornelia Koebele as Director of Sales and Marketing for Jumeirah Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi one year ahead of the hotel’s planned opening. Cornelia Koebele has a significant track record in the hospitality sector having worked for Rosewood, Le Méridien and Hyatt in the past, as well representi...

In this role, she ensures consistent design quality for the brand, and also leads refinement and implementation of design standards and requirements for the brand’s new descriptor program. Prior to joining Best Western, Hulbert spent twelve years with Hilton Hotels Corporation, most recently serving as director of interior design for Latin America and the Caribbean. With Hilton, Hulbert oversa...

By HSMAI
Revenue Management has continued to grow as a science and an art over the past several years in many industries, and especially in the hospitality industry. On the most fundamental level, the basis for success is to have the right revenue management organization in place to support the revenue strategy. A solid understanding of revenue management is critical throughout an organization, from top to bottom. This HSMAI Foundation publication brings you and your property the very latest information on understanding the market, market segmentation, forecasting, revenue strategy, pricing, inventory control strategies, and performance analysis. Included are a plethora of case studies to help you optimize revenue at all levels. The publishing partner for “The Evolving Dynamics of Revenue Management: A Comprehensive Revenue Optimization Road Map for Hotel Owners, Operators and Practitioners” is TRAVELCLICK, with sponsors STR, and EasyRMS.