Opinion Articles

November 24, 2014

Online Reviews: Insights Into Their Effects On Hotel Sales

It is interesting to observe that when it comes to online reviews, we use the terms "hotels" and "hospitality" in a generic way when we know they include a wide range of properties, from economy to luxury hotels. It is as if we consider that consumers' expectations and behaviors are similar across industry segments when it comes to online reviews.

By Inès Blal, Associate Professor, EHL

Lausanne, Switzerland

October 24, 2014

France at a standstill

Paradoxically, the success of the post-war boom in France led top economic and political players to rest on their laurels and come to a standstill, which analysts at the time condemned as a "blocked society". Conservatism settled in at institutions, among politicians and among the social partners, leading to fierce protection of acquired situations. TYPO3SEARCH_begin

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

July 14, 2014

Why TripAdvisor has a chance to eat the lunch of Booking.com

Tripadvisor's Tripconnect is the first real challenger to Booking.com and is the first step to get hoteliers back in control of their online distribution channel. Now that the Tripconnect platform has had time to establish itself after a gradual roll-out during 2013, let me explain how I came to this conclusion.NB: This is a viewpoint from Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric.

By Pedro Colaco, CEO, GuestCentric Systems

United Kingdom

June 24, 2014

Digital and profiling are just the foam on the wave of marketing

Is digital marketing turning clientele into veritable tyrants who dictate the law and do away with every new initiative? The subject deserves attention if we don't want to fall into a kind of dictatorship due to posts on community websites.

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

June 3, 2014

Digital optimizes, but the product wins loyalty!

Today innovation lies at the heart of consumer expectations and how could it be otherwise? Brainwashed by advertising for increasingly intelligent cars, increasingly efficient smartphones, increasingly connected household appliances, for consumers it is only natural for all the objects and services in their daily lives to integrate new technologies, efficient energy consumption, improved comfort and security. So why should the hotel industry be any different? Why would their expectations be lesser? What's happening in hospitality, they ask themselves?

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

May 23, 2014

Destination Paris... A Sleeping Beauty

In the constant competition between tourist destinations, Paris enjoys a considerable advantage that is also dangerous: that of being at the top of the list of musts for travelers venturing outside their country for the first time. Regular tourism growth worldwide thus feeds the arrivals statistics for the French capital, while simultaneously hiding weaknesses that threaten its future. TYPO3SEARCH_begin CONTENT ELEMENT, uid:75207/text [begin] Text: [begin]

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

The next-gen metrics that move hotel P&L

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Why Hospitality Net Leads B2B in Hospitality

Learn what makes us the industry-leader in what we do.

Hospitality Net

April 18, 2014

Roots, but wings as well….

It's an old proverb… No man is prophet in his own land. French politicians expound about France's good performances on the global tourism scene, but refrain from giving the country the means to develop further and to renew a supply that continues to shrink as the years go by.

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

January 24, 2014

Monuments in danger

Companies are increasingly reticent about authorizing their managers, even their highest officers, to stay at properties that are discordant with the notion of saving on overhead. Ostentatious luxury is no longer seen as a sign of success but as a kind of arrogance that is less and less acceptable. Former president Sarkozy's celebration of victory in a famous Champs-Elysées venue remains ingrained in memories as in poor taste, casting a shadow on the image of palaces in public opinion.

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

December 17, 2013

Go Glocal

A typical grassroots industry, greeting customers 24/ 7 in its establishments, the hotel industry has felt the need to gradually centralize support functions as hotel networks expand. While it is desirable to take advantage of economies of scale and to have a global vision to develop national and international strategies, there is a risk of falling out of touch with local market realities and disempowering hotel management. TYPO3SEARCH_begin CONTENT ELEMENT, uid:71895/text [begin] Header: [begin] Header: [end] Text: [begin]

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

November 13, 2013

Booking or not Booking

In a message from its communication agency to various publications, Booking.com denies being a greedy distributor who takes advantage of weak hoteliers in order to impose its own conditions. It attempts to restore a better image by rejecting 11 ideas. However, in doing so, it recognizes some practices alleged against it and avoids sensitive issues. The exercise deserves to be supplemented by answers to some additional questions....

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

October 30, 2013

By taking on Expedia and Bookings.com, are smaller hotels biting the hand that feeds them?

This isn’t the first time that online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Bookings.com have been in hot water. Only last year a lawsuit was launched in the US accusing Expedia, Starwood Hotels and InterContinental Hotel Group of price fixing. This time, it’s the French-based Union de Métiers et des Industries de l’Hôtellerie (UMIH) who have flagged the situation to the European competition watchdog Autorités de la Concurrence.

By Peter O’Connor, Professor of Strategy, University of South Australia

May 29, 2013

The Indivisible Image of France

Consumption may be reduced by excessive precautionary savings and productive investments waiting for better days. The national priority begins foremost with collective economic mobilization and not by rearguard battles on the evolution of society, regardless of respectable opinion. Besides the fact that the recent protests against marriage for all show the face of a blocked society, they show a strange behavior with respect to the republican law.

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

Why Hospitality Net Leads B2B in Hospitality

April 30, 2013

TripAdvisor caught red-handed

Despite their «sophisticated algorithms» and their attentive «monitoring» of comments posted on the web, it has been duped by small pranksters who succeeded at getting a homeless shelter in the Top 100 of recommended establishments for the quality of its service in the United Kingdom.

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

London, United Kingdom

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Hospitality Net

March 11, 2013

Strategic Overview Of Hotel Industry In Spain: Hyper-competition And Commoditization. How Are Hoteliers Reacting?

We should take certain facts into consideration in order to explain why the hotel business is more complex than not long ago. These facts are new business issues and complicate more things. Some of these business issues are uniquely happening in Spain, but others also happen everywhere in our hospitality industry.

By Arturo Cuenllas, Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Professor, arturocuenllas.com

Spain

November 27, 2012

Repositioning a Destination - A case study of Montenegro

What is needed to reposition an entire destination? All around the world destinations reach a mature life cycle and are forced to reinvent themselves due to increased global competition. The case study of Montenegro, a small country on the Adriatic coast, can provide interesting insights. Montenegro's hotel structure has changed dramatically, and about 95% of all hotels are privately owned. Private investment has progressively helped to modernise the country's hotel stock. However, the majority of hotels still remains in the two‐/three‐star category which seems to be contrary to the product and service requirements of today' travellers.

By Arlett Oehmichen, Director with HVS’s London office, HVS

Montenegro

October 5, 2012

Booking.com Reveal their true face

The relationship between online reservation agencies and hoteliers has already evolved to a tense partnership, and is now entering to a new phase of confrontation. The trade war among online agencies has developed practices near piracy. Addicted over the years at online bookings, hoteliers are now paying at high price, the ease in which they fell behind. And news from the front is not good!

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

September 28, 2012

Smiling? It’s just an option

It's a curious message that the Alpes-Maritime tribunal has just sent by compelling a luxury hotel in Cannes to pay over large indemnities to an employee who was fired "without any real cause" when she refused to be kind to customers. So, it seems it is legally possible to be unpleasant to customers. It is not considered misconduct, even when one is the maître d' in a luxury restaurant!

By Georges Panayotis, President & Founder of MKG Group & Hospitality ON, Hospitality ON

March 1, 2011

Paris hotels and social media: some lagging behind, others at the forefront

While in London this month, I couldn't resist hopping on the Eurostar to visit Paris, where I spent four months in Paris in 2009 on a writing sabbatical. Like so many others, I fell in love with the city. But my next sabbatical will take place somewhere with fewer distractions-like an iceberg adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

By Daniel Craig, Founder & Chief Strategist, Reknown, Reknown Marketing