Benchmark Hospitality International, a leading U.S.-based hospitality management company, today added one of San Francisco's most prestigious boutique properties, Hotel Zelos San Francisco, to its Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels® brand collection. The luxury hotel is owned by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) of Bethesda, Maryland. Alex Cabañas, Benchmark's president & CEO, made the announcement.
On 9 July 2015, the French National Assembly took an important decision by adopting in the final vote of the 'Law Macron' the deletion of any rate parity clauses from contracts between hoteliers and Online Travel Agents and qualifying the term of the contracts as "mandate contract". This is the first decision at legislative level in Europe to ban explicitly rate parity clauses from such contracts. With this decision hoteliers in France regain their entrepreneurial freedom and will be able to offer their customers any trade or tariff advantage they consider appropriate. France is thus the second country after Germany, where public authorities decide to ban rate parity clauses from OTA contracts.
The International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) today announced the formation of The Lori Raleigh Award for Emerging Excellence in Hospitality Consulting. The award is named in honor of Lori Raleigh, founder of The Travers Group, who served as the Executive Director of ISHC from 2000 to 2013.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – and German business travel buyer association VDR – today announced that Mr. Carsten Spohr, Chairman and CEO of Lufthansa Group, will be a featured speaker at their joint conference, 9-11 November, at the Congress Center, Messe Frankfurt.
This year, the brand celebrates its 30th anniversary with originality throughout France, on the web and in its hotels. 30 years of high spirits and continual innovation, and hotelF1 has come very far since its establishment in 1985, in Evry. 2015 is a year full of events…
In a recent meeting citizenM Hotels' Commercial Director Lennert De Jong was elected to succed Christian Boerger as chair of the HSMAI Europe Revenue Management Board, accompanied by IDeaS Revenue Solutions' Senior Manager Paul Van Meerendonk as vice chair.
The European Travel Commission (ETC) together with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and with support from VisitFlanders, will present the key criteria that influence the choice of a destination by meeting planners at the International Seminar on The Decision-Making Process of Meetings, Congresses, Conventions and Incentives Organisers, taking place 11-12 June in Antwerp (Belgium).
HSMAI is in the process of revitalising its presence on the Emerald Isle, organised by HSMAI Europe, assisted by a national advisory board and headed by Windward Management's Stephen Williams and hospitality tech company Avvio.
AccorHotels ramps up its digital drive by transforming its AccorHotels.com distribution platform into a marketplace open to a selection of independent hotels. This service will gradually become available to hoteliers in the first target markets starting at the end of June 2015, and guests will be able to access it from July 2015. In time, the objective is to offer more than 10,000 hotels in 300 key cities worldwide, or a three-fold increase in the number of hotels on AccorHotels.com. This initiative is part of the Group's transformation which kicked off in 2013.
Facilitating global living and working for the travelling professional, Zoku, which is Japanese for family, tribe, or clan, will disrupt and create a new category in the hotel industry - a home-office hybrid, also suitable for long stays, with the services of a hotel and the social buzz of a thriving neighbourhood. Designed in collaboration with Concrete, the award-winning interior design and architecture agency, Zoku will be a relaxed place to live, work and socialise with like-minded people while getting wired into the city.
Today Booking.com, an operating business of The Priceline Group [NASDAQ: PCLN] announced it will waive enforcement of its existing wide parity provisions with German accommodations with immediate effect and will amend its standard terms and other agreements with German accommodations by 1 July 2015 to be consistent with the binding commitments given to the French, Italian and Swedish National Competition Authorities.
The digital revolution has democratised the way consumers shop for travel. To better understand this change, we worked with the British Travel Awards (BTA) to survey over 40,000 respondents about their travel activities. We found that travel has changed from being a seller's to a buyer's market. To adapt to this change, travel businesses need to undergo their own transformation from a product-centric to a consumer-centric model and put the consumer perspective at the heart of every business decision.
Accor today announces the take-over of FASTBOOKING, a digital services provider for the hotel industry. A French company founded in 2000, FASTBOOKING provides daily support to nearly 4,000 hotels worldwide. Its key areas of expertise are hotel website development, distribution channel management solutions, digital marketing campaign management, revenue management optimization tools and competitive intelligence. Its two main markets are Europe and Asia.
Marriott International's Content Studio has teamed-up with the company's flagship brand, Marriott Hotels to produce and release French Kiss, the Studio's second original short film. The romantic mystery is set to premiere worldwide on May 19th in a multi-platform, all-screens distribution strategy, including digital, theater, in-room, online, Marriott.com, and to Marriott's 47 million Marriott Reward members. A premiere party will be held at the Marina del Rey Marriott that evening. French Kiss,starring Tyler Ritter ("The McCarthys") is the result of a creative collaboration with noted producers and storytellers Ian Sander and Kim Moses of Sander/Moses & SLAM – the team behind popular television series such as "Ghost Whisperer" and "Profiler", and four feature films, including "D.O.A". Download images.
The new trend of collaborative consumption has rattled many businesses, particularly in the hospitality and travel industries. With companies such as Bla Bla Car, Airbnb and Uber making waves around the world, how are other existing players reacting to these new competitors? On Tuesday the 24th ofMarch, Les Mardis de l'ESSEC had the privilege of hosting Sébastien Bazin, CEO of the ACCOR group and Olivier Grémillon, Managing Director (EMEA) of Airbnb at ESSEC Business School to gain inside information on what these companies actually think about each other.
Forbes Travel Guide today took the next step in its global expansion, announcing the opening of its European headquarters in London, and naming Chris Fradin as Vice President of Client Services for Europe.
England Rugby and Disney UK have joined forces to create a national advertising campaign to promote this year's galactic-themed Marriott London Sevens taking place at Twickenham on the 16th and 17th May. The campaign includes a television ad featuring Star Wars characters facing up to the England Sevens team, print and social media, digital and PR to promote the galactic themed weekend of exciting sevens rugby.
On the heels of its successful 10th anniversary Incentive Travel Exchange (ITE) celebration, Questex Travel Group today announced it is accepting applications for its ITE at Sea event, the latest addition to the company's Global Meetings and Incentive Travel Exchanges (GMITE) portfolio, designed for qualified buyers and premier travel suppliers seeking to maximize their incentive travel business.
More than 150 senior business leaders, policy makers, and travel industry experts, gathered in Madrid yesterday to discuss the future of the travel industry. The sessions of the conference, titled 'The Future of Travel', explored issues such as the future of seamless travel; investment in travel and hospitality; social media and the traveller of the future; and leveraging the advantages of technology.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – and its German partner association VDR – the German Business Travel Association – today announced that they will be joining forces again for another record breaking European business travel conference. The joint event, which begins on 9 November 2015 in Frankfurt, promises to be the largest event of its kind in Europe.