Why did the owners of the stylish, luxury W San Diego decide to abandon the hotel after buying it three years ago? A new San Diego Union-Tribune article sheds light on Sunstone Hotel Investors' decision to stop paying the mortgage and give the W (right) back to its lender. The recession, of course, is main reason.
Luxury Hotel operators at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference talk about how they're coping with the downturn, why luxury remains a "dirty word" and why they expect the segment to come back stronger than ever. Luxury seemed much on the minds of delegates and speakers at the 31st Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, held early this month at the Waldorf-Astoria. Attendance was down about 20% (better than organizers expected) and many seemed intent on seeking silver linings. See highlights under these topic headers: The Dirty Word Dilemma and Will Luxury Come Back as It Was?
Melissa Bradley, who runs Indagare, the online travel community, and who is among the most impressive thinkers in the arena of travel for the affluent, has tuned into a new phenomenon and summed it up succinctly and powerfully in a recent essay called Now The Negotiator. In summary, Bradley says that a new type of affluent consumer has emerged, who she dubs the negocionado (negotiator) "and who is growing stronger by the day." The Negotiator is a product of the economic downturn, which has precipitated massive consumer disorientation as travelers seek to negotiate the new luxury landscape.
Hotel executives this week agreed that the "panic" throughout the industry has mellowed, and most believe a return to more prosperous times is closer than they previously assumed. Midtier and budget brands, which have enjoyed a degree of insulation during the ongoing recession, may be particularly well-positioned, though most executives from companies with luxury brands also expressed optimism here at New York University's International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference. "We are actually hopeful and are starting to believe that there will be some signs of the year improving," said Choice Hotels International president and CEO Stephen Joyce. "The unemployment [rate] is still growing, but at a much lower rate than we have seen previously. People will begin to believe that this, too, will turn, and, as a result, we will begin to see a much stronger third and fourth quarter [and] into next year, hopefully getting out of this negative trend."
Jack Taras and his friends thought they would be checking in at the Occidental Grand Hotel on the Dominican Republic's postcard-perfect Eastern shore for spring break. But when Taras, a 19-year-old sophomore from Providence College, arrived at the resort, he was greeted with the hotel industry's latest trick: he was walked down. "They were sent to a hotel that wasn't as nice," says his father, John Taras. He phoned his son's online travel agency, Cheaptickets.com, and asked about the downgrade, which lasted the full five nights of Jack's stay. It deferred to the hotel, which offered an apology and a vague explanation of a "computer mishap" that resulted in an overbooking.
Over a billion travelers stay at U.S. hotels each year and, with the busy summer travel season starting, some security experts say hotels are a lot less safe than in years past. So, CBS News Science and Technology correspondent Daneil Sieberg and CBS News producer Alison Schwartz Dorfman did an undercover investigation to see if that's the case.
Even as other hotel and resort projects conceived and started in better times get scaled back, postponed or canceled, David Pisor is not slowing his down a bit. The founder and chief executive of the Elysian, described as an "ultraluxury" property on Chicago's Gold Coast, is working frenetically to get his 188 guest rooms - and at least some of the 52 upscale condos - up and running by the planned opening date of July 15. Hundreds of workers are swarming around the clock in the 60-story tower, laying marble floors, installing carpet and attaching fixtures to the rooms, spa and restaurants.
The ravages of the recession are visible in this gambling city, but one of the largest privately financed developments in the United States — an $8.5 billion city within a city called CityCenter — claims to be on schedule to open this year.The 67-acre development on the Strip consists of six towers with 2,392 apartments, as many as 5,900 hotel rooms, a casino, and a shopping center and entertainment complex. Some of the world’s renowned architects have designed buildings for the project. Envisioned as a self-contained community, it will have its own fire department and power plant.
In case you didn’t already know, luxury has changed. It’s not what it used to be. It doesn’t mean fancy chandeliers, expensive rugs and exotic food. It does mean personalized service, privacy and human interaction. “The luxury segment is far better defined than 15 years ago,” said Tony Potter, CEO of Corinthia Hotels International. “The customer is more understanding of a five-star property and won’t except just any nice hotel on a beach somewhere.
Timeshare is part of the “hospitality industry”. Too often, the emphasis is on the “industry“, and not the “hospitality”. In the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to see some extraordinary examples of what it takes to work with tourists, many times when they are not at their best. In several of those cases, it was me who was the troubled, sometimes over-the-top traveler. In my recent column “Timeshare 24: Where is Jack Bauer when things go wrong”, I shared my encounter with two people who put a very good spin on what had been a very trying day til then.
Add the room service menu to the list of hotel items collecting dust. A growing number of hotels are using online menus, allowing guests to order via smartphones or laptops. Online menus offer more detailed information about food choices, including photos and daily specials, and allow guests to bypass phone chats with kitchen attendants. For hotels, the new technology means freeing employees from the phones for other chores and creates opportunities for "upselling" with recommendations.
The Viceroy has what should be a magic Miami combination. It has loads of designer cachet — hotel interiors by the Los Angeles decorator Kelly Wearstler, spa interiors by Philippe Starck, exteriors by the locally based Arquitectonica — plus enthusiastic service without an ounce of South Beach attitude. (The staff had us at hello, when they greeted our 3-year-old with a miniature toy manatee.)
Booking foreign travel operators can help during the recession. ort Lauderdale showed off its "Immersadome," which offers guests a 3-D audio-visual tour of the area complete with special effects, such as wind in your face during an Everglades airboat ride and floral aromas inside a spa. Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum touted a life-size replica of President Barack Obama, which prompted visitors to line up and smile for keepsake photographs.
HOTEL king Ian Schrager has just worked out an agreement with Norman Sturner to turn the current, Class B office building at 1414 Avenue of the Americas into not just a two- or three-star establishment, but a "six-star" luxury Ian Schrager Hotel. "We will empty the property and let him do his magic," said Sturner of Schrager. Sturner's own job, he said, is to be the "owner." Through expiring leases, the building will be "virtually empty" by 2010, when $100 million in development work could start.
April airline traffic reports showed some signs of improvement over March and airline executives pointed to stabilization in revenue and demand declines, as carriers continue to search for the bottom of the business travel recession—which analysts said could lag an economic recovery. While airline CEOs said the revenue environment wasn't getting worse, they also were reluctant to say it was getting better, and they reported particular softness in the corporate segment in first-quarter earnings reports last month. Buyers, meanwhile, show few signs of refreshing corporate travel budgets or relaxing policies.
While the vast majority of senior financial executives foresee continuing cuts in business travel budgets, they still plan to invest in revenue-generating travel for their companies, according to a survey of 285 senior finance executives worldwide released today by American Express and CFO Research Services. The survey reported that 87 percent of the executives said their companies would spend less on business travel this year compared with last year, and 44 percent said their travel budgets would decrease by 10 percent or more. Few said the travel cuts would be across the board, however. About two-thirds of the executives said they would maintain or increase levels of travel for meetings with existing clients, and even more—82 percent—said they would maintain or increase travel for the purpose of winning new clients or business development.
Deflation, we're told, is a bad thing. Unless it's deflation of ridiculously high prices -- say, for Las Vegas hotel rooms. Hotel prices came down in Vegas over the last year as the economy crashed and convention-going withered. Now, some Strip giants including MGM Mirage say the deep-discount days are over. But the Las Vegas Sun has a long story today questioning the wisdom of boosting room rates. From the Sun: MGM Mirage executives said demand for the company’s hotel rooms is high enough to warrant an increase in room rates, which have plummeted during the downturn.
Forget expense account meals and junkets. Companies just want their business travelers to get the job done. For years, first-class travel has been a perk of hotshot executives, who enjoyed the best seats on the plane, the most extravagant hotels and the fanciest meals, all courtesy of virtually limitless expense accounts. But travel budgets are often the first to be cut in a downturn, and by the fourth quarter of 2008, many companies had seriously curtailed business travel, or implemented a freeze altogether.
When the commercial real estate market was booming, Margaret Bowles would attend conferences to schmooze with new business leads and complete continuing education classes. But the attorney, who has a real estate development practice in Houston, will skip the main conferences this year — the International Council of Shopping Centers' convention in Las Vegas in May and the council's law conference in October. She can't afford to pay for them. The Las Vegas event, with hotel and airfare, would cost her $3,000 alone. "My client base has dropped considerably," Bowles says. "It's probably not worth my while."
During a discussion at the Asian American Hotel Owners Association annual conference and trade show last Thursday, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric and the darling of the business world, emphasized hoteliers shouldn’t bury their heads in the sand during this horrible economic climate. Instead, they should seize the opportunity to make their properties and companies stronger now so they can be much stronger in the future.