My last two columns have addressed the evaluation and measuring performance process for hotel staff and I appreciate reader comments, questions and the opportunity to support hospitality and hotel companies. Those reader questions and inquiries caused me to reflect on the need to complete or “close” the circle of evaluation, which is providing useful and meaningful feedback to senior management.
In 2007, a traveler wrote the following review of Opus Hotel Vancouver on TripAdvisor: “The GM who thought he was Ian Fleming was a real detriment to a great trip. Shame -- let’s hope the hotel sees sense and releases Daniel to make another movie.” Ouch. The comment was a reference to my James Bond namesake and my secondary career as a mystery novelist, but nonetheless I was baffled by it, having no recollection of any guest encounter that would have provoked a public cry for my dismissal.
Adding hotels to the existing construction pipeline isn’t likely to for another year, and when such building activity revives, it’ll more often happen in the limited-service and economy segments, said North American developers, construction specialists and consultants. At the same time, opportunities for new-builds in the US$3-million-to-US$10-million range are available, particularly if you follow the interstate highway system, as Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson did in the 1950s and Wilson disciple John Q. Hammons of Hammons Hotels does now.
Much has been written and discussed about the restrictions placed on physicians attending pharmaceutical and other life-science industry corporation training and educational programs, in particular, at high-end resorts throughout North America. It’s no wonder then that many resort operators have limited drastically or even abandoned altogether pursing this lucrative and highly coveted business.
We suspect that 2010 will show some signs of recovery mixed with continued hardship for many hotels. We all know what happens when revenue levels are constricted; fewer dollars in, fewer dollars to spend. At this point, careful consideration should be made for every dollar spent to develop business.
Choice Hotels International and Expedia are at the bargaining table looking to hammer out an agreement that would get the room inventories at Choice’s more than 5,000 hotels listed again on the Web sites that Expedia operates. Those Web sites, including Expedia.com and Hotels.com, have not had Choice properties listed in their inventories for about two weeks. In a previously released statement, Expedia said it pulled Choice hotels from its site because of the inability to reach a new agreement after numerous extensions.
So, have you heard about balloon boy? Of course you have. You probably heard about it from at least three different sources, all within 30 minutes of that papier-maché and tinfoil contraption breaking free. I'm also guessing that you know what your high school classmate – who you haven't spoken to in 15 years - ate for breakfast while delayed at the Cincinnati Airport. (Maybe it was O'Hare. You get the idea.) Between 24-hour cable news, Twitter, Facebook, various iPhone Apps, Foursquare, FriendFeed and the myriad of other information channels, we are all on information overload. This state of being has allowed us increased awareness of the world around us (think the Mumbai hotel bombings and the Iran election riots) and kept us abreast of important news items, but often this information comes at us so fast that it can lead to rash opinions, speculation, misinformation and - simply put - noise.
Seven “fiercely independent” resorts, each a brand name on its own, have banded together to form Kindred Resorts & Hotels, a group whose aim is to provide a cohesive voice for independent properties like themselves and to tell the story of what these kinds of resorts represent, according to Gregory Riehle, executive VP of Saddlebrook Holdings. The Kindred slogan is: “Authentic in Spirit, Distinctive in Style.”
Struggling to silence pesky naysayers who still doubt the importance of travel in jumpstarting the sluggish U.S. economy? Here’s a number to add to your ammo clip: US$772.9 billion. That’s the amount spent by domestic and international travelers in the U.S. in 2008.
During the current U.S. hotel downturn, it has been painfully clear that the suffering has been shared by properties in each and every chain-scale segment of the industry. Whether you look at the high-end luxury segment or the opposite end of the spectrum in the economy segment, you see occupancy declines of anywhere from 9 percent to 12 percent. However, not all occupancy declines are created equal.
Steve Bollenbach’s dream has been realized. Bollenbach, the financial whiz who led Hilton Hotels Corporation’s growth explosion that was exemplified by the merger with Promus Hotels Corporation on the final day of 1999, envisioned a worldwide Hilton that melded HHC with Hilton International. That vision became reality last month when the company announced its new corporate name and logo. Hilton Worldwide, as the McLean, Virginia-based company now is known, is among the world’s largest hotel companies with more than 3,400 owned, managed, licensed or franchised hotels in its portfolio.
I just got through reading an article titled "Growing Tension Between Hoteliers and OTA's". There are so many of things in this article with which I don't agree, I don't know where to begin. Either the author is attempting to sidle-up to Choice Hotels or he just doesn't get it. I won't go through every detail here; I would need to write a mini-novel. Let's just say I would urge other hotels to consider some facts before acquiescing to the article's implications.
Remember in “the good old days” when “all” we had to worry about from a negative guest was that they would tell their family, friends, and co-workers? Most seasoned hoteliers will recall being told in training classes that “a happy guest tells five others; an unhappy guest tells 9-10 others.” It seems like not that long ago I was facilitating workshops where, based on these numbers, we tried to quantify the significant cost of future business that was lost through negative word-of-month advertising, and even then it easily justified an investment in hotel hospitality training.
Throughout the travel and retail industries, consumers have been bombarded with countless loyalty programs, the aim of which is to retain customers and increase their loyalty to a specific brand or company. In the hotel industry, hotel loyalty programs or frequent guest programs have been around since the early 1980s, starting with the inception of IHG's Priority Club Rewards program. Since then, all the major hotel companies have created their own version of the hotel loyalty program and are constantly striving to present their program as offering the best value. This article will provide an overview of hotel loyalty programs, focusing on how they potentially benefit hotel owners and operators.
As we approach the final months of 2009 we will be watching the weekly and monthly performance results very carefully. In particular, from about now (mid-October) through the rest of the year the two most important factors to watch are demand and average daily rate. While it is obvious that the ADR results will follow demand strength, the industry’s response to the rebounding demand or the lack there of, will be a telling signal for next year.
In spite of these tough times, some hotels are doing better than others and a few hotels are actually doing quite well. This anomaly sparked my curiosity; was this solely a result of local market variations or could it be a result of better management in some hotels? My conclusion is that it is more than likely a combination of both factors. As hoteliers, we have little control over market conditions, but total control over how we conduct business and how we react to market variations. It's a matter of how well hotel managers deal with fluctuations in the marketplace and how well they lead their teams during tough times.
In the past six months, we have seen continuing mergers of almost bankrupt, cash starved airlines, the dismantling of industry giants like Circuit City, as well as the complete repackaging of General Motors and a number of US Wall Street brokerage houses. The results are a long way from being realized, but I continue to find that radio, television and internet reports all begin to run together, as the “experts” try to predict this or that potential government or business action. The most recent news this week implies that the worst part of the US recession is perhaps in sight, but that is of little consequence to the 15 million citizens seeking employment and the hundreds of thousands of businesses trying to regain market share and profitability.
There have been a torrent of articles and webinars extolling the virtues of social media for hotels. Social media is certainly applicable for hotel franchise brand-building, but this writer is still unconvinced about the marketing value of social media for individual hotels. Social media has been a boon for retail product sales because items can be of interest to people at any time, but the same principle is not true for hotels.
With the arrival of fall comes the season when most business plans and marketing strategies are in the final stages of development for the coming year. For some, this process may have already been completed. Based on the roller coaster ride that continues for 2009, budgeting, strategizing, and formalizing an effective plan to attack 2010 is probably one of the more challenging and formidable you have experienced.
At Smith Travel Research’s recent Hotel Data Conference, one of most popular sessions was the final general session where STR, PKF Hospitality Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers all presented our U.S. hotel industry forecasts for the remainder of 2009 and 2010. Typically, industry conferences tend to limit the number of organizations that present this type of data. This is certainly understandable as conferences tend to be a bit constrained by the demand for a broad program and the tendency to avoid redundant content.