News Archive: April
Airbnb’s Market Share of U.S. Lodging Demand Increasing at a Decelerating Rate
Hans Detlefsen | April 25, 2018
By Hans Detlefsen Since 2007, when Airbnb was created, the U.S. lodging industry has experienced a rapid increase in both traditional hotel demand and lodging demand occurring in the sharing economy. Airbnb has become a dominant channel for listing available lodging units in the sharing economy.[1] In this article, Hotel Appraisers & Advisors (HA&A) estimates Airbnb's market share of U.S. lodging demand, measured by room nights booked. We also discuss historical growth rates and the recent deceleration of Airbnb's demand growth pace. HA&A collaborated with AirDNA[2] and relied on numerous other data providers, such as STR, S...
5 Social Media Strategies for Successful Hotel Marketing
Pipeline Social Media | April 2, 2018
By Leslie Wilkins, Pipeline Social Media A social media presence is essential in the field of hospitality, as we now face a world run largely by digital content. How, then, can you successfully integrate social media with your hotel's marketing campaign? Is it worth the effort? Below are a few practices that will bring you more visibility and ultimately give your hotel competitive superiority. 1. Verify Your Facebook Page Do you see a grey check mark beside the name of your hotel on your Facebook business page? If you don't, you might have a duplicate page in the world of Facebook with unanswered reviews. Let me explain — when a g...
Ranking Hotel REITs 2018: Dividends, Profit Margins, and Overhead
Hans Detlefsen | April 24, 2018
By Hans Detlefsen Hotel Appraisers & Advisors (HA&A) is pleased to announce our third annual ranking of hotel real estate investment trusts (REITs). HA&A currently monitors 16 hotel REITs, discussed throughout this report. Some hotel REITs are more effective than others at generating earnings and passing profits on to investors. In this year's report, we rank each of these hotel REITs according to three metrics: (1) dividend yields; (2) profit margins; and (3) overhead expenses. Our 2018 rankings are based on year-end 2017 data from each of the 16 hotel REIT companies we monitor. Hotel REITs offer some of the highest dividen...
How Self-Service Is Replacing Traditional Guest Service In The Ideal Guest Experience
April 3, 2018
By Jos Schaap CEO and Founder - StayNTouch Traditionally, the guest experience with a hotel is defined by their interaction(s) with hotel staff, the upkeep of the property and amenities, and the provision of a room which meets or exceeds expectations. However, as any savvy hotelier knows, the current hospitality landscape has outgrown that tradition to make room for improved technology and an enhanced, personalized guest experience. Where guests previously expected to be greeted with cheerful front desk staff, they now prefer mobile check-in, allowing them to bypass lines and interact with the hotel freely (and immediately). Moreover, g...
The True Essence of Hotel Revenue Management
Dan Skodol | April 17, 2018
By Dan Skodol In 1972, an employee of British Overseas Airways Corporation by the name of Ken Littlewood provided the genesis of what has become today's revenue management (RM) discipline. He established "Littlewood's Rule," a yield management rule that addressed revenue maximization by proposing that discounted fares be accepted if their revenue value exceeded anticipated revenue from the expected value of full-fare tickets. Littlewood's algorithm led to experimentation with "fenced" pricing and a forecasting system based on seat inventory. Airlines also tried to fill as many seats as possible by predicting how many booked passengers w...
The Growing Use of Technology and Robotics in Food Service
Court Williams | April 5, 2018
By Court Williams Opponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have long predicted the time will come when robots take over the jobs of human employees. That day has arrived, with a number of food service companies using technology in previously human-filled roles. Reasoning Behind the Shift Ever since vending machines started to dispense food in 1897, food service automation has gained ground, moving towards self-service and eventually machine services. There are multiple reasons why food service companies are looking for alternatives to the traditional ways of producing and serving food, including: The shortage of kitchen workers, whic...
5 Ways to Build Soft Skills in Hospitality
April 9, 2018
A classroom can teach you hard skills that will help you land your first hospitality job. What's much harder to teach — and ultimately necessary to rise through the ranks to your dream job — are soft skills. Sometimes called people skills, soft skills address how you communicate, work with others, and handle the day-to-day aspects of your job. Try these 5 ways to work on your soft skills and impress your employers. 1. Listen to Others Active listening is key to success in hospitality. When you actively listen to a customer, you can not only understand what they need, but demonstrate that you hear them and proactively wo...
Why Not List Your Hotel on Airbnb?
April 19, 2018
Ever since Barry Manilow's drummer, David Rozenblatt, convinced Airbnb to start renting out whole properties in 2010, it has been technically possible for a hotel to be listed on the platform. However, it was only recently that Airbnb began to actively court the hotel sector. The segment particularly targeted by the sharing economy platform is boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts (B & B's), which can offer the 'personalized experience' that Airbnb seeks to provide to its customers. By August 2017, Airbnb had listings for 15,000 boutique hotels, about 10 months after introducing them to the platform, according to th...
