Siegel Sez: Not Your Father’s Power Socket
September 3rd, 2021
The Most Important Hotel “Salesperson” Right Now Is Working Behind Your Front Desk
Doug Kennedy | July 22nd, 2020
The Stereotyping of Millennials Has Gone Too Far
Doug Kennedy | October 22, 2018
By Doug Kennedy Seems like just about every conference I speak at lately has another speaker addressing some topic related to "those Millennials." Likewise, seems like at least once a week every lodging publication I read has an article about the challenges of marketing to or the managing of Millennials. I certainly understand that this is an entertaining subject and there is value in personifying the demographics of various age groups for analytical purposes. Yet lately it seems to me that this is being taken too far. Hotel brands are being launched, training programs are being altered, HR recruitment methods are being changed, all to ...
The Innovative Hotels That Are Making Travel Better in 2019
Alan Young | October 18, 2018
By Alan Young Witnessing the gradual advancement and disruption of technology and services is an exciting, and sometimes industry-altering concept, as our world continues to evolve at a seemingly rapid pace to meet modern demands. Generations today know (and love) the likes of Netflix and Crave TV, for example, but many of us also remember the popularity of Blockbuster video — a formerly successful business model which now, doesn't even exist. And those of us who used to cling enthusiastically to our flip phones whilst playing 'Brick Breaker', likely upgraded to iPhones with their robust connectivity capabilities and e...
Adjusting to a Hotel Labor Shortage
Larry Mogelonsky | October 17, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Not necessarily specific to the hospitality industry and certainly not applicable to every geographic territory, but there appears to be a rising labor shortage that will come to affect all manner of jobs in a hotel workplace. With such a diverse array of back-of-house ranks for both university-educated individuals as well as those without a college-level diploma, we must now fight to keep every team member lest we suffer from the long-term consequences associated with increasing onboarding costs, guest service gaps and lack of proper succession planning. Especially in major Western...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 203: Hotel History: The Skirvin Hotel, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (225 Rooms)
Stanley Turkel | October 16, 2018
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: The Skirvin Hotel (Part 1) The Skirvin Hilton Hotel is Oklahoma City's oldest hotel. It was built by William Balser Skirvin, a native of Michigan who made his fortune in Texas land development and oil. In 1906, Skirvin and his family (including his daughter Pearl who would later become Perle Mesta, ambassador to Luxemborg and a famous Washington hostess) moved to Oklahoma City. Skirvin hired Solomon Andrew Layton, an American architect who designed over 100 public buildings in the Oklahoma City area including the Oklahoma State Capitol. Twenty-two of Layton's buildings are listed on the National R...
How Marijuana Legalization Impacts Hotels
Larry Mogelonsky | October 10, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) With national legalization of marijuana in Canada coming into effect on October 17, 2018, it raises quite a few lucrative opportunities for hotels to capitalize on this new market, as well as a few cautionary notes. Further, with numerous states already adopting similar policies and even more soon to join the fold, this trend is one you must pay attention to. For starters, you must ask whether or not there is any money to be made in marijuana tourism. While you can certainly draw affirming statistics from the likes of anomalies like Amsterdam or Copenhagen's Christiania District, a ...
The Future of Private Equity and Private Markets
Stuart Pallister | October 9, 2018
By Stuart Pallister Ecole hôteliere de Lausanne, a leading hospitality school, recently staged the 2nd annual private markets research conference. Private equity was a major focus this year particularly as the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund had recently decided against investing in this area. Private equity, or unlisted equity investment, has had an impact on a wide range of industries, including hospitality. A few years ago, Blackstone's $26 billion Hilton deal was hailed as the best leveraged buyout ever. According to a Bloomberg View columnist, the most profitable equity deal in history was 'badly timed but brilliantly execute...
Legend Hotel Lagos Airport Opens at Murtala Muhammed International Airport Marking Curio Collection Debut in Africa
Larry Mogelonsky | October 5, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria and MCLEAN, Va. - Hilton (NYSE:HLT) today announced the opening of Legend Hotel Lagos Airport, Curio Collection by Hilton, which marks Hilton's 500th hotel to open across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The hotel joins the exclusive Curio Collection by Hilton, a collection of more than 60 one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts celebrated for their individuality and appeals to travellers seeking local and authentic experiences. Legend Hotel Lagos Airport is located at Murtala Muhammed International Airport which serves more than eight million passengers each year [1]. The stylish hotel is adjacent to the airport's private...
Hilton Singapore Welcomes New Executive Chef Kazi Hassan
Stanley Turkel | October 5, 2018
SINGAPORE - Hilton Singapore welcomes new Executive Chef Kazi Hassan who brings over 15 years of international culinary experiences from various acclaimed establishments, five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurant across Australia, Middle East and Asia. Born in Bangladesh and raised in Australia at a very young age, Hassan proclaims himself a modern Australian Chef yet holds true to his Bangladeshi roots with a penchant for spices and aromatic flavours. "We are thrilled to have Chef Kazi Hassan on board at Hilton Singapore. His extensive international culinary experiences at top five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurant wil...
Online Customer Reviews: Their Impact on Restaurants
Dr Jean-Philippe Weisskopf | October 5, 2018
By Dr Jean-Philippe Weisskopf and Philippe Masset Dining out, going for a movie, or enjoying a bottle of fine wine are all 'experience goods', that is, they have to be consumed or experienced in order for them to be assessed and evaluated. Online customer reviews are valuable as they allow potential consumers to get in-depth information from others for a relatively low cost and little effort. With one click, they can solve an information asymmetry problem in which service providers are better informed than customers. The internet allows customers to share their views and feedback cheaply and efficiently with a large audience. Why do con...
The Need for Big Data and Quantitative Skills Training In Hospitality
Dr. Giuliano Bianchi | October 4, 2018
By Dr. Giuliano Bianchi & Dr. Isabella Blengini The hospitality industry is becoming increasingly complex, with financial engineering, corporate governance, and strategic interactions with other sectors now part and parcel of daily life. In addition, publicly-traded major hotel chains manage a portfolio of brands and deal with a range of other industries at the same time. Hotels can no longer rely on experience and 'savoir-faire' to get by, but need to hire staff who are comfortable with quantitative skills such as mathematics and statistics. This is why, as economists, we believe hospitality business schools that teach subjects suc...
Content Marketing Strategy in Hospitality: Choice Hotels Europe
Stuart Pallister | October 3, 2018
By Stuart Pallister In this article on the brand as publisher, we focus on Choice Hotels which has launched a travel portal to drive traffic to its booking site and collect customer data. Tess Mattisson, director of marketing for the European division of Choice Hotels International, spoke recently to EHL students about why she decided to launch the site and the benefits it has brought. When Tess Mattisson joined Choice Hotels in January 2016, the European division was languishing. With some 7,000 hotels globally, the US is the group's biggest market and that was the main focus of its marketing spend. Mattisson's goal was to put 'heads i...
How Does Your Restaurant Account for Allergies
Larry Mogelonsky | October 3, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Food allergies are not only commonplace nowadays but continue to become more prevalent, particularly in a North American context. This means that allergic considerations will only become more prevalent as millennials and post-millennials come to dominate the travel economy as well as the workforce. Those individuals who are known to have certain afflictions are well-aware of the challenges they face – the common ones being peanuts, fish, shellfish, eggs, tree nuts, dairy and soy, but can also include seemingly more innocuous examples like garlic, red meat, wheat, berries or ce...
The Future of Work: Look on the Bright Side?
Stuart Pallister | October 2, 2018
By Stuart Pallister Whenever you hear a news item about artificial intelligence and robots, which are now gaining a foothold in the hospitality industry and other sectors, the message is usually this: jobs are going to disappear, with perhaps millions of people facing long-term unemployment. In the view of futurist and 'recovering journalist,' Gary A. Bolles however, we shouldn't just focus on the negatives. We should look at these developments as an opportunity. Problem solving "Robots and software don't take jobs, they take tasks," he told Hospitality Insights following a keynote address to EHL's international advisory board. For huma...
Europe Goes Digital… Yes We Can!
Georges Panayotis | September 26, 2018
By Georges Panayotis Cocorico! Google set up a research centre on artificial intelligence last week in Paris. The arrival of our President has something to do with it, he believes in the importance of becoming a great digital nation. In the long term, a thousand jobs will be created by the American giant in Paris, including a significant proportion of researchers in development and artificial intelligence. This is good news for the future of our sector because the number of uses we can find for this new science is, by definition, infinite. Artificial intelligence has been around for a few years, but it is still in its infancy in France,...
Single-Use Plastics: Hotels and Airlines Are Cutting Down
Hospitality Insights | September 26, 2018
From plastic straws to the complete elimination of single-use plastics, more and more in the hospitality industry are opting to create a sustainable travel experience. The world is now producing roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year Plastic is one of the defining inventions of our time, yet there's no denying its negative impact on our environment. The low production cost and versatile range of applications make plastic a convenient comfort in the modern day. At the same time, the throwaway nature of these single-use products adds up to being one of the top sources of pollution throughout our oceans. In fact, about 8.8 million t...
Using the Little Guestroom Features to Differentiate
Larry Mogelonsky | September 26, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Oftentimes marketers and hoteliers alike get caught up in the big picture as they try to sell their products on only the flashiest features. Be it the great outdoor pool, the award-winning restaurant or the million-dollar-redesigned chic lobby bar, we aim to emotionally impact potential customers with dynamic visuals and impressive amenities. Through this singular focus we are strategically manipulating the narrative so that it is simple, memorable and unique to the guest – a vital task in today's uber-competitive environment where consumers' attention spans are infinitesimall...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 202: Hotel History: Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Stanley Turkel | September 25, 2018
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C. opened on February 18, 1925 with 440 guestrooms. It is known as the "Grande Dame of Washington", the "Hotel of Presidents" and as the city's "Second Best Address" (the White House is the first). The Mayflower Hotel was built by Allen E. Walker who planned to name it The Hotel Walker. He retained Warren & Wetmore, architects who had designed New York's Commodore, Biltmore, Ambassador Ritz-Carlton and Vanderbilt Hotels. The supervising architect was Robert F. Beresford who had worked for the Supervising Architect of the Treasury and the Superintendent of the Cap...
Why You Should Be Listening to What Your Voice Agents Are Saying Right Now to Potential Guests
Doug Kennedy | September 24, 2018
By Doug Kennedy As I often say in my conference presentations and training sessions, voice reservations is the forgotten distribution channel, at least at most hotels these days. Too many marketing and distribution execs buy-in to stereotypes such as "Millennials only book online and never want to talk with humans…" and "The only ones who still call are elderly and don't know how to work a computer..." On the surface, the numbers might even support this as web booking continue to grow while voice bookings decline. However, many of those who book online started out by first calling the hotel; others call after booking but prior to...
Continuing the Post-Stay Relationship
Larry Mogelonsky | September 19, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) How do you spur past guests to return to your property or, at the very least, interact with a member of your team after they've left? Nowadays, the extent of most hotels' post-stay communications with customers pertains only to generic templated emails and hardly ever a phone call or a handwritten note. As this is the new normal, any property that breaks away from this mold will be much more likely at getting a lasting impression. And so, a recent UPS delivery brought an unexpected surprise – a package for my wife from a small property in Newfoundland called Fogo Island Inn th...
Hospitality Education of the Future
September 18, 2018
Have you noticed that currently many CEOs of the most important hotel chains are not hoteliers? Will this mean that in the future hospitality education will not be worthwhile? On one hand, we have the current CEOs coming from the world of business, law, finance and marketing. On the other hand, majority of today's graduates of top hotels schools in the world do not go into hotel operations. Instead, they aspire for more attractive positions in sectors such as banking, luxury, healthcare, consulting, retail and lately, start-ups. Therefore the question, why will hospitality education still be needed in the future? Why young graduates, th...
The Future of Food: Transparency and Traceability Are Key
Stuart Pallister | September 17, 2018
By Stuart Pallister What are the main trends facing restaurateurs and the food industry currently, and where is gastronomy heading? Those are some of the questions posed during a panel session at the recent Window 2 the Future conference staged by Lausanne Hospitality Consulting at Ecole hôteliere de Lausanne. The quality of produce remains ever-important but transparency – and traceability – is critical for consumers. "People want to know what they eat, where it comes from, how it was made. And with what ethics it was made," said panelist Peter Rebeiz, Chairman and CEO of Caviar House & Prunier. I think today we'...
Train Your Front Desk Team on the “5 Pillars of Hospitality Excellence”
Doug Kennedy | September 17, 2018
By Doug Kennedy When a guest enters your lobby, chances are they are about to have their first human interaction with your hotel's individual "brand." In the past, most guests called to book by voice and then called back multiple times prior to arrival with questions about driving directions, transportation, area restaurants, hours of operations and the like. These days most guests book online and then Google search for answers to these and other pre-arrival questions. Therefore, while I have always believed that the front desk staff played a critical role, now more than ever they truly are the first impression makers, for better or for...
Frugal Innovation in Hospitality: Insights From Navi Radjou
Stuart Pallister | September 12, 2018
By Stuart Pallister How can we, as an industry, do more with less? That's a challenge more and more companies are facing nowadays. It's also a conundrum posed by frugal innovation which seeks to deliver products and services that are not only affordable but also sustainable. Frugal Innovation - or Jugaad: how to do more with less In a recent keynote address to Ecole hôteliere de Lausanne's prestigious international advisory board, innovation advocate and author Navi Radjou outlined the principles of frugal business models. These go beyond creating a new product for emerging markets – be it a fridge that doesn't use electrici...
Do Travelers Read Press Releases Anymore?
Larry Mogelonsky | September 12, 2018
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Being a staff writer for several publications and a member of most travel writer associations with a highly visible email address, I'm the recipient of dozens of media releases per day. If ever I leave my cell phone at home for longer than half a day, my inbox is bombard by over a hundred of these 'important news bulletins', all of them 'urgently' awaiting my attention. While I'm annoyed to be receiving so many of these – most of them are irrelevant and more like spam, even though I am a business recipient and not a general consumer – what frustrates me more is how ineff...
