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
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 133: Hotel History: Liberty Hotel in Boston
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | December 8, 2014
My New Book: "Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf"; 2014 Historian of the Year By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: Liberty Hotel in Boston* The luxurious 298-room Liberty Hotel is part of the Starwood Luxury Collection. Its creation from a prison is one of the most creative and unusual conversions of our time. It was converted in 2007 from the Charles Street Jail for $150 million. Completed in 1851, the jail was designed by Gridley James Fox Bryant, Boston's most famous architect. Satisfaction with his work was so high that of the 152 buildings he designed that were destroyed by the Great Fire ...
Teach Your Guests About BAR
Larry Mogelonsky | December 3, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Do your guests know what BAR stands for? Not likely. Unless they have worked or are presently working in the hotel industry, chances are correctly expanding that acronym out to 'best available rate' isn't snap-your-fingers knowledge, nor is its implied meaning. In its simplest terms, best available rate ensures that the low prices for nightly room rates on third-party suppliers will be matched by the hotel when the consumer contacts with 'parity' in mind. This BAR, also known as best rate guarantee, is adeptly used by revenue managers worldwide to incentivize guests to make their reservatio...
Condo Hotels: Don’t Forget the Secret Sauce!
JMBM | December 2, 2014
December 2, 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Condo Hotels Condo hotels: Don't forget the secret sauce! by Jim Butler, Bob Braun and Guy Maisnik Condo Hotel Lawyers Condo hotels are back in vogue as "securities" Developers particularly like the "new model" where condo hotel investments are offered as a "securities" using the new SEC Rule 506(c) for private placements with public solicitation. Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm for this new model- which is well deserved - many developers will create dysfunctional structures that will be difficult or impossible to correct once they are put in place. These issues can all be avoide...
A Good Impression Makes a Lasting Impression
Georges Panayotis | November 26, 2014
by Georges Panayotis As humanoid as it may be, Nao is not the future of the hospitality industry. This little robot that has learned to dance, and was recently received at the Elysée, symbolizes new technological progress that may make it possible to give complex functions to expert machines. Robots and other sophisticated machines are increasingly present in our daily lives, and the same is true in the hotel industry. While we may rejoice over their performance and usefulness, it must be remembered that they are only auxiliary and their purpose is to free our time to make more room for human relations. Technology cannot do everything...
How Location Analytics Will Help Your Hotel
Larry Mogelonsky | November 26, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Big Brother is coming. He knows where you are. He's tracking your every move. Despite whatever dystopian fiction you've read, seen or had nightmares about, he's actually here to help. And he doesn't go by some tyrannical, cult of personality namesake as 'Big Brother' but rather the far more innocuous title of Location Analytics (or what some call geotargeting). What is this marvel of modern science? Let me explain it in a generalized manner (which isn't necessarily the route taken by all companies involved) so we don't get bogged down in IT jargon. It all starts when a smartphone comes with...
Franchisees are Clients Too
Georges Panayotis | November 21, 2014
by Georges Panayotis With their asset light strategy, brands must now address several types of clientele, because in addition to the public whose loyalty they must develop, they must take at least as much care of their franchisees. In Europe, a land where an operator and owner culture had developed over a long period of time and that only quite recently opened up to broad scale franchise, taking care of franchisees does not come so easily! And yet, this is just what operator-investors expect. They have chosen a brand to access its experience, efficiency, and commercialization, and finally to increase their profitability. Naturally they ...
Five Ways to Get in the Holiday Mood
Larry Mogelonsky | November 19, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) The winter holidays (or summer holidays for those south of the equator) are a time for family gatherings, warming your feet by the fireplace and hotel promotional packages. In fact, these days it's rare to come across a property that doesn't have some enticing offer on the table for prospective holiday season travelers. In this period of hyper-competition, how do you cut through the noise? The answer is to design promotions with finely tuned messages that cater directly to people's holiday-specific desires along with a novel or adventurous component. Here are five suggestions: 1. Decadence....
Better Focus On Using Lead Tracking Could Increase Hotel Sales Closings
Doug Kennedy | November 19, 2014
By Doug Kennedy November 19, 2014 In providing training for hotel sales and catering departments I usually find that nearly all have a robust sales lead tracking tool. There are many excellent systems out there such as SalesForce, Delphi, and Opera Sales Force Automation among others. Yet when I ask sales leaders the question "How well are your sales associates using their system?" the answer tends to be "Not as well as they should be." As great as these systems are, they of course cannot generate any revenues unless they are properly used. Rather than using these systems to better-manage their workday, many hotel salespeople I speak wi...
Nobody Asked Me, But…No. 132; Hotel History: Ellsworth Milton Statler
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | November 17, 2014
My New Book: "Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf"; 2014 Historian of the Year By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: Ellsworth Milton Statler In 1950, the hotel industry picked the late E. M. Statler as the "Hotel Man of the Half Century," even though he had been dead for 22 years. Statler's impact on innkeeping was so great, no one else even came close. While many considered Statler the premier hotel figure, he was not a typical executive. A plain, rugged man who started to work at age 9, he continued to wear $20 suits and $4 shoes even after he became successful, and resembled Will Rogers more ...
Prediction 2015: Chinese Investment Wave will Create Many Opportunities in the US
JMBM | November 13, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 13 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Chinese Investment or here on EB-5 Financing. As the Chinese economy continues to become more important globally, we are seeing a shift in Asian investment in the United States, particularly in California. Chinese investors will become even more active and influential over the next 10 years, and will continue adapting to Western business practices while retaining a critical sensitivity to their Chinese roots and the demographics of the Chinese population in the United States. The ineluctable demographics China's demographics are ...
Of Matchboxes and Other Hotel Freebies
Larry Mogelonsky | November 12, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Picture this: I'm dining out at an upscale restaurant and when the bill arrives, it comes with a branded matchbox for each person at our table. Twenty years ago, this would've been nothing out of ordinary, maybe even a slightly nicer touch over leaving a bowl of matchbooks at the entrance or on the bar. But with the declining number of smokers as well as prohibitive laws against lighting up in public establishments, complimentary matchboxes are now somewhat of a rarity. While I'm not condoning a resurgence of cigarette consumption, from a branding and marketing perspective, perhaps we gave ...
ADA Lawyer: FedEx Sued for Failures Regarding the Hearing and Speech Impaired
Martin H. Orlick | November 11, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 11 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on ADA ADA Lawyer: FedEx sued for failure to provide effective auxiliary aids and services for hearing and speech impaired employees and job applicants by Marty Orlick | ADA Compliance & Defense Lawyer Effective communication with blind, low vision, deaf, hard-of-hearing, speech impaired and cognitively challenged employees, potential employees, customers and guests is one of the fundamental tenets of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"). For nearly 25 years, the ADA has been the most sweeping civil rights legisl...
Using Condo Hotels for Financing New Hotel Development
JMBM | November 10, 2014
Traditional condo hotel structures as "non-securities" By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 10 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Condo Hotels High end hotel development in 2015 Almost every developer of a high end or luxury hotel in 2015 will at least consider using the condo hotel approach as a financing technique for new development, conversion or adaptive reuse projects. Anyone evaluating a condo hotel structure needs to know, that with recent changes in the law, there are now two different approaches available: (1) Non-Security Approach — This is the traditional approach used for almost every c...
Hotel Finance Lawyer: “Meet the Money® TV” Features Hotel Industry Leaders
JMBM | November 7, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 07 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Meet the Money® and here for Hotel Finance Hotel finance experts and industry leaders coming to your screen on "Meet the Money® TV" The hotel finance lawyers in JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® are pleased to announce the launch of Meet the Money® TV, featuring some of the hospitality industry leaders who attended Meet the Money®, the national hotel finance and investment conference that takes place every May in Los Angeles. On the Meet the Money® TV, you can: See what our experts had to say about the current hospitality ...
Evolve or Die Out!
Georges Panayotis | November 5, 2014
by Georges Panayotis You can't stop a speeding train, but you can try to hop on when the opportunity arises. The sharing economy is progressively changing all the economic models of the market economy. Rather than despair once again about disloyal competition, it is important to see how the model could be used intelligently within the hotel industry. That does not mean political leaders should not be encouraged to do their legislative work and reestablish acceptable and fair rules for all actors on the marketplace. But the movement is too far along to hope it will disappear. The market always wins. What can we learn from the sharing ec...
Condo Hotel Lawyer: Condominium Hotels are Hot! What is a Condo Hotel?
JMBM | November 5, 2014
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 05 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Condo Hotels What is a Condominium Hotel (or Condo Hotel)? Definition of a real estate legacy by Jim Butler, Bob Braun and Guy Maisnik Condo Hotel Lawyers A rebirth of the condo hotel phenomenon Condominium hotels (or "condo hotels" as they are commonly called) are back in the news again. It seems like every high-end or luxury hotel development is at least considering using the condo hotel approach. The renewed interest is fueled by recovery of residential real estate markets, high construction costs for high end hotel rooms, and the ...
Five Reasons to Sponsor Cooking Classes
Larry Mogelonsky | November 5, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) I haven't stumbled upon anything new by bringing up the notion of hotels offering in-house cooking classes, courses or an entire culinary teaching school. It's a well-established facet of our industry, but one that is mostly in the realm of esteemed five-star jaunts or bucolic inns with Michelin-rated restaurants. What I ponder is why more hotels don't engage in this practice. Is it exclusive to luxury providers, or is it something that any hotel could get up and running, even at the one-off, ad hoc level? Yes or no, make up your mind once we've reviewed five key advantages of this practice...
The “New Breed” of Condo Hotels – Key to Financing New Hotel Development?
JMBM | November 3, 2014
Selling condo hotels as "securities" under new SEC Rule 506(c) . . . By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 3 November 2014 Click here for the latest articles on Condo Hotels. Condo hotel revolution and resurgence: Why developers are using "new breed" of condo hotels for financing One "little" legal change has revolutionized and revitalized condo hotels by Jim Butler, Bob Braun and Guy Maisnik Condo Hotel Lawyers The condo hotel lawyers at JMBM have helped clients with more than 100 condo hotels and hotel condos. Our experience proves that well-structured condo hotels play a valuable role and have earned an enduring legacy i...
Technology Cannot Replace Face To Face Communications
Larry Mogelonsky | October 29, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) Many would lead you to believe that face-to-face communications are a thing of past. After all, we have email, cell phones, social networks, Skype and webcams - why bother with this archaic and time-consuming medium? Working closely with the hospitality sales master David M. Brudney, ISHC (www.davidbrudney.com), I can tell you that this belief is flat out wrong. We live by relationships with the support from technology, not relationships borne from technology. Selling is not and never will be a faceless or silent pursuit. It seems all too easy to use technology as a crutch these days. And i...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 131; Hotel History: The Opening of the Current Waldorf-Astoria
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | October 27, 2014
My New Book: "Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf"; 2014 Historian of the Year By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: The Opening of the Current Waldorf-Astoria In 1931, the new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opened at Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets under Lucius Boomer's direction. The Art Deco style hotel, designed by architects Schultze & Weaver, dazzled thousands of onlookers when it was unveiled. With 42 stories and 2,200 rooms, the building was the largest hotel in the world at the time of its opening. On September 30, the night before the official opening, thousands of New Yorkers gath...
4 Big Trends in Hospitality & Travel Technology for 2015
Alan Young | October 27, 2014
by Alan Young, CEO of Puzzle Partner 1. "Three Screens" is Out, Universal Digital Is In The idea of three screens has been valuable in expanding our ideas and ability to reach travelers across a spectrum of devices, but we are past it now. The next year will be one in which innovations in travel technology are made in such a way that all methods of correspondence are available to travelers—text, email, voice—and all applications and software are available in the same format across all devices. Ultimately, it means that the guest has total control over the way they plan their travel and communicate while on the road. 2. Mobile Check-...
Experiential Dining and the Synergy between Hotels and Restaurants
Larry Mogelonsky | October 22, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) On the surface, every hotelier has a broad notion of how integral a hotel's F&B program can be for the guest's onsite experience. It's all about exciting the senses, igniting positive emotions and revenue, of course. That said, it's time to revitalize the hotel-restaurant connection in order to sustain F&B profitability as well as enhance ADR, RevPOR and loyalty sentiments. Aside from excellent guest service, plush guestrooms, superb amenities, consummate cleanliness and all the other indulgences you'd expect from a 'perfect' property, one of the cardinal tenets of success is to sim...
Have You Planned Your Black Friday?
Larry Mogelonsky | October 15, 2014
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.lma.ca) A simple question deserves a simple answer. And if you didn't answer, "Yes!" then you better have gulped. Black Friday (and Cyber Monday that follows) are the biggest shopping days of the year and as such there's a lot of noise. Everyone is in on the action and if you can't make yourself conspicuous to consumers in a unique way, then the noise will drown you out. Think game theory. If all properties are playing the same game, then you're competing against everyone else. Differentiate yourself from herd and watch your competition dwindle. You can distinguish yourself on the promotions offere...
Nobody Asked Me, But…No. 130; Hotel History: The Original Waldorf-Astoria
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | October 14, 2014
My New Book: "Hotel Mavens: Boomer, Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf"; 2014 Historian of the Year By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel History: The Original Waldorf-Astoria Did you ever wonder about the hyphen between Waldorf and Astoria (Waldorf-Astoria). Here's how it came to be. On March 14, 1893, William Waldorf Astor opened the world's most luxurious hotel on 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue, the current site of the Empire State Building. Despite poor weather, a kitchen workers' walkout and a serious accident, the hotel opened under the sponsorship of the St. Mary's Free Hospital for Children. George Boldt, the hotel's proprietor along with ...
