Four Trends for Beyond Revenge Travel 2.0
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 2nd, 2022
Although Pre-Pandemic Profitability Will Remain Elusive, the Industry Will Make Strides Toward Recovery in 2022
Fran Worrall | January 5th, 2022
U.S. Travel Association Announces Cancellation of IPW 2020
The U.S. Travel Association | April 16, 2020
WASHINGTON (April 16, 2020)—U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement: "Following a thorough decision-making process in which we explored every viable option to proceed this year, we are saddened to announce that IPW 2020 is cancelled. "The circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic—including global travel restrictions, flight reductions, mandated social distancing, and stay-at-home orders both in the U.S. and abroad—have made this year's event impossible to execute. "We will be providing updates to IPW delegates next week on the process for credits and refunds for the investment...
Hospitality Industry Organization, Golden Rule Charity, Launches Multimillion-Dollar Fundraising Initiative to Help Those Affected by COVID-19 Busines
Golden Rule Charity | April 16, 2020
National organization mobilizes to deliver timely resources for those facing unexpected and unprecedented hardship SAN DIEGO, April 16, 2020 -- Golden Rule Charity, a national organization uniquely focused on delivering resources to qualified hospitality companies and employees in times of need, is launching a bold new fundraising effort to respond to the extraordinary challenges of those impacted by COVID-19. All donations will support the nonprofit's grant program, which awards applicants who currently work full or part time and have been employed in the industry a minimum of 6 months and meet additional criteria. "Members of our har...
STR: U.S. Hotel Results for Week Ending 11 April
STR | April 15, 2020
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—Reflecting the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. hotel industry reported significant year-over-year declines in the three key performance metrics during the week of 5-11 April 2020, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of 7-13 April 2019, the industry recorded the following: Occupancy: -69.8% to 21.0% Average daily rate (ADR): -45.6% to US$74.18 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -83.6% to US$15.61 “There was not much of a change from last week. As we’ve noted, RevPAR declines of this severity are our temporary new normal,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s seni...
The Impact of COVID-19 on Hotel Values
Anne R. Lloyd-Jones | April 15, 2020
By Anne R. Lloyd-Jones, Suzanne R. Mellen, Tanya J. Pierson The COVID-19 pandemic and the related restrictions on travel, business activity, and individual movement are having an unprecedented impact on our industry and economy. Hotel owners, operators, lenders, and investors are all facing greater challenges than ever anticipated, as they grapple with plummeting occupancy, average rate (ADR), and RevPAR and seek solutions to mitigate the impact on EBITDA. Owners and operators are dealing with the current crisis day-to-day, making hard decisions regarding staffing, continuing or suspending operations, and having difficult conversations w...
Ten Step Rx for the Hotel Pandemic
Larry Mogelonsky | April 15, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) COVID-19 dominates the airwaves, newspapers, internet and our lives. It’s time for us to start strategizing and planning for reopening, even though the timetable is uncertain at this point. The reality is that it is not business as usual and it may not be for the next few years. There will be challenges ahead. For this, it is almost equivalent of a completely new hotel launch insofar as growing product awareness and staffing. Best to under promise and over deliver. I’ve put together this basic rubric for your approach. The task is daunting and naturally will vary based upon t...
Knowland Extends Platform With Premium Contact Data to Help Hoteliers Prepare and Reignite Sales Teams for Recovery
Knowland | April 15, 2020
Leader in hotel group insights & analytics adds key intelligence to help its customers build relationships that will drive revenue rebound post-COVID-19 WASHINGTON, DC. — April 15, 2020 — Knowland announced today the release of Premium Contact Data (PCD), an add-on to its subscription-based hotel group sales software platform providing verified contact data with event booking history. As the leader in hospitality group business analytics for hotels, convention and visitor bureaus, conference centers and other meeting venues, the company provides comprehensive group data intelligence to drive higher revenue and provide greater val...
Maestro PMS Recognizes Hoteliers That Stand Up to CV-19. Community Donations Cover Over 1000 Room Nights for Health Care Heroes
Maestro PMS | April 15, 2020
Hotel Companies Ready to Help; Provide Rooms for Front-Line Medical Staff and First Responders April 15, 2020 – These are unprecedented times for our industry. Operators are facing business challenges beyond their control. Nevertheless, many operators and hotel companies are putting the true meaning of ‘hospitality’ into action. Hundreds of operators with dozens of brands are making their properties and facilities available for use by medical personnel and first responders. Maestro’s team is proud to be associated with many of these hoteliers who are giving back to their communities by opening their doors during this difficult time...
Best Western® Hotels & Resorts Rolls Out Support Package for Front Line Workers
Best Western Hotels & Resorts | April 14, 2020
Phoenix, Arizona (April 14, 2020) – Best Western Hotels & Resorts (BWHR) has launched a support package designed to offer a helping hand to front line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The package includes a discounted rate at participating BWHR-branded hotels, a custom loyalty offering for essential workers and expanded donation offerings supporting COVID-19 relief efforts. “Each and every day we see essential workers, from healthcare providers and first responders to transportation workers and infrastructure professionals, putting their own health at risk to lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said David Kong, Pr...
Hyatt Launches Hyatt Care Fund to Provide Financial Relief to Global Colleagues
April 14, 2020
CHICAGO (April 14, 2020) - The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the hospitality industry around the world, leading to temporary leaves or significantly reduced work schedules for many members of the global Hyatt family. In a focused effort to help the colleagues who are most financially impacted by COVID-19, Hyatt has today announced the launch of the Hyatt Care Fund. The Hyatt Care Fund is a program designed to support colleagues with the most pressing financial needs due to COVID-19, through a series of coordinated efforts around the world. Impacted Hyatt colleagues in owned, managed and franchised hotels and in Hyatt’s corporate offices...
Marriott International Announces New $1.5 Billion 364-Day Revolving Credit Facility Commitment and Leverage Covenant Waiver for Existing Revolving Cre
Marriott International, Inc. | April 14, 2020
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) today provided the following business update amidst the rapidly evolving Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) situation. New $1.5 Billion 364-Day Revolving Credit Facility Commitment and Leverage Covenant Waiver for Existing Revolving Credit Facility On April 13, 2020, Marriott International, Inc. (“Marriott” or “the company”) entered into a commitment letter (the “Commitment Letter”) providing for a 364-day senior unsecured revolving credit facility in an aggregate principal amount of $1.5 billion (the “364-Day Credit Facility”). The Commitment Letter provides that the available aggreg...
IHG® Taskforce Responds to Government Relief Efforts Across Europe
IHG | April 14, 2020
IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group), one of the world's leading hotel companies, is offering support through its taskforce to the Government, local authorities, municipalities and health care institutions in their efforts to prevent the further spread of Covid-19. This can cover a variety of scenarios, including hosting key government workers, medical staff and other groups in need for emergency accommodation. IHG has seen a rise in requests from government bodies and public institutions during this difficult time for communities across Europe. Through its dedicated taskforce IHG is responding to these requests, learning from relief ...
Revenue Management Needs to Go Beyond Pricing
Dr. Gabor Forgacs | April 14, 2020
By Dr. Gabor Forgacs This abrupt halt in travel caused by the current pandemic is not going to last forever but it will last long enough to shake the foundations of the global accommodation industry. The unprecedented loss of revenue will not return instantly to pre-pandemic levels to hotels. It would be a mistake to think that the sudden stop in revenue flow will one day suddenly restart and go full tilt again. Revenue professionals who focus mostly on tactical price control will have to broaden their horizon in the future when travel resumes as business may not be as usual once the COVID-19 pandemic gets behind us. After the economy g...
The Curve Has Flattened; What Does the “Interim Normal” Mean for Hotel Operations?
Karen Johnson | April 14, 2020
By Karen Johnson Though the arc of people with confirmed cases of Covid-19 is going up as more individuals are tested, the curve of the average daily death toll appears to have flattened. Which indicates that the act of social distancing will keep our ICU capacity from being overwhelmed as it was in Hunan and Italy. We can only hope. Assuming the US can get enough testing capacity to determine the true infection and mortality percentages, and plans are devised to move equipment where it is needed, things could get back to the “new normal” or at least an “interim normal” fairly soon. There is much speculation as to when we...
Your Brand Culture & Leadership Are Being Defined Right NOW
Renie Cavallari | April 14, 2020
It is times like these that our leadership and the truth about our brand culture are defined. No more hiding behind pretty posters or fluffy pretending. Game on! By Renie Cavallari It is times like these that our leadership and the truth about our brand culture are defined. No more hiding behind pretty posters or fluffy pretending. Game on! As Mark Cuban recently said: “How companies respond to coronavirus will define their brand for decades…” We have all experienced challenging times in the past and what they all have in common is that people need leaders to shine the light so they feel confident that their leaders have a p...
HTNG and Hospitality Upgrade Launch New Career Center Portal to Serve the Rapidly Evolving Hospitality Job Market
HTNG | April 14, 2020
CHICAGO (April 14, 2020) - Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) and Hospitality Upgrade today jointly announce the launch of the HTNG Career Center, a premier, industry-exclusive job portal designed to connect qualified hospitality professionals with potential employers, and provide a wide range of helpful career and recruiting resources to the hospitality market. The HTNG Career Center is being launched at a critical point in the history of hospitality, as the industry reacts to dramatic new market conditions brought on by the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has produced widespread employee layoffs, furloughs and ot...
Problem, Crisis, … or Something More?
Laura Zizka | April 13, 2020
By Dr. Laura Zizka In the workplace, we often face problems. They could derive from suppliers, employees, managers or customers. This is particularly evident in the hospitality industry where every day is met with new problems which we often refer to as challenges. Problems can be inclusive, i.e. ‘we’ve got a problem’ or accusatory, ‘you’ve got a problem’. Yet they can be dealt with by following SOPs or the rules and regulations the company has set up to deal with the different situations. Some problems take on a new level and become crises. Crises can derive from humans, i.e., a scandal within the company or a human error ...
Hotel Marketing and Revenue Management in the Time of Pandemic
Vikram Singh | April 13, 2020
By Vikram Singh As I write my first article during a global pandemic, my title inspiration comes from the Columbian literary superstar, Gabriel García Márquez. COVID-19 has rapidly decimated the industry I have worked in for over 20 years. There have been hardships before, but this one seems darker and more insidious than anything we have seen before. Nobody knows exactly what lies ahead, but the current reality is that thousands of our hospitality industry colleagues – many in my own personal network – have lost their livelihood or taken huge cutbacks in compensation and benefits. March was a month filled with bad news that was s...
2020 Hunter Hotel Investment Conference CANCELED
Hunter Hotel Investment Conference | April 13, 2020
The 2020 Hunter Hotel Investment Conference (the 32rd Annual) is canceled. The conference, initially scheduled to take place on March 18th – 20th, 2020, was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the concern over the safety & health of attendees. After much deliberation, The Hunter Conference Team has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 conference. We consider the hotel community our extended family. Through continually following the published guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and our local health officials we sim...
83% of Americans Working From Home Due to COVID-19 Say They Miss In-Person Meetings and Conventions
Meetings Mean Business | April 13, 2020
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With more than 300 million Americans under stay-at-home orders to help slow the spread of COVID-19, many are now required to work from home and avoid all non-essential business travel. In a matter of weeks, thousands of conferences, conventions, tradeshows and other face-to-face business events have been postponed or cancelled. Recent estimates from the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, predict an unprecedented impact to the meetings and travel industry, which faces losses seven times greater than 9/11 due to the pandemic. A new survey by APCO Insight suggests that American wor...
A Curriculum for Commercial Leaders / Kelly McGuire
KELLY MCGUIRE | April 13, 2020
Keep those big brains active and (relatively) stress free during COVID-19 with this reading program created specifically for revenue management, sales and marketing professionals By Kelly McGuire In these unprecedented times, extremely talented hospitality professionals are finding themselves with some spare time, whether impacted by furloughs or layoffs, or even just reduction in business volumes. Many are obsessively consuming COVID-19 content. It’s the only thing anyone can talk about (for good reason). While it’s important to track the current pandemic and its implications, frankly, I’m starting to bel...
Next Round of Coronavirus Relief: What the Travel Industry Needs
The U.S. Travel Association | April 13, 2020
WASHINGTON (April 13, 2020)—All but shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. travel industry submitted a fresh list of urgent policy requests to Congress to protect the 15.8 million Americans whose livelihoods depend on travel. At the top of the list: adding $600 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and expanding eligibility to small businesses that were previously left out; and ensuring loan forgiveness can cover both payroll and other operating expenses during the shutdown. A key example of small businesses that were unintentionally excluded from the PPP under the CARES Act: local and regional destination marketin...
Why Flow-Through and Flex Analysis Will Be Key Post-COVID-19
HotStats | April 13, 2020
It feels interminable now, but there will come a day when the coronavirus — this “invisible enemy” that continues to lay waste to normal, everyday functions and in a matter of weeks succeeded in leveling the world’s economy — will subside and end. Though recovering occupancy and generating revenue will be at the top of hoteliers’ lists, beyond that, understanding how to turn revenue into profit will be essential to sustaining growth post-COVID-19. One way to do that is to understand the concepts of flow-through and flex. Historically, hotel performance has been measured using three main metrics: occupancy rate, average daily...
The Dow Hotel Company (DHC) Offers Tips to Navigate the Pandemic for Management Companies and Hotel Owners
The Dow Hotel Company | April 13, 2020
SEATTLE, Wash., April 13, 2020—Officials The Dow Hotel Company (DHC), a leading national hotel owner/investor and operator, today provided guidance to fellow hotel owners and operators as the hotel industry continues to seek ways to combat the effects of the coronavirus. “As the entire hospitality industry experiences a major decline in hotel demand, it has never been more important for management companies to be intensely focused on helping it's hotel owners and owner/partners to navigate the current environment through various types of cost containment measures,” said Murray L. Dow II, founder and president, DHC. “ Management com...
Marcus Hotels & Resorts Announces Updates to Current Operations
Marcus Hotels | April 9, 2020
MILWAUKEE - Marcus Hotels & Resorts®, a division of The Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS), is temporarily closing additional properties across its portfolio. This decision includes all of the following hotels owned by the Company that are currently still open, The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee; The Platinum Hotel in Las Vegas; Hilton Madison Monona Terrace in Wisconsin; and the AC Hotel Chicago Downtown in Chicago. Additionally, with respect to the hotels that we manage for third-parties, we are working with the owners of those properties to temporarily close the hotels or transition management. “Our top priority in this unprecedented t...
