Using the Labor Data from Hotel Effectiveness to Minimize Costs and Turnover
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky | January 11th, 2023
Four Creatively Destructive Forces for the Hotel Industry
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | July 13th, 2022
Can Hotels Claim Business Interruption Insurance Due to a Pandemic?
HotStats | January 7, 2021
Does a pandemic qualify for business interruption insurance? It’s a question hoteliers shouldn’t be asking themselves, but rather, their insurance company. COVID-19 was swift and pernicious, bringing the hospitality industry to its knees. As hotels find their footing, filing a business interruption claim with their insurer is of the essence, regardless of the ambiguity over whether a pandemic qualifies a business for such relief. Insurers, unsurprisingly, have denied the vast majority of these claims, which have in turn triggered scores of lawsuits asking courts to make insurers honor their contracts. Insurance companies contend t...
Q&A: Chris Nassetta Reflects on a Challenging 2020 and His Optimism for the Return of the Golden Age of Travel
Hilton | January 6, 2021
The turmoil of 2020 has affected all of us – every person, company and industry – many in profound and even tragic ways. The hospitality sector is no exception and in fact has endured one of the most harrowing challenges in its history. But amid that challenge came an opportunity for resilience, along with important lessons and insights for the future. Hilton President & CEO Chris Nassetta, a 37-year industry veteran, shared his perspective on this unprecedented year – what he experienced, what he learned and what he’s most looking forward to in the new year. What was your biggest challenge of 2020? It’s so hard to pi...
The Evolving Traveler Journey: 3 Trends Hoteliers Must Address Today
Paul Barron | January 5, 2021
By Paul Barron The hospitality industry is navigating through a time of unprecedented change. The shock of COVID-19 pushed what was once considered preferential traveler expectations into industry standards faster than anyone could have imagined. Trips are either increasingly spontaneous with short booking windows or intensely researched due to safety. On-trip interactions are digitizing, and loyalty has evolved far beyond points programs. Reviewing recent trends, hoteliers must prepare for three key shifts in the traveler’s journey: 1. Booking flexibility shifting from perk to expectation 2. Acceleration of the contactless ...
Tourism Tidbits: Looking Back at The Year That Wasn’t!
Peter Tarlow | January 4, 2021
Wishing everyone health and happiness in 2021 May 2021 Be A Better Year By Dr. Peter Tarlow Most people in the tourism industry are more than willing to say adieu to the year 2020. The twenty-first century’s third decade began with extremely high hopes. A mere year ago, no one could have conceived of the fact that by March of 2020 the tourism industry would have been in shambles. In February of 2020 Covid-19 struck, and the tourism industry went into a tailspin going from unprecedent highs to its greatest lows. From February until the end of the year, every aspect of travel and tourism has suffered. Many hotels and restaurant...
2021: It’s All About the Economy
JLL | December 17, 2020
Recent developments are providing markets with optimism, although the next six months are key for real estate When the pandemic sent global economies into decline, it clinched the end to a decade-long bull run in commercial real estate markets. But economists and investors appear largely optimistic about a recovery in 2021. While such a disposition might have seemed far-fetched during the first lockdowns in the spring of 2020, the confidence is coming from a faster pace of vaccine development than some first believed possible, alongside government stimulus efforts and record-low interest rates at central banks. Still, uncertainty rem...
The Outlook for Hospitality, Part 4: Technology Vendors Discuss Their Plans for the Future
Fran Worrall | December 16, 2020
By Fran Worrall Two weeks ago, in Part 3 of our series on the outlook for hospitality, we asked some of the industry’s leading technology vendors to discuss the solutions that are helping the industry recover. Not surprisingly, many companies have experienced an overwhelming demand for contactless solutions—from mobile food and beverage ordering to keyless entry systems. Other companies have seen rapid adoption of new business intelligence and CRM technology. Without exception, every vendor we interviewed has met the challenges surrounding the pandemic head-on, with many of them releasing new and improved solutions that offer low-to...
HospitalityVIEW Q & A With Tom Corcoran: The Hotel Industry in 2021
Michael Frenkel | December 14, 2020
Following a year of dramatic shifts and continuous uncertainty, hoteliers are hopeful about finding new footing in 2021. However, with so much noise about the potential state of the industry, it's useful to hear from senior players who have been there and done it for decades - building companies, brands and creating shareholder value throughout market cycles. HospitalityVIEW brings such leaders together regularly to advance industry thinking. Michael Frenkel, President of MFC PR and moderator for HospitalityVIEW, caught up with charter member and President of TCOR Hotel Partners, Tom Corcoran, after the group’s most recent meeting. ...
Bridging the Disconnect: The Transferability of a Revenue Manager
Sahad Kassam | December 14, 2020
By Sahad Kassam As much as I would like to say that 2020 has been a rollercoaster, I would be remiss to not acknowledge those in the hospitality industry, who have yet to see the upside. In March of 2020, the hotel industry collapsed. Hotels were seeing cancellations come in large waves, and employees were being furloughed by the dozen, flooding the job market in search of a transferable role. As a 2019 Bachelor of Commerce graduate beginning my full-time career with Marriott International's Revenue Strategy Market Team for Downtown Toronto, COVID-19 turned my exciting and limitless career opportunities into a giant question mark. With ...
Survey: Nearly 70% of Americans Will Not Travel for Christmas
AHLA | December 14, 2020
71% of Hotels Will Not Last Another Six Months Without Immediate Assistance WASHINGTON (December 14, 2020) –A recent national survey commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) shows that nearly two-thirds (69%) of Americans will not travel for Christmas. With a new surge in COVID-19 cases, the CDC recommending that Americans do not travel over the holiday season and new stay-at-home orders in place in states across the country, the holiday season will compound the challenges already facing the hotel industry during this public health crisis. “We understand the importance of following CDC guidelines to redu...
US Hotel Industry Forecast Adjusts in Response to COVID-19 Winter Surge and Anticipation of Vaccines
CBRE Group, Inc. | December 14, 2020
Dallas – December 14, 2020 – The recent surge in COVID-19 infections has dampened expectations for U.S. hotel performance through the first half of 2021, but news of effective vaccines has bolstered projections of U.S. lodging industry recovery beginning in earnest during the second half of next year, according to CBRE’s latest hotel forecast. According to the recently released Q3 2020 edition of Hotel Horizons®, CBRE Hotels Research is forecasting an average national occupancy level of 44.4 percent during the first half of 2021. This measure increases to 55.7 percent during the year’s second half. “The increased spread of th...
The Post-Pandemic Hotel Experience From the Experience Expert
Larry Mogelonsky | December 9, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) As COVID-19 continues to upend travel and rewrite daily habits, hotels must nevertheless continue to differentiate their products in order to better appeal to guests in the next normal and build revenues. While much needs to be done insofar as safety upgrades and facilitating a contactless customer journey through tech enhancements, it all inevitably comes down to the guest experience. And so, I turn to the man himself who coined the phrase ‘The Experience Economy’, Joe Pine. A thoroughly affable man based out of Minneapolis, his ongoing writing, speaking engagements and work wi...
Tourism Tidbits: How to Re-Enchant Tourism
Peter Tarlow | December 7, 2020
By Dr. Peter Tarlow With the now real potential for a vaccine, we can begin to think about post – pandemic tourism. After Covid-19 becomes a tragic chapter in the history of tourism industry leaders shall have to find ways to rebuild the industry and to increase both the number of people traveling and regain profitability. The hoped for and desired boom of 2021 can be very positive, but the tourism industry must be careful not to repeat the failures of the pre-Covid-19 tourism world and once again create a world of over-tourism. It behooves us all to remember that in English we derive the word “travel” from the French word for work...
Mind the ‘COVID’ Gap
Thomas Mielke | December 3, 2020
By: Thomas Mielke, London | James Houran, Ph.D., Dallas There was a collective sigh of relief in early November when Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and the Oxford-AstraZeneca team announced in rapid succession their news of vaccines with 90%-plus efficacy rates. However, business leaders in the hospitality industry understand that these positive developments are not a ‘silver bullet’ to solving pressing problems in the here and now. Neither will be the breaking news of the now UK-approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that coronavirus vaccines might be deployed, at scale, early to mid-2021. Challen...
The Outlook for Hospitality, Part 3: Technology Vendors Reveal the Solutions That are Helping the Industry Recover
Fran Worrall | December 2, 2020
By Fran Worrall Last week, in Part 2 of our series on the outlook for hospitality, we asked some of the industry’s leading technology vendors the following question: How has your company pivoted to meet the new demands the industry is facing? Overwhelmingly, the vendor community has risen to meet the challenges surrounding the pandemic, responding in a variety of creative ways—from offering clients free or discounted services to speeding the development of solutions that provide safe alternatives for guests and support long-term recovery. This week, in Part 3 of our series, more than 30 leading hospitality technology vendors reve...
Maximizing Guest Revenues Starts With Prearrival Tech
Larry Mogelonsky | December 2, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) We’re now in the long tail of the pandemic. Our properties have upgraded our safety protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but groups and corporate clients will still take some time to trickle back to their pre-pandemic levels. This means a reliance on leisure – local, regional, staycations, workcations and so on – thereby making it clear the need to maximizing what revenue you can capture from each guest instead of relying on boosting occupancy to stay out of the red. When we consider optimizing revenues on a ‘per guest basis’, the most useful metric to organize any...
The 2020 Hospitality and Tourism Trends That Will Likely Stay in 2021 and Beyond
Linchi Kwok | December 2, 2020
By Linchi Kwok The COVID-19 pandemic had made an unprecedented impact on the global economy in 2020. The good news is the long-waited COVID-19 vaccines will soon become available. Let’s hope that the coronavirus will disappear soon as we enter the New Year. Looking back before we look forward At year-end 2019, I predicted a few 2020 trends in hospitality, retail, and tourism businesses. For example, I recommended that we should pay special attention to the following areas: A shifting focus on food delivery, sustainable food, and quick-casual restaurants. Using AI and facial recognition in service operations. The threats from...
Key Booking Strategies in a World Turned Upside Down
Kristi White | November 18, 2020
By: Kristi White Today’s travel and gathering restrictions have taken a toll on our industry. While we continue to see ongoing changes and brace for the next phase of potential constraints, we are tracking general occupancy while keeping an eye on the long term. I recently had an opportunity to speak with Katie Moro, Vice President, Data Partnerships at TravelClick, an Amadeus Company. She shared some data insights into what her team has been seeing recently. A Strategic View of General Occupancy If we take a look at overall demand, it sets the stage for a discussion on group business. Based on Amadeus data collected from the PM...
The Loss of One Youth or Amateur Sports Tournament Costs a City an Average of $360,000 in Hotel Revenue
EventConnect | November 18, 2020
New data from EventConnect reveals the enormous economic impact on cities from the loss of youth or amateur sports tournaments due to COVID-19 LONDON, Ontario--November 18, 2020--Today, EventConnect, the leading provider of event and sports tourism management software, announced findings showing the significant economic impact felt by cities from the loss of youth and amateur sports tournaments a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings from EventConnect’s internal database of over 4,000 events, 400 associations, 15,000 hotels, and 800 cities revealed that the cancellation of just one tournament costs a city an average of $360,000....
Why There Is Hope Amid the Despair for the Hospitality Industry
Sherif Mamdouh | November 18, 2020
By Sherif Mamdouh A version of this article was previously published on Bilan.ch Deserted airports, lists of countries not to visit, historically low occupancy rates for hotels, unable to crawl back beyond the 10% mark. Unsettling tales abound, and for good reason: we’re facing a violent reality made of layoffs, financial distress, bankruptcies and uncertainty. In this most worrying context, solidarity and compassion must be shown towards the thousands of employees pushed into precarious situations. After this time of empathic reflection, the tourism industry must reflect on its own existential situation.What is really going on? Wh...
Survey: 71% of Hotels Won’t Survive Another Six Months Without Further Government Covid Relief
AHLA | November 18, 2020
WASHINGTON (November 18, 2020) – With a resurgence of COVID-19 and renewed travel restrictions enacted in many states, a new survey of American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) members shows that the hotel industry will continue to face devastation and significant job loss without additional relief from Congress. Seven in ten hoteliers (71%) said they won’t make it another six months without further federal assistance given current and projected travel demand, and 77% of hotels report they will be forced to lay off more workers. Without further government assistance (i.e. second PPP loan, expansion of Main Street Lending Program)...
6 Tips for Benchmarking Your Way to Success
HotStats | November 17, 2020
Like it or not, your hotel is in the middle of a race with the competition — although the current hotel climate may feel more like an obstacle course. Wouldn’t it be nice if, during this ongoing marathon, you could peek across at competitors, note their positions and analyze the techniques, equipment and other factors propelling them forward? That’s the magic of hotel benchmarking. It reveals the financial performance of the whole field, breaks down the factors contributing to each hotel’s position and highlights how your hotel can improve its financial standing. Ready to learn how to benchmark your hotel against competitors and...
Four Quick Training Tips for Hotel Sales Prospecting Success
Doug Kennedy | November 16, 2020
By Doug Kennedy Now that 2020 is winding down and the preliminary vaccine results are favorable, it is time for hotel salespeople to recommit to put on their orange vests and embrace their role as sales hunters. In previous articles for this publication I have spoken about the transition from Sales Fishing to Sales Hunting, the Habitudes of Sales Success, and how salespeople can master their Remote Sales Skills. Here are four additional specific sales tips. Is Your Hotel Sales Team Ready For The Transition From "Fishing For Inbound Leads" To "Sales Hunting”? Hotel Sales Habitudes For The Long Ride To A Slow Recovery - By Doug Kennedy ...
The Outlook for Hospitality, Part 2: How Vendors Are Pivoting to Meet New Industry Demands
Fran Worrall | November 16, 2020
By Fran Worrall In the fall issue of Hospitality Upgrade, we began our four-part series on the outlook for the hospitality industry by asking vendors the following question: What are your thoughts on the future of hotels and the industry in general? Overwhelmingly, respondents were optimistic. Despite the seriousness of the pandemic and its devastating impact on hotels around the globe, most vendors agreed that the industry is resilient and will recover. Some said it would come back even stronger than before. Not surprisingly, most believe that technology will play a key role in the process. In Part 2 of our series, we asked the foll...
“Generation Clean” Is a Driving Force Along the Evolving Traveler Journey
Amadeus | November 16, 2020
Hospitality leaders that identify “Generation Clean” as an engine for formulating marketing and operational strategies will be best positioned for success in a COVID-19 era. Hoteliers around the globe prepare to enter the holiday season and the new year with continued uncertainty. Paradigm shifts in travel due to the health crisis have affected guest expectations, requiring hoteliers to rethink operational procedures and communications. Although no one has all the answers, we know one thing for sure - safety and cleanliness continue to be the top consideration and potential barrier to travel. Hotels that best position their mark...
