HFTP® Acquires Leading Hospitality Industry Brands: Hospitality Upgrade, Hotel-Online, The CIO Summit and The Executive Vendor Summit
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals | June 25th, 2024
The Growth of Golf and Other Socially Distanced Activities
Larry Mogelonsky | May 20, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Prior to the coming of Covid, I had predicted a long, slow demise for golf. However, now that social distancing is a leading trend in the new normal, this sport as well as many other activities where human contact is scant may see a strong resurgence once travel resumes. And therein lies a lucrative opportunity for hotels. Let me know with some background on my previous forecast because many of the underlying motivations will carry forward into the post-coronavirus world. Compared to boomers and other older demographics, the younger generations – millennials and centennials, that ...
Interview with Felix Laboy, Executive Chairman of NextGuest, on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Hospitality Industry
NextGuest | May 20, 2020
The hospitality industry is being hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak. We’re currently looking at a projection from STR and Tourism Economics that shows significant declines across demand, occupancy, ADR, and revenue per available room (RevPar) through the end of 2020 and beyond. Additional research from CBRE predicts that it will take approximately 6-10 months for US hotel demand to recover and 12-16 months for ADR and RevPar to return to normal levels. A major concern is the impact on business from groups, meetings, and events, which makes up about 30-40% of business for many hotels. Post COVID-19, many people will continue to meet virtu...
American Gaming Group and Saratoga Harness Racing Terminate Wildwood Casino Acquisition Due to COVID-19
Wildwood Casino | May 20, 2020
CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo., May 20, 2020 - With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down casinos across the U.S., Saratoga Harness Racing, Inc. and American Gaming Group, LLC, the owner of Wildwood Casino, decided to terminate the previously announced acquisition of Wildwood Casino. Both parties deemed the termination necessary because of the current economic impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis. "At this time, we believe it's in the best interest of both companies, and our respective casinos, to cancel the deal so we can focus on doing what's best for our casinos and our players," Joe Canfora, the owner of Wildwood Casino, said. "At Wildwood, w...
STR: U.S. Hotel Performance for April 2020
STR | May 20, 2020
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—Due to expanded restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. hotel industry reported unprecedented lows during April 2020, according to data from STR. In a year-over-year comparison with April 2019, the industry recorded the following: Occupancy: -63.9% to 24.5% Average daily rate (ADR): -44.4% to US$73.23 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -79.9% to US$17.93 The absolute occupancy and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month on record in the U.S., while the ADR value was the lowest since December 1997. However, recent weekly data suggests that performance likely reached the bottom in e...
Managing Capacity Constraints in a COVID-19 World
Dan Skodol | May 20, 2020
By Dan Skodol As hotels around the world gradually reopen following closures brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, they face the daunting challenge of balancing the need to bring guests back with the importance of keeping them safe and healthy. Hotels that reopen typically must adhere to strict guidelines around social distancing, cleanliness and sanitation, and reduced capacity across rooms and outlets. At the same time, competition among hotels for the returning business threatens to put downward pressure on rates. All of this translates into increased costs, thinner margins, and a slew of other financial and operational risks. ...
Asia Pacific’s Hotel Construction Pipeline, Excluding China, Continues to Expand in the First Quarter of 2020*
Lodging Econometrics | May 20, 2020
May 20, 2020 – PORTSMOUTH, NH – According to the recent report from analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE), Asia Pacific’s total construction pipeline, excluding China, expanded to 1,905 projects/404,903 rooms, up 6% and 5% respectively, year-over-year (YOY). The region currently has 977 projects under construction with 222,497 rooms. There are 409 projects with 79,610 rooms scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, and a record-high 519 projects/102,796 rooms in the early planning stage. In addition, during the first quarter of 2020, the Asia Pacific region excluding China saw 83 new hotels accounting for 15,263 rooms ...
Hotel Industry on Brink of Collapse Releases Roadmap to Recovery
AHLA | May 20, 2020
WASHINGTON D.C. (May 20, 2020) – With new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing staggering job loss to the hospitality and leisure industry, the American Hotel & Lodging Association today released a “Roadmap to Recovery,” calling on Congress to prioritize relief for hotel workers and small businesses in the next stimulus package. The April Jobs Report showed the hospitality and leisure industry was the hardest hit, losing 7.7 million jobs—nearly as many jobs as the next four sectors combined. (Click here to read AHLA’s letter to Congress.) AHLA is urging Congress to provide immediate assistance in these fo...
Hotels Urged to Clean Linens Daily, Handle With Extra Precautions
TRSA | May 20, 2020
ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 20, 2020--State and local officials are TRSA’s initial targets in its latest campaign to control COVID-19’s spread by promoting responsible linen, uniform and facility services practices. Governors, mayors and city managers have been urged by TRSA to guide hoteliers to clean all textiles daily and handle their linen under OSHA universal precautions, among other tactics to ensure guest safety and confidence. These guidelines were sent to the National Association of Governors, U.S. Conference of Mayors and International City/County Management Association. All are expected to play a role in writing safety guidance doc...
Travel-Related Unemployment Hits 51% Just Ahead of Memorial Day
The U.S. Travel Association | May 20, 2020
WASHINGTON (May 20, 2020)—More than half of the 15.8 million travel-related jobs in the U.S. have disappeared since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic—driving an unemployment number (51%) that is more than twice the 25% rate the country as a whole experienced at the worst of the Great Depression, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Travel Association. Prepared for U.S. Travel by the research firm Tourism Economics, the painful jobs figures arrive just days before the Memorial Day holiday weekend—the unofficial start of the summer travel season, for which many travel businesses would have typically prepared with a round ...
Will Hotels Become Faceless, Hands-off, Sterile Environments?
DANIEL CRAIG | May 19, 2020
By Daniel Craig Hoteliers, are you ready for the Covid-19 recovery traveler? In this time of struggle for the travel industry, we can’t help but acknowledge the irony. Are hotels, after working so hard to build reputations as high-touch, warm and intimate, going to become faceless, hands-off, sterile environments? How will hoteliers uphold guest satisfaction while ensuring the safety and wellbeing of guests and staff? In my next webinar with ReviewPro, From High Touch to No Touch: Transforming the Guest Experience Post Covid-19, we’ll discuss how hotels around the world are implementing new health, safety and social-distancing...
3 Reasons to Turn to Benchmarking in the COVID-19 Era
HotStats | May 19, 2020
By Laura Resco You wouldn’t trust a doctor’s mere intuition with your health, right? Of course not. You’d require testing and data. Operational benchmarking is the hotel industry’s electrocardiogram (EKG), MRI, X-ray and ultrasound — the instruments that provide the cold hard facts. Isn’t your bottom line worth it? Among industries, the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry has been especially injurious: halting travel in its tracks, postponing conferences and gatherings and precipitating the furloughs and layoffs of thousands of employees within the space. The unprecedented nature of the disease has rendered obs...
The Influence of COVID-19 on Travel Plans and Accommodation Types
STR | May 19, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic reshapes the world of travel, we investigated the impact on accommodation choices among international travellers. This piece builds on our analysis of propensity to travel in key English-speaking countries, in which we learned that desire for travel has declined but remains strong overall. More or less travel in 2020? The influence of accommodation types Below we can see changes in propensity to travel over the next 12 months broken out by the accommodation type travellers used for past international travel. Unsurprisingly, over the course of the month, the percentage of people anticipating less travel increased ...
As States Begin Opening Up, Survey Shows Travelers Expecting to Stay Closer to Home Over the Next Six Months
MMGY | May 19, 2020
The latest findings of the Travel Intentions Pulse Survey, conducted by MMGY Travel Intelligence, reveal just 36% of U.S. travelers intend to take a domestic leisure trip in the next six months. When asked about traveling after the pandemic subsides, the preference is to still travel domestically and closer to home. Fifty-seven percent of travelers say that following the pandemic they are more likely to book travel to U.S. destinations, and 43% expect to travel to destinations closer to home. Presently, approximately one-third of travelers remain committed to postponing, rather than canceling, scheduled travel for the months ahead. Activitie...
China’s Hotel Construction Pipeline Hits All-Time High in the First Quarter of 2020 Despite COVID-19 Pandemic*
Lodging Econometrics | May 19, 2020
May 19, 2020 – PORTSMOUTH, NH - Analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) report that despite the COVID-19 outbreak, China's total construction pipeline continues to expand to an all-time high of 3,533 projects/645,764 rooms, up 24% by projects and 9% by rooms year-over-year (YOY). China has 2,330 projects/412,142 rooms presently under construction. Projects under construction remain near record-highs at the end of the first quarter even though many projects are delayed two to four months. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months experienced an enormous increase of 92% by projects and 45% by rooms YOY, to stand at a re...
Will COVID-19 Force Digitalization in the Hotel Workplace?
Andrada Paraschiv | May 19, 2020
Physical distancing, frequently changing information, and a need to manage costs will accelerate the digitalization trend and foster better interactions with guests and employees By Andrada Paraschiv The world is changing, and so is the global hospitality environment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new safety culture is emerging that requires the hotel workforce to engage with guests, management, and each other digitally to honor social distancing mandates and help stop virus spread. It’s hard to imagine that we once had limited options for exchanging information. Try explaining to a Millennial that before the Internet and smartph...
Kempinski Hotels Reopens All Its Hotels in China Following the Lessening of Lockdowns
Kempinski | May 18, 2020
Beijing, 18 May 2020 – Following early signs of recovery and eased lockdowns after the coronavirus spread in China, Kempinski Hotels has reopened all its hotels in the country. New strict safety and hygiene procedures have been put in place to comply with local government authorities and WHO guidelines to guarantee guests’ and employees’ safety and wellbeing. In addition, innovative services have been introduced as a business enhancement and guest experiences. ‘Our hotels in China have done great work in ensuring the health and safety of our guests and employees during the past weeks and months, and we are closely following the r...
The Five Changes Expected in the Hotel Industry
Adam Knight | May 18, 2020
By Adam Knight Returning to operations in our new environment is sure to bring many expected and unexpected challenges. Between figuring out social distancing protocols and mitigating risk throughout the property, hotels will be contending with a lot as we move through the coming months and years. The landscape continues to change rapidly and while no one can say with any degree of certainty where everything will land, we are starting to see the shape of things to come. Reduced capacity allowance in restaurants and bars, queuing for entry in to stores, ubiquitous placement of sanitization products, PPE requirements while in public, heal...
HITEC North America, HFTP Annual Conference and Club Forum Consolidate to Become “The Best of HFTP”
May 18, 2020
A Focus on Health & Safety While Leading the Return to In-Person Events By Geneva Rinehart May 18, 2020 - Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) announced last Wednesday during a press conference to industry media that the organization will consolidate its three major annual events to one location over a four-day period in October, and will call it, “The Best of HFTP.” Health and safety will take center stage, as the organization plans to set an example on how the industry will return to face-to-face conventions and networking in a responsible way. HFTP’s three annual...
NextPax Travel Technology Announces Distribution Partnership With Trip.com Group
NextPax | May 18, 2020
Almere, theNetherlands - NextPax, one of the most advanced channel management technology providers for hotels, resorts and vacation rentals worldwide and Trip.com Group, the largest travel distribution channel in Asia have launched the first completely automated connection for vacation rentals. The jointly developed API-connection not only supports prices, availability and bookings, but all other content such as photos and descriptions. The advanced technology allows NextPax and Trip.com Group to easily build and put operational thousands of vacation rentals at a time. NextPax was already providing connectivity to tho...
Food for Thought for the World’s Restauranteurs
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | May 15, 2020
Restauranteurs will for the first time have a highly accurate way to measure their financial constraints, thanks to a pioneering index recently developed by Dr. Sung Gyun Mun of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his co-researcher. Although the restaurant industry is a vital driver of economic growth around the globe, restaurant firms are still subject to financial constraints that can pose a severe threat to their survival. Until now, little effort has been made to explore the financial pressure facing firms in the specific context of the restaurant industry. In their ground-breaking...
Survey Results: How Hotels Are Coping With COVID-19
Casey Munck | May 15, 2020
By Casey Munck The results are in from two Cendyn surveys polling hoteliers across the globe on how they are coping with the effects of COVID-19. Gauge the industry pulse and read first-hand accounts of how hoteliers are dealing with the coronavirus on both an individual level and as an operation. How has your business been impacted by the coronavirus? Are you still accepting guests? Other responses included: Business travelers only and mandated to be open by government What have you done to cut costs and stay afloat? Other responses included: Furloughs and operating with very few staff Has your hotel deployed any new business ...
Covid-19 and Fine Wines: The Perfect Blend for a Severe Headache?
Dr Jean-Philippe Weisskopf | May 15, 2020
By Dr Jean-Philippe Weisskop Covid-19 has officially been a pandemic only since March 11, but its effects on the economy are already dramatic. For several industries, the current crisis is likely to become the most severe since the Great Depression. This is notably the case for the travel & leisure industry. In this article, we investigate the impact of Covid-19 on the fine wine market which represents the upper segment of the wine market and which is closely connected to the hospitality industry. The market for fine wines is dominated by France, with Bordeaux and Burgundy accounting respectively for close to 50% and 20% of the trad...
HSMAI Offers Education & Knowledge Scholarship Program
HSMAI | May 15, 2020
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is supporting hospitality professionals during the coronavirus pandemic and is preparing the industry for recovery. HSMAI is proud to announce the Education & Knowledge Scholarship Program, an initiative that provides discounts and scholarships for HSMAI educational resources and certifications. “We must remain focused on supporting our colleagues as we navigate uncharted territory,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, President and CEO of HSMAI. “By investing in hoteliers’ education, we are investing in the future and recovery of the hospitality and tourism ...
WTTC Welcomes European Commission Guidelines to Safely Restart Travel & Tourism in Europe in 2020 and Beyond
May 15, 2020
London, UK: The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), has welcomed a major new EU initiative which aims to help restart summer holidays across Europe in 2020 and beyond, and save millions of jobs in the Travel & Tourism sector. The European Commission’s Tourism & Transport Package has been designed to ensure a coordinated approach at a European level, to ease restrictive measures and restore mobility. The move by the European Commission is hoped to herald a phased restart of travel across Europe this summer, while ensuring the safety and health of travellers and those who work in the Travel & Tourism sector. The in...
