The Tricycle of Guest Service Excellence: A Perfect Model For Remarkable Experiences
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Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino Partners With Travel Outlook to Elevate Guest Service Experience
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Hilton Expands Presence in Mexico with Debut of Hilton Garden Inn Monterrey Obispado
Hilton Garden Inn | March 23, 2020
MONTERREY, Mexico and MCLEAN, Va. – March 23, 2020 – Hilton (NYSE: HLT) recently announced the opening of its new Hilton Garden Inn in Mexico – Hilton Garden Inn Monterrey Obispado. Owned by Real State Agency ALORA and developed by Promotora DEVI SA de CV, the 176-room hotel is located within Torre TOP, a new mixed-use project with LEED Gold Certification for sustainable buildings. Upon completion, Torre TOP will be recognized as Mexico’s tallest skyscraper. “As Hilton continues to expand its presence across the market, we are confident that our new Hilton Garden Inn property will elevate Monterrey’s travel and business tourism...
Why Distributed Teams Make More Sense Now Than Ever
Greg Abbott | March 23, 2020
Travel and Hospitality brands turn to technology to improve business continuity strategies and resilience to disruptions By Greg Abbott The rate of change and the standard way of doing things, whether that's conducting business, taking care of our families, or simply getting around our cities, is being turned upside down. As the coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to spread around the world, the economic symptoms are emerging. Business continuity management is well underway at most organizations. Hospitality and travel are among the most impacted and face a unique set of challenges. For most hotel and travel organizations, there would be n...
McKibbon Hospitality Appoints Luis Arancibia as General Manager of Aloft Orlando Downtown
Aloft Hotels | March 23, 2020
ORLANDO, Fla. (March 23, 2020) - McKibbon Hospitality, an award-winning leader in hotel management, today announced the appointment of 13-year hospitality veteran, Luis Arancibia, as General Manager of Aloft Orlando Downtown. In his new role, Arancibia will be responsible for overseeing all operations and functions of the historic 8-story, 118-room building owned by GDC Properties. In 2012, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. “Luis is a highly dedicated professional and we are thrilled to have him continue his career within the McKibbon portfolio,” said Karl Oates, vice president of Lifestyle Hotels. “...
McKibbon Hospitality Establishes Associate Assistance Fund
McKibbon Hospitality | March 23, 2020
Tampa, FL (March 23, 2020) – In the 94 years that McKibbon Hospitality has been in business, we have never endured more challenging times. COVID-19’s impact on our business, our industry, our communities and the entire world, have been rapid and nothing short of devastating. For that reason, we’ve been forced to make extremely difficult decisions, including completely suspending operations at several hotels and laying off the majority of our highly valued associates. As a result of recent layoffs, Tampa-based hotel management company, McKibbon Hospitality, has established an associate assistance fund in respons...
Hilton Partners With Leading Companies to Find Temporary Jobs for Displaced Hotel Team Members
March 23, 2020
As the hospitality industry responds to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Hilton is partnering with leading companies to connect workers from temporarily suspended hotels with hundreds of thousands of short-term jobs created by the global pandemic. Hilton Team Members, and others in the industry seeking employment, will be given direct access and in some cases expedited access to temporary jobs on the Hilton Workforce Resource Center at companies such as Albertsons, Amazon, CVS, Lidl, Sunrise Senior Living and Walgreens. These partners recognize the power of a service culture and the value of hospitality skills training Hilton Team M...
8 Ways Hotel Contact Centers Can Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19
Cloud5 Communications | March 23, 2020
As the hospitality industry faces unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of hotel reservations and airline bookings are being cancelled or postponed. It’s daunting to imagine that each caller wants to talk to a live person to ensure their transaction is handled correctly. This extraordinary call volume puts unparalleled stress on industry call center operations and your brand at risk. If calls are handled well, you have the chance to minimize revenue loss and grow customer loyalty. If not – you not only lose the short-term booking, but the lifetime value of the guest. In today’s environment, your call center ...
State by State Breakdown: Negative Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on Hotel Industry Employment
March 23, 2020
Click here to download fact sheet with state by state data on estimated job losses for hotel industry. (Source: American Hotel and Lodging Association/Oxford Economic Study) The hotel industry is facing an abrupt and unprecedented drop in hotel demand that is gaining pace and getting progressively deeper and more severe week by week. AHLA and top hotel CEOs met with President Trump and Congress this week to seek urgent assistance to keep hotels from shuttering, protect millions of employees from losing jobs. Based on current occupancy estimates, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) says four million tota...
New Meliá Koh Samui Welcomes Azizskandar Awang as Executive Chef
Meliá Hotels & Resorts | March 23, 2020
KOH SAMUI, Thailand (March 23, 2020) – A talented professional with a passion for leadership and coaching who has won a string of coveted awards during his 20-year career has been named Meliá Koh Samui’s executive chef. Malaysian national Azizskandar Awang has joined the 159-room and 31-suite luxury resort on Koh Samui’s north-eastern coastline in the Gulf of Thailand, with ambitions to establish the island’s top fine dining restaurant at the new property. Before joining Meliá Koh Samui, Awang was the executive chef at Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort for almost four years, where he managed 55 chefs and clinched the prestigiou...
A Globetrotting Generation
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | March 23, 2020
With globalisation and the rise of digital technology, “keeping up with the Joneses” is becoming harder than ever before. In a recently published study, MSc graduate Ms Lauren Siegel and Dr Dan Wang of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University show that for the Internet-savvy Generation Y, travel experiences shared online have replaced material goods as a form of social currency. New approaches to destination marketing are needed if tourism is to realise its potential in the information age. One might say that envy is at the heart of consumer culture. For centuries, the researchers tell u...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Beverage Controls – Top 10
David Lund | March 23, 2020
By David Lund Controlling the beverage cost is a big deal in hotels. People like to drink and that’s great for the bar, but you have to remember the people serving your drinks need a tight set of checks and balances or else they will help themselves to your supplies. It’s just human nature to mess around with the stuff at your fingertips all day long. There is a certain sense of entitlement as well because the wages are small, and people rely on tips. Bigger portions or the odd free one for a client can make a big difference in the tips left behind. Now, I’m not saying your beverage staff are stealing or anything like that but wha...
Hotel Tech Company Launches Covid-19 Support Platform
#hospitalityhelps | March 23, 2020
San Diego, March 23, 2020 -- As Covid-19 spreads, communities have an urgent need for beds as field hospitals, for quarantine, and to house for patients as well as health professionals who are caring for them. The founders of hotel industry software provider Cloudbeds and their team created #hospitalityhelps to connect property owners and operators with health care providers, providing facilities during this time of need. Hospitality professionals willing to open their facilities can provide their information via #hospitalityhelps to assist government and healthcare agencies in need of open beds. “With each passing hour, we face an eve...
Global DMC Partners Launches “Together at Home” Webinar Series for the Meetings, Events, Travel and Tourism Industry
Global DMC Partners | March 23, 2020
Washington, D.C. – March 23, 2020 – As many companies around the world are doing their part to combat the spread of COVID-19 by instructing their employees to work from home, Global DMC Partners (GDP), the leading global network of independently owned destination management companies (DMCs) and creative event experts, is launching a brand-new weekly webinar series designed not only to combat social isolation but also to educate, innovate and inspire members of the meetings, events, travel and tourism industry. Each week, GDP will host a featured subject matter expert with topics ranging from resiliency and leading through change to health...
Coronavirus Impact On Hotels & A Plan For Recovery
GCommerce Solutions | March 23, 2020
What is the current digital marketing landscape for the hospitality industry? First, let’s summarize the larger impact of COVID-19 on the industry. Current Impact of COVID-19 on the Hotel Industry According to American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), the hospitality industry has lost 1.5 billion in room revenue and is on pace to lose $1.4 billion per week due to COVID-19. In the last few days, we have received word that many hotels have either already closed their doors or are planning to in the immediate future, all due to the impact of COVID-19. While these numbers are staggering, let’s take a look at what our hotel digit...
Hotel Online’s Siegel Sez 3/20/2020: COVID-19
March 20, 2020
If you are worried about a recession coming, then don’t be. It is already here. I am not an economist, but I know for the economy to thrive money needs to be spent on non-essential things. Things like going out to dinner and taking vacations which has pretty much come to a grinding halt. We have all heard the comparisons to 9/11 and 2008. I don’t see any correlations to 9/11, but there are similarities to 2008 because today it is all about the economy crashing and when it will recover. The big variable is that today it is caused by a virus and simply put until we get our arms around the coronavirus (COVID-19), we won’t start the recover...
STR: U.S. Hotel Results for Week Ending 14 March
STR | March 19, 2020
Showing further COVID-19 impact, the U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 8-14 March 2020, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of 10-16 March 2019, the industry recorded the following: Occupancy: -24.4% to 53.0% Average daily rate (ADR): -10.7% to US$120.30 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -32.5% to US$63.74 Performance declines were uniform across chain scales, classes and location types. “To no surprise, the hurt continued and intensified for hotels around the country,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodgin...
STR: U.S. Hotel Performance for February 2020
STR | March 19, 2020
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—In its final month before feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during February 2020, according to data from STR. In a year-over-year comparison with February 2019, the industry posted the following: Occupancy: +0.2% to 62.2% Average daily rate (ADR): +1.4% to US$130.78 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +1.7% to US$81.33 Significant COVID-19 effects were visible through the first two weeks of March, as outlined in weekly press releases for 1-7 March and 8-14 March. STR continues to monitor the...
HVS Market Pulse: Phuket, Thailand
Apichaya Wongsuwan | March 19, 2020
The following article gives a brief overview of Phuket, its tourism industry, and the recent dynamics of the local lodging market. By Apichaya Wongsuwan, Ruj Masan, Pawinee Chaisiriroj Following the market’s prosperity in the past few years, hotels across all segment have started to witness hindering economic growth, resulting in a softer performance in 2019. The unexpected outbreak of COVIC-19 has swept away the majority of the demand in the market. As the number of travel advisory continues to heighten, concerns over air traffic and tourism spending are increasing among the public as people are reluctant to travel. The following ar...
Chinese Tourism at a Difficult Time
Yong Chen | March 19, 2020
What makes the year 2019-20 unprecedented in Chinese tourism is the spate of incidents coming one after another, namely the US-China trade war, the Hong Kong protests and the novel coronavirus outbreak. By Yong Chen Demand shocks and tourism The global tourism industry could not have been hurt so badly any time in history other than the year 2019−20. The tourism industry involves temporary displacement of people from one place to another, whereby demand is generated. Thus, any factor that impedes tourist flow will cause a negative demand shock in the industry one way or another. The impact on tourism demand depends on the nature of the...
hotelAVE Projects a Five-Year Recovery Period for Hotel Industry Post Coronavirus
hotelAVE | March 19, 2020
Business Recovery Duration Similar to that Following September 11th & The 2008 Financial Crisis PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 19, 2020 -- Hotel Asset Value Enhancement (hotelAVE), the premier hotel asset management company, in a study released today, estimated that it will take the hotel industry in the United States approximately five years to achieve pre COVID-19 occupancies, revenues and profitability. In addition, the hotelAVE COVID-19 Hotel Outlook predicts that the pace of the five-year recovery from the pandemic will be extended after an immediate mini-spike beginning in May or June, as the impact on the travel and hotel industry i...
Train Your Reservations and Sales Team to Show Compassion for Cancellations
Doug Kennedy | March 19, 2020
By Doug Kennedy As a hotel sales trainer, it seems very odd to be writing a train-the-trainer article about how to manage cancellations, yet this is absolutely necessary as the lodging industry has been turned upside down temporarily. Imagine how strange it must be for those who are tasked (and incentivized) for securing revenue are now dealing with a flood of calls and emails about reversing the flow. I’m sure it is time consuming, stressful and heartbreaking, especially when such staff are surely worried about their own job security and health concerns. It’s at moments like these when we all need to remember that we are in the ...
Carillon Miami Wellness Resort Appoints Patrick Fernandes as Executive Managing Director
Carillon Miami Wellness Resort | March 19, 2020
MIAMI BEACH, Fla., March 19, 2020 - Carillon Miami Wellness Resort, a world-class beachfront boutique hotel and luxury spa in Miami Beach, today announced the appointment of Patrick Fernandes as Executive Managing Director and member of the Board of Managers, effective immediately. In this newly created role, Mr. Fernandes will work closely with the leadership at the resort to further enhance the world-class wellness and luxury destination. Mr. Fernandes has more than 20 years of hospitality experience across a number of leading brands and brings a proven track record of creativity and innovation in delivering five-star service. Most rec...
Ocean House Management Collection Food Truck to Deliver and Distribute Complimentary Lunch to Children in Need Affected by COVID-19
Ocean House Management | March 19, 2020
WESTERLY, R.I., March 19, 2020 - Due to temporary school closures resulting from COVID-19, Ocean House Management (OHM) Collection, operators of Ocean House, Weekapaug Inn, Watch Hill Inn and the Inn at Hastings Park and the Ocean House Fund for Charitable Giving, have announced that the Food Truck, Off the Menu, will deliver and distribute complimentary lunches to local children 16 and under. The Food Truck will be centrally located at the Ice Rink at 61 Main Street in Westerly. This community service will begin this Friday March 20 and available Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm at least through April 1. People...
SureStay Hotel by Best Western North Myrtle Beach Set to Open in South Carolina
Best Western Hotels & Resorts | March 19, 2020
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (March 19, 2020) The SureStay Hotel by Best Western North Myrtle Beach is opening its doors in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and inviting travelers to experience one of the newest hotel brands in the industry – the SureStay Hotel Group®. The SureStay by Best Western North Myrtle Beach will provide guests with an experience they can count on and the amenities today’s travelers have come to expect. SureStay’s service promise reflects the brand and the hotel’s commitment to providing quality service and value to its guests. Located at 1591 Highway 17 North in North Myrtle Beach, South Caro...
Best Western Premier Northwood Hotel Conference Centre to Open in Timmins, Ontario
Best Western | March 19, 2020
Timmins, Ontario (March 19, 2020)—Best Western® Hotels & Resorts announces the opening of the brand new Best Western Premier Northwood Hotel Conference Centre. The newly built hotel opened its doors to guests as a Best Western Premier property offering modern décor, upscale amenities and superior service travelers have come to trust from the Best Western Premier Brand. “We are thrilled to be a part of the upscale Best Western Premier brand, as it is well known and respected for its superior accommodations, exceptional service and first-rate amenities,” said Carole Rheault-Gibouleau, Owner of the Best Western Premier Northwood...
