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Hospitality Financial Leadership: Hotel Current Assets – What You Need to Know
David Lund | April 30, 2018
By David Lund When we cross the bridge in the hospitality financial world to the greater business world, the concept of an asset and how it is used comes full circle. I am going to explore what is unique about hospitality assets and how we record and use them. I am only going to talk about current assets in this article. First of all, an asset is something you have paid for or earned previously that can be used to generate more income. That is the critical test: Can you use this item to make more money, to create more economic activity? If you bought it or created it previously and can use it to generate more income, it is an asset. Ite...
Young Hoteliers Summit: Rankings Report Reveals Major Trends in the Industry
April 30, 2018
The YHS Rankings, a rating survey conducted by the Young Hoteliers Summit catches each year the latest trends in the hospitality industry by interviewing nearly 2'000 future hospitality leaders. The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) is a student-run committee, organizing an annual, international summit hosted at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne. This year's topic revolved around the central theme: "Eyes on the Future: Following the Momentum of Growth". The report not only reveals the most popular employer of the year but analyses the motivations of young hoteliers to choose an international hospitality brand. It was found that career...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Fixed/Variable Costs and Room Revenue Management
David Lund | April 23, 2018
By David Lund Lately, I have spoken to several revenue managers who have told me how much their cost is to take a room—to make that last sale of the day. What I heard concerns me because it tells me some people do not understand the fixed vs. variable components of payroll and expenses in their hotels. Quite simply put, one revenue manager told me his cost to take a room in his hotel in NYC was $290. "What?" I exclaimed over the telephone. "Yes, that's the cost." To which I replied, "That's the total cost of all your expenses, both fixed and variable?" Silence ensued for a moment and I said, "Let's slow things down and look at the...
Washington Court Selects KEYPR as Exclusive Guest Experience Technology Partner
KEYPR | April 20, 2018
Luxury Capitol Hill hotel goes live with the KEYPR platform, bringing the latest technology to guests and staff Los Angeles, CA (April 20, 2018) -- KEYPR®, the technology company whose enterprise cloud platform is the leader in guest experience and hospitality management, announced today that its system has been fully deployed at the iconic Washington Court Hotel located in the heart of Washington, D.C. "We pride ourselves in maintaining the highest service standard, and are committed to delivering a boutique hotel experience with all the modern amenities," said Washington Court's Operations Manager, Greg Askew. "The KEYPR platform...
Why Not List Your Hotel on Airbnb?
April 19, 2018
Ever since Barry Manilow's drummer, David Rozenblatt, convinced Airbnb to start renting out whole properties in 2010, it has been technically possible for a hotel to be listed on the platform. However, it was only recently that Airbnb began to actively court the hotel sector. The segment particularly targeted by the sharing economy platform is boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts (B & B's), which can offer the 'personalized experience' that Airbnb seeks to provide to its customers. By August 2017, Airbnb had listings for 15,000 boutique hotels, about 10 months after introducing them to the platform, according to th...
Intelity Solutions Helping Hotels Achieve Higher AAA Diamond Ratings
Intelity | April 17, 2018
Recent updates to AAA Diamond Rating Guidelines reflect the importance of connecting travelers and hoteliers via mobile technologies such as mobile apps, mobile keys, and mobile concierge Orlando, Fla. — April 17, 2018] — AAA has revised its Approval Requirements and Diamond Rating Guidelines to now "reflect the importance of connective technologies that allow guests and lodging operators to interact on an increasingly personalized basis." What this means to hoteliers looking for a higher AAA Diamond Rating is they will now be expected to connect their guests to hotel staff and services by smartphones and tablets and keep t...
Factors Driving Hotel Wellness, Asset Management and Revenue
Mia A. Mackman | April 17, 2018
By Mia A. Mackman This article reveals how spa and wellness aspects are disseminated throughout the whole guest experience, and how wellness motivated design and construction elements complement property development, enhance marketability and engagement and is spurring new growth across the hospitality sector. This article also examines how critical management adjustments, and product and service enhancements can significantly add value, increase RevPAR and improve average daily rate performance. Built-In from the Ground Up Hotel design aspects have lined up with wellness construction counterparts and evolved into a thriving wellness-...
Talent and Technology Go Hand-in-Hand in Contact Centers
JLL Real Views | April 16, 2018
Technology is transforming the way organizations interact with customers—but even the most promising digital tools still work best when paired with skilled humans. High-tech solutions like blockchain and automation will unquestionably reshape the contact center industry in the coming years. Yet this digital disruption is not expected to replace people entirely. Instead, contact center operators are seeking tech-savvy, customer service-oriented talent to work alongside robots. This dual focus on talent and digital strategy is fueling momentum in the U.S. contact center sector, where growth is currently outpacing the global industry...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – Catch Me If You Can: It’s a Game of Confidence
David Lund | April 16, 2018
By David Lund Frank Abagnale is arguably the world's most famous modern-day impostor. Leonardo DiCaprio played his character in the 2002 movie directed by none other than Steven Spielberg, with the same title as this piece. The movie was based on the 1980 book that Frank wrote. I am writing about Frank Abagnale because I had the pleasure of meeting him personally, and experiencing his trickery, just a little. Also, there is a direct link between what his story is all about and your own financial leadership journey. If you have not seen the movie, watch it. Tom Hanks plays the lawman chasing after Frank and it is a wild ride. The book is...
Is Your Hotel Booking Engine Destroying Your Profitability?
Vikram Singh | April 16, 2018
By Vikram Singh Almost every other day, I see a headline about the latest trend that is going to have a massive impact on hotels and travel. Some might even be worth exploring. However, the fact remains that if your hotel booking engine is hard to use, none of the trends will have any impact on your net operating income and profits. Having worked in hotels most of my adult life, and having traveled extensively, I have vast experience booking rooms every way possible: using phones, travel agents (yes, I am that old), OTAs, and directly from apps. The one consistent problem I find on hotel websites is a disregard for the basic usability p...
Tourism Tidbits: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Tourism Security
Dr. Peter Tarlow | April 12, 2018
by Dr. Peter Tarlow In May of 1992 a visionary Las Vegas police officer, by the name of Curtis Williams had an idea that tourism to be successful needed to have not only protection but also regular meetings where ideas might be exchanged and new concepts would be developed. Curtis Williams and Peter Tarlow were able to get a small room and ran the first tourism security workshop. Since then, the idea of tourism security has become an important part of tourism. The then workshop, and soon to be full conference proved to be logistically too hard for Williams and Tarlow to do everything on their own, and in its second year, Don Ahl, of the...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 194: Hotel History: John McEntee Bowman (1875-1931)
Stanley Turkel | April 11, 2018
Hotel History: John McEntee Bowman Part 2 During his lifetime career as a hotel developer and operator, John Bowman was a horse lover and a thoroughbred racing enthusiast. He was president of the United Hunts Racing Association and the National Horse Show. For a time, he served as the president of the Havana-American Jockey Club that operated the Oriental Park Racetrack in Marianas, Cuba. In addition to the six Biltmore Hotels which I described in Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 193, here are the descriptions of ten more Biltmore hotels. Flintridge Biltmore Hotel- located in La Canada Flintridge atop the San Rafael Hills in Californi...
How Asia’s Old Buildings Are Changing With the Times: Hotel Operators Have Taken Note
JLL Real Views | April 9, 2018
It's Friday evening in Bangkok and a crowd has gathered at Warehouse 30, the latest project by celebrated architect Duangrit Bunnag. In the sprawling 4,000-square-metre space, fashionable locals flick through the glossy pages of coffee table books at Candide, a design-centric bookstore, shop for vinyls at Copperwired, or flesh out ideas for savvy tech-startups in the co-working space. When the curated space opened in 2017, it quickly became one of the hottest places in town to see and be seen. Only a few years before, however, the entire complex had been nothing more than two abandoned World War II-era warehouses. Across Asia, former d...
5 Ways to Build Soft Skills in Hospitality
April 9, 2018
A classroom can teach you hard skills that will help you land your first hospitality job. What's much harder to teach — and ultimately necessary to rise through the ranks to your dream job — are soft skills. Sometimes called people skills, soft skills address how you communicate, work with others, and handle the day-to-day aspects of your job. Try these 5 ways to work on your soft skills and impress your employers. 1. Listen to Others Active listening is key to success in hospitality. When you actively listen to a customer, you can not only understand what they need, but demonstrate that you hear them and proactively wo...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – Management Incentive Plans
David Lund | April 9, 2018
By David Lund Recently I have been working with a client who has four hotels and we worked on putting together an incentive plan for his executives. This is a story about how we structured the incentive and the goals around the plan and his business. Bonus plans or management incentive plans are nothing new. Even a recent client had almost always given his senior people an annual bonus, typically at the holiday time. When I asked him what it was based on, he said it was just the overriding feeling of his thanks for a job well done. We then discussed the very real fact that he had not shared his financials with his leaders and this was s...
Why France’s Hotel Sector is on the Road to Recovery
JLL Real Views | April 5, 2018
by Emily Perryman As tourists return once more to soak up the sights and tastes of France, its hotel sector is rebounding rapidly from its 2016 low point. Just under 89 million tourists visited France in 2017, according to French government figures, a five to six percent year-on-year rise that puts the country back on track to reach its ambitious 100 million target by 2020. It's a welcome turnaround from the previous year, when tourist numbers in the worst-hit region of Greater Paris fell by 1.5 million in the wake of a spate of terrorist attacks. By September 2016, hotel RevPAR (revenue per available room) was down almost 16 percent on...
Why A Mobile App May Be Key to Designing a Better Guest Experience
Terri Miller | April 5, 2018
By Terri Miller, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Concilio Labs When was the last time you used an app? Today? An hour ago? A few minutes ago? For most of us, apps have become an integrated part of our daily life — we might not even realize the extent to which we rely on them. Our smartphone behavior is typically centered around the convenience and connection that apps readily provide. Despite this prevalence, there has long existed a trend of some businesses hesitating to break into the realm of mobile apps; a hesitation which may also extend to hotels. The push for technological innovation only continues to grow and, wi...
The Ace Hotel Portland Goes Leading Edge with Cloud Tech that Personalizes the Guest Experience
Ace Hotel Portland | April 3, 2018
Hip Ace Portland Connects Guests with the City and its Happenings via One-on-One Service Using Guestware April 3, 2018 – In 1912 the sophisticated Clyde Hotel was at the center of Portland, Oregon. Today the edgy, renovated Ace Hotel Portland occupies the Clyde's historic building, carries its signage, and continues to be at the center of hip cultural experiences in downtown Portland. "We are the 'Portland home' for touring musicians, artists, and tech professionals; and anyone who wants a friendly living room guest experience instead of a hotel," says Shannon Austin, the Ace Portland's assistant general manager. "We make everyone...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – The OTA Distraction – Pushing Rather Than Pulling
David Lund | April 2, 2018
By David Lund You cannot go a day online in the hotel community without seeing a ton of OTA related discussion. Hoteliers are like scared kittens when it comes to how they have been treated by the evil empire that the "On-Line Travel Agencies" has created. There is no doubt that the OTAs have dramatically changed the landscape in the last 20 years since Expedia bounced into the world under the strict parenting of Microsoft. In this piece, I want to offer a different perspective—one based on a different view of the OTA revenue creation and resulting costs. I also want to look at and analyze some black and white revenue and profit f...
The Evolution of the Booking Journey
David Gabriele | March 29, 2018
By David Gabriele We've all done it… We've all stayed at a beautiful hotel, visited an amazing destination, or eaten delicious food at a first-class restaurant. We've also taken great pleasure in telling our friends and family about our experiences. That is to say, we have become influencers or trusted brand ambassadors. Conversely, we've also asked for, and received, recommendations from our friends and family, and acted upon these recommendations. In other words, we have been influenced by people we regard as trusted influencers. This, as we know, is word-of-mouth, however it is offline and unscalable. Every hospitality busines...
Are You Marketing to Your Guests’ Five Senses?
March 28, 2018
Sensory marketing has been used by some of the world's biggest brands for decades. 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted some form of sensory branding into their marketing philosophy. Famous examples range from the iconic sound of a Coca-Cola can being opened and the drink poured over a glass of ice cubes, to the unmistakable fragrance, "Fierce No. 8," spread throughout all Abercrombie & Fitch stores, onto the clothes and beyond the front doors. Traveling and staying in a hotel - whether for business or pleasure - is the ultimate experience and definitely taps into our emotions. Marketing to a traveler's taste, smell,...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – Creating and Using Your Own Labor Productivity Tools
David Lund | March 26, 2018
By David Lund With major wage increases in many jurisdictions, it is more important than ever to have a system for planning and measuring labor productivity in your hotel. This article explains how you can do this and it is not just for the big boys, you can utilize this system in any size operation. I am working with a client who is just in the throes of getting this going in one of his hotels. It is a bit of work but well worth the effort as the results are going to pay off big time. I want to share what is working for him because I know it will work for you as well. The first thing to create is a baseline for current productivity in ...
What Do Young Hoteliers Look for in Their Career?
Young Hoteliers Summit and the Rankings | March 26, 2018
What motivates a recently graduated student to work for an international hospitality brand? If you are unsure about the answer to this question, you might risk losing the race for talent. In the new era of asset light strategies, the acquisition and retention of young talent is becoming a strategic function for global hospitality companies. Winning companies should embrace new talent strategies to outperform their competitors in their respective markets, and better prepare for upcoming challenges from disruptive hospitality companies. For the 9th year in a row, the Young Hoteliers Summit Employer Rankings Report explores career path mot...
Protecting the Hotel Brand by Providing ‘Reliable’ Information
Dr. Isabella Blengini | March 22, 2018
By Dr. Isabella Blengini and Dr. Giuliano Bianchi Elle Darby may not be a household name but this video blogger does have influence in social media circles with some 87,000 YouTube subscribers and 76,000 Instagram followers. According to media reports – some 114 articles in all across 20 countries -- she contacted the Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin, offering the owner exposure on her social media channels in exchange of a free stay for her and her boyfriend over the Valentine's Day weekend. The hotel owner declined, posting his reply online and publicly banning all social media influencers from his hotel. This provoked a series...
