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Close to Home: Why U.S. Investors Want U.S. Hotels
JLL Real Views | March 1, 2017
by Laura Agadoni If 2016 was all about overseas money flowing into the U.S. hotels sector then 2017 could well be the year of the domestic investor. With the U.S. economy performing strongly and hotel occupancy in the country reaching a new record in 2016 despite increases in supply, U.S. investors are taking a keen interest in assets closer to home. Domestic private equity funds and real estate investment trusts (REITs) stand to be quick off the mark to step up their investment activity. "Hotel real estate investment trusts have seen a resurgence in their share prices, up about 20 percent just in the last few months. And in years when...
Do Your Hotel Financial Statements Pass the Test? Part 1
David Lund | March 1, 2017
Do your hotel financial statements give you the information you need to effectively run your business? Are you able to see if your profits are where they should be in an enhanced top line statement? Do your statements measure flow thru? Do you record your rooms business by proper segments and track the rooms occupied, rate and revenue in each segment? Do you record customers served in F&B and do you separate meal periods? Do you record liquor, beer, wine and mineral sales on your financials separately? Do you measure labor productivity in your financials? Do you record hours of work in your financials? Do you have payroll segmented ...
The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Hotels
Vikram Singh | March 1, 2017
By Vikram Singh Hotel email marketing has become more important than ever. The cost of click- and impression-based marketing on search engines and social networks continues to rise, not just for generic terms, but also for the historically cheaper brand name terms. Email marketing remains extremely relevant and cost-effective. It has become the best permission-based outbound tool in your marketing kit, hands down. However, as with every great tool, the responsibility to use it well lies with the user. Smart hotels and brands have moved away from the mass broadcasting of spammy emails, and are now focusing on personalized, permission-bas...
Bringing the Past to Life: The Future of Heritage Tourism in the U.S.
JLL Real Views | February 24, 2017
The excitement of amusement parks, interactive museums and ever-expanding zoos and aquariums has overshadowed heritage sites—but experiential technology and interactive exhibits are helping historical attractions to draw in the next generation of tourists. From Antietam National Battlefield and Alcatraz to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello, heritage sites have always been a popular way to experience U.S. history. Yet, a recent report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Humanities Indicators project shows a steady decline in historic site visitation over the past 20 years or so. "To convince overnight visitors that ...
Mr. Ring Wants A Table For Two At Restaurant Romance: How ALICE Concierge Helps It Happen
ALICE | February 22, 2017
SIXTY's Head Concierge explains how ALICE Concierge has his back when it comes to guest requests. By Noah Lemaich, Head Concierge, SIXTY Hotels. One of my big fears as a concierge (especially when I was starting out) is missing even a single guest request. If I forget to make dinner plans for myself, no big deal, I can always order in. However, missing a guest's dinner request has the potential for ruining an entire stay and the guest's likelihood to return to us. I'd love to show you how ALICE has my back throughout a single guest request. While names and places are clearly made up (a good concierge always respects our guest's privacy...
The How To vs. The Want To – Creating Financial Leadership In Your Hotel
David Lund | February 22, 2017
By David Lund The business of managing the hotel finances is not terribly technical or complicated. What makes it challenging is that it's usually a very large job involving many people. In a 500-room hotel, you can easily have 20+ forecast contributors. The communication system in the hotel is the key to both smooth management and predictive financial results. This is the how to. If hotel finances are not a complicated matter, then why is it such a challenge in so many hotels? The answer lies in finding the want to. Most leaders in the hotel don't naturally want to be managing numbers. They typically didn't get into the hotel business ...
What is the Outlook for Asia Pacific Hotel Investors in 2017?
JLL | February 22, 2017
Hong Kong, February 2017 - A report released by JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group reveals the flurry of mergers and acquisitions seen in 2016, with high-profile deals such as Marriott International's acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts and HNA Tourism Group Co. Ltd's purchase of Carlson Hotels, is likely to continue this year. "Hotel brands will always look to bolster their supply pipeline and the surest way to grow is often by acquiring operators with management and franchise contracts," says Lauro Ferroni, Senior Vice President, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, adding that portfolios with a full range of...
Nobody Asked Me, But…No. 174: Hotel History: Chelsea Hotel (1884); My Five Published Books; Attorneys Take Note
Stanley Turkel | February 21, 2017
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Stanley Bard, manager and part owner of the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan for more than 40 years, passed away on February 14, 2017 at 82 years of age. His obituary in the New York Times by Sam Roberts called Bard "a Robin Hood of innkeepers who nurtured talented writers and artists and tolerated assorted deadbeats…" The history of the Chelsea Hotel, before, during and after the Bard family's operation is so fascinating and unique that I will quote selectively from my book "Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York" (AuthorHouse 2011): The Chelsea Hotel (1884) The Iconic Artist Hideaway, Like No Other Th...
Hospitality Financial Leadership Recipe – Owners, Not Victims Please
David Lund | February 20, 2017
By David Lund Being a financial leader means you own the result. There is no room for being a victim or victim thinking when it comes to leading the financial piece. The challenges demand the type of ownership that takes each situation and finds the opportunity in it. "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Winston Churchill Winning at the hospitality financial leadership game is something that requires the correct perspective. To desire perfection in this realm is not wise. To look for and nurture constant improvement and individual effort is the telltale sign of pro...
International Hotels Expand Their Footprint in India
JLL Real Views | February 16, 2017
By Natalie Holmes International hotel groups are boosting their presence in India, with big name brands set to open numerous properties across the country in the coming years. As India's GDP continues to climb, international chains are taking advantage of a boom in demand for hotel rooms. Marriott, for example, plans to add 35 properties to their existing portfolio of 32, while Accor recently reached a 45-hotel milestone. By 2020, Carlson Rezidor is aiming for a total of 170 hotels, by which time, the international chains together are set to exceed domestic room offerings. "Though international hotel chains have in the past made mult...
The Old 80/20 Rule – OTA’s – And How a Corporate Sales Manager Can Save Your Hotel 100K
David Lund | February 14, 2017
By David Lund I had a wonderful discussion with a hotel sales manager last week about a new hotel reservation platform that does not include any stops at an on-line travel agent, OTA. The sales manager explained to me that her mid-sized hotel did a couple of million dollars in corporate IT sales and that represented just over 12,000 room nights. She went on to explain that the room nights were generated by close to 100 corporate contracted companies. These companies ranged in volume from a dozen room nights per year to the top of the list where a handful of companies were in the 1000 room nights per year category. The 80/20 rule is also...
Three Ways Technology is Making Waves in Construction
JLL Real Views | February 14, 2017
By Kelsey Burgess From the drones buzzing round capturing footage of building sites to the latest computer software enabling ever closer collaboration between teams, the construction industry is awash with new technology. It's not only having a huge impact on how project managers, contractors and service firms do their everyday jobs but it's also helping to streamline processes and offer solutions to many of the issues currently facing the U.S. construction sector. While commercial construction activity levels may be a record-breaking levels, as shown in JLL's Q3 2016 construction outlook, the industry is also struggling with a skilled ...
Engaging Your Hotel’s Financial Leaders
David Lund | February 13, 2017
How one hotel executive found his purpose, inspired his team and produced results. By David Lund This article is about creating leadership inside the financial discipline of a hotel. It's also about discovering one's purpose and a new and exciting way to drive better financial results in a hotel. If you own or manage a hotel, this is for you. I would like to start by sharing a personal story of which I am actually ashamed. Ten years ago, I was the director of finance for a 1,300-room hotel in downtown Toronto. I previously had held similar positions in several smaller hotels, but this hotel was proving to be particularly difficult to ma...
Begin With the End in Mind – Creating a Finically Engaged Leadership Team in Your Hotel
David Lund | February 8, 2017
By David Lund Creating a finically engaged leadership team in your hotel is no different than creating a strong guest service culture or a team that has colleague and leader engagement as their mission. What you attend to grows, it's that simple. What's different with the finances is you and your focus. The picture you want to create needs to be clear and you need to have a plan to follow and resources to employ to create financial leadership. It's no different than guest service or colleague engagement. We would not expect these two disciples to grow and prosper in our hotel on their own, no, we recognize that these require constant at...
Tourism Tidbits: Reviewing More Fundamentals of The Travel & Tourism Industry – Part 2 of 2
Dr. Peter Tarlow | February 7, 2017
By Dr. Peter Tarlow Part 2 of a two part series. Part 1 appeared in January Last month we looked at some of the fundamentals of a successful tourism business or industry. Although every local is different, and it is a basic principle to emphasize the unique and different aspects of your business or locale, human beings are basically the same around the world and the best principles of good tourism are the same across both cultures and languages. Tourism is the telling of a story in which the visitor becomes part of the tale. To travel is to seek the different, to find a way to leave the humdrum of daily life and enter into a world of no...
ALIS Conference 2017 – Recap
Robert A. Rauch, CHA | February 2, 2017
By Robert A. Rauch, CHA This year's ALIS Conference in Los Angeles was very interesting because nobody knew going in whether or not it would be upbeat. The elections were contentious to say the least and there are still some hard feelings around the country but at ALIS it was all business. STR came out with their 2017 forecast, Hilton added Tapestry, Marriott set up an "innovation lab" and Kalibri Labs announced insightful findings about how much share the OTAs take from the pie. STR Forecast STR's Jan Freitag is forecasting 2.5 percent RevPAR growth in 2017 and many feel he is being conservative. That comes after a year of RevPAR growt...
Another Hit for the On-Line Travel Agents
David Lund | February 1, 2017
By David Lund The on-line travel agency world started exactly 20 years ago when Expedia was born inside Microsoft. Expedia with a valuation of over 10 billion at its spin-off was the most successful business born inside the software giant. OTA's add a valuable way for the hotel to reach customers that they just don't have the ability to by themselves. However, of late the costs that hotels are seeing on their P&L's has their managers and owners pulling their hair and scrabbling to find a way out, and a way to reduce these margin-eating commissions. What has made the on-line travel agency so popular is twofold. One, the hotels and th...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 173: Hotel History: Omni Parker House Hotel (1855)
Stanley Turkel | January 30, 2017
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Omni Parker House Hotel (1855), Boston, Massachusetts (551 rooms) Opened in October 1855 by Henry D. Parker, the Parker House is the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States and is located in historic downtown Boston on the Freedom Trail. The hotel was home to the Saturday Night Club including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and John Greenleaf Whittier. Charles Dickens lived at the Parker House for two years and gave his first public reading of "A Christmas Carol" at the Saturday Night...
Is the Inability to Charge Mobile Devices Adding Friction to Your Guests’ Experiences?
Dave Weinstein | January 30, 2017
By Dave Weinstein With a new year comes new buzzwords. For 2017, it appears that "Frictionless" is the way to be. For hoteliers, it means creating a consistent experience across all touchpoints along the guest's journey. It means enabling guests to conduct transactions easily and instantly. In most cases, those transactions are digital, and they typically involve a mobile device of some kind. Today's smartphone is a magic wand of sorts. You can use it to instantly connect you to another person who could be on the other side of the room or across the globe. You use it to change TV channels, control room temperature, purchase items, split...
The Third Pillar – the Financial Pillar and What You Can Do to Make It an Equal
David Lund | January 26, 2017
By David Lund In the hotel business, we have three pillars, the guests, the colleagues and the money. They're not equal. They're not equal because we ignore the third pillar and we do so at our own peril and out of ignorance to what we can do to manage this cagey and slippery bugger. There is a fundamental disconnect in our industry, and it's high time it changed. It's no longer acceptable to throw our hands up in the air and say the numbers are the accounting department's responsibility as if the rest of us are 5-year old's without a clue what to do. If you're one of those it's time to move and get some financial leadership game on. Th...
Skilled Construction Worker Shortage Hits U.S. Commercial Real Estate
JLL Real Views | January 24, 2017
U.S. skylines and suburbs are packed with construction cranes, but a serious shortage of skilled trade workers is creating a challenge for contractors and owners alike. Commercial construction and development is at near-record levels across the United States, thanks to a strengthened economy. As of the third quarter of 2016, the volume of jobs, projects and other key industry indicators are all near cyclical highs. But a labor shortage could be threatening the seemingly-endless stream of commercial construction starts. A recent survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America found that 69 percent of contractors have d...
A Light in the Tunnel – In the On-Line Travel Agency Hold
David Lund | January 18, 2017
By David Lund More Creative Disruption? The On-Line Travel agents, The Expedia's of the world started it all for the hotel business and served as disruption model for many other ideas and innovations. Has the time come for their disruption? Like a restaurant that pops up next to a hotel, the OTA's have been sucking the life blood from hotels bottom lines. It was and is due to the lack of a meaningful platform or a response that created the need in the first place. Brands and hotels were asleep to technology and they welcomed the on-line phenomena until it became omni present and greedy. It's been 20 years since Expedia launched its firs...
Has South America’s Hotel Industry Weathered the Storm?
JLL Real Views | January 16, 2017
Recent years have been hard on hoteliers in many South American cities. Falling prices for commodities such as oil and gas, currency devaluations and inflation have depressed the economies of resource-rich countries like Brazil and Argentina. Corruption scandals have shaken several governments. If that weren't enough, a major earthquake rocked Ecuador and the Zika virus crisis emerged. Yet, despite these challenges, South America's hoteliers have reason to be optimistic. Hotel visits are on the rise as local economies are largely stabilizing, and the Olympic Games inspired major brands like Marriott to invest more meaningfully in the re...
The Seven Secrets to Creating a Financially Engaged Leadership Team in Your Hotel
David Lund | January 10, 2017
By David Lund You have the ability to increase the profits in your hotel fast by creating an environment that has your managers working together on the "business" of running your hotel. I invite you to read my 7 secrets to grow your hotel profits fast and open up to the opportunity you have to improve the financial communication in your hotel and brand. If you do this, you will have a more engaged leadership team, your hotels will make more money, your leaders will love you, and everyone will have more fun. 1) Start with the End in Mind – Your Hotel Needs a Financial Communication System The picture you want is that of a...
