A Case Study in Optimizing Length of Stay From Wellness Capex
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky | April 17, 2024
IDeaS Releases 2024 Hotel Technology Predictions
IDeaS | November 15, 2023
Smart Strategies
Hotel Lawyer: New Federal Junk Fee Law – The No Hidden FEES Act of 2023 (HR 6543)
Mark S. Adams | June 14, 2024
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® Note: If you are a consumer with a Junk Fee issue, please do NOT contact us! We do not represent consumers against hotels, restaurants, or other business owners. We are part of the fabric of the hospitality industry and are committed to informing, educating, and assisting the industry. We represent business owners, helping them to understand and comply with applicable laws and defending them from consumer charges. HR 6543: The US Congress wants in on Junk Fee regulation for hotels Over the past several weeks, we have written about recent major regulatory developments concerning Junk F...
Human-Centric Hospitality: The Key to Thriving in the Industry
EHL GRADUATE SCHOOL | June 14, 2024
In the hospitality industry, success lies in the ability to integrate strategic business practices with the unique demands of the sector. A people-centric approach should lie at the heart of everything you do, both in terms of delighting your guests and attracting and retaining the best talent. However, all too often, the demands of running a business can get in the way. In this article, we explore the key challenges hospitality businesses face and the strategies they can implement to align corporate culture and human values. We also discuss some of the benefits you can realize by successfully navigating the transformation to become a...
Brand Dilemma: Navigating the Pros and Cons of Launching New Brands – An Unbiased Perspective
Hala Matar Choufany | June 14, 2024
Throwback to Future Hospitality Summit Saudi Arabia last month, where Hala Matar Choufany هلا مطر شوفاني contributed her insights on the “Brand Dilemma: Navigating the Pros and Cons of Launching New Brands – An Unbiased Perspective". Click here to watch the discussion unfold with Catherine Edwards, Chief Strategy Officer at QUO. ...
Jim Butler Asks Mark S. Adams for Update on California Junk Fee law: Would SB 1524 Gut SB 478’s Honest Pricing for All?
Mark S. Adams | June 12, 2024
Mark S. Adams is the go-to senior lawyer in JMBM’s hospitality litigation team for assessing legal exposure, pursuing legitimate claims, and defending a client’s rights involving hospitality matters. Jim Butler caught up with Mark to find out what all the fuss is about over California’s Junk Fee law (SB 478) and a proposed amendment by SB 1524 that has consumer advocates for transparent consumer prices in an uproar. Jim Butler: As a hospitality litigator and advisor, you have been at the forefront in junk fee matters for many years, and have written extensively about the latest developments. Tell us what all the fuss is about c...
Aligning Culture With the Bottom Line: How to Create a Commercial Mindset That Will Drive Revenue and Service
Andrew Rubinacci | June 11, 2024
By Andrew Rubinacci “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. Almost every person in your hotel should be aware of how sales truly impact your property. Whether at reception, working in payroll, or drawing up employee onboarding SOPs, they need to know that every day is a sales day. Selling can be a human trait, and great things start to happen when your hotel company is tuned into the commerce side of your business. It makes me think of a famous quote that...
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership: The Perfect Combination
EHL | June 10, 2024
When we think about leadership qualities, not more than a decade or two ago, emotional intelligence would have come a long way down the list. However, our expectations of work and what it means to be a leader have shifted drastically since then. Now, if you talk to most leadership and HR experts, they will tell you that emotional intelligence is one of the most, if not the most important skill for today’s business leaders. Operational and technical skills are still essential, but modern organizations are increasingly looking for effective leaders who can create positive work cultures, encourage employee growth, consider other p...
How To Extinguish Hospitality Burnout
Matthijs Welle | June 5, 2024
By Matthijs Welle We work in an exhausting industry. So much of our time is dedicated to ensuring that our guests have remarkable experiences that we forget to pursue our own happiness. I’ve worked in both sides of industry – on the front lines at reception and behind the scenes in hospitality tech – and in both areas I’ve often felt exhausted and overworked. So what’s the solution? Obviously, I don’t have all the answers. It took me years to find the best ways to recharge and find my personal balance. But I do believe that hoteliers and anyone in hospitality have a particular responsibility to look after themselves...
Tourism Tidbits: Weddings Are Summer Events
Dr. Peter E. Tarlow | June 3, 2024
By Dr. Peter Tarlow Perhaps there is nothing more romantic than a June wedding. June is the month of roses and across the Northern Hemisphere the weather in most places is ideal and perfect for an outdoor rose-scented wedding. Weddings range from small and intimate to large-scale events, from local gatherings to destination weddings. From a tourism perspective, weddings can be a very lucrative part of a local tourism industry’s offerings. Technically wedding tourism refers to any time the couple invite out-of-town guests to their nuptials or travel, such as a honeymoon, due to the wedding. Anytime a wedding hosts out-of-town guests it ad...
5 Ways a Virtual Executive Assistant Can Help Hotel Executives
Kenzie Biggins | June 3, 2024
By Kenzie Biggins A hotel executive’s role is different almost every day. It’s that diversity that makes the position both exciting and challenging. From ensuring proper hotel operations and securing compliance to helping drive sales and overseeing events, the responsibility that comes with the job can, at times, be overwhelming no matter if the executive is managing a single property or group. Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in hotel executives interested in hiring a Virtual Executive Assistant (VEA) to help with such an intense workload. A VEA may not be for every hotel executive, but bringing one onboard is something to consider...
Six Pitfalls for Full-Service Hotel Development
Dan Voellm | May 30, 2024
By Dan Voellm Part 1: Two pitfalls for full-service hotel development Hotel development is a complex undertaking. It requires little of the skills to operate and monetize the asset. Owners and architects are often ill-equipped to measure up the requirements for running a successful hotel a few years down the road. While certain industry trends exist, fundamentals still need to be observed. Words of caution for those attached to specific brands or roles a hotel is meant to fulfill – in today’s world of hyper-efficiencies it is becoming more difficult to provide everything for everyone. Or specifically: provide a comprehensive range of s...
The Opportunities for Highly ADA-Compliant Hotels
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky | May 29, 2024
By Adam Mogelonsky, Larry Mogelonsky The hotel industry has seen an explosion of new brands and sub-brands over the past two decades, and this trend shows no signs of abating. This diversification is driven by various forces, with a prominent rationale being that emergent brands can better appeal to niche interests, microsegments or specific customer identities. We see this trend in the rise of the extended stay category (Home2 Suites by Hilton, Residence Inn by Marriott, Hyatt House) and the growth of serviced apartment or aparthotel brands. Premium and luxury segments have also excelled by focusing on particular value propositions, wh...
HotStats Shares Insights From 2023-2024 Hotel Management Sentiment Survey
HotStats | May 28, 2024
With the first quarter of the year behind us, our recent sentiment survey provides a snapshot of the current state of the hotel industry and a glimpse into what 2024 might hold. Benefiting from insights from hotel managers across various regions, the survey sheds light on performance expectations, operational challenges, and future forecasts. Although respondents to our 2023-24 sentiment survey painted a diverse picture of the hotel industry's performance, a general pattern of optimism emerged. The majority of hoteliers (65%) felt that they outperformed their expectations last year whereas only 35% felt that they fell short. This dispa...
HotelTechReport Surpasses 50,000 Authentic Product Reviews, Marking Growth in the Global Hotel Software Market
Hotel Tech Report | May 24, 2024
[Los Angeles, May 24, 2024] – HotelTechReport, the leading online buying platform for hotel technology, has announced that it has surpassed 50,000 authentic product reviews. This milestone represents a significant achievement for the hotel software community, underscoring the platform's commitment to transparency, quality, and user-driven content. HotelTechReport has long been a trusted resource for hoteliers seeking reliable information and reviews on a wide range of hotel software solutions. With this new milestone, the platform has solidified its position as the go-to source for hoteliers worldwide who are looking to make informed dec...
Are You Trapped by the Similarity Effect in Your Hiring Decisions?
Louanne Affolter | May 24, 2024
By Louanne Affolter, Dr. Sébastien Have you ever preferred a candidate because of their similarity to you on various criteria? Did you grow up in the same village? Did they come from the same foreign country as you? Perhaps they also liked running or had four kids just like you? If you preferred and selected this candidate, then you were influenced by a bias called the similarity effect. This effect has shown that the more similar two individuals are, the greater the attraction between them. Wondering whether recruiters might be attracted to candidates with similar personality traits, we recently conducted a study to investigate this ques...
How to Price Buy-Outs of Smaller Hotels in Leisure Markets
Larry Spelts | May 24, 2024
By Larry Spelts Small properties (one hundred rooms or less), especially upper-upscale and luxury boutique hotels in destination markets that are principally leisure with higher ADRs, are often attractive buy-out destinations for certain kinds of groups. This can range from weddings and reunions to corporate and association retreats or incentive travel. The Challenge of Hotel Buyouts for Weekends: Case Study It is essential to good revenue management that opportunity costs be factored into weekend buyouts because hotels that are in principally leisure segment-dominated locations tend to sell out on many weekends perennially, and beca...
HSMAI Takes Commercial Strategy to the Next Level With Commercial Effectiveness Organizational Assessment
HSMAI | May 23, 2024
McLean, VA (April 22, 2024) – The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has announced the launch of the Commercial Effectiveness Organizational Assessment, a tool providing a structured framework for assessing where a hotel organization’s commercial structure is strong and where improvements are needed. The tool and accompanying report, Taking Commercial Strategy to the Next Level, are a free member benefit for HSMAI members and available to the industry for purchase. The goal of the HSMAI Commercial Effectiveness Organizational Assessment is to allow a hotel organization to assess and score their implem...
Memorial Day Travel Expected to Break Records
U.S. Travel Association | May 22, 2024
Memorial Day Weekend – May 25-27 – is the unofficial kick-off of summer and it is expected to kick start what will be a record-breaking summer travel season. Booking data reveals that theme park and entertainment venues like Orlando and Las Vegas continue to captivate travelers' interest, alongside sunny locales such as Fort Lauderdale, Southern California and Miami. Urban destinations including New York, Denver and Boston also rank high among Memorial Day getaway choices. Both roads and airports will be extremely busy – here’s more on what’s expected for this record-breaking weekend. Road Travel AAA forecasts almost 44 million ...
A Realistic Vision of Company Growth Potential – Without Overstretching
EHL | May 22, 2024
Business leaders must approach the growth process with caution. It involves increasing an organization’s size - its market share, revenue, and headcount. However, it's crucial to remember that bigger is not always better. Growing a business is a journey fraught with risks. It's possible to grow too quickly, diversify into too many service areas, and overstretch. Such actions can strain the organization’s operations and finances, create inefficiencies, and even jeopardize the company's future. While striving to achieve maximum growth potential is important, it must be balanced with careful planning and sustainable practices. As a busine...
Americans Expect to Spend a Record-Breaking $221 Billion on Summer Vacations This Year
Allianz Partners | May 20, 2024
Allianz Partners USA's 16th Annual Vacation Confidence Index Projects Americans' Travel Spend to Reach All-Time High This Summer RICHMOND, Va., May 20, 2024 - Americans continue to signal that travel is splurge-worthy and are again setting new records for vacation spending in 2024. For a second consecutive year, Allianz Partners USA's annual Vacation Confidence Index* found that Americans' total spend on summer vacations is expected to remain north of the $200 billion mark, this year exceeding $221.6 billion. According to the travel insurance and assistance provider, Americans have more than doubled their projected summer vacation...
Why Hospitality Businesses Win by Putting People First – A Mindset Shift
EHL | May 20, 2024
In the hospitality industry, success lies in the ability to integrate strategic business practices with the unique demands of the sector. A people-centric approach should be at the heart of everything you do, both in terms of delighting your guests and attracting and retaining the best talent. However, all too often, the demands of running a business can get in the way. In this article, we explore the key challenges hospitality businesses face and the strategies they can implement to align corporate culture and human values. We also discuss some of the benefits they can achieve by successfully navigating the transformation to become a huma...
5 Practical Ways To Create Instagrammable Spaces in Your Hotel
Debbie Miller | May 16, 2024
By Debbie Miller In the age of social media dominance, providing an experience that’s not only memorable but also shareable is crucial for attracting and retaining guests. You may have a highly engaged online audience along with numerous loyal in-person hotel patrons. But is that audience one-in-the same? Many social media users discover brands they follow online. This means most of your Instagram followers may have never set foot on property. Similarly, those who frequent your hotel may not feel naturally inclined to snap pictures to post on social media. So, what’s the solution? Bridge your Hotel’s Online and Office Experience...
AI and Human Input: Hospitality Leader Andrew Rubinacci Shares His Recipe for Revenue Management Success
Alan Young | May 15, 2024
By Alan Young When I asked Andrew Rubinacci to describe the early days of his illustrious hospitality career, his answer was one you might not expect—“I was a guinea pig,” he’ll say with a smile. “I was, quite literally, the first revenue manager at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).” Today, Rubinacci is a well-known name in an industry of hotel revenue and technology experts, bringing over 25 years of commercial leadership experience to the table and a resume that includes a number of executive positions ranging from Chief Commercial Officer at Omni Hotels & Resorts to Senior Vice President of Distribution & Reve...
Junk Fees Are Banned in California as of July 1, 2024! What Does the California Junk Fee Law (SB 478) Mean?
Mark Adams | May 13, 2024
By Mark Adams California businesses brace for Senate Bill 478‘s impact. SB 478 was signed by Governor Newsom in October 2023 and became effective July 1, 2024. It cracks down on hidden fees, often referred to as “junk fees” and “drip pricing” (because the full cost is only disclosed drip by drip). It will likely change how businesses approach pricing strategies. Many say it is part of a nationwide response to President Joe Biden’s call to eliminate Junk Fees. What’s in a name? SB 478 or California Junk Fee Law? The confusion starts with how to reference the new law. Many refer to it by the Senate Bill number assigned w...
Putting People First: Business Success With a Human-Centric Approach
EHL Graduate School | May 13, 2024
It's no secret that many employees feel unappreciated and undervalued in today’s workforce. Competition for good jobs is fierce, AI will replace some jobs in the coming years, and the size and complexity of some businesses makes some employees feel insignificant. Embracing a "people-first culture" has become vital as modern talent won't hesitate to seek better benefits and flexibility elsewhere. What is a people-first culture? Organizations must adopt a human-centric approach to workforce management to counteract today’s uncomfortable, and sometimes even toxic, employment landscape. Many studies show that humanizing the workplace improv...
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