The Tricycle of Guest Service Excellence: A Perfect Model For Remarkable Experiences
Doug Kennedy | October 4, 2024
Crafting a Unique Employer Brand for Today’s Talent Market
Veronika Mercier | August 14, 2024
Smart Strategies
How Brands Can Manage a Travel Industry Crisis
Deborah Fell | March 11, 2020
By Deborah Fell Travel isn’t always a bed of roses. There are natural disasters, tainted products, bad actors, data breaches, regional and global viruses, and events big and small that require industries to step up, speak up, and do whatever it takes to care of their employees and customers. As the coronavirus outbreak tops 93,000 in dozens of countries, it’s an appropriate time to offer advice on how to handle an industry crisis. Protect Your Employees, Guests, and Brand Brands have a responsibility to ensure life safety for associates and guests. Government safety regulations vary around the world, but standards, process...
Sustainable Tourism: A Long Road Ahead
Samuel Wich | March 4, 2020
By Samuel Wich Every single second, more than 30 tourists arrive at their destination worldwide. With more than 1 billion passengers projected to travel in 2020, the effect tourism has on the environment cannot be underestimated. “Sustainability” has been one of the biggest buzz words of the past decade in the industry. Yet, the proliferation of its use is not necessarily a good thing. Like other terms that are often used in marketing to promote some products or services of virtually any company, (e.g. “eco-friendly” or “green”), the word itself has in many instances lost its true meaning. According to the United Nations, su...
Help Save the Planet by Eliminating Hotel Bathroom Toiletries
Chekitan S. Dev | March 4, 2020
By Chekitan Dev What’s the problem? Hotel bathroom toiletries are like 12 noon check in check out: an archaic practice that persists only because no one has thought to change it. When hotels first began to offer bathroom amenities, it was considered a ‘luxury’ item for use and something interesting to take home. This inertia is partially driven by hotel bathroom toiletry companies that are part of a billion dollar business globally. Today, many guests do travel, or can travel, with their own toiletries and don’t really need hotel toiletries. But if it free, travelers will use what is provided so they can save their own stock. The p...
In the Age of Pandemics: Some of the Reasons That Tourism Industries Fail: Part One of a Two-Part Series
Dr. Peter E. Tarlow | March 3, 2020
Part 2 will appear in April. By Dr. Peter Tarlow Much of the tourism literature is dedicated to tourism successes or how to succeed. When not focusing in on successes, the literature often deals with crisis management, such as the most recent outbreak of CoVid -19 (Coronavirus). Rarely do we examine our self-inflict failures. The fact is that many tourism and travel businesses, however, do not succeed. The reasons for these failures may be of a personal nature, not enough passion or pure laziness, but the great majority of failures can be classified into sociological taxonomies. These categories help us to think abo...
Talking About Ourselves and Telling Our Story Is Not Always Easy – Here Is a Way to Do It Effectively
Gary Hernbroth | March 3, 2020
By Gary Hernbroth Have you ever been asked to “toot your own horn,” to tell others about or list your talents, abilities and qualities? How did it make you feel to answer that query? It can be a bit off-putting, right? Whether you’re on the sending side or the receiving side, if it’s overdone it can be downright uncomfortable or cringe-worthy. But love it or loathe it, there’s no denying that it’s a necessary thing in our world today, especially in business. While some people see it as a welcome opportunity to talk about their brand or do a bit of self-promotion, others are very uncomfortable with talking or writing about...
Making Your Website ADA Compliant: What Businesses Need to Know
Michael Del Gigante | February 25, 2020
By Michael Del Gigante Many businesses fail to take a key thing into account when developing and maintaining their websites: accessibility. Specifically, they don’t consider whether their sites meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). While accessibility challenges aren’t new—websites have long been difficult to use for those with certain disabilities—a number of recent court cases have pushed the issue into the limelight and highlighted its importance. Why is accessibility so critical? What’s going on with the recent legal actions? How can you make your website ADA compliant? Here’s what ...
Is 2020 the Year of Sustainable Business in Hospitality?
Samuel Wich | February 24, 2020
By Samuel Wich From Greta Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to attending a conference in New York, to protesters all around the world taking to the streets in peaceful demonstrations - 2019 saw a huge uptick in activities related to climate change and environmental issues. Movements such as the Extinction Rebellion are attracting the attention of millions through creative displays, for instance, by floating a life-size model of a typical suburban house down the river Thames as a warning about rising sea levels. Stark actions like these are turning the crisis from an abstract collection of scientific data into a visually compr...
User Engagement or Guest Engagement?
Jochen Ehrhardt | February 19, 2020
By Jochen Ehrhardt As an aficionado, visiting hotels is the greatest pleasure. As a perfectionist, however, inspecting hotels with great names that look tired is not so much fun. As we know, "tired" can be fixed at the cost of everyone's time and the owner's money. The real issue in hospitality is the human factor and getting it right is paramount, especially for luxury offerings: In a perfect world, this ought to be management's top priority. Is it really? Let's do the reality check. Hotels that cater to a very demanding clientele receive support from a host of different external advisors: To monitor guest reviews and all kinds of ment...
Nine Facts About Driving Innovation Through Diversity
Catherine Rey | February 18, 2020
By Catherine Rey Key highsights from the "People Challenge" panel discussion at the 2020 HOTCO Conference. During the HOTCO Conference held in Budapest in January, several speakers faced the “People Challenge”, exchanging points of views and finding ways of bringing greater diversity and integration into the hospitality industry. The core of the discussion entered on the inclusion of people with disabilities, harnessing technology and the importance of employee training. The panel speakers: Maria Pütz-Willems (Founder and Editor in Chief – HospitalityInside) - moderator Daniel Csángó (Social Entrepreneur, Participato...
ProfitSword Unveils ProfitAbility to Provide Hoteliers With Latest in Machine-Learning Business Intelligence
ProfitSword | February 18, 2020
New solution leverages advanced artificial intelligence to identify performance data anomalies while providing users with even greater control over how they consume information. ORLANDO, Fla. (February 18, 2020) – ProfitSword, hospitality’s premier developer of business intelligence and data integration software, has announced the launch of ProfitAbility, an advanced dashboarding and reporting platform that uses the latest in artificial intelligence to autonomously identify and report anomalies within data reflecting business performance. Compatible with ProfitSword’s full suite of data management solutions, ProfitAbility is vitally ...
Why More Hotels Are Owned by Franchisees
JLL | February 4, 2020
February 04, 2020 The last decade has seen a continued shift in hotel ownership. In 2010, roughly 70% of branded hotels were franchised operations. By 2019, that figure rose to roughly 80%. Major hotel brands have led the charge. Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International and Intercontinental Hotels Group — the top 5 franchisors by total room count in the U.S. — collectively represent 82% of total franchised branded rooms, according to STR and JLL Research. These companies continue to move away from owning the real estate portion of properties and toward a model where th...
How Data Can Help With Seasonality Shifts
HotStats | February 3, 2020
Hoteliers can learn a valuable lesson in seasonality from boxing. Contrary to what some might believe, great boxers don’t just roll with the punches. They study their opponent’s every move, quickly plan, make adjustments, attack and counter attack. The same strategy should go for planning for the dips and swings of seasonality changes in the hotel industry. Too many hoteliers have fallen into a revenue-based rhythm. They set up a strategy based only on traditional high, shoulder and low seasons. Unfortunately, when seasonality changes, this simple strategy leaves hotels vulnerable to financial body blows. However, it doesn’t have ...
Maximizing Your Relationship With OTAs
Tim Lee | January 13, 2020
By Tim Lee The relationship between hotels (particularly major international brands) and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) may sometimes seem an uneasy alliance. Major hotel companies, such as Hilton, Marriott and IHG, are adding policies on price match guarantees to encourage direct bookings and detract from the perceived value of OTAs. Meanwhile, OTAs push even harder for competitive pricing and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to increase their market share. Due to acquisitions and mergers over the last two decades, most OTA brands are a part of, or work with the two largest players in the space: Bo...
Growth or Authenticity? A Difficult Choice for Rural Tourism
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | December 17, 2019
Owners of small business accommodation in rural China face a difficult choice over whether to expand or retain their authenticity, according to the findings of a study by Dr Honggen Xiao of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his co-researchers. In a recently published study, the researchers aim to settle a long-standing debate over whether business expansion is beneficial or harmful to rural tourism businesses, and conclude that entrepreneurs must make a “trade-off” between “enhancing guest experience and achieving economic goals” because growth brings both advantages and disa...
The Hotel General Manager: Time for a New Job Description?
Demian Hodari | December 16, 2019
The hotel General Manager plays a crucial role in the hotel's performance. However his autonomy may vary depending on his education and the type of hotel he works in. By Demian Hodari The hotel General Manager (GM) is the person ultimately responsible for a hotel’s performance. A GM’s ability to make decisions and take action will thus have an important impact on his or her hotel’s operational and strategic results. GMs, however, may not always have the autonomy to make these critical decisions as the hotel’s owner and/or hotel management company (HMC) may in fact limit this through their own decision-making interventions. Th...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: I Never Worked a Day in My Life
David Lund | December 16, 2019
By David Lund That’s the calling card for a famous quote by Thomas Edison and a popular song by Tony Bennett not to mention a plethora of other pop culture about doing something with your life and choosing work that is not really work. That is what I found on the Internet when I went looking, however, for me it was a bit different. During my life— working in hotels for more than 30 years—I often told myself the same thing. I really felt like I had it all. A great job, a cool place to work, a solid group of people to collaborate with and above all the feeling that I was making a difference. That difference-making is what this piece...
What Existing Hotel Sales & Marketing Materials Are Lacking to Attract Luxury Weddings & Events
Lauren Grech | December 16, 2019
If a hotel wants to be considered a top event space, then at a minimum, they should have five pieces of criteria showcased on their website and within their sales materials. By Lauren Grech I first began writing an article that was supposed to be titled "The Top New U.S. Hotels For Your Destination Wedding." I thought it would be easy to find newly opened United States hotels to recommend for luxury weddings. My plan was to take five key points from the “LLG Standard,” an event evaluation that I developed over the past several years, and have applied to numerous hotels through onsite visits. This Standard resulted in me building and...
Study Reveals 77% of Travelers More Likely to Book When Business Owners Respond to Reviews
TripAdvisor | December 13, 2019
Ipsos MORI Survey Shows 79% travelers said Personalized Responses from Owners Make Reviews More Useful, Highlighting the Importance of Management Responses 89% of Travelers Said a Thoughtful Response to a Negative Review Improved Their Impression of a Business, Showing the Effectiveness of Owners Responding to All Types of Reviews 84% of Travellers Said Polite and Respectful Response from Business Owners is Important to Them When Reading Reviews, and as a Result, They Plan a Better Trip NEEDHAM, Mass., Dec. 13, 2019 -- New research released today from Ipsos MORI in partnership with TripAdvisor has revealed that customers are mo...
Standing Out in This Era of “Silent Selling”: Six Ways Hotel Salespeople Can Use Video Email to Engage Prospects
Doug Kennedy | December 11, 2019
By Doug Kennedy It is eerily silent in most sales offices these days. Whereas in the past the halls echoed with telephone conversations between sales managers and group or function planners, these days the only sounds you’ll hear are the clicking of fingers on a computer keypad. Nowadays, most leads are arriving via various “silent” channels. These include direct website RFP’s, leads forwarded from regional brand offices, app notifications coming in from lead generation platforms such as CVENT, The Knot/Wedding Wire, or digital notifications from the local CVB or DMO. Likewise, most salespeople respond silently by emailing st...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Chapter Three – The Flags
David Lund | December 11, 2019
By David Lund The crap I must deal with never ceases to amaze me. The Stow sees many groups and we were preparing for an international political gathering and my country’s government was hosting the event. This meant lots of politics, decorum and protocol that all gets sorted out, or so to speak. It was nothing short of a cluster bomb and I had to stick-handle my team and the politicians. Our city and country have a colorful history and it is rich in its traditions and symbols. My phone rang late one afternoon as the summit was less than a week away. My secretary, notice I didn’t call her an assistant, she was a secretary and somewh...
Baby Boomer Travelers: What Marketers Need to Know [Infographic]
Michael Del Gigante | December 10, 2019
By Michael Del Gigante In their rush to court younger consumers, travel marketers sometimes overlook an important demographic: baby boomers. Members of this cohort, defined roughly as those born between 1946 and 1964, are especially valuable because they often have the income and time to take multiple trips each year: 70%: The share of total US disposable income controlled by baby boomers $6,600: How much boomers spend on leisure trips each year, on average 4 to 5: How many leisure trips boomers take each year, on average What are the key motivators and behaviors of this group? To find out, check out MDG Advertising’s ...
Women in C-Suite: Navigating Invisible Obstacles
Juliette Boone | December 5, 2019
By: Juliette Boone, Boulder “Rather than a glass ceiling, many female executives are forced to navigate an invisible obstacle course of workplace and professional barriers to advance in the industry.” In 2013, some colleagues and I published a research study in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly concerning the lack of advancement of women into the C-Suite in the hospitality industry. Our work was borne out of a curiosity about the reported career obstacles that modern female executives faced. In the present era of “Me Too,” it seems appropriate to revisit that research to shine a light again upon the issues that might hold women ...
Tourism Tidbits: “Tidbits” for December – The Gift of Travel
Dr. Peter Tarlow | December 4, 2019
By Dr. Peter Tarlow December is a month for the giving of gifts. It is also a time to motivate employees during a season not only of joy but also for many a time of great frustrations. For those employed in the tourism industry December often means large crowds and challenging weather situations. It is a time when those who work in the travel industry not only suffer from personal exhaustion but also from a low level of ésprit de corps. December’s difficulties are a perpetual challenge for any tourism administrator. When we add to this situation the fact that the long cold and often dark winter months add to ...
What Ever Happened to Real Hotel Marketing?
Larry Mogelonsky | December 4, 2019
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Marketing for hotels used to be a far simpler art. Define a budget, review media pricing then assign monthly figures to each chosen publication and design your ads. Nowadays, in the era of revenue managers, the director of marketing position is often not necessarily as important the aforementioned master of yield-managing inventory. Indeed, the executive housekeeper may be considered more important because if the guestrooms aren’t cleaned properly then your all-too-critical TripAdvisor scores may suffer. Nowadays, marketing has been basically limited to: Keeping the website f...
