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
Callaway Resort & Gardens Relies On Guestware Rapid Response for Asset Protection, Guest Service
Callaway | June 19, 2018
At HITEC in Houston Visit Guestware in Booth #1118 JUNE 18-21, 2018 George R. Brown Convention Center Full-Service Golf and Spa Destination Taps Guestware Automated Task Management to Route Requests to Staff, Track Recurring Incidents for Preventive Maintenance June 19, 2018 – "Guestware does an excellent job of taking, recording and directing guest and staff requests at Callaway Gardens. But for me, it is all about Guestware's analytics," said Marc B. Bauer, vice president, Resort Operations for Callaway Resort & Gardens (Callaway) in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Callaway is a 670-room full-service destination that offers a Spa, t...
You Want to Enhance the Guest Experience – So How Do You Know What’s Wrong With It
Pierre Boettner | June 19, 2018
By Pierre Boettner, CEO, hospitalityPulse Enhancing the guest experience seems to be on every hotel executive's mind these days. There isn't a conference where speakers from the industry aren't professing the improved guest experience to be the single most important point of their attention – and I am confident, HITEC this year will see a slew of companies, speakers, and visitors speaking of and about how to enhance their guest experience. By now, those who know me, know here's my big 'but…' to come – and it will. However, first, let me take you on a brief trip down memory lane. Remember when hotel guests had the habi...
KEYPR Launches KEYPR TV, the Most Advanced Casting Solution in Hospitality
KEYPR | June 18, 2018
In partnership with Nevaya, KEYPR provides hotel guests with the most comprehensive, hassle-free TV casting available today Los Angeles, CA (June 18, 2018) -- KEYPR®, the technology company whose enterprise cloud platform is the leader in guest experience and hospitality management, is announcing its partnership with Nevaya, the go-to TV cloud entertainment company for hospitality, to create KEYPR TV. The new feature allows guests to stream content from their personal mobile devices or KEYPR's in-room tablets to hotel TVs, with no app downloads, required sign-ins, or overly-complex access codes. As evidenced by the shift in how cons...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: The Busy Hotel Executive
David Lund | June 18, 2018
By David Lund Coaching people around the financials in hotels is what I do. I accomplish this by one-on-one coaching, usually on the phone or through Skype, or in workshops where as a group we explore and debunk the mystery around the numbers. Many people are fond of saying the numbers are the hard part of hospitality. That's not true. What is true is we do not exercise these muscles. We do not even know we have a financial muscle in many cases. This story is about one of those people and how I was able to help her. Names and places are changed to keep anonymity. Tina emailed me with a somewhat cryptic and erratic message that almo...
Cloud5 Partners With Routier to Add Customized Engagement Software to Its Communications Platform
Routier | June 18, 2018
Leader in hospitality communications adds innovative guest engagement to its HSIA product suite HOUSTON, June 18, 2018 (HITEC 2018, Booth #2519) — Continuing its evolution as a thought leading provider of hotel communications technology and services, Cloud5 Communications announced today its partnership with Routier, an emerging hospitality software innovator. Routier helps hotel groups and hotels empower their staff and guests with seamless communications solutions that enhance exceptional guest experiences, building high guest loyalty and satisfaction. This guest engagement innovation allows hotels to communicate with their gues...
Angie Hospitality and INTEREL Collaborate to Drive Voice-based Guest Room Controls
Angie Hospitality | June 18, 2018
Dubai – June 18, 2018 – INTEREL, the award-winning provider of hospitality guest room management solutions, and Angie Hospitality, creator of award-winning Angie, the world's first cloud-powered, interactive guest room assistant created just for hotels, have partnered to enable guests to control temperature, lights, curtains, and more, conveniently through voice commands. The integration between INTEREL and Angie Hospitality allows hotels to offer guests an experience more similar to what they have come to expect at home. Angie's voice and touch controls combined with INTEREL's advanced guest room management and Internet of ...
Guest Facing Chat and Task Management All-In-One at HITEC Houston With Guestware
Guestware | June 14, 2018
At HITEC in Houston Visit Guestware in Booth #1118 JUNE 18-21, 2018 George R. Brown Convention Center Learn Why Guests Prefer Both SMS and App to Communicate with Hotels, but Only When Hotels Have a Robust Task Management System with Staff Mobile App to Automate Back of House Processes June 14, 2018 – Guestware, the leading cloud-based guest-service and rapid response solution provider for hotels and resorts, will demonstrate its all-in-one Guest Experience Platform with guest-facing SMS Texting and live Chat solution at HITEC booth #1118. Guestware's guest-facing solution is integrated with its robust task management including a ...
Koridor Announces New Hotel Room Self-Selection Platform: MyRoom
Koridor | June 14, 2018
Technology Pioneers Next Generation of Personalization for Global Hotel Industry, Starting with the Room Selection Process ATLANTA – June 14, 2018 – Koridor, a hospitality technology company pioneering the next generation of guest personalization, today announces the launch of the MyRoom platform. A first of its kind software solution, MyRoom enables hotels to market rooms more effectively and curate features using dynamic content and analytics, while empowering guests to self-select their room, upgrade, or choose features that best suit their preferences. Koridor will debut the MyRoom technology while attending HITEC Housto...
Cloud5 Introduces the Hospitality Dashboard Experience (HDX) at HITEC 2018 Booth #2519
Cloud5 Communications | June 14, 2018
Innovative "Dashboard of Dashboards" Concept Leverages Automation and Self-Healing Network Technology to Proactively Manage the Guest Experience CHICAGO (June 14, 2018)— In the hospitality industry, current business dashboards provide little holistic value to decision makers and measure availability and performance from a limited, static perspective. Today, Cloud5 introduces a new concept that will provide the industry with access to real-time predictive insights by expanding the traditional dashboard to include all networked systems that affect the guest experience. Members of its now-forming HDX Advisory Board will have exclusi...
Nobody Asked Me, But…No. 197: Hotel History: Ralph Hitz (1891-1940)
Stanley Turkel | June 13, 2018
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Ralph Hitz (1891- 1940) The hotel business has seen many fine promoters and salesmen but perhaps none as creative as Ralph Hitz. His two favorite expressions "Contact the hell out of 'em" and "Give 'em walue and you get wolume", spoken in his thick Viennese accent, were a key to his philosophy of business. And it worked. Hitz does not rank with the other great hotelmen in the sense that he built an empire or left an estate. He did neither. His period in the limelight lasted only 10 years, a period when the hotel business was at its low ebb in American history. Hitz was a sales and promotion phenome...
3 Key Themes to Watch at HITEC 2018
the Author | June 12, 2018
By Terri Miller, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Concilio Labs The elite of the hospitality industry is set to descend upon one of the most exciting yearly events showcasing the brightest minds and hottest travel and hospitality technology: HITEC. Recognized as the world's largest hospitality technology show, HITEC 2018 offers a unique combination of quality education, networking, and exhibitors from around the globe. With the plethora of new innovations that have been unfolding, this year's show is staged to bring some disruptive discussions. To help attendees make the most of their time at the event, we've compiled a list of...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – Business Acumen and Women
David Lund | June 11, 2018
By David Lund I may have caught your attention with this potentially explosive title, so I hope you will read this and either help change this inside your hospitality business or personally get your hospitality business acumen on, whether you're a woman or not. In my experience in the last 35+ years I know three things are true about women and business acumen. By the way, I think the word "acumen" is the wrong word simply because it has the word men in it. To my way of thinking it is a non-starter right out of the gate because it sounds sexist. To me the words to describe any manager who has their stick together with the numbers side of...
Hospitality 2020 – The Next Big Things
Robert A. Rauch, CHA | June 7, 2018
By Robert A. Rauch Hospitality's turnaround in both profits and technology over the past eight years has been rather phenomenal. Revenues and profits have grown steadily and there has also been a significant improvement in the use of technology. Previously, the hospitality industry lagged behind most industries when it came to technology. Today, that is rapidly changing. Rather than try to focus on everything that is going on with our industry like the blowing up of mobile, personalization of services, brands, soft brands, online travel agencies (OTAs), Airbnb, GDPR, 5G, cyber-crime and crisis management, I am focused on two big things....
Tourism Tidbits: Marketing Love and Marriage
Dr. Peter Tarlow | June 6, 2018
By Dr. Peter Tarlow June is known as the month of love. In the northern hemisphere it is also the most popular month in which to marry. In fact many people dream of a June wedding. Although there are specific locales that are known for weddings and romantic interludes, in reality with a small amount of creativity, almost any location can turn itself into a wedding or romantic destination. A major marketing tool that can apply to locations almost anywhere is the love and marriage market often connected with romantic tourism. In fact this market is so big that it is estimated that romantic tourism, including destination weddings and roman...
U.S. Hotel Deal Pace Going Strong
JLL | June 6, 2018
South Florida single-asset hotel trades to reach $2 billion by year-end, matching 2015 peak NEW YORK, June 5, 2018 – In the first trimester of 2018, U.S. hotel transaction volumes reached more than $11.9 billion – a 93.0 percent increase over last year, according to preliminary figures released by JLL. Deal pace is driven by South Florida and West Coast markets including Hawaii, resort properties, and portfolios of prime full service hotels. The exceptional transactions activity to date is underpinned by the acceleration in performance growth. Cap rates sharpened further due to the high profile of assets transacted and ongoi...
Is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Beneficial for Startups?
Dr. Margarita Cruz | June 6, 2018
By Dr. Margarita Cruz Innovation and entrepreneurship are clearly flourishing in Switzerland if the Global Innovation Index is anything to go by, as the report ranks Switzerland as the most innovative country in the world. Another study, the Swiss entrepreneurial ecosystem report, puts the number of new firms created each year at some 12,000, with the cantons of Zurich and Vaud leading the field when it comes to high-growth startups. But what exactly is an entrepreneurial ecosystem and how can entrepreneurs benefit from it? We recently staged a panel discussion at Ecole hôteliere de Lausanne on the topic of 'Nurturing your entre...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: How the Coach Helped Me
David Lund | June 4, 2018
By David Lund Coaching people around the financials in hotels is what I do. I accomplish this by one-on-one coaching usually on the phone, through Skype, or in workshops where as a group we explore and debunk the mystery around the numbers. Many people are fond of saying the numbers are the hard part of hospitality. That is not true. What is true is we do not exercise these muscles. We do not even know we have a financial muscle in many cases. This story is about one of those people and how I was able to help them. Names and places are changed to keep anonymity. Chris sent me an email requesting some of my free documents that I offer on...
Facilities Management in Offices and Hotels: Same, Same but Different
Remy Rein | May 31, 2018
By Remy Rein The management of office facilities has been undergoing a revolution of sorts, thanks to disruptors such as the private social network Nextdoor and co-working spaces WeWork and Workspace2go, as well as a slew of new practices. Nowadays office space is being optimized in terms of square meters and usage per hour. According to a report on Coworking by Arthur Loyd in July, the number of coworking spaces was expected to grow eightfold worldwide to some 14,000 in 2017 from 1,780 in 2015. It added that, in Paris alone, coworking floorspace was expected to increase by 167 percent to an estimated 155,200 square meters in 2017 from ...
GDPR: Why Hoteliers Should Take the new EU Regulations Very Seriously
Stuart Pallister | May 30, 2018
By Stuart Pallister New EU rules on data protection - or GDPR - , seven years in the making, come/came into effect on May 25. The advice from IT experts to hoteliers is: take the new rules very seriously or risk heavy fines of up to 20 million euros or four percent of the company's global turnover, whichever is higher. At the recent Young Hoteliers Summit, staged at Ecole hôteliere de Lausanne, Nick Price, CEO of NetSys Technology and CIO of citizenM Hotels, touched on the challenges posed in a keynote address. He said the new General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR was significant as the hospitality industry holds a lot of dat...
Headspace and KEYPR Partner to Deliver Guided Meditation App to Hotels
KEYPR | May 30, 2018
Collaboration brings popular app-based meditation to millions of hotel guests through the KEYPR hospitality platform Los Angeles, CA (May 30, 2018) - KEYPR®, the technology company whose enterprise cloud platform is the leader in guest experience and hospitality management, announced today that it has partnered with Headspace to deliver its wildly popular guided meditation and mindfulness sessions to hotel rooms worldwide via KEYPR's in-room tablets. "Wellness is a huge priority in hospitality today, and undoubtedly all travelers can benefit from a few minutes of calm," said Dan Kessler, VP of Business Development and Partnersh...
4 Reputation Management Challenges Every Hotel Manager Faces
Dr. Carlos Martin-Rios | May 29, 2018
By Dr. Carlos Martin-Rios Today, hotels are greatly dependent on a limited number of reservation platforms. A significant feature of these platforms is guest evaluations, which are transformed into ratings and rankings. Consumers pay growing attention to user-generated content and a hotel's position in comparison to competitors can have a significant impact on demand for bookings. As a consequence, reputation management is becoming increasingly crucial for hotel managers. But what exactly is the impact of guest evaluations on a hotel's performance? How do hotel managers cope with negative online reviews? And what are the main challenges...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: The General Manager’s Yardstick
David Lund | May 29, 2018
By David Lund I have seen a lot of different management styles over my 35 years in hospitality. The one I am going to write about in this piece was not the typical General Manager. This is clearly an opinion piece and it is also what I think is a best practice for a top down governance of a business. It is also easily adaptable for just about anyone especially if they like a bit of control. Before I get into describing this one particular GM's management style I am going to outline what I would say is the "typical GM" and what their modus operandi is. The typical GM I have seen, worked with, and gotten to know over the last three and a ...
Why Investors Are Taking Note of Japan’s Tourism Boom
May 25, 2018
With tourism in Japan booming and the 2020 Olympic Games on the horizon, investors have been taking a closer look at the country's hotels. Over 25.5 million travelers descended on Japan in 2017, up 19 percent from the previous year, according to the Japan National Tourist Organization. A huge jump from 2011, when just 6.2 million overseas tourists were recorded. "Tourism demand is expected to grow significantly towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games," said Kei Sumiyoshi of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group. Amid the influx, "Asian investors led by China remain keenly interested in hotel investment." Surging tourism around the world has b...
Tourism Tidbits: The Art of Crowd Management
Dr. Peter Tarlow | May 25, 2018
By Dr. Peter Tarlow In almost every form of tourism and travel there is a need for crowd management control. Anyone who has watched the huge crowds at New York's Times Square New Year's Eve celebration or has been to a packed beach is aware of the importance of crowd management. Not all crowd control management need be for festivities. For example, there is religious crowd management such as at St. Peter's Square in Rome, during the Hajj in Mecca or along the Ganges River in India. There is also political crowd management such as at a political parade, convention or rally. Not all crowd management touches upon such mega events as New Ye...
