Transforming historic buildings for hotel use, particularly luxury hotels and boutiques, presents certain challenges and rewards. Buildings that meet the requirements for historic tax credits can be attractive to developers. In addition, retaining an existing building and repurposing it for renewed use is more sustainable than demolishing and rebuilding and the case for adaptive use becomes even more compelling. Creating the identity for a new hotel in an older building repurposed as a hotel brings challenges, especially when the desire is to establish a sense of authenticity. One approach is to develop a curated art collection tied to the location. READ MORE

There's no denying that in the past several years there's been a noticeable rise in hotel brands. Soft brands with distinctive features and unusual offerings have grown, especially, in popularity, perhaps because they so neatly straddle that cumbersome divide between the unusual characteristics of boutique locations and the broad-scale offerings of mega-franchises. As industry notable Stacy Shoemaker Rauen recently said during dash design's debut dashChat podcast, people are excited to see something new and different. They want to be a part of something that shakes things up and draws them in, all of which leaves full-scale hotels that don't elevate their game or have a specific point of view in a precarious position, even while an abundance of brand tiers can be confusing to some. READ MORE

Developing a positioning strategy may seem like a daunting task. After all, there are countless how-to books written about it. Industry magazines are awash with articles about how this hotel did it or that hotel did it. And then there are the presentations at industry conferences, corporate meetings, seminars, webinars, ad infinitum. Not to mention the many consultants out there. All of these sources are valuable and can provide significant insights into marketing your hotel. But the sheer numbers of resources that are available make the whole thing seem mind boggling and complicated. It's not. It's not because there are basically four - and only four -- positioning strategies any hotel can adopt. Think of them as your marketing's Four Strategic Aces. In this article, you'll read about the four different strategies and why your hotel should adopt only one. READ MORE

There appears to be an inevitable collision between two titans. Traditional segment based RM, which is not currently structured to consider each individual customer's background and both their tactical value and lifetime value, currently does not work with the new breed of customer centric customer triggered one to one personalized marketing. Today an unknown customer usually gets the same price and availability as a known customer. This article will propose a solution that should be acceptable to both of these titans - where they will actually work together. Both pricing and availability can be more personalized without changing existing RM systems. READ MORE

It is no secret that revenue management is facing a talent shortage. Current revenue management practice requires a focus on managing the profitability of all of a hotel's revenue streams, and hotel companies are looking for emerging revenue managers who have the skill set required to meet that challenge. There is a growing concern that hotel schools do not make the cut in terms of graduating students who are prepared for the demands of this new era in revenue management... READ MORE

The hotel business can be mired in the way things have always been done. Hotel managers input data into spreadsheets without analysis, information from different business areas isn't centralized, and hotel owners only address problems once they become chronic. Decisions are made without rigorous data to back them up, and a stagnant mentality can prevail. It doesn't have to be that way—and in our company it isn't. When we founded NVN Hotels 10 years ago, our intent was to challenge the status quo. By coupling a data-driven approach with guiding principles that empower employees to have ownership and enact change, we've created a culture that expects and rewards excellence, which ultimately increases revenues and propels growth. READ MORE

The good news is that globalization, cable news, the internet, and social media come together to give us instant and constant worldwide connectivity. However, the bad news is that these same technologies make all of us interdependent like never before on economic, political, and social events around the world. For hotel owners, the result is an industry that is more competitive, challenging, complex, and volatile -- and less predictable -- than ever. To demonstrate this, let's look at how current global economic developments are having an impact on four aspects of the lodging business in America. READ MORE

Many of today's largest and most successful companies started as nothing more than an idea, backed by a person brave enough to take the leap and follow a dream. Often companies have no further to look than their own workforces to find innovators who will push them forward. They are called "intrapreneurs," and despite their impact on business and culture, managers often struggle to identify and grow these passionate individuals who are hard-working and filled with ideas that could drive positive change. READ MORE

Technology is often blamed for raising the biggest barrier to embracing a "total revenue management" approach. But chances are that you have systems in place that are already up to the task, if only you would set them up to succeed. You may need to make PMS configuration changes and refine certain business practices, but it will be more than worth it. It seems like every time RevPAR growth slows down, as it is now in the US, hoteliers instinctively turn first to investigate their revenue management systems, which surely must have blown a fuse or broken a fan belt or something. READ MORE

Every hotel manager has a fear that wakes him or her up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. It isn't a standard fear that most people have; hotel leaders aren't in the throes of the dream where they showed up to a presentation naked. This particular fear has to do with the ink that's being spilled on the internet. It's the fear of a negative review on a major review site or social network. To put context around the world we live in today, there are more than 3 million hotel reviews written each week. That's 18,000 reviews per hour. Needless to say, not all of them will be from guests who loved every moment of their stay. READ MORE

Hospitality Financial leadership is about making a new connection to the skills, talents and passion that managers have with guest service and college engagement and attaching that connection directly to their third power - their financial power. It's true what we say in our industry, look after the guests and the money will look after itself but only when we invest in financial leadership does this really ring true. Today we want financially engaged leadership teams across the board and building the team that has all three skills is paramount to your business success. That's Hospitality Financial Leadership, a management style that embraces guest service, colleague engagement and a superior return on investment by letting the team develop and use their natural financial talents. READ MORE

The ultimate goal of each hotel is to generate more revenue, achieve higher guest satisfaction, and a higher rank vs. its competitors, but when hoteliers implement the revenue management concept it needs a set of tools to help achieve the goals critical to maximizing a hotel's profitability. It might be “A dark science --combining high technology and black arts”. While revenue management professionals devote significant effort towards advancing strategies and tactics to optimize revenue, many revenue managers still lag when it comes to establishing and measuring agreed upon success criteria. READ MORE

Finding “good” business is not enough, by itself, to ensure the long-term success of a hotel. Instead, you must find good business to bring to your property that is also the “right” business for that particular location. Although this might sound like a fairly simple task, identifying the right business for the right hotel can, in fact, be a complicated endeavor. It involves a thorough evaluation of each opportunity, along with many fluid components at the property, and the market in which it is located. These factors can include the operations of individual departments within a property. READ MORE

The market is poised for boutique hotels to make an impact on the hotel industry like they never have before. With an expected soft landing of the economy (2-3 percent RevPAR growth max) it is more important than ever for independent hotels to ensure that they have proper revenue strategies in place. Competing with the big brands for market share can sound like a herculean struggle but with execution of the proper procedures, a boutique hotel can stand apart from the crowd. Understanding where your business comes from is the first step of proper revenue management. READ MORE

Historically, hotel revenue managers, aided by sophisticated computer programs, helped their properties determine the proper balance between the volume of guest rooms rented, with the price charged to rent those rooms. As revenue management has evolved, other factors have been added to the equation. Now, it is not just rooms revenue that is evaluated. Hotels realize that an occupied room has the ability to generate other revenues within the property. Using data from our Trends® in the Hotel Industry survey we are able to analyze historical changes in all revenues earned by U.S. hotels. READ MORE