Controlling labor costs is crucial to driving profits, and recent studies suggest that hotel managers, having learned hard lessons in the 2008 economic crisis, are paying attention. But as rates and occupancy rebound, salaries and payroll-related expenses likewise are rising, indicating a need for vigilance. Value-engineering labor can help hotels reduce labor costs without compromising the market position they seek to achieve. READ MORE

Substance abuse of alcohol and drugs, including abuse of prescription drugs and illegal drug use, costs over $400 billion annually, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. These costs directly impact the workplace through reduced performance, employee turnover, lower productivity, absenteeism, higher insurance and workers compensation costs, damage to property, criminal activity, and injuries and death from accidents. Developing a workplace drug abuse policy is a way to deter and reduce the incidence of employee substance abuse, to reduce the costs to your establishment, and avoid hardships to others. READ MORE

Long ago, a hotel bar or lounge felt like a space filler on the lobby level. Since you could not realistically put another room there, you might as well put a small lounge to serve watered-down drinks and listen to piped-in music. It was a place to offer your guests, because there was nowhere else to really go. And not surprisingly, not many people would go there. Think of the Armada Room that featured Murph and the Magic Tones in the movie “Blues Brothers.” Of course resorts and five-star hotels were the exception, boasting their share of award-winning restaurants. But for most hotels, the nightlife options were never a destination on their own. READ MORE

Over the past few years a new business model has taken center stage in the market for transient lodging. The fundamental nature of this new model is an internet booking platform that facilitates and participates in the short-term transient rental of private homes and apartments. Participants in the market are, for example, Airbnb, HomeAway, and onefinestay. The model is often described as part of the sharing economy, in the sense that it facilitates the “sharing” of residential space between transient guests and the primary occupant of that space. READ MORE

Most hotels now ask for guest feedback through comments cards or surveys, but too many forget to put the follow-up systems in place so they can really benefit from that feedback. Here are some of the things you need to think about to collect the right feedback and deal with it in a way that benefits your hotel as well as its guests. READ MORE

Emerging markets, though exciting and ground breaking, can be tough to manage singularly. Partnerships are needed; not in the sense that individualism is not enough, but in the hopes of realizing maximum operational potential. In the hospitality industry, where there is such a broad range of expertise, partnerships are necessary not only to survive, but also thrive. Combining these two, emerging markets and the hospitality industry, and we find ourselves turning to the African stage. An area of the world where vast takes on so many meanings -- opportunity, size, culture. But what also comes with such a gift is the cost of knowing that individuality without partnerships will make success impossible, especially in our industry. READ MORE

Just like people, brands need to be carefully nurtured and managed, and just like people, they get old and tired and need reinvigorating. In today's State of Brand world, every hotel owner/manager has to perform a regular health check on the hotel's brand. I don't mean just looking at occupancy levels, rack rates, or even food and beverage revenues. I mean fully understanding the health of your brand image, internally and externally. This means doing regular refresher sessions on the state of your brand for all key leaders to ensure that they are passionately connected and understand who they are and where you are going as a hotel. In this article, you'll see how the State of Brand has evolved over time and where it is going in the near future. READ MORE

Remember when free Wi-Fi was considered cutting-edge? Now, of course, most hotel guests expect it—if not in their room, then certainly in the common areas of the property. Hotel technology is evolving rapidly. Digital solutions are becoming the norm for solving common pain points in accommodation management. In particular, mobile technology and cloud-based software services are revolutionizing both the guest experience and the job of the hotelier. That will continue to be true in 2016. The year ahead promises to bring more developments in mobile and digital solutions for hospitality, as well as continued emphasis on the direct channel. READ MORE

Until the early 2000s, hotels were often owned by individuals, small groups of investors, or the companies under whose flag they operated. In that era - circa 1960s through the early 2000s - there was a significant alignment of interests between those traditional owners and the in-branded hotel managers. This alignment was not surprising because hotel-owning brand managers had to comply with the very policies and practices they dictated for their brand-wide standards. However, by the start of the new millennium, the players and landscape began to change as the hotel chains began divesting themselves of their hotel assets and the well-financed private equity investor became a central player. READ MORE

For the past decade, employees who earned over $23,660 per year generally were exempt from federal overtime requirements if they were paid on a salary basis and performed certain well-defined duties. The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”), however, recently proposed changing its regulations to more than double this minimum amount to $50,440 per year. If the regulation becomes final, it will have a substantial effect on how hotels pay their managers, assistant managers and supervisors. This article discusses the impact of the proposed changes. READ MORE

The current economic uptick has led to an extremely competitive hotel sourcing environment over the last couple of years. Both our client contacts and our team of travel buyers are facing similar challenges as we look to find adequate space for upcoming meetings, events and incentive trips. A 2015 Successful Meetings Trends Survey showed that meeting planners' second most common concern was negotiating with hoteliers in a seller's market. READ MORE

The scene is a common one in hotels across the nation: A police officer is standing at the front desk, asking the clerk whether a particular guest checked in. The officer wants to see a list of guests' names, and even asks for a copy of the security camera footage. The clerk summons the front office manager, and the police officer points out that the city ordinance regulating hotel operations requires hotel compliance with requests to review hotel records. Should the manager turn over the information? What are the hotel's obligations to the guest? READ MORE

Revenue management is relatively new to the hotel industry. Hotels only really started to adopt revenue management processes and systems broadly in the late 90s and early 2000s. We've managed to achieve success and gain visibility over the last couple of decades, but we are a relatively young discipline in hospitality. In fact, it could be said that revenue management is still in its teenage years, and, in my opinion, we are definitely acting like it. READ MORE

Last month, Part I of this article traced the history of robots in hospitality from Ancient Greek times to the first workplace application at GM 50 years ago, and the exponential progress made in robotics since then with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, and the rapid encroachment into the workplace, including hotels now being run mainly by robots. Surprisingly, and little known, is the fact that there is a convergence between humans and robots: the effort to make robots capable of everything and more that humans are capable of, and humans being "improved" with robotics. In just 15 years, the expectation by those aware of or driving the trend, is that humans will be largely redundant in many fields, from surgery to hospitality. READ MORE

Weddings are often viewed as an orphan kid of our industry, and special attention to this stream is only given at a narrow set of dedicated properties. Lest I remind you, however, that weddings are 'recession proof' whereby every bride wants her day to be as immaculate as possible. But it takes time and commitment to develop a successful weddings program, and to this end there's no better place to look for inspiration then a five-star, five-diamond hotel with a stellar reputation in this arena. READ MORE