Though winter brings to mind blankets of white snow and nights curled up by the fire, the season's inclement weather can bring many challenges when it comes to maintaining a property's landscape. Snow and ice management is essential to maintaining a hotel's image. In the article "Hotel Garden: Managing Severe Winter Weather," authors Ken Hutcheson and Mike Fitzpatrick discuss how proper snow and ice management will help ensure that a hotel can operate efficiently and safely throughout the colder months. They also provide tips on how to maintain a hospitable and accessible landscape despite inclement weather that could otherwise pose potentially dangerous conditions. READ MORE

While OTA commission rates can be high, having your property listed on the top sites is actually one of the best things that hoteliers can do for their business and revenues because of the billboard effect. Cornell Professor Chris Anderson found that a hotel's direct bookings increased from 7.5 to 26% when listed on Expedia, perfectly illustrating the impact that the billboard effect has on a property's direct bookings. This article will offer tips and tricks on how to maximize the billboard effect on OTAs to generate as many direct bookings as possible for your property. READ MORE

Difficult employees can be extremely costly to a hotel establishment. In addition to causing disruption of morale and business operations, they cause management to divert their attention from customers and operations, thereby draining valuable resources, energy, and time. This can damage your relationships with guests and public relations. Furthermore, difficult employees can result in significant potential legal liability. In this article, we will address several measures an establishment can take to prevent and address problems with difficult employees. READ MORE

While on the surface, hoteliers and retailers may seem very different, these two industries actually have a surprisingly amount in common. No it's not that both work long hours, deal with often challenging customer situations and have to do it all with good grace and a smile on their faces. But they do share the same business goal when it comes to revenue management: having to maximise revenue from limited inventory over a fixed time horizon by selling to customers with different needs. READ MORE

How can connectivity maximize revenues and minimize costs for hotels? This insightful column by Thomas W. Storey, President of Hospitality for SONIFI Solutions (formerly known as LodgeNet Interactive Corporation), offers compelling suggestions on how hoteliers can use their in-room entertainment and connectivity systems as a way to earn incremental revenue. Hoteliers can customize their in-room packages, based on their property type. They also can target different types of travelers and offer in-room entertainment and high-tech options that will keep their guests happy and turn them into repeat business. And this all means more profits and better occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. READ MORE

With a variety of many new forecasting tools and technologies at our fingertips, the role of the revenue manager has become much more involved and creative in finding the right mix of business to ensure the optimal revenue goals of a hotel. Through utilizing reports, knowing the hotel's customers and communicating with the hotel team, today's revenue managers are a valuable resource in planning optimal market segmentation and establishing a recovery strategy if the unexpected occurs. READ MORE

In this article, Drew Salapka, Director of Revenue Management for Atlanta-based Hotel Equities, draws on more than 15 years of hospitality experience to present tips from an insider for creating and executing strategies to leverage revenue management efforts. On a daily basis, he works with more than 15 different hotel brands to maximize revenue and grow the firm's portfolio. Although he acknowledges the benefits of brand research and reports, he also suggests reaching out to OTAs and utilizing all resources available. He also reminds the reader that relationships are the most important factor in the process. Personal relationships must be developed and nourished between the revenue manager and everyone with whom he works. The hotel business is first and foremost a "people business". READ MORE

In recent years there has been a steady increase in the use of internet sites by customers, especially the use of third party booking programs to assist them in planning their holidays. This has helped to dramatically change the way in which hotels manage their room rates and occupancy levels around the clock. In 2008 alone, it has been estimated that 40% of all hotel bookings will be generated by third party internet booking sites. A figure of such potential magnitude as this obviously represents a large slice of a hotels potential clientele base. As the majority of hotels are continuing to embrace this new technology, many are forgetting to ensure they have the correct revenue management support in place beforehand. READ MORE

Energy efficiency and conservation programs are good for the environment, but they are also excellent ways to cut costs. However, when expressing your commitment to green initiatives to guests, in order for the message to have the desired outcome - that being a greater affinity to your property - you must use physical displays instead of just language to describe efforts. Our emotional connection to words is not nearly as powerful as it is objects we see with our own eyes. Therefore, in order to be perceived as an environmentally friendly hotel, place 'green' upgrades out in the open for your guests. READ MORE

Whether it is an opening hotel for which a solid foundation has been laid with a good network of vendors for supply of good and services of the requisite quality and at an acceptable price over a period of time or it is an operating hotel which runs like a well-oiled machine owing to a guaranteed availability of quality items at a quantity and price which brings economies of scale, there is an appearance given that the profitability of a hotel or group of hotels is magically being enhanced by an unseen hand. While there are contributions made by all departments to this, it is often true that the procurement department ends up being the unsung hero. READ MORE

One of the most common ways hotel brands clarify the position of their hotels relative to consumer expectations and the competition is through segmentation - that is, identifying a grouping of competitive hotels based on one or more commonalities. Generally in the hotel category, segmentation is price based - properties are grouped in price segments based on ADR. However, this is not the way travelers segment hotels in their minds - or if it is, they are extremely confused as to how much they pay for hotel rooms in different brands. Either way, there is a mismatch between the segments hoteliers think the brands are in and what their guests think, and this may be a major contributor in the eagerness with which travelers default to the cheapest priced option or seek out deals: the brands are charging rates appropriate for segments higher than those the customers believe the brands are in. READ MORE

Think you know what the 'Lo' in SoLoMo stands for? Think again. Spelled out as Social, Local, Mobile, too often the 'Lo' in SoLoMo is thought of as strictly location-based initiatives. But what about the actual locals living in a hotel's proximity? For hotel brands looking to ultimately attract, engage and retain a much wider audience, locals are ideal “test guests” - proving that if you can't appeal to your “home team” then you're unlikely to win over out-of-town converts. The following article examines how hotels are beginning to better engage a traveling subset that recent data shows has largely been overlooked and how hoteliers who find themselves late to the localizing bandwagon can adapt their own tactics accordingly. READ MORE

The latest technology has afforded meeting planners greater efficiency when researching venues, making a booking, and when communicating with attendees. Technology has also enhanced the actual meeting experience for both attendees on property as well as off site with live feeds and video streaming, and real time social media feedback. Meeting attendees take notes on tablets and take photographs and videos of presentations with their smart phones, almost eliminating the need for paper and pencils! To stay competitive and current with the changing trends, hoteliers are adding technological enhancements to the entire booking and meeting experience, but does the job end there for hoteliers? This article will address some “old tricks” in a new environment to help hoteliers get a greater share of the group business and ensure satisfaction for repeat business. READ MORE

Driving conference attendees to avoid attrition can be a tricky task. Sales leaders who ask pointed and meaningful questions and who can openly communicate with a client can establish trust and gain a thorough understanding the client's needs. In turn, the sales leader becomes a trusted expert who can effectively work together with the client to help drive conference attendees. READ MORE

Pick up your phone, chat with your buyer buddy, strike a deal and plan a meeting. If these are the steps you use to bring group business into your property, then you've been hiding under your tainted bedspread for too long. Hotels can be more effective in selling their space by triaging and answering the incoming electronic RFPs (eRFPs) using meeting/event date and space availability, complexity levels and value drivers as key factors that influence the time and effort that are dedicated to answering each eRFP. Use the 4-step proven triage method to answering eRFPs and learn the 6 procurement guidelines that your buyers follow. READ MORE