As market conditions continue to improve in our industry hotels have to work harder than ever to attract families to their properties. Marketing departments must take initiatives to reach out to families to create one-of-a-kind experiences for them. It is the creation of these experiences that will lead to unique brand stories and attract families to your property. Now is time to challenge your marketing department to take initiatives to create one-of-a-kind experiences for families. READ MORE

When guests walk into your lobby, what do they see? Gorgeous, sparkling marble floors, perfectly arranged florals, and smiling front desk associates? But when they round the corner to grab a bottle of water or a Diet Coke from your lobby shop - is that same experience carried into the Market, Pantry or Gift Shop? Many hotels have perfected their lobbies highly right down to the streak free glass doors, but the Market - where guests actually shop for food and hygiene products - looks like a complete afterthought with haphazard merchandising, empty shelves ,and an overall failure to either encourage a sale or meet guest needs. READ MORE

The basic rule to achieving maximum retail success is "offer the right products at the right price." But what are the right products for the hotel pantry? With everything that is available and all of the snack and beverage trends that come and go, how does a manager go about selecting a winning assortment that meets the two most important hotel retail goals: maximum revenue and total guest satisfaction? READ MORE

The hotel pantry was once little more than a guest convenience - a smattering of snacks and sundries. Too often an under-stocked, unkempt retail offering that barely covered the cost of the inventory required. But as the economy began to tumble, and everyone began to look for new ways to increase sales, many turned to the hotel pantry as a new and important source of revenue. And with that came a new approach to hotel retail and the need to market this lobby asset to guests. There are several ways to successfully market your hotel pantry offering, but before you begin any effort, you need to evaluate the message that will most effectively resonate with your guests. READ MORE

Looking for ways to add revenue and new profits to your hotel's bottom line while increasing guest satisfaction? Adding a hotel pantry to your lobby is a quick and affordable project if you know what you need and where to look! There are just a few must-have items that are easy to find and easy on the budget - allowing even the smallest hotels to put a profitable pantry in place quickly and painlessly. READ MORE

If "Location, location, location" applies to all hotels, an even more relevant adage for boutique properties might be "Service, service, service." When you have no grand ballroom, less than 100 rooms, no health spa and fitness center and only one restaurant, you don't "make do" and apologize, you make the guests love you. It's all about the guest experience, and that is all about the quality of hotel-customer interaction. It is also about knowing who your guests - and potential guests - are. Of course, it's very nice if you also have an ideal location and convenient access to some facilities more typical of a larger hotel. READ MORE

"Why can't a woman be more like a man?" Here in London, as elsewhere, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Professor Henry Higgins sang his famous lament, in My Fair Lady, on the differences between men and women. For starters, many of the 43% of business travelers who are now women - often holding high level professional positions, with good salaries and a keen eye for quality and efficiency - might object to being thought of as a "fair lady." The essential point, however, remains: there are differences between men and women, a fact most of us probably appreciate. From the hotelier's perspective the question is less about the differences in gender than about whether ladies and gents should be treated differently. Do women, in fact, want to be treated differently from their male colleagues and counterparts? READ MORE

Despite millions of unemployed workers, there is an acute shortage of talent across industries. The hotel industry is no exception and with this industry growing at an exponential rate, the talent shortage hits especially hard. As more facilities are opening to tourists, hotels are in dire need of general managers to implement human resource strategies that build a foundation and reputation for a positive work environment, sales managers that are committed to the customer's needs, and housekeeping staff that understands and respects the importance of image - just to cite a few examples. READ MORE

For many years, hotel companies have wrestled with the challenge of operating a hotel management and franchising company ("Opco") and owning the hotel real estate underlying the business ("Propco"). As the stock market has typically valued a management company at a higher price/earnings multiple than a real estate company, there has long been a theory that the real estate element of an integrated hospitality company is dragging down the overall value. READ MORE

Why do people REALLY love hotels? It's NOT the scratchy towels and continental breakfasts. It's NOT the out-dated patterned carpeting in the meeting rooms. It's NOT the travel sized bar soap or the cold bathroom tile. It IS the opportunity to get away from daily routines. It IS the opportunity to live out expressions of aspiration. It IS the opportunity to become a "celebrity" for a day - to the extent that a guest FEELS the experiences of both extraordinary recognition and paramount service. A Habitat is the incarnation and delivery of the sentiments of relevant, experiential, and meaningful promises. This is also how a BRAND is actually defined. READ MORE

How do you get people to "stay" in your hotel when people are traveling less? How will you make your hotels money this year? What do you really have to offer locals? How are you different than hotels in your areas? The answer lies in the old casino adage: The longer they stay, the more likely they'll lose. In the absence of gaming itself, how is this strategy translated into practical, relevant and profitable outcomes? READ MORE

In my first article for the Hotel Business Review, I proposed that many hotels may benefit from a shift in branding and marketing toward a "habitat" model - providing an ongoing "hub" of activity and experiences for locals as well as out of town guests. In my second article, I discussed means of cross-marketing these activities once they were created. In this article - allow me to back up and clearly address the activities themselves - what I will call Event Marketing - and how they can make hotels money both now and in the future. READ MORE

Within the past decade, many of the nation's leading museums and concert halls have hired starchitects the likes of Gehry, Calatrava, Libeskind, and Taniguchi to create singularly stunning structures that, like massive titanium magnets, attract visitors to them. So, too, hoteliers are renovating landmark buildings in major cities into new use as signature hotels. Branded destinations are exporting their architectural concepts abroad. READ MORE

Tourism has become recognized as essential to sustaining historic preservation and California's tourism industry is responding to that reality. Responding to encouragement by President George W. Bush's historic preservation advisor, John Nau, III, Californians organized a California Cultural Heritage Tourism Council in 2004 which subsequently has sponsored symposia and efforts to connect tourism with cultural and heritage preservation. "We recognized that California's vast geography and diverse heritage and cultures kept tourism, cultural and heritage leaders from speaking to one another and thus cooperating. By coming together, we have been able to generate highly visible promotional efforts and stimulate cooperation, to the benefit of preservation," says Susan Wilcox, co-chair of the California Cultural Heritage Tourism Council and Deputy Director of the California Travel and Tourism Commission. READ MORE

With skyrocketing fuel prices eating into profits, hoteliers have few reservations about cutting energy expenses. They're adjusting thermostats, dimming lights in lobbies and hallways, consolidating trips for supplies, and even posting signs that ask guests to "please reuse towels." While these are all good ideas, they're really just a start. To maintain or even maximize profitability, hoteliers need to go beyond mere cost-cutting and step into the realm of energy budget management. It can be a very effective strategy for reducing operating expenses and is something that, surprisingly, many hoteliers are overlooking. READ MORE