As a sector of the hospitality industry experiencing growth despite the recession, extended stay facilities may want to consider strengthening their environmental policies through improved housekeeping services for their guests. In this article I will try to outline a few important factors that extended stay property managers need to consider when providing housekeeping services to their guests, some resources available to learn more about environmentally responsible housekeeping services, and outline a list of policies and procedures that managers and owners can take to make their housekeeping more environmentally responsible. READ MORE

Challenges confronting travel and hospitality marketers intensify with the ongoing economic softness, and marketing budgets are under pressure. ROI is top of mind as marketers try to stretch their dollars for greater impact. Organizations make the mistake of segregating inbound marketing efforts (usually online marketing such as search engine marketing or search engine optimization) from outbound marketing (better known as database marketing). They lose a significant amount of synergy and opportunity that comes with integration. Learn more about integrating direct and online marketing to derive insights that can better steer digital advertising and search marketing as well as gather information for effective, personalized direct marketing efforts. READ MORE

The industry is just starting to wake up after a long, cold winter! And the good news is that industry experts are predicting better results for the remainder of 2010 and for 2011 than previously forecasted. Now that business is slowly coming back, why wait to ensure that your property is ready to compete for market share? To ensure that your property is poised for success when business demand returns, now is the time to address some key areas that will distinguish your product and services from the competitors. This article will provide a few reminders to make sure that your property is poised for success when business is back. READ MORE

Are Rewards Clubs for kids a good idea? The answer is a resounding YES. But how elaborate does a “rewards club” have to be, and at what age do such programs really become effective. There are many examples in the hospitality industry of marketing programs designed for kids, the Camp Hyatt, Loews Loves Kids, and Omni Sensational Kids programs come to mind. Yet most of the marketing of these programs speaks to the parents not the kids. Creating a “rewards program” for kids is essential to attracting your share of the lucrative family travel business. READ MORE

Corporate or business travelers, though fewer in numbers are a very lucrative segment of the accommodation sector. It is estimated that 34 to 35% of the hotel revenue is generated by corporate travelers. The accommodation managers must be able to understand this properly and use necessary sales and marketing tactics to attract this segment to the maximum extent possible, to achieve good yield per room occupied. This article has identified five (5) top tactics to attract this segment. READ MORE

Collaboration. It's a word that's getting a lot of play lately. And when it comes to marketing, it hits the nail on the head in terms of how hospitality companies should be approaching their customer loyalty initiatives. Developing collaborative loyalty programs give hotels the opportunity to garner the depth and breadth of meaningful data about their guests that they could not mine on their own. Being armed with this more comprehensive view of consumer's likes, dislikes, spending habits, etc. helps hotel marketers better understand their guests, communicate with them more effectively, and ultimately market to them in a way that more efficiently drives the desired behavior. READ MORE

With so much business being conducted "online" today, you may be tempted to let technology do all the heavy lifting for your hotel. After all, you probably get plenty of transient reservations via brand websites or TPAs, and perhaps your sales staff can barely keep up with all of the electronic RFPs you receive. Certainly, you and your sales team have had to change the way you work to accommodate the increased role technology plays in business today. But, like champion athletes, you must make sure not to rely too heavily on automation and just "go through the motions." And you shouldn't drastically change the way you work just because you're more frequently connecting with people online. Technology just creates additional ways to link buyers and sellers -- it's not meant to replace basic sales skills and old-fashioned hard work. READ MORE

Today's hotel guest is more informed and demanding than ever. With dozens of choices at the fingertips of potential guests, how can your hotel rise above the crowd? To capture a bigger share of the market, your employees must focus on delivering more bang for the buck than your competition. Otherwise, guests decide where to stay primarily based on price and location. And that means you're nothing more than a commodity to most of your customers. Hotels with a guest-centered sales culture outperform competitors by building more value into every guest interaction. When your sales and service team is dedicated to providing a special experience for each traveler, you create preference and loyalty with your guests. And that helps you fill your hotel at a higher rate. Sounds simple, right? Anyone who's tried to build and maintain a sales culture knows it's not easy. But in working with more than 5,000 companies since 1986, we've found that it can be done by following three basic steps... READ MORE

Effective and efficient management is one of the most crucial factors to a business' success and survival. An essential responsibility of management is to formulate and execute strategies that increase shareholder value. This is often referred to as strategic planning, which "consists of the process of developing strategies to reach a defined objective. Strategic management is used by businesses to provide overall direction for company operations and establish specific goals and duties in the areas of marketing, finance, human resources, and information technology. READ MORE

There are many factors that directly influence the value of a subject business or hotel, and they can generally be classified under the following three main areas contributing to value: company environment, industry dynamics and economic conditions. These factors then form different aspects of due diligence research. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the three areas of due diligence research in more detail. READ MORE

Hotel appraisals are often needed during critical times, such as when buying or selling a hotel, gifting your hotel as part of an estate plan, or resolving valuation concerns during marital or partnership dissolutions. Because a significant investment is on the line, hiring the right appraiser to accurately assess your hotel's worth is crucial. An interesting analogy can be drawn between hotels and oysters. Like an oyster, a hotel consists of several parts. The rock that the oyster lies on is analogous to the hotel's underlying land. The shell of an oyster is similar to the building of the hotel. Together, the land and building are the hotel's "commercial property." Finally, an oyster usually has no value without its pearl. Likewise, the combination of land and building in and of itself does not make a hotel. The value of the hotel is in the hotel's business, like the pearl to the oyster. When valuing hotels, all three parts-the land, the building, and the business-need to be addressed. The land and building are usually appraised by real estate appraisers who utilize appraisal methods that are better suited for commercial properties. The business of the hotel needs to be valued by business valuation professionals, who are trained to appraise companies using approaches and methods that cater to the complexities and nuances of business operations. This article focuses on three aspects important to hotel valuations: the differences between hotels and commercial properties; the approaches used to determine their respective values; and important considerations in choosing a qualified business valuation professional to appraise your hotel. READ MORE

To group, or not to group, that is the question. It doesn't take William Shakespeare to pose the quandary facing many hotels of how much group business is good business and when does a group pose a risk to maximizing revenues at a property. To begin to answer this, we must first uncover the principles that hospitality pricing has always been under. Hotel Revenue Management has been and many times, still is, under the "department" of sales and marketing and the Director of Revenue, most of the time still reports to the Director of Sales. The Director of Sales has a mandate to fill the house and most sales managers focus on group business, so therefore the thought is "if we want a sales team, we want them to sell and they need to sell group". This then leads to the thought of "take group business and then if we get the transient to fill in the holes". These thoughts are fundamentally unsound and cost many properties hundreds of thousands of dollars. READ MORE

Is it possible for a hotel to "create" demand? Is this just a myth used by Directors of Sales to try and stimulate the troops? When it appears that there is just no one wanting to visit your property, can you really "flip a switch" to drive people to your product? It is possible to create demand where there is none. First we need to uncover what is demand and how can it be managed and even stimulated. READ MORE

The hospitality industry has been affected by many devastating events in recent years. The attacks of September 11, 2001 struck fear in travelers, and the airlines and hotels responded in unprecedented ways that completely changed the way we traveled. SARS fears reached to multiple continents as people feared the spreading epidemic. The war in Iraq and the increasing terror threats reduced attendance at the Olympics in Athens to unheard of low levels. Hotel occupancy and Revenue per Available Room or RevPAR (a key indicator in the hospitality industry) were expected to be at record highs but dropped to record lows. READ MORE

When does a guest book? The answer most give is, "when they want to stay". The truth of the matter is they book when the time is right for them. Traditional marketing gets all the information in front of the guest and hopes that when the gust books they choose you! This shotgun approach leaves many properties unable to track true conversion on their efforts and wasting money on trying to get guests that never stay. By looking at true patterns, one can put the value product in front of the ideal guest at they time they are interested in booking, thereby creating an easy environment for the guest to book. In addition, since this guest is getting what they want, not only is conversion higher, but the ADR is as well. So, how do you know when is the right time to get before your guest? The key is micro-segmentation of the guest profiles and searching out what they value. READ MORE