A trademark can be a recognizable sign or design that defines a brand. Protecting that trademark can be crucial to a hospitality player attracting guests and maintaining a competitive edge. A hospitality player's success may lead to imitation from competitors. That imitation may lead to infringement of a hospitality player's trademark. Protecting any trademark should be a priority for hospitality players. Failing to protect a trademark can lead to waiving rights and claims that a hospitality player may use to enforce its trademark rights. Hospitality players should seek to understand whether any threats exist to their trademark rights and take appropriate action in response to those threats. READ MORE

The hospitality industry continues to ride a wave of 10 years of continuous growth (Deloitte), and the spa component is growing alongside. According to the Global Wellness Institute's 2018 Wellness Economy Monitor, the number of Hotel/Resort Spas worldwide reached over 48,000, producing revenues of $36.4 billion. In fact, the hotel spa category is the fastest growing among the six spa types measured by GWI. It seems that the hotel spa is benefiting from the continued strong growth in wellness tourism, as well as consumer's active engagement with wellness concept. Is your hotel spa keeping up with the wellness movement? READ MORE

Hotel executives began to deal directly with the things that they can control while managing to lessen the burden of threats for things that they could not control. With distinctive competitive advantage or even core competitive advantage, a hotel's internal resources should be managed in order to enhance competitiveness. Therefore, this core-competitive advantage relies within and among people. Hotel executives embrace various internal resources affecting competitive advantage through adding more manageable control and reducing operational risk. Some of these internal resources can be controlled by hotel executives and others are risks that have to be factored into strategic decision-making. READ MORE

Early adopters of technology often force competitors to ramp up their technology investments to stay relevant. This scenario is playing out in the hospitality sector right now, where forward-looking companies are upping their technology game and causing others to do the same. However, the existence of technology that can improve the customer experience (CX) is no guarantee that it will be widely adopted. The challenge for the hospitality industry is meeting consumer expectations while ensuring that investments in CX make financial sense. This article discusses both how technology can improve CX – and what's holding companies back from adopting new technology. READ MORE

Recruiting is hard. It's harder when a full team of amazing professionals stops thinking about ways to augment their own crew, and comes to the logical conclusion that it's better to focus on their specific roles than it is to go outside comfort zones. After all, no one wants to rock the boat for a group that's doing amazing work. However, leaders who can encourage their employees to build a pipeline of talent will almost never find themselves unable to meet every guest's requests. READ MORE

Many turn to Starbucks for a caffeinated wakeup call every morning. However, given a recent court ruling, Starbucks now serves as a wakeup call for employers who need to improve their timekeeping practices. This article examines the landmark California Supreme Court decision in Troester v. Starbucks, which illustrates just how important it is to capture every minute that an employee works - even time that seems short and trivial, or also known as "de minimis." This article will explore the lessons learned from Starbucks and further outline best timekeeping practices that all hotels should consider implementing to avoid an employment wage-hour lawsuit. READ MORE

The spa and wellness industry continues to outpace other industries leading to greater and greater competition, particularly in the luxury hotel market. Spa operators today strive to stand out by differentiating themselves from their competitors and reinventing themselves to keep apace of the changing times. But they mustn't lose sight of their core identity. The successful spa brands and operators in this increasingly competitive market will be those who strike the right balance between innovation and staying true to the timeless principles that have always made spas so appealing. READ MORE

The preventive and alternative medicine sector and their importance and obligation to work together in order to assist humanity to move through these challenging times of renewal and renewed recognition, will allow us to find new ways of a healthier future environment. The potential of what can be done and achieved with preventive and natural medicine is yet to be re-discovered and explored. The spa and wellness environments provide the perfect settings in order to blend modern effective treatment techniques, advanced technology with mysticism and sacred knowledge. This is a melting point boundless, interesting, enticing, challenging but highly rewarding if done, performed and applied professionally. READ MORE

Wise employers recognize a culture of wellbeing is core to sustainable success. With the rise of wellness offerings within the hospitality industry, thriving employees are key to presenting the best service to ensure satisfied customers and guests return again and again. After all, overworked, overwhelmed, and unhappy employees won't be at their optimal to deliver quality service, eroding customer satisfaction. In the growing wellness movement, the key to profitability doesn't just lie in the bottom line; it lies with leaders who are committed to wellbeing, in themselves and their teams, and a thriving culture that goes far beyond ROI. Wellbeing Leadership has become a must. READ MORE

In segmentation and motivation modelling, hotel spas follow the standard approach – Doing their best to understand what current and prospective guests may be looking forward to in regards to wellness. While it is imperative to understand what their guests want, they also need to know what guests do not want. Many customers do not always make decisions based on what a certain spa treatment does or skin care product contains, but rather often, what it is not! Does this represent a 'reverse logic' of the same approach or do hotels spas need to revise their business models completely? READ MORE

So, you want to be a high-performing hotel revenue manager, but how much should you understand about analytics, and how much can be left to the scientific experts and automated technology solutions? Well, does being a safe, efficient driver really depend on that much technical knowledge of what's under the hood? Sure, you should probably know where to put the gas, but it's the mechanic we trust to effectively diagnose and repair major issues, and there's an entire history of trial-and-error innovations built into your vehicle that make it into the advanced machine you rely on to get from point A to point B. READ MORE

Power anomalies don't take a summer vacation. From heat waves to hurricanes, wildfires to monsoons, there is no shortage of disasters waiting to wreak havoc on critical hotel systems between the end of the school year and Labor Day. But with the right approach to power management, hotels can ensure system uptime if disaster strikes, keeping guests protected from the complications of summer blackouts. This article will explore some of summer's greatest threats and offer steps to prepare for power outages that could adversely affect business operations. READ MORE

The most effective revenue managers are pros at nuance and experimentation, looking for patterns and trends that inform their strategy. The ideal setup includes technology that automatically analyses local market demand data alongside pricing data, and puts it in a visual, approachable format. But what are the key factors that drive hotel revenue? In this concise article, we review eight or nine themed clusters that can guide your thinking, including: your compset, as part of your pricing strategy and demand analysis; other demand factors; channel management; promotions and discounts; competitor benchmarking; reputation management and rate parity; employee engagement; and digital and metasearch advertising. READ MORE

This article introduces a new service recovery method called Stealing Thunder - a proactive strategy to handle service failures which can have a significant impact on customer loyalty and trust. Stealing thunder implies the service provider identifies a service failure first and takes the initiative to report the failure to the customer before the customer has identified the service failure. When proactive service recovery strategies such as stealing thunder are used, there may not be a need to offer monetary compensation to customers following a service failure. Recommendations are provided to managers about incorporating "stealing thunder" in employee training. READ MORE

The global spa market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.66 percent by 2021, and brand positioning enabling premium pricing will be the market driver of that growth. But hotel spas should not be regarded with a "build it and they will come" approach. In fact, if your hotel has an 80-percent occupancy rate, it's not unfair to suspect your spa is utilizing only 15 percent of its capacity on average. The problem is that many spas are built as an amenity for the hotel. That mentality needs to change if owners expect to capture the revenue potential of the space, especially in a world that continues to move to a wellness mindset. READ MORE