Site integration is a crucial step in designing a hotel and, when applied appropriately, has the power to impact guest satisfaction as well as the owner's business objectives and can even translate into a real value and return on investment. In this article, Cristine Henderson, AIA, NCARB, Associate Vice President at Hoefer Wysocki, shares the most important considerations when applying site integration in a hotel's design. Considerations include designing to increase the building's overall visibility and accessibility, while incorporating local inspiration and environmental influences. A designer's skills, creativity and mindfulness produce opportunities to build hotel interiors and exteriors that reflect and make use of local surroundings and enhance the overall guest experience. READ MORE

Once summer ends, travelers start researching and booking flights and hotel rooms for holiday travel, an ideal time for brands to step up their digital marketing strategy and utilize new ways to increase sales. Programmatic performance marketing with a strong emphasis in native search enables advertisers to make smarter bidding decisions and allows brands to transform into digital publishers by selling comparison search ads to competitors. In this piece, Brett Tabano, MediaAlpha Senior Vice President of Marketing, will explore native advertising from the advertiser's and publisher's perspective, as an organic way for hotel brands to become more efficient and profitable. READ MORE

Hoteliers using Google Business Listing as a marketing tool increase their potential viewership of the hotel's online listing. Franchises like Marriott, Hilton, IHG and Choice Hotels International all use sales revenue management forecast tools that help franchisees maximize their potential. Independent Hotel & Motel properties have to do things the old school way by creating excel spreadsheets with forecasted P&Ls and data from STR Reports. Oracle Taleo Central Human Resource Management System has been helping the hospitality industry weaponized their HR by giving even the smallest operators the ability to run like a sophisticated company. READ MORE

The unpredictability of Mother Nature and extensive havoc she can wreak is one of the most universally acknowledged threats to people and businesses, including hotels. The best defense against any foreseeable weather emergency is a proactive plan. Both literally and figuratively, when the clouds roll in, will your hotel be able to withstand the storm, as well as the possible damage it leaves behind? Have the proper steps been taken to keep that damage to a minimum, and if not, do you know how to get started? This article will address preparing your hotel for the worst case scenario. READ MORE

The current hotel cycle, well into its ninth year and what in previous cycles would be considered the late period, is acting differently from historical norms. Occupancy and real ADR are diverging to a degree unprecedented in the hotel market. The difference is present in varying degrees in most studied markets. Exceptional increases to hotel room supply may explain some of the difference, and the introduction of unconventional, short-term rental supply may also contribute to dampened real ADR growth. The two effects are estimated to be approximately equal in explanatory power and jointly explain over half of the occupancy gap. READ MORE

Corporate travel comprises an extremely important component of any hotel's total room nights and overall revenues. Thus, the importance of the Rates for Proposal (RFP) for the corporate rates negotiation process each year. At its simplest, even if two entities commit to an equal number of rooms to be occupied, the value of those commitments varies based on a number of factors, including the days of the week or season involved, typical length of stay or, perhaps, even anticipated total room spend. Regardless, the best corporate contracts achieve a win-win-win partnership for a brand, hotel property and corporate travelers. READ MORE

One obstacle revenue and distribution managers at hotels face is parity. This has become a major concern in the hospitality world, as hotels are losing valuable revenue, harming their business. Providing hoteliers with transparency on parity performance is key so they can create actionable insight as it could impact their properties. In this editorial written by Gino Engels, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder of OTA Insight, he takes a dive into the issues of parity and how you, the hotelier, can reduce your hotel's parity problems in order to better control your distribution costs. READ MORE

The same yield strategies that for decades have helped hoteliers optimize room revenues can lead to similar gains in their food and beverage operations. A restaurant seat, like a hotel room, is a perishable item, meaning that revenue lost anytime it sits vacant will never be recovered. And that’s the very challenge that yield management is designed to address. So why does the industry continue to overlook its potential? This article explores how hotel operators can apply a yield management approach to their restaurants to capture the maximum possible revenue from each seat. READ MORE

Hotel revenue management has been around for more than 30 years, yet adoption of revenue management technology has been slow. Although revenue performance is an important metric that drives pricing strategy and overall efficiencies, many of the tools and technologies available today make it difficult for hotels to measure their revenue performance and make smart pricing decisions. The solution: straight-forward measurement tools that can process real-time data to help hotels manage revenue and pricing. This byline will explore how technology is empowering hotels with strategic tools to optimize revenue management and help them make more informed decisions to better grow their business. READ MORE

Talking about Millennials it's been now a hot topic since 10 years. Of course, we all know how relevant it is, being the majority of today's workforce and tomorrow's leaders. What's most important is the fact that every industry is gearing up towards them, from travel to technology and from education to retail. Of course the reason is simple, Millennials are and will be the next BIG business opportunity. Here are some tips about managing Millennials in the (hospitality) workplace and beyond with my two cents. I took it seriously because I saw the opportunity, are you? READ MORE

How can hotels, big and small, create opportunities to maximize their revenue? In this article, expert Lily Mockerman details the challenges and creative solutions for limited-service hotels to increase overall revenue. Though smaller properties may seem to be at a disadvantage, revenue optimization can be achieved by strategically monetizing every part of a hotel’s available space. With a seasoned perspective and out-of-the-box insight, this article reviews the ways limited-service hotels can increase their overall revenue and add to their value. READ MORE

The field of revenue management is evolving with breathtaking speed. While fundamental priorities remain unchanged, new tools and new technologies have introduced new priorities. Hotel owners and operators who want to remain competitive need to work to break down the traditional boundaries that have existed between revenue, marketing and sales. Making that happen requires a more engaged and versatile revenue management team and an organizational commitment to applying a keen revenue-management-driven eye across departments. But breaking down those departmental silos means overcoming inertia and institutional resistance, and building a resourceful, coordinated and collaborative team. READ MORE

Modern hotel distribution is dominated by online channels, across both direct and indirect bookings. While the internet has increased complexity and created new challenges, it also brings a number of new opportunities. Activities and transactions in the digital world can be monitored, tracked and analysed. And unlike other disciplines, hotel distribution is uniquely positioned to work with forward-looking data. Hoteliers can get a true picture of how the hotel inventory is being sold and its impact on future bookings. Early wins are going to hotels that are recognising the opportunity to be more diagnosis-led and adopting an agile mindset. READ MORE

Humans and current hotel systems can't handle the complexity of big-data analytics alone. As the hotel tech stack of the future becomes a present-day reality, revenue managers and their leaders will depend upon automated systems, the most advanced artificial intelligence and revenue science to handle tremendous amounts of data and build innovative, customer-centric pricing and promotions strategies. In this article, we outline how hoteliers can drive their strategic future and build insightful, effective and agile pricing, promotion and distribution strategies to meet the ever-changing needs of their guests and enhance profitability. READ MORE

Technology has been dramatically changing almost every field and industry in the last couple of years and the hospitality one makes no exception. The transformation could be perceived as either positive or negative, but is undoubtedly disruptive. And the customers have no intention to wait for the industry to adapt. On the contrary, they require the best services possible. That is why, hospitality executives and the human resource departments have no choice but to implement efficient software in their operations and keep up with the ever changing environment in the field, keeping their employees engaged and their performance optimal. READ MORE