Hotel Business Review: Week of May 20, 2013

Janet Gerhard
  • Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt
  • Is Customer Experience Dead?
  • By Janet Gerhard, Founder, Hospitality Gal, LLC

  • Perhaps no other industry is as deeply rooted in the delivery of a quality customer experience than hospitality. Yet, while other industries such as financial, healthcare and retail have senior level customer experience officers within their companies, hotels do not. Are we better or worse for it? Reading about the anticipated rise of customer experience management (CEM) in 2013 got me thinking about its potential impact on hospitality. In an industry built so squarely on creating customer experiences, how do we even define customer experience management?

Steve Van
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Saying Goodbye Doesn’t Have to Be Hard to Do: Reflagging Best Practices
  • By Steve Van, President & CEO, Prism Hotels

  • We are going to be seeing more and more hotels change flags this year as loans come due and many franchisors stop giving out "hall passes," to properties with no money to renovate. These franchisors are tired of waiting for properties to live up to current standards and are going to insist on fulfilling the Performance Improvement Plan or changing the flag.

Timothy E. Osiecki
  • Eco-Friendly Practices
  • LEED Design: You Can’t Afford Not to Do It
  • By Timothy E. Osiecki, President of Design and Construction, Concord Hospitality Enterprises

  • LEED certification. For some in our industry, the mere mention causes a reflexive reach for wallets amidst protestations about ROI and guests who don’t care, don’t understand and won’t pay for it. In 2008, we at Concord Hospitality Enterprises had many of those same concerns about incremental costs and value to consumers when we embarked on our first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) project, the Settler’s Ridge Courtyard by Marriott in Pittsburgh, Pa., And indeed, it did cost over $500,000 more to build, but the annual savings exceeded our expectations so we persevered in figuring out how to minimize cost to maximize our returns and make sustainability as much a part of our company’s culture as any of our cornerstones.

Brigitta Witt
  • Eco-Friendly Practices
  • Hyatt Associates Lead the Way as the Company’s Environmental Ambassadors
  • By Brigitta Witt, Vice President Corporate Responsibility, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts

  • Since opening our first hotel in 1957, Hyatt has always believed that the way we manage our business and operate our hotels defines who we are and what we stand for. With nearly 500 properties in 45 countries, it’s critical that we conduct our business in a responsible way that that minimizes our environmental impact, increases value for our shareholders and makes a positive difference in the communities where we operate. In 2011, Hyatt formalized this long standing commitment with the launch of Hyatt Thrive, our company’s global corporate responsibility platform, which is designed to help make our communities places where our associates are proud to work, our guests want to visit, our neighbors want to live and owners want to invest.

MAY: Green Hotels: Eco-Friendly Principles and Best Practices

Herve Houdre

Sustainable Development is a fairly new concept in the hotel industry and though many hoteliers have included it in their strategy, it does not yet have the recognition it deserves in view of the better revenues and margins it can develop. The challenge comes from lack of concerted engagement of industry stakeholders, from owners to suppliers, from employees to customers. The Sustainable business model is still in its infancy and there is a long journey ahead, so let’s be positive and Let’s Get Engaged! READ MORE

Diana K. Bulger

In response to the nation’s Honeybee shortage and as part of the hotel’s environmental stewardship program, Fairmont Washington, D.C., Georgetown welcomed 105,000 Italian honeybees to their new home in May of 2009. The rooftop of Fairmont Washington, D.C., Georgetown is abuzz with four large honey beehives and their ecologically important residents. The bees enhance the hotel’s culinary program, as does its interior courtyard garden which provides fresh herbs, edible blossoms, plants, trees and flowers to the surrounding Georgetown neighborhood. READ MORE

Don Shindle

The hospitality industry has seen significant change as green initiatives and sustainability have taken a more prominent role in today’s world and in the consciousness of our guests and our staff. Hotel operators across the globe are held increasingly accountable to a “worldwide global citizenship” standard. This is a term that our team fully embraces here at The Westin Verasa Napa. We understand how significant this responsibility is and the importance of sustainability on a long-term basis. As a community leader, we are committed to positively contributing to our environmental well-being now and in our future endeavors. READ MORE

Pamela Parsons

Sustainable design makes a difference. The national government believes it, corporations believe it, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes it, and hoteliers are beginning to believe it. But do hotel guests really think it matters? In the forward to Hotel, Design, Planning and Development, by Penner, Adams, and Robson, architect Michael Graves opines that architects and designers “believe that guests appreciate the healthful aspects of environmentally responsible places, as much as they appreciate good design.” This assumption is, at least in part, the driving force behind the growth in green hotels. READ MORE

Coming Up In The June Online Hotel Business Review


Feature Focus
New Trends in Hotel Architecture and Design
On any hotel design project, architects are generally serving at least three masters - the owner/developer, the hotel operator, and the general public who will utilize the hotel - and each have their own goals, objectives and demands. The owner/developer is concerned with brand standards, the target market and the hotel's locale, while the operator is concerned about achieving the highest possible revenue through efficient design. The public is demanding that architecture and design be fully integrated into the guest experience, based on prevailing tastes and preferences. The architect's role is to respond professionally and efficiently to meet the demands of all and to develop a unified solution. Though each project has its own prerequisites and obligations, there are some general design trends which seem to be prevalent across the industry. First, there is an increased emphasis on the importance of the lobby. The principle here is that first impressions matter and that a hotel has only a few minutes to convince a guest that they have made the right decision. Hotel lobbies are being completely re-imagined - from eliminating front desks altogether to turning lobbies into warm, intimate social spaces, replete with fireplaces and comfortable furniture. There is also an increasing use of ambient natural light, even in large spaces like ballrooms and meeting rooms. In addition, there is greater emphasis on incorporating the distinctive attributes of any given location into the hotel design, which guests are defining as central to their experiences. The June issue of the Hotel Business Review will report on all these exciting developments in the fields of architecture and design.
In this issue...
Experiential Design Across All Sectors
By Ellis Katz, Principal, John Portman & Associates
Challenges of Contemporary Design in Historic Buildings
By Gary Meadows, President, HCI Architecture, Inc.
Ideal Meeting Spaces Should Offer Flexibility, Flexibility and Then Some
By Ronald M. Lustig, Design Architect/Principal, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc.
The Hotel Lobby
By Jennifer Skaife, Senior Associate, DiLeonardo
PLUS: Keeping an Eye on the Return on Design; Check In To the Future; L'AND Vineyards Wine Resort; How to Preserve Architectural Detail; Catering to Women in Hotel Design; Sustainability Retrofits, and much more.