How do you use social media to encourage your current and prospective guests in different countries to engage with your hotel brand? It's a question that is hard enough to answer for a social media program in one country, let alone for multiple countries across the globe. Emil Atanassov, general manager, Asia Pacific at Sajan, lends his expert insight into all aspects of fostering multilingual conversations—and hotel brand loyalty—among guests. Learn best practices on everything from responding to messages in near real time using machine translation to personalizing your engagement strategy for each target audience. READ MORE

The United States Green Building Council estimates that buildings account for approximately (“~”) 38% of carbon emissions, ~14% of potable water consumption, ~30% of waste output, ~40% of raw materials, and a significant portion of our energy consumption. In California, roughly 19% of all energy consumed is for water treatment and pumping for human consumption. These numbers hold true for hotels, resorts, and casinos in warm climates. Maximizing sustainability in a hotel, resort, or casino property takes time and a considerable upfront capital investment. Detailed, below, are some reasons why sustainable measures are a “must” in the nation's hospitality market. READ MORE

2014 has been a big year for the hospitality industry as a whole. Business is improving, and many hoteliers are seeing larger Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) gains than they have in several years. Technology has played a critical role in the effort to grow revenue while simultaneously managing rising costs, and it will continue to be an important part of changes in the industry as we enter the new year. READ MORE

Major events provide a unique opportunity for hoteliers a chance to increase their revenue potential and improve ongoing financial stability. However, more often than not many Hotel Owners and Hotel Managers fail to recognize the need for 'pre-event' planning. Without a proper level of planning prior to an actual event, hoteliers may find themselves overwhelmed by the patronage they experience when the event begins. Similarly, without effective marketing and sales strategies in place in the lead up to the actual event, hoteliers may find they do not reach their full patronage potential that they had originally hoped for. READ MORE

As the wider hospitality industry continues to face a prolonged period of economic uncertainty, hotels should be looking inwards during this time with a view to protecting and making the most out of their intellectual capital. Whilst many organizations are wisely using this current economic downturn to adequately plan for the future through improved levels of staff investment, many others are not heeding the warning signs and are instead shedding costs wherever possible. READ MORE

As the wider hospitality industry continues to face a slow recovery, savvy hotel owners and managers should be looking inwards during this time with a view to ensuring that the technology they use to help run their facilities are best suited for the roles they have to perform. Whilst many international hotel organizations have used the economic downturn to adequately plan for the future through improved levels of technology and staff investment, many others are not heeding the warning signs and are instead shedding costs wherever possible - which can lead to disastrous consequences. READ MORE

In this period of uncertainty, how is a hotel to set long term strategies for 2010 and beyond? Who can predict how next year's economy is going to shape up and when demand is going to return if even the world's best economists are having difficulties predicting global economies for the next few months. Savy owners, operators and managers therefore should not only push back on dooms-day scenarios but put in place two key strategies for a successful 2010... READ MORE

For many hotels, developing effective pricing strategies remains a complex issue for revenue managers. Their goal, ultimately, is to maximize companywide revenue and profits while building strong hotel partner relationships within their marketplace. Beyond the scope of regular revenue management practices such as selecting the correct overbooking, rate restrictions and best available rate, lies the challenge of selecting the correct rates to choose from in the first place. The emergence of rate optimization has made strides to demystify pricing practices and help revenue managers understand the demand characteristics of their products, understand the price sensitivity of demand and design a rate spectrum that is tuned to all these. This allows hoteliers to take full advantage of their business opportunities, ensuring that they are capturing the maximum revenue at all times through an optimized rate spectrum. READ MORE

With guest satisfaction at its highest level in since 2006, what can be learned from the most recent J.D. Power Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey? Hotel rankings by segment may feel like the essence of the study, but by digging deeper into the results individual hotels can focus on a few key areas, especially when it comes to the next generation of traveler, to improve your guest experience. Act quickly though. The 2015 results are already starting to come in. READ MORE

As unlikely as it seems, with hotel groups focusing on technology to enhance the guest experience, the time will come when the major area of competition is the energetic feel of the guest experience. This change is inevitable because energy is the only unexplored area of hospitality left. This article follows on from Part 1 and states three more scientific principles, which hoteliers must know in order to create an energetic Heart-Based Hospitality guest experience. When applied, the guest experience can be transformed to new levels above 5-Stars. The first hotel group to apply them will have a major advantage. READ MORE

Advances in technology, particularly the ability to send and store data securely “in the cloud”, have changed the way in which all types of business can be conducted, including back-office hotel accounting. One emerging business model being considered and adopted by management companies is the outsourced accounting team, providing an almost immediately tangible return-on-investment and bottom-line savings, along with allowing hotel teams to focus more time on serving their guests. In an age where technology should be making work easier and not harder, it's time to consider seven reasons why outsourcing may be a great option for your hotel portfolio. READ MORE

Winter of 2014 was one of the most severe winters in recent history, with many major cities seeing anywhere from 100 to 300% more snowfall than usual and the “Polar Vortex” keeping the northern half of the United States in record cold temperatures for days at a time. The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts this winter to be another arctic blast with above-average snowfall throughout much of the nation. Weather has proven to be cyclical, and we're in the early stage of a cycle. The severity of the storms the country experienced last year came as a shock to most - especially folks living as far south as Georgia. One of the biggest challenges hotel owners, operators, managers, and other hospitality professionals will face this winter is keeping their properties safe from the snow and ice that comes with each storm. To avoid potential hazardous conditions and to ensure the safety of hotel properties and their guests, it's imperative for hotel professionals to understand the importance of snow and ice management and to have a plan in place. By preparing in advance for winter storms and by following a few simple safety tips, property owners will be able keep their hotel landscapes beautiful and their guests, and employees safe and comfortable. READ MORE

Conventional marketing, within and beyond the hospitality industry, is anything but scientific. Expensive and prone to erroneous conclusions, existing information - about potential guests, and the ways in which to reach them - acts as a veneer of scientific legitimacy, to disguise decidedly unscientific results. There is, however, an alternative to this system: One that uses mobile technology to actively engage consumers, simultaneously transforming marketing into both an adventure (for individuals and families) and a science (for hotel executives). Reproducible by design, and filled with real-time intelligence about how people respond to a powerful incentive (money), hoteliers can now enjoy scientific, measurable data about their respective businesses. READ MORE

Existing forms of encryption are inadequate and far from impenetrable. These vulnerabilities are (or should be) a matter of the highest priority for hotel executives, lest hackers and cyber criminals access private financial data and personal information about individual guests. Discarding the status quo, and through the adoption of a more sophisticated and effective brand of encryption (or enhanced information rights management, E-IRM), hoteliers can guard against the global threats that confront businesses on a daily basis. This opportunity allows hotel executives to be at the forefront of a technological revolution, which protects sensitive materials and works as intended, period. READ MORE

Technology is creating both opportunities and challenges for hotels in the eternal battle to drive conversion, build yield and increase loyalty. Traditionally hotels have sought to do so at the point of purchase or via loyalty programs. But by aiming to connect with travelers at every stage of their journey (even before they know it is a journey), hotels have the opportunity to raise their profile in the decision and get that all important loyalty advantage. However, it's important to understand what consumers needs are at each stage and reflect these in both communication and product innovation. READ MORE

All signs point to continued favorable conditions in the hospitality industry in the foreseeable future. Supply growth is modest compared to prior up-cycles, plus demand is at historical highs, so everything is right with the hospitality world - right? Not quite. Profitability isn't as strong as it could be, neither is average rate. As sure as the sun rises and sets, we will once again experience a downturn. Leveraging the full capabilities that the revenue management discipline offers now can drive incremental short-term profits and help insulate your property when the tide eventually turns. READ MORE

All of us who work in the hospitality industry are aware that the needs and expectations of guests are ever increasing and changing. Guests are our job and as companies we need to adapt to ensure we are offering the best level of service and keep guests coming back. An area that has seen the biggest and speediest change in the last ten years in my opinion is that of the technological needs and expectations of the guests. Ten years ago it was enough to offer in-room movies and a small business centre with internet access. Now that offering sounds possibly dinosaur. In a bid to 'keep up' and be a market leader, hotels especially within the premium sector, have fallen over themselves to shout about their building wide Wi-Fi, i-pod docking stations as standard in all rooms and automated check in services. In reality many are merely paying lip service to having these amenities and don't actually have the systems in place to support guests' requirements. READ MORE

Today's hospitality leaders must communicate information powerfully to inspire, enrich, motivate, and devise optimal solutions. As visual creatures, humans rely predominantly on this sense to learn. Utilizing visual communication which includes text as well as art, signs, photography, typography, drawing, graphic design, and illustrations enriches communication. The quote that “A picture is worth a thousand words” has been widely attributed to many sources; regardless of the source, visual imagery is valuable in persuasive communication. This article advances ideas for using images and other forms of visual information beyond the “written word.” READ MORE

Any perusal of the literature will show how increasingly important Food & Beverage has become to overall hotel operations. Its influence reaches across marketing, finance, staffing priorities, guest satisfaction results, and overall positioning of a property. Yet for all its acknowledged significance the F&B function can easily fly under the radar when it comes to performance scrutiny. This series of articles examines the underlying mindsets and principles that ultimately determine F&B success - factors that won't be picked up in year on year performance measures, or even comparisons against other restaurant operations. It's entirely feasible for an F&B department to tick all the financial boxes, yet grossly underperform when measured against actual revenue opportunities available and ignored. The six articles, concluding with the accompanying one, provide a litmus test for management in evaluating the latent strength of an F&B operation. READ MORE

It is not news to hoteliers that there are advantages to revenue management and marketing working more closely together. The better synchronized these two activities are, the more profitable the enterprise becomes. As an industry, we've been talking about opportunities in this area for a while, and recently with the advent of digital marketing and personalization initiatives, the need has grown for these groups to work more closely together. In this article, I'll talk about emerging opportunities to synchronize demand generation and demand control activities with the goal of profitably increasing guest engagement and guest conversion. READ MORE

Although hotel marketers have not as a rule incorporated product placement or branded entertainment into their marketing mix, there are a few examples of hotels that have successfully employed these marketing tactics to gain exposure and attract guests through the mediums of film, television or the Internet. This article identifies the critical success factors necessary for effective communications of this nature, taking a closer look at the use of product placement and branded entertainment by hotels. The article presents several examples of hotels that have partnered with producers of television, film and digital content to present engaging stories that appeal to potential guests. READ MORE