Spa Economics & Metrics: Do you really know how your spa is doing?

By Judith L. Singer, Ed.D., ISHC, President & Co-Owner, Health Fitness Dynamics, Inc. (HFD)

While the supply of spas has been on a steady rise for many years, the growth has slowed and this is probably good because there are some challenges that need to be addressed... The supply has out-paced the demand, the labor pool from management to service providers is quite limited, and there isn’t enough reliable economic information. These may be “symptoms” that need further examination in order to address any “health” issues that could impinge on the well-being of our industry. The challenge has been to define “what is financially profitable.” It may be time to really have a “fiscal check-up” to see just how healthy we are ...

The Weight of the Wait... Time is Money!

By Roberta Nedry, President, Hospitality Excellence, Inc.

How many times does the guest feel like they are the one waiting versus the wait staff waiting on them? What are the timing issues that make or break a service encounter? How does timing impact the overall guest experience as a service factor? Consider making time to analyze ‘time’ with employees who have “time” with guests. The ‘weight’ of the wait in the world of service delivery should not be underweight or overweight...

Maximizing Group Revenues and Profits

By Greg Pesik, President & CEO, Passkey

We know why hoteliers look to bring groups to their venue. That answer is simple: Revenue. As I have said in past articles, group events represent a $30 billion+ market opportunity for hotels, and over 30% of a hotel’s total revenue on average. Many hotels rely on group events for over 50% of their revenues. In order to tap into this opportunity hotels are scrambling to line up their calendar of events for the year ahead. One question I get from many customers, colleagues and friends in the business is the following: “Once we have booked a healthy amount of group events, are there any additional ways to identify and generate more revenue from each event so we can take our group revenue up to the next level?” These folks are always glad when I answer that question with a firm “Yes.” The question is how, and read on to find out more ...

Keys to Reaching the Millennial Generation Segment: The 4th Hump in Your Hotel’s Generational Marketing

By Bonnie J. Knutson, Professor, The School of Hospitality Business, Broad College of Business, Michigan State University

We are Sasha Cohen, Reggie Bush, the Olsen twins, and the McCaughey septuplets. Born after 1985, we already number 75+ million, and are growing. By 2010, we will be 100+ million strong. And with our numbers, we will become a very powerful economic force as we travel, stay in your hotel, and become members of your loyalty program. Because we were the first generation to grow up immersed in a digital-driven world, we are often called Generation Y (Gen Y), the Net Generation or iGen. But we are also known as Echo Boomers, because we are primarily children of the Baby Boomers. We have even been labeled the Einstein Generation because we are adept at multi-tasking...

Finding the Right Spa Partner

By Elaine Fenard, Vice President of Spa Operations, Spa Strategy Inc. and Marchello Chimenti

Spa is being embraced by a broadening spectrum of consumers, growing beyond traditional demographic profiles and target audiences. As a result, the industry has responded with more choice, offering an array of business models and branded spa concepts that address these niche consumer segments. This of course is a boon for hotel owners, developers and operators in terms of identifying the ideal spa solution for a property’s amenity platform...

Hoteliers Underestimated 2007 Profits: Will they Lowball in 2009?

By Robert Mandelbaum, Director of Research Information Services, PKF Consulting Hospitality Research and Steven Nicholas CHA

PKF Hospitality Research has been tracking the accuracy of hotel budgets since the late 1990s. During this time, we have learned that hotel managers are very adept at budgeting during prosperous periods for the lodging industry. However, when the industry suffers through a slowdown, the accuracy of hotel budgets deteriorates dramatically. Under poor market conditions, hotels have missed their profit targets by as much as 20 percent. Why are hotel budgets less accurate during industry recessions? Are hotel managers eternally optimistic, or maybe they are just lucky in years of strong performance ...

Smart Start Hotel Executive Report: A New Type of Benchmark

By Roger Lopez, Performance Analyst, Gomez

It was announced earlier this year that Netscape, a pioneer of the World Wide Web, would no longer be supported as of February 1st 2008. Back in the mid 90s, Netscape was the dominant Internet browser, the popular choice of 90% of web users. Today, this once-prevalent browser is now barely used by 0.6% of web users. Fast forward to Internet Explorer (IE), which until the last year or so, enjoyed similar 'exclusivity' as Netscape did in the 90s. This got me thinking about browsers and websites and how some organizations still create their websites solely for viewing in IE. However, the days of IE being THE browser of choice have come and gone. Today there are many more browsers being used to access the Internet, including mobile browsers too ...

In Hindsight 2007 Looks Great!

By Robert Mandelbaum, Director of Research Information Services, PKF Consulting Hospitality Research

As we struggle through declining occupancy and below average ADR growth in 2008, the U.S. lodging industry looks back fondly at 2007. Throughout last year, hoteliers groused about slower RevPAR growth and single-digit gains in profits. By the time we finish 2008, the 7.2 percent bottom-line growth achieved in 2007 will seem like nirvana...