Five Ways to Utilize Bureau CSMs for Your Hotel Conventions

By Lyan Tassler, President, Association for Convention Operations Management (ACOM)

Learn the ways that Bureau Convention Services Managers can effectively aid meeting planners and hotel executives in producing a successful event in this article. As current economic conditions continue to affect the meetings industry, it is important now more than ever for meeting professionals to come together and effectively utilize all resources in order to produce a successful and cost-effective event. Convention Services Managers from Convention and Visitors Bureaus can act as valuable resources for meeting planners and hotel executives in the planning and execution of an event...

The Customer Experience: How to make hotel guests feel like they’re getting more for their money

By John Ely, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Signature Worldwide

As a result of today's economy, customers are more likely to seek value rather than luxurious amenities when deciding on a hotel opportunity for value properties to snatch up new customers - those who would typically stay at higher-end properties. Yet, the economy will rebound, so you'll want to make sure that you, your staff and your property make the best impression possible in order to gain customers for life. So, how can you turn a budget property into a four-star experience? Keep reading. ...

Upon Closer Review: How Hotel Management Agreements Are Interpreted – and Enforced

By William A. Brewer III, Co-Founding & Co-Managing Partner, Bickel & Brewer

As we know from experience, the economic pressures affecting the hospitality industry can create contract-related pressures for hotel owners and operators. As an example, disputes frequently arise during economic downturns between hotel owners and operators concerning their rights and duties under their management agreements. The industry's key players need to understand how hotel management agreements are likely to be interpreted and what they can do to protect their rights ...

What the Hotel Chains are Doing to Cope with the Economy

By Marcel Escoffier, Associate Professor, FIU School of Hospitality Management

Much has been published concerning how the restaurant business has been franticly trying to cope with the current economic crisis. Little has been done written concerning the lodging business. As happens frequently, the hotel food service business is experiencing a very different economic strain than our counterparts over in the restaurant side. While restaurants have seen a shift in business down to the less costly "quickserve" and fast casual, F+B Directors have seen a shift outside the hotel property. But some operators are still making money in food and beverage. How do they do it? And how can you copy their ideas...

The Top Five Beauty Treatments in Spas

By Jacqueline Clarke, Research Director, Diagonal Reports

The hotel spa business is maturing and is now faced with greater competition plus a consumer recession. New beauty providers are now targeting frequently used services and are eroding profitability for the established players. Beauty salons/spas, especially at the upper end of the market, are offering more lucrative skin care and body shaping treatments. Demand for these new and high-tech treatments has also been showing double-digit growth rates for years. There are significant barriers to entering this market but hotel spas have the option to provide these new treatments...

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...