The new Fairmont Austin, which celebrates its grand opening this weekend, already holds a commanding presence in Austin as the second tallest building in the city at 590 feet. With nothing around it even close to that tall, it owns its place in the sky too. Gensler designed the architecture of the 37-story tower, which features a curtain wall that projects a mesmerizing, ephemeral quality, reflecting drifting cumulus clouds and everchanging light from sunrise to sunset. At times, it seems to become part of the wide-open Texas sky. The hotel is a new beacon that welcomes visitors to the city.

Statistics are one of the most valuable tools at a hotel marketer's disposal. This article gives you quick key takeaways for some of the most important changes to the hospitality industry. Eye opening stats from business travel growing more than 6% to 81% of travel shoppers cart abandonment. Changing your marketing strategies quickly based on current stats keeps you ahead of your competition in this rapidly changing landscape. Move more money towards mobile or change the way you communicate to adapt to messenger app users. In this article you will find 11 key strategies that can be implemented.

Over the past 25 years, the Sheraton Seattle's Gingerbread Village has become one of the most anticipated holiday attractions in Seattle, drawing more than 200,000 visitors each year while raising funds to help researchers end Type 1 diabetes. Since 1992, the Sheraton Seattle's expert culinary team has partnered with acclaimed local architecture firms and the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties to design, bake and delight crowds with intricate, larger-than-life gingerbread designs. The event is free to the public, but donations to the Northwest Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation are encouraged. As a tribute to the city, this year's theme embraces Seattle's past and future, prompting us to look back at how Gingerbread Village grew from a modest event to a beloved Seattle tradition as well as a highly effective sales, marketing and public relations tool.

Latest developments in technology and added pressure in the market have advanced Revenue Management to acquire a more strategic role with emphasis in maximizing all components of the customer journey. And while there are still challenges in the adoption of such a business practice it is an exciting time for Hotel Revenue Managers. Technological advances have led to systems with enormous potential in handling the complexities of managing various revenue streams due to their abilities in advanced problem solving, reasoning and perception. This will elevate the role of RM and empower it to reach its full potential whilst allowing the whole organization to benefit from its concepts.

The hotel industry is no stranger to change and one of the most dynamic areas of hospitality, revenue management, looks due for a correction. The playing field for revenue management is changing; traditional metrics are being challenged. Top line revenues no longer cut it when measuring asset performance. Big Data is history, replaced by data science. The revenue management role now encompasses profit manager, customer experience engineer and data scientist. In the light of this shift in complexity and the new skills being asked of revenue managers, does it make more sense to outsource revenue management to revenue specialists?

Airbnb and home sharing has irreversibly impacted consumer leisure travel around the world. Put simply, vacation travelers have changed their preferences. They want to crack open the windows, save some money, and live like a local, and this trend is only accelerating. While hotels have been able to keep high occupancy rates for now, ADRs and profitability have suffered as a result, and there is no offset in sight.

The evolution of spa from pampering palace to well of wellbeing mirrors what road warriors seek. Daily external forces centered in technology and speed can pull a person off center. Reconnecting with oneself calls for calm and quietude, an intentional break from outside influences. A spa, by nature, provides the perfect environment, with spa professionals assisting guests in identifying that internal “sense of spa” - a peaceful place to go to anytime. Culling trends from respected industry sources, this article explores five ways in which spas are supporting guests' healthy lifestyles with evidence-based offerings and practices that will travel with them wherever they go.

The spa arena has changed dramatically in the last year. Many of the changes should have been in place long ago, but the consumer wasn't noisy enough in their demands for change. Technology, eco-graphics and demographics have forced the spa director to give more attention to the spa guest, use technology where spa therapies may be enhanced and select product lines that are effective but also packaged responsibly and derived from renewable resources. Spa travel is growing more than ever anticipated and the traveling spa guest has very specific requests, such as learning. Finally, millennials are dictating much of the change. They are educated, affluent and accustomed to “on demand” everything. They want the best and they want it now.

The hospitality industry is always evolving to meet the needs and expectations of its customers. Companies are also evolving and competing to deliver the best service in the industry. For the Lodging team at Walt Disney World® Resort, who welcomes millions of visitors each year, this couldn't be truer. As a Housekeeping Director at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, people often ask me how my team helps create the world-class service Disney is known for around the world.

Good people work hard to secure good jobs, and then they work hard to get promoted into increased positions of authority and responsibility. Sadly, once in those leadership positions, good people often fail. Why? The defining factor of a strong leader is rooted in the relationships they build with their team members and how effectively they propel the organization toward great achievement. Becoming a great leader and earning relationships with people who are motivated to follow you for long periods of time is hard work. If it were easy, there would be an abundance of great leaders, all companies would flourish, and all employees would be excited to come to work.