Most of the industry assessment professionals are in agreement that the current cycle will be far worse than the last two downward cycles in the early 1990's and early 2000. Even those few (and may I add they are in the extreme minority) that still have some glimmer of hope coupled with some capital resources are now stepping back to take a second look at their business missions and future projections. It goes without saying that they are taking the safe road and waiting out the economic storm before proceeding with any development projects. When you are facing a decrease in the key numbers - meaning occupancy average daily rate and revenue per available room - there is very little to be done on the property level except to outperform your competition and contain costs. Unfortunately, many hotels play the rate game and I am sure that is exactly what will happen again, even though history proves that we are all collectively losers when that occurs and that it actually does very little to generate new business. Hoteliers must focus "literally" on stealing more business with value added services, guest service and product amenities. This is where hoteliers need to ...