Since its infancy in the late 90s and early 2000s, paid search has been a highly effective tactic for capturing would-be travelers that are actively exploring travel options. There's seemingly no better way to attain a new hotel guest than by delivering an ad promoting your hotel when someone is searching for “hotels” in your market area. For instance, if you are promoting hotel rooms in Las Vegas, you would likely deliver relevant ads to people searching for keywords such as “Las Vegas hotel,” “Las Vegas hotels,” and “Vegas hotel reviews. ”According to Prognosis Digital, 79% of people that book hotels online search for that particular hotel on a search engine before buying. Thus, having a presence on search engines is essential for any hotel. READ MORE

As simple as it sounds, knowing which customers are profitable is a challenging task for many businesses. Predicting which customers have the most profit potential is even more challenging since it requires estimation of future business. Applying these same modeling techniques and profit calculations to potential customers adds yet another degree of difficulty. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a (relatively) old concept. Businesses have been calculating the expected operating margins received from a customer from long before the birth of the internet and modern data tools. READ MORE

Rate optimization is arguably the most critical component of a successful Revenue Management strategy, but most hoteliers still tend to fall into two broad categories when it comes to this discipline: Set-it-and-forget-it, or follow-the-market. Both of these approaches are sub-optimal as they simply ignore the evolving purchasing patterns of increasingly savvy customers. We live in an era of disintermediated distribution, and the reality is that meta search and third party aggregators have made it easier than ever for customers to shop and compare options. READ MORE

In the hospitality and tourism industries, guests' happiness reigns supreme. With ever-changing consumer demands and evolving technologies, new developments and renovations alike often cause disruptions to the normal function of businesses, impairing the public's accessibility to the venue, or adjacent venues. Hence, construction timelines become a crucial issue with projects situated in high-density tourism areas. Improved time-efficiency minimizes the disturbances in local businesses' operation and profitability. Yet, shorter timelines might come at a price of higher expenses on labor, machinery and materials. READ MORE

A city's win of a major special event like the Republican or Democratic National Convention can mean a boon for the local economy, including the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, these days, it also means heightened security concerns. Whether here or abroad, acts of terrorism, bombings, and active shooter situations are a part of life and cannot be ignored. Hotels—particularly those in special event host cities, or those hosting large conventions or multiple conferences simultaneously—need a plan in place to reduce their risk exposure to these horrific events. By developing security action plans and reinforcing them, hotel management can be sure they are doing the best they can to protect their guests and business without spoiling the fun of these events. READ MORE

Still crawling out of the recession, businesses continue to employ a conservative approach with every decision affecting the bottom-line. This offers an even bigger challenge in the hotel industry, where guests expect top-notch properties at an outstanding rate. With the internet providing a seemingly endless array of travel review websites ready to critique each aspect of your property to offer affordable alternatives, how does a hotel stay profitable while keeping guests happy (and writing positive reviews)? READ MORE

Here's why I admire menus: it's the only marketing content that's guaranteed to be read. Once the consumer is seated at a table, they are almost guaranteed to make a purchase. Less than one percent of patrons are likely to depart a restaurant after being seated. Therefore, 99 percent is an outstanding conversion rate that digital marketers would sell their first born to achieve. I would say congrats to all the restaurateurs for achieving this amazing feat of feasts, but we have to be forthright, your margins are miserable. The purpose for our research was to understand how consumers increase spending after viewing a menu, and we've discovered that creating an experience is the catalyst. READ MORE

Hyatt Regency Savannah is embracing the city's exciting foodie scene with a vibrant new restaurant concept that will give guests an authentic dining experience and an up close view of Savannah's riverfront, while at the same time, will meet the day-to-night needs of the modern traveler. For the past few years, hotels have begun modernizing their offerings for a new type of traveler—one that's readily plugged in (sometimes literally with their smartphone in hand) to the newest trends in design, technology, food, and experiences. This traveler expects far more from their hotel than just a comfortable bed at night. READ MORE

In biology, symbiotic mutualism describes a dynamic where two species living in close proximity to one another engage in a mutually beneficial relationship. Iconic examples include the oxpecker-small birds that feed on ticks and other parasites found on large mammals-and the clownfish, which live in and around sea anemones, enjoying the protection afforded by their stinging tentacles while providing the anemone with nutrients, and predator and parasite defense. The commercial real estate market is filled with a number of similarly structured relationships: mutually beneficial connections that serve to raise interest, drive traffic, provide resources and conveniences for shoppers and guests, and ultimately create a positive feedback loop that has a meaningful and sustained impact on the bottom line-for all parties. READ MORE

To Spa or not to Spa? If that is your question for your hotel or resort, you are reading the right article. Luckily, there are more good answers from experts in the hospitality and spa fields than Hamlet ever imagined. If your property has the space and financing to install a spa, this is certainly a time to do it. Your guests are now conditioned to expect not only a fitness facility, but stress reduction massages and rejuvenating facials -- as well as the nurturing escape of a well-planned and run spa. READ MORE

Marriott first launched the SpringHill Suites brand in 1998 to accommodate the next generation of traveler. At the time, the hospitality industry lacked an all-suites hotel, which inspired Marriott to differentiate their services by providing guests with progressive design that was both comfortable and stylish. This fusion of modern luxury transformed into the SpringHill Suites brand that currently embodies +350 properties throughout the United States and Canada. Benedict Cummins, Publisher of HotelExecutive got the opportunity to converse with Loren Nalewanski, Vice President and Global Brand Manager for SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites by Marriott, for an overview of the SpringHill Suites brand and the direction it is taking. READ MORE

The best thing about Gen Y sommeliers and wine waiters is their enthusiasm. And the worst thing? Their enthusiasm. Youth has ever been a period of intensely romanticized responses. No one has ever felt a love like this - captured such a clarity of insight - no one has ever felt so angst-ridden and bereft - no one has ever tasted a wine like this with such purity of focus and appreciation.No one has ever loved/lost/felt/tasted as intensely as this. Youth has despaired through history over this self-evident (to them, at least) truth. With Gen Y, however, this attitude is through the roof, living as they do in a social media-created echo chamber that consists largely (perhaps only) of like-minded tastes. READ MORE

After striking silver in Nevada and becoming one of the wealthiest men in the world, James Fair, an ambitious Irish immigrant, aspired to build a palatial residence in San Francisco atop Nob Hill. Almost 40 years later, his daughters, Tessie Fair Oelrichs and Birdie Fair Vanderbilt, decided to build a grand hotel on the “Fair Mount” to honor their late father, who had acquired the premier property decades earlier. The hotel was within days of being completed when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Bay Area on April 18, 1906. Fires that followed ravaged more than 80 percent of the city, including the interiors of the Fairmont, but the grand marble and white granite shell survived, standing high on the hill as a beacon of hope for all of San Francisco. The owners vowed to restore the hotel and open it a year later—which they did. READ MORE

Re-brand; re-fresh, re-position, re-frame, re-articulate, re-contextualize - an entire universe of “do-it-again-branding” to confuse, confound, and just plain con hotel owners, operators and marketers. The reason is not complicated: Branding is an ongoing process, and as tastes competitive environment changes, so must the hotel's brand change. The question is: how much does the brand need to change, and how profound does the change have to be. In other words, is a re-brand, re-positioning, refreshing, re-articulation or re-what? In this article we look at the differences between the re's and when which is appropriate. READ MORE

Imagine a hotel meeting space that you'd walk into a decade or two ago. Do you see a 3,000-to-5,000-square-foot ballroom designed to seat hundreds of people, along with a patterned carpet and crystal chandeliers? Partitioned walls that subdivide the room to create secondary meeting spaces for smaller events and meetings? Do you conjure up an image of a boardroom for a dozen or two executives, with the requisite large oval table and leather chairs? A vanilla pre-function room for registration before an event and maybe a cocktail after? READ MORE

When selecting renovation contractors, many hotel owners' and property managers' decisions are based solely on the bottom line. In short, the lowest price bidder wins. Other hotel owners and managers, however, carefully consider the intricacies of their project's scope and can assess the confidence they have in their selected contractor that the renovation can be finished on-time and on-budget. What these hotel owners appreciate that others don't are the many value-added, non-financial advantages that a talented contractor brings to the project. READ MORE

The hotel business is in the midst of a peer-to-peer revolution, and it's seriously threatening the industry's financial stability. A new wave of accommodations spurred by the birth of the sharing economy is radically altering how many people prefer to stay while traveling. According to a survey of US travelers, consumer preference for staying at traditional hotels is halved (79 percent vs. 40 percent) once they've experienced peer-to-peer housing. In addition to Airbnb, there's a rising number of peer-to-peer accommodation sites appealing to specific market segments. Those include the high-end home rental group OneFineStay, and the family friendly HomeAway, which are both nipping at the traditional hotel business. And if hoteliers don't meaningfully respond, that nip could become a significant bite to the bottom line. READ MORE

The rise of Airbnb and other peer-to-peer hotel alternatives has shaken up the hospitality industry. While the long-term impact remains to be seen, this new breed of short-term rental providers is proving to be agile competition to traditional hotels, with inventory and pricing adjusting quickly to fluctuations in demand. How can a hotel's revenue management team effectively respond? Do they treat local Airbnb inventory as a competitor in their market? Shop Airbnb pricing as they do their traditional hotel competitors? This article explores the issues revenue managers must address as they navigate this latest threat to revenue growth. READ MORE

Food has become a magnetic force that steers people's travels and often dictates what hotel they choose. So, it is vital to get the word out through traditional and social media about your hotel's offerings. With the exploding culinary craze, travelers are making decisions on what destinations to visit based on the cuisine they see covered in the media. Preferences, such as farm-to-table, locally sourced produce, and the innovative creations of chefs, are what your property should be publicizing through feature stories in important media outlets and social media channels. It is more critical than ever to publicize the cuisine at your hotel to reach the burgeoning “foodies” market. READ MORE