More than ever before, guests want and expect the design of a hotel to accurately reflect its location, regardless of whether they visit a property in an urban center, a historic neighborhood or a resort destination. They also seek this sense of place without wanting to sacrifice the level and consistency of service they've come to expect from a beloved hotel brand. A unique guest experience is now something expected not just desirable from any hotel wishing to compete in the world today. A hotel's distinctive design and execution goes a long way to attracting todays discerning customer. READ MORE

For over 35 years, American architect Patrick Burke, AIA has led Michael Graves Architecture & Design to create unique hospitality experiences for hotel operators and travelers around the globe, in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East. As the hospitality industry has shifted from making travelers feel at home while away to providing more dynamic experiences, boutique hotels have evolved to create hyper local, immersive environments. Having witnessed and contributed to the movement, Burke discusses the value of authentic character that draws on physical and social context to create experiences that cannot be had anywhere else in the world. READ MORE

Even the most luxurious hotel has a finite budget when it comes to the design or re-design of hotel spaces. The best designers prioritize expenses that have the biggest impact on guest perceptions, while minimizing or eliminating those that don't. This story will focus on three blockbuster areas - the entry experience, the guest room, and the public spaces. This article will focus on these three key areas and shed light on how the decision making process and design choices made with care and attention can create memorable, luxe experiences without breaking the bank. READ MORE

The advent of social media brought with it an important shift in the hospitality industry. Any guest's experience might be amplified to thousands of potential customers, and you want to be sure that your hotel stands out for the right reasons. Furthermore, technology has increased competition. According to Euromonitor International, the travel industry will have the highest online payment percentage of any industry by 2020, often occurring through third-party sites that display your competitors alongside you. As a result, many hoteliers are looking to stand out by engaging customers and the experience has become more interactive than ever. READ MORE

Earlier this year, the travel company Webjet announced it was in the process of converting a blockchain pilot it had developed into a commercial grade application. The blockchain-based application will be able to provide accurate information about hotel inventory, on a real-time basis, for hotels around the world. This article will discuss these and other possible use cases important to the hospitality industry, including their business justification. Beyond the explanation of use cases, the article highlights several legal considerations that hotel counsel will need to confront and consider as the technology is deployed, including intellectual property, privacy laws in the United States and the European Union and FinCen's current guidance on convertible virtual currencies and the potential relationship between money laundering and blockchain-based loyalty programs. READ MORE

Competitive intelligence is a powerful tool used to maintain an advantage over competitors. A wealth of competitive intelligence can be obtained through public documents like public filings, earnings reports, and legal documents. Compiling, reviewing, and extrapolating the competitive intelligence from those documents takes time and money. Succumbing to the temptation to shortcut the necessary effort can have costly legal consequences. Hospitality industry companies must thus be wary of engaging in methods that cross legal and ethical boundaries. Companies must also be watchful of any efforts by their competitors to gather intelligence from them. READ MORE

Architecture is the built environment that defines space and affects the way people live, whether you are a modernist or a traditionalist. Wellness is a state of health and mindfulness that not only brings each of us in tune with nature, both our bodies and minds but also gives us a spiritual attitude towards one another on a global basis. Is it possible to combine the two, Wellness and Architecture? There are many examples of how this attitude of wellness in building has started to take form. Let's take a look at how this movement is evolving and the opportunities it brings to the hotel industry. READ MORE

There are many possibilities for adding interactive and conventional digital signage around hotel properties, and lots of examples in the marketplace of high impact, meaningful deployments. But there are also countless examples of hotels that have invested in display technology without having objectives defined, a strategy for execution, and an understanding of how success is measured and validated. I see hotels with screens and wonder why the operators bothered. But more often these days, I see smart operators using that technology to enhance the properties, and the experiences of their guests. In this article we'll take a look at some exciting new technologies available to hotels today. READ MORE

It might not always be easy to adapt a brand's standards to a downtown property, but no matter where one is designing, the main priority should always be helping clients identify their target audience and how to make their return on investments by creating the proper offerings for their location. Research is your friend here, which can come in the form of multiple charrettes with partner offices and the client or neighborhood residents. It will always lead to a deeper knowledge of the community you are entering and the ability to link the history of the site with the new property you present to it. READ MORE

With new trends dominating upcoming hotel renovations and redefining brands, it is interesting to compare the point of view of designers and hoteliers. The importance of combining operational knowledge as soon as design work starts seems to be obvious, yet very few projects combine both backgrounds. Designers, for the most part, have ample experience in hotel design but none in operations, while hoteliers do not always embrace the full possibilities of good hotel design. We explore the importance of operations and design collaborating in the early stages of a renovation and examine some new trends from both a design and operations perspective. READ MORE

The evolution of revenue management has taken hotels from dynamic pricing of transient rates to a holistic strategy of maximizing profitability across multiple revenue streams. True hotel profit optimization leverages multiple hotel functions to ensure goals are aligned to achieve optimal results. It encourages hotels to intelligently decide which business to accept across multiple revenue streams at all times, based on greatest overall value to the asset. This holistic approach to revenue management goes beyond guest room rates and maximizes profits from the strategic management of other key hotel revenue streams; like sales with group bookings and meetings & events teams with catering sales. READ MORE

There is no doubt that the bar is constantly being raised; the global explosion of new businesses, innovative new ideas and the strive for domination from heavy players such as Marriott have created a cycle of competition that pushes all businesses to get extra creative if they wish to have any kind of relevance in the market. Regardless of the industry, a strategic alliance will give a company competitive advantage and the opportunity to enter a broader range of expertise and resources. Partnerships should come about not only for the obvious benefits of expansion but to offer distinctive product lines and skill sets that differentiate them from the competition. READ MORE

Millennials and technological innovation are leading some of the most substantial transformations in American hotels since the business-centric 1970s. The next generation of urban hotels resemble the minimalist European model where limited amenity hotels are connected to high-amenity neighborhoods. Stripping hotels of their traditional amenities, the design of spaces becomes crucial. Architecture and design are to be used to support guests in their total hotel experience. What do these hotels look like? If the country's newest hotel brands are any indication, they will be historically rich, locally relevant, minimalist, full of multi-use space, interactive, and community- and wellness-oriented. Let's take a look … READ MORE

Woodbine Development Corporation designed, developed and opened the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio in 1992, the year of MTV VJs and Arsenio Hall. At the time, my father was calling the signals and this was the first of five similar resorts throughout the Southwest that Woodbine was responsible for developing over a period of about 15 years. The formula was pretty consistent: 300 acres, 500 guest rooms, 100,000 square feet of meeting space (or more), two or three golf courses, a water park and a few resort mascots, which have included dogs, longhorns, hawks and spray-less skunks (don't ask). READ MORE

For most of us, the process of checking into a hotel is not particularly memorable. Nor do many of us often recollect how hotels engaged our sense beyond standard guest relations. Technology has come a long way in filling this void, and hotels have made significant strides in how they engage visitors. From a purely audio-visual perspective, video - i.e., digital signage - tends to get the most attention as a branding, engagement and monetization tool. However, used appropriately, audio can deliver the same benefits in hospitality environments in hotels and resorts, and at a far lower investment point that deploying and operating a digital signage network - particularly when working across multiple sites. READ MORE