Hotel recovery within today's new social distancing and cleanliness standards will prove to be challenging for many. In order to build the confidence of traveling consumers and allow regulators to ease guidelines, self-regulation will become critical. By uniting through concerted collaboration and pooling our resources, we have the capability to create a Hotel Recovery Playbook that proactively creates confidence-building practices to help open the market for travel. Only by taking control to define our rules of engagement vs. waiting for imposed regulation will we be able to chart a path forward for doing business in a post-COVID-19 world. READ MORE

Creating a hotel brand that resonates means far more than designing an eye-catching logo and putting together a style guide. A brand should evoke a feeling, according to David Ashen, president & CEO of interior design and brand consulting firm dash design. In this article, he explores how hotels can imagine a dynamic environment and a service culture that, alongside sharp design, creates magic that few brands have yet to fully tap. Most of all, Ashen implores hoteliers to define if they are a head, heart or gut brand and to bravely lead from that revelation. READ MORE

As the exponential growth of the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked worldwide havoc and forever altered life as we know it, the food and beverage industry has nearly been decimated over the past three months. Ongoing efforts by the entire food and beverage industry, as well as local, state, and national governmental agencies have been successful at mitigating the devastating effects of this virus. While the overall impact has still yet to be determined, it is abundantly clear that we all have a role in defeating this common enemy and that valid and reliable data needs to be made available for future research and analysis. READ MORE

PART I. Do you personally accept the "New Normal" for the hospitality industry and society as a whole - which is based on the premise that Covid-19 is a singularly dangerous threat that requires a complete change in our lives, when (as it turns out) it is actually on a par with the common flu and (as it turns out) every other incorrectly declared pandemic? Or do you want to understand what has happened and do whatever is in your power, big or small, to return to the old, fun and life-filled normal that has been snatched from us? READ MORE

Now that states have begun to lift stay-at-home orders, people are venturing out. For hoteliers to secure their business, it's important to first understand who is traveling, where they are going and what's important to them. Armed with this information, hoteliers can then craft messaging, programs and offers that cater to consumers' level of comfort, interests and desires. To recoup lost revenue and jump start the comeback, it's important that hotels get in front of American travelers to capture their attention and dollars. To start the creative gears churning, here are eight ways to increase buzz, connect with travelers and increase bookings. READ MORE

It is a new era for Sales & Marketing in the Hospitality industry. Uncertain future demand, new customer demographics, reduced base business, new venue restrictions and many similar factors are likely to impact how Sales & Marketing teams perform business during these times. It is imperative to consider all tactics and strategies that will deliver optimum results, as well as pushing them into fruition in order to redefine success. Old methods and customary approaches must be reimagined, and teams must be resilient in order to reinvent themselves and their hotels in order to gain a larger share of the smaller market. READ MORE

During this pandemic and for many years to come, there will be significant analysis on lessons learned. And there will be innovations and new ways of thinking and doing business. The thoughtful hotelier has already determined that life is irreversibly altered and our understanding of hotels has forever changed. Deloitte Consulting has provided a leadership framework that breaks down this process: Respond. Recover. Thrive. It is how that process is managed that is the key. And one can argue that, at the heart, is marketing. READ MORE

In preparing for this story I spoke with sales and operations people including general managers from the hotel side – small and large. Some are privately owned and flagged, some are independently owned and operated, some have management companies and others are part of the larger branded organizations. I spoke with customers – those with corporate travel programs, those who book individual travel, those who organize corporate meetings and events and those who contract with hotels to then resell the rooms to the public either directly or through another company. I also spoke to guests. And one thing we can all agree on is that some big changes are coming… READ MORE

The hotel industry was hit hard by the COVID virus earlier on in 2020 and may be the last to completely recover. Cancellations have outpaced bookings by a 3 to 1 margin at third-party reservation websites and recovering lost revenue will be a serious hardship hotel companies may not be able to withstand. In the face of this monumental and unprecedented medical malaise, only those lodging companies that can adapt and adopt to providing guest-conscious safety and prevention measures will be the ones to see a light at the end of the tunnel so as to stave off catastrophic losses and/or bankruptcy. READ MORE

COVID-19 has truly exposed weaknesses in the foundation upon which our social and economic systems depend. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) recently reported that since the US public health issue began escalating in mid-February, hotels have already lost more than $21 billion in room revenue. As a purpose-driven hospitality company, Legacy Vacation Resorts knew they had to navigate the crisis with the utmost care for people and the planet while maintaining a values-aligned approach to business. Their commitment to employees, customers, the environment and local communities guided each decision made as well as the development of new programs to best benefit all those impacted. READ MORE

Team members who work the hardest and often are paid the least are our room attendants. While there are opportunities for them to supplement their incomes with tips, these industrious individuals more often than not leave rooms empty handed. Even though there's a well-accepted method of calculating tips for servers across the U.S., hotel guests are either unclear on what an appropriate tip for a room attendant should be or simply unaware that it's customary to tip room attendants. With that being said, should hoteliers educate their guests on proper tipping etiquette to increase the likelihood of guests tipping room attendants? READ MORE

A tourism crisis occurs when circumstances in a destination pose a change which is potentially destructive to the destination and to its tourism industry. Destinations can exploit the window of opportunities linking destination branding to their crisis management strategies. Branding is an essential tool for positioning the destination, and in order to be effective, a need to re-study the destination marketing strategy is crucial. For the firm execution of place branding is essential to examine and map culture, customs, characteristics and every feature required that can benefit place image. Preferably, a place branding project intends to build an overall perceived image, apart from priorities in mission when it comes to targeting tourism, investments, etc. READ MORE

Over the last few years, travel and hospitality were at an all-time high, and the industry's biggest concern was the over-tourism of some of the world's most beautiful destinations. Fast forward to the COVID-19 global health pandemic, which has forced us to reevaluate the ways in which we think about, talk about and approach travel, resulting in a redesigned hotel sales and marketing landscape. In this article, Jamie Sigler O'Grady, founding partner of top hospitality PR firm J Public Relations shares her insights on how hotels must set aside everything we once knew about marketing and communications to best predict where we will go as we navigate these unprecedented times. READ MORE

Along with many other budgets, marketing budgets for 2020 have been drastically cut to make up for a lack of revenue due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions. If you find yourself struggling to research marketing trends and evaluating your website performance, there are a lot of useful and free digital marketing tools available. In this article, Stephanie Smith from Cogwheel Marketing outlines TEN marketing resources that hotels can start using right now and will not cost a dime. These free marketing tools analyze your website performance, provide trend data and ways to analyze what the competition is doing. READ MORE

The novel coronavirus pandemic has changed everything. Forward-thinking hotel owners and operators have moved past the initial urgent priorities of the early days and weeks of the shutdown to begin addressing planning and preparation for what's next. That planning includes not just operational changes, but fundamental shifts impacting every part of the sales process, from staffing to staying connected with guests. Smart hotel management professionals are sharpening messaging to address evolving guest priorities, becoming more flexible, more creative, and finding new ways to add value, as you will read in this article by Chesapeake Hospitality's Clifford Ferrara. READ MORE