Every time you swipe a guest's credit card, your hotel is charged with transaction fees. Since most of your bills are likely paid by credit card, the amount you pay in these fees are substantial. Yet, do you understand what you pay and properly manage that expense? If you are like many hoteliers, you may not drill down into credit card processing costs - first because you may not have the time, and second because the statements you receive from your payments processor are probably very confusing. If you take a good look at your statements, you will discover that fees vary wildly based on the type of card used and can reach as high as 5% on each payment. READ MORE

Being under the influence is serious business but it seemed like a good idea at the time, your Honor. Just ignore the global excitement to protect the planet and simply avoid "green" themes in new hotel projects. It is only the latest trendy hotel fad, right? Wrong, your green future is now. The major brands are going about it differently but all have evolving sustainability and environmental initiatives. Like the lovely Hotel California where you check-in but can never check out, make more room in rehab because hotel developers without green-colored glasses are on the road to making impaired decisions. READ MORE

Although nobody can predict exactly when the economy is going to rebound nor when hotel prices and occupancies will return to previously desired levels, it is probable that there will continue to be a decline in corporate executive retreats to luxury resorts, annual board meetings, corporate sales incentive trips, and annual holiday parties over the coming year. In fact, one can only wonder about the extent of recovery for specific markets such as luxury, as well as whether there will be a recovery at all for the condo-hotel market. Having said that, it is important to pay attention to the items that will help maintain profitability by focusing on what I think are the top ten key recession survival best practices. READ MORE

Today's quickly-changing marketing environment turns traditional approaches on their ear, with guests calling the shots, dictating the timing and preferences for communications and engagement. For marketers, this customer-driven, fast-paced environment mandates a new approach to optimize engagement - the points of contact with the brand - and maximize the guest's lifetime value. But most traditional database-driven marketing solutions fall far short of these goals. That's why savvy marketers are turning to sophisticated relationship marketing.but no relationship marketing strategy will work without the right digital marketing system. READ MORE

Every year The International Spa Association releases the spa industry trends for the coming year. The report is valued by the spa industry and looked at as a tool for marketing individual spas. Our overview of the 2010 trends focuses on the shift the spa industry is seeing and provides ideas for proactively working toward making our Spa businesses more efficient. READ MORE