August 2012

In the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, hotels along the coast suffered great losses due to a lack of tourism during the busiest season of the year. Hotel owners from Florida to Texas hoped for compensation promised by BP in order to rebuild their businesses and start over. But a recent amendment to the Deepwater Horizon Court-Supervised Settlement Program that was granted preliminary approval on...

When away on vacation, it is often a hassle to keep track of credit and debit cards. Travelers have the ability to leave these important items at the hotel restaurant, lose them by the pool, or get them stolen while on or off the property, turning a relaxing getaway into a nightmare.  But what if hotel guests had the ability to pay for items and services without opening their wallets? One hotel in Ibiza is using biometric te...

When today’s road warriors hit the trail, they are armed with three or four mobile devices to help them stay connected to office and home. They are more inclined to carry a tablet than a laptop. And, when these business travelers communicate with the home front from their hotel room, they are most likely do so with a video chat. These are among the results of a hotel business and technology study commissioned by Four Points by Sh...

The Board of Directors for Carlson, a global hospitality and travel company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., announced that Hubert Joly has resigned as CEO of the company. Joly will be moving on to the position of president and CEO of Best Buy after holding his position with Carlson since 2008. Trudy Rautio, a senior executive with Carlson for 15 years, will replace Joly as the leader of the company. For the past eight years,...

Housekeeping has evolved from merely cleaning and tidying rooms to ensuring a pathogen-free environment for guests. Priority is given not just to the cleanliness and appearance of rooms, but also to sanitizing surfaces and preventing the spread of contaminants, allergens and harmful bacteria. Given that hotels can service hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of guests daily, it’s vital that hoteliers equip housekeepers with the right tools, pract...

Corporate travel buyers and lodging industry executives are preparing for corporate rate negotiating season, which begins in September and continues through December. Corporate and contract rates represent almost 20 percent of occupied room nights and almost 30 percent of U.S. lodging industry revenue. Based on preliminary plans and budgets, the difference between buyer and seller expectations for corporate and contract rates fo...

If the grandiose allure of hotel lobbies and generous amenities are any indication, it is clear that “there’s no second chance to make a first impression” in the hospitality industry. Yet, hospitality settings are at risk for being left in the dark without the right lighting, as this single element can be used to capture guests’ attention, convey the hotel's brand identity, and create a distinct end-user experience to ultimately encourage rep...

You may have heard the term “narrowbanding” over the past twenty years and thought it only applies to public safety organizations, manufacturing environments or maybe transportation and logistics companies. In fact, the hospitality industry is directly affected by a narrowbanding mandate which will be newly enforced at the end of this year. Your staff communications will be affected and possibly disrupted by narrowbanding, and n...

When the Commons Hotel opens this fall in Minneapolis, Minn., travelers seeking a unique geek-chic experience will finally have a place to stay in the Twin Cities area. Operating under the Noble House Hotels & Resorts umbrella, the hotel promises a lodging experience that evokes the spirit of academic learning and school-days fun for both business and leisure travelers. The Commons Hotel is located near the main campus of the...

When Kemmons Wilson built the first Holiday Inn in Memphis in 1952, the concept of the roadside motel was simple—quality, consistency, and service offered at an affordable price. And although the brand has grown into one of the largest hotel chains in the world, those principles still hold true as Holiday Inn celebrates its 60th anniversary. "I think, from day one, the genius of my father was that he was an ordinary common man wh...

To catch the pulse of major cities such as New York, you need only to observe what is happening with food and fashion. Chefs and restaurateurs race around in a half-crazed frenzy to pioneer the newest “it” movement. Although always different, the trends are mostly impermanent and result in sporadic bursts of business at best and complete misses at worst. Success, based on this “one and done” model, is usually short-term. At Denihan Hospitality...

Slow-moving hurricane Isaac touched down near Port Fourchon, Louisiana at 3:15 a.m. (EST) Wednesday morning and made itself comfortable. The storm brought heavy rains and 80-mile per hour winds to New Orleans on the seven-year anniversary of hurricane Katrina. News outlets, including the Wall Street Journal , are reporting that nearly 75 percent of ci...

The Miami hotel market is hot right now, and is expecting to get even stronger in the months ahead. With ties to international trade and commerce, increased sophistication through art, entertainment, and culinary excellence, and its position as a domestic and international tourist destination, Miami is outperforming national averages and standing out as one of the top investment markets for hospitality in the United States. Curre...

During many hotel renovations, old furniture winds up in landfills to make room for new items that fit in with a property's redesign. But The Dover House Resort, a vacation and timeshare condominium complex in Delray Beach, Fla., decided to take a different approach that offered a sustainable solution while also fitting a tight renovation budget. The resort worked closely with The Refinishing Touch, a company that specializes in ...

At the Clarion Waterford Inn & Conference Center in Elmhurst, Ill., guests of the Choice Hotels branded property are getting a new taste of the possible future of midscale food and beverage service. Bistro C is a new beta test concept Choice is rolling out as part of its overall Clarion brand repositioning strategy. Dan Sweiger, brand leader for Clarion, says the new concept is something that the company believes could turn i...

Many hoteliers may be reading or hearing about EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) and NFC (Near Field Communication) and wondering what effect these new payment technologies will have on the lodging industry. NFC is all about smartphones and mobile marketing, while EMV is the smartcard standard for secure payments. The twin technologies of NFC and EMV are especially important to hoteliers as they plan for new products and payment acceptance...

Hotel owners and managers often view parking as a necessary evil or a source of headaches. However, parking is an essential guest service that can play a significant role in assuring the profitability of a hotel. Parking is usually the first and last impression made on a hotel guest. This means it can shape their expectations upon arrival and it can sway how satisfied they were when they depart. Was parking easy to find? If they valet-par...

In 2003, Michael A. Cioffi Jr. and his father were driving around the Val d'Orcia region of Tuscany on a vacation to Italy when they spotted an abandoned hilltop village called Castiglioncello del Trinoro. The following year, Cioffi's father, an American lawyer and law professional from Cincinnati, bought a building and decided to renovate it. That first renovation project sparked the revitalization of the entire village, which the Cioffi fam...

In the past few years, the hotel lobby has evolved from a place where guests simply check in to a place where guests work, socialize, and interact. With this forward-thinking and flexible concept comes a wide range of innovative design styles, and Westin Hotels & Resorts recently introduced a new public space design that refreshes the lobby with vertical gardens, a restructured space, and a convenient grab-and-go food and retail space. More...