When you own or manage a hotel or restaurant, success comes through a combination of excellence and individuality. You need to ensure that you operate your property well; both by avoiding problems and providing something important to your customers. Beyond this, though, you need a way to stand out from a crowded field. Your branding can…
Having an on-site hotel management expert for revenues is critical in today’s economy and shifting focus to the Internet for hotel bookings. Depending on the size of the lodging property, either the general manager or a specific hotel revenue department head with specific revenue management expertise should be in charge of handling the hotel’s gross…
It is no surprise to those of us charged with providing hotel asset management services that one of the single highest costs are OTAs in managing room revenues and the direct expenses associated with these Online Travel Agencies. This is often the first stop by many potential overnight guests when they are looking for rooms…
Are you a hotel asset manager, general manager or owner representative in the middle of tweaking your projections for 2012? Cannot decide if the economy both nationally and internationally will be a boom next year?? Here are two recently published reports that send a mixed message. According to this report* just released in the Los…
As we approach the end of this year, our hotel advisor talk focuses first on whether Facebook has truly delivered on what many hoteliers expected given all of the hype predicted earlier. The second is how the role of the Revenue Manager, who is not associated with a brand or franchise, is evolving and adapting…
In news we monitor as part of our resort consultant group, AAA is predicting more travelers will drive rather than fly over Thanksgiving. This number is up over last year and the main reason appears to be higher airfares coupled with a struggling economy. According to the report by Travel tracker AAA: “4 percent more…
There are benefits and downfalls to the reliance by hotels in trouble or transition on use of OTA (Online Travel Agents) such as Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity. Since my group works as both an Interim Hotel Manager for short term assignments or being enlisted as the longer term Hotel Asset Manager to oversee a…
While the lodging industry appears to be in a full recovery, experts on hotel management and room revenue yields have focused back on higher rates as part of their hotel revenue management strategies. Given that new hotel development has either stopped or slowed down significantly and business travel is on the increase in many U.S.…
Hotel search engines seem to be on the minds of hospitality management services as new entrants to the field are getting a lot of press. In particular, are the issues that independent and non-branded hotels will face in trying to gain exposure equal to the chains and major franchises. Here are some excerpts on two,…
In news we monitor as part of our resort consultant group, AAA is predicting more travelers will drive rather than fly over Thanksgiving. This number is up over last year and the main reason appears to be higher airfares coupled with a struggling economy. According to the report by Travel tracker AAA: “4 percent more…