Dwelling on a Permanent Relaunch to the Regional Market
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 10, 2021
Hotel Recovery
Tourism Tidbits: Developing Employee Loyalty in the Hope That Tourism Will Soon Return to Normal
Peter Tarlow | April 5, 2021
By Dr. Peter Tarlow One of the things that the tourism and travel industry learned from the Covid-10 Pandemic is the importance of good and loyal employees. Everyone seems to want loyal employees, yet few tourism businesses seem to know how to win this loyalty. In fact, tourism is known for high employee turnover, low pay, and often capricious management. It is a mistake to overlook the fact that employee-employer relations often impact the tourism experience and may become a major form of positive or negative marketing. In fact, good management inspires loyalty and often results in the type of customer service that produces repeat...
Tourist Arrivals Down 87% in January 2021 as UNWTO Calls for Stronger Coordination to Restart Tourism
UNWTO | March 31, 2021
The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tourism has carried on into 2021, with new data showing an 87% fall in international tourist arrivals in January as compared to 2020. The outlook for the rest of the year remain cautious as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) continues to call for stronger coordination on travel protocols between countries to ensure the safe restart of tourism and avoid another year of massive losses for the sector. Following a difficult end to 2020, global tourism suffered further setbacks in the beginning of the year as countries tightened travel restrictions in response to new virus outbreaks....
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Are Coming Together With the Unique, New “Hotel Employee Rate” Travel Program
| March 30, 2021
Offering Hotel Teams The Benefits Of Employee-Rate Hotel Stays Globally Hilversum (Amsterdam), The Netherlands, March 30, 2021 … An expanding collection of hotel chains, hotel management companies and independent properties around the world is coming together with the newly-announced Hotel Employee Rate travel program, offering hotel employee teams the extraordinary benefit of exceptional-value, employee-rate hotel stays, similarly offered by major hotel brands. The innovative global initiative is opening new worlds of travel for hotel employees while helping hotels build guest room occupancy during traditionally low demand periods, ...
Dwelling on a Permanent Relaunch to the Regional Market
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 10, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky This article is aimed primarily at resorts, but there is a profound lesson in here for urban hotels as well. To summarize what will be discussed, it’s okay to only ever cater to a regional or domestic market and becoming comfortable with that fact in the wake of COVID-19 can help you to better serve the territories where the majority of your guests will be coming from while also cutting costs. Prior to the pandemic, many of our asset management assignments involved the long-term ramp up of international traveler awareness so as to make the property as prestigious as possible in a strategic vision focused o...
Managing Travel Recovery via App-Based Shift Workers
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 3, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky We all know a recovery is coming. But there are problems associated with ramping up quickly in order to capitalize upon a demand surge. Namely, you will need to rapidly deploy more labor, all the while preventing service errors from occurring. This is especially troublesome given that many hotels still have much of their labor force furloughed from the lockdowns earlier last year. In a world that is vaccinated but still exceedingly sensitive to COVID-19, you cannot have new employees onsite who play fast and loose with the safety guidelines or with your brand standards. This is hurt your reputation and ultim...
Global Hotel Profit Performance Divides in New Year
David Eisen | March 2, 2021
Turning the page doesn’t always assure a better result. After the worst performing year on record, the hotel industry was ready for 2021, but resigned to the fact that a new year doesn’t mean things automatically get better. The harsh reality is a global pandemic that has ceased to fully recede. Still, there is cause for optimism. Though travel remains stunted across the world, some regions are showing signs of sustained performance positivity. Include Asia-Pacific and the Middle East on that list. APAC Consistency Though there remains a wide chasm in year-over-year comps, APAC has now had eight consecutive of positive gross operatin...
Things We Didn’t See Coming
H. Keith Thompson | March 2, 2021
By H. Keith Thompson The past year has been great for a few hotel segments and very difficult for many others. I have personally been through many cycles and this past year has been like no other. A shift has occurred that many people didn’t see coming and most certainly, I didn’t see coming. Given this, I thought I would list a few changes that have come out of the past year. - Old exterior corridor hotels are back in vogue. By their original construction design, they have built in social distancing. - The great relocation. Mass exodus from urban core centers. - Most all demand generators from 2019 have changed significantly and ma...
Turn 2020 Profit Losses Into 2021 Wins For The Hotel Industry
Robert A. Rauch | March 2, 2021
By Robert Rauch How To Make 2021 Our Best Year Q1 of 2021 is not going to be profitable, fun or exciting for us in the hotel industry. The goods news is Q2 will come up quickly and having been through six recessions in hospitality, all the signs of a recovery are finally here. Given the significant impact of the virus on our economic, physical and mental health, I am offering a few sentences of my personal plan to recovery; we’ll dive into the following areas below: Cash Flow For Hospitality Industry Marketing, Sales & Revenue Management Technology To Improve Hotel Revenue Whether we operate a hotel, restaurant or tour...
Long Live the New Business Center
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | February 25, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Prior to the pandemic, many had forecasted the business center to be a dead concept for hotels. Relegated to some back corner of the lobby or hidden from the main thoroughfares by a maze of windowless corridors, this amenity has suffered a slow death in the face of laptops, smartphones and all forms of paperless documents. Amongst many other changes, COVID-19 has meant fewer corporate travelers gracing our halls and a further diminishment of utility for this facility. But as travel recovers, the business center may experience a renewed demand. That is, with so many remote workers, work-from-a-hotel (WFH) inc...
GBTA Poll: Vaccine a Game-Changer for a Return to Travel
GBTA | February 18, 2021
Nearly half of respondents say border closures and restrictions have impacted their company travel recovery efforts in 2021 Alexandria, VA (February 18, 2021) – The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s largest business travel association, finds most GBTA members and stakeholders (79%) would be “very comfortable” or “comfortable” traveling for business after receiving the Covid-19 vaccination, and almost half support mandatory testing prior to travel to ensure the safety of customers and clients when meeting face-to-face. The latest findings come from the 16th installment of the coronavirus poll, conducted ...
Tiered Marketing Approach to Hotel Recovery
Stephanie Smith | February 18, 2021
By Stephanie Smith Hotel markets across the US are behaving differently. They are rebounding at a different pace. Even hotels within the same market are not seeing the same patterns. While you cannot predict the future, you still need a plan. A tiered plan will give you what you should be doing now, then when there are positive signals demand is returning, have that plan ready. Here is a 3-step approach to creating a plan that works for your specific situation. 1 – Analyze the Data While your own hotel reports will show you what segments are traveling to our hotel and your direct competitive set, that may not be forward looki...
Will the Hospitality and Travel Industry Recover in 2021?
Linchi Kwok | February 17, 2021
By Linchi Kwok Spring will soon be here. People are celebrating the Lunar New Year. Do you see a brighter future in 2021? Without a doubt, 2020 was a challenging year for most. Besides lockdowns, many companies let employees work from home permanently. When many business activities were put on a break and supply chains were interrupted, the global economy collapsed. COVID-19’s impact on the hospitality and tourism industry has been devastating and unprecedented. How tough was it in 2020? The aviation industry According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, global air traffic dropped from 4.5 billion in 2019 to 1...
A Consultant’s Perspective on the Pandemic in 2021
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | February 17, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky The pandemic continues to plague our operations and practically all aspects of our daily lives. In 2020, we may have found ourselves feeling disconnected from the world around us and losing touch with old friends as we all shuffled about to adapt to the new normal. That’s why it was great to reconnect early in January with Cornelia Kausch, a veteran hotelier who hails from Germany and who I worked with in what seems like several lifetimes ago. Currently living in Berlin, Cornelia is the founder of CK Hospitality Advisors, and she can offer a unique perspective on where hospitality is headed as we anxiously...
Luxury’s Next Competitor Is Not a Hotel
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | February 10, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Every hotel property aspires to be luxury in one way or another, even as the word ‘luxury’ has become a bit overused in the past decade. As such, there are always new entrants testing out concepts and evolving various features, amenities or service offerings, all in an attempt to get one step ahead of the curve. The pandemic has, of course, shifted priorities but the pursuit of luxury still remains as a means of capturing guests’ hearts. Concurrent to this arms race amongst traditional hotels – and now also alternative accommodations – it is important that hospitality brands consider those accommod...
How Are Hotels Adapting and Innovating During COVID-19?
Company Debt | February 9, 2021
Covid-19 has hit businesses of just about every shape and size hard, but few have felt the effects quite as strongly as those in the hospitality industry. Bars, restaurants and hotels in many parts of the world have been forced to close as restrictions to limit the spread of the Coronavirus have taken hold. Before the pandemic slammed the breaks on international and domestic travel, the global hotel trade was looking rosy. The corporate travel industry alone was forecast to grow into a $1.7 trillion industry by 2023. But rather than enjoying what was predicted to be one of the biggest growth spurts hoteliers have ever seen, they have been...
The Must-Have List for a Hotel Messaging Platform in 2021
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | February 3, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky While we all await the dissemination of a COVID-19 vaccine throughout the first half of 2021, budgets will remain tight while reservations will be slim. With fewer staffers available to manage inquiries, you still need to ensure that service delivery is never compromised for the guests you have, while at the same time ensuring a smooth ramp-up as we transition out of this pandemic. Plus, in our current climate of lower occupancies, you cannot afford a bad review tarnishing your online reputation. Compounding this is the need for contactless communications. Traveler behavior has all but permanently changed an...
Vision 2050 – 2nd Edition: The Recovery Year
Robert Rauch | February 2, 2021
By Robert Rauch The Recovery Year For Hotels The final U.S. lodging industry numbers for 2020 came out and RevPAR literally finished at half of where it finished in 2019—that’s right, half! Occupancy was 66.1% at $131.17 average rate and RevPAR of $86.76. 2020 finished at 42% at a rate of $103.00, RevPAR was $43.26. The impact to the bottom line is easy to see in our bank accounts as breakeven has always been thought to be close to 60% occupancy but many forget the importance of rate to that equation. Travel Demand How and when do we recover? The when is certainly up for debate but most pundits are focused on 2023 or 2024....
Is This the Year the World Will Finally Return to Normal?
Michelle McKinney Frymire | February 1, 2021
By Michelle McKinney Frymire As a Finance and Strategy leader, an important part of my job is trying to “see around corners” for our company – to know what is coming and how to react to it, but I must admit that a year ago I would not have predicted where we are today. And, while I still can’t predict when the pandemic will end, there are some things I see about 2021 that I would like to share. The first is a view some of you may not want to hear -- I can confidently tell you that the world is never going back to the “normal” that existed before the pandemic. It is time to move to our “next normal”, and frankly, I wouldn...
After Unanticipated 2020, Hotel Industry Knows What It’s Up Against
HotStats | January 27, 2021
The end of 2020 is not the end of the problems for the global hotel industry, but it does bring hope on the wings of a vaccine that, in time, could be a panacea for what ails it: fear. The hotel industry does not perform well without its most significant ingredient: people. The pandemic has removed that element. In its place sit unused guestrooms, vacant restaurants and empty conference and meeting spaces. It’s a recipe for disaster, which is exactly what was concocted last year. But the close of the calendar doesn’t automatically mean a brighter 2021. It will still take time. Last year ended on a high note for hotels in the Midd...
Pandemic Lessons From a Las Vegas Hotel Leader
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | January 27, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky The city of Las Vegas always presents an interesting picture for the state of global hospitality. Often standing in contrast to the rest of the world, this nexus of conventions and sometimes excessive leisure trips is also a center of hotel innovation. Now with the sharp demand for contactless experiences so as to prevent the spread of viruses through The Strip’s innumerous corridors and grandiose lobby floors which can see tens of thousands of visitors a day, we look once more to this city for how it is adapting to the times. We’ve known Shannon McCallum for well over a decade. And like the two of us, s...
How Hotels Are Getting Back to the Business of Meetings
Fran Worrall | January 26, 2021
Although in-person events may look different, the outlook is optimistic By Fran Worrall With the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, can the return of meetings and conferences be far behind? Although the pandemic has no doubt changed the way events will be held—at least for the foreseeable future—most hoteliers and industry experts are feeling optimistic. In fact, many properties and meeting planners are already glimpsing signs of life after COVID. “We’re seeing an increase in inquiries, especially in the second half of 2021,” said Blair McSheffrey, vice-president of global & hotel sales at Sonesta, who attributes the uptick...
How Hotels Are Faring in Transformative Times
Daniel Lesser | January 20, 2021
By Daniel H. Lesser We live in extraordinary times. There are only a limited number of periods in America’s 245-year history which have been as transformative as 2020 (i.e., 1776, 1865, 1929, 1945, 1968, 2001). The confluence of a global pandemic, mass civil disobedience, and the transfer of power will undoubtedly affect how we live and work in 2021 and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic that commenced in early 2020 represents yet another demarcation in life “before” and “after.” 2020 began as geopolitical tensions spiked on January 3rd, and the U.S. stood at the brink of war when an American drone strike near the Baghdad Inter...
Hotel Lawyer on PPP2 and the COVID Relief Bill’s Changes to Paycheck Protection Program
Jim Butler | January 13, 2021
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® 13 January 2021 We have a new PPP Loan authorization bill out of Washington, after months of political wrangling. Congress could have done more, but they did provide for up to $2,000,000 in additional forgivable loans per borrower, along with provisions which specifically cater to the hospitality industry. As Jay Thompson and other members of our Corporate team write below, Congress has made obtaining a PPP loan and getting forgiveness for that loan easier. They have also expanded the definition of what can be an “eligible expense” upon which to base a PPP loan, and they have allo...
Turnbull Capital Group and Dr. Donald W. Wise Present a World Class Team of Professionals to Discuss: Where Are Hotel Asset Values Today?
Turnbull Capital Group | January 12, 2021
Dr. Donald W. Wise, Co-founder and Senior Managing Director of Newport Beach-based Turnbull Capital Group, and Gretta Brooks, Founder & CEO of Plano-based SalesBoost, LLC, are pleased to announce their fourth Webinar in a series on the discovery of hotel and resort values today. This Webinar is moderated by Dr. Donald W. Wise, Founder of CBRE Hotels in the 1984 and Founder of the lodging and hospitality lending group at Walker & Dunlop in 2007. The Webinar is Wednesday January 13th at 9:00 AM PST - 12:00 PM EST ~ we have added Ms. Tanya Pierson, MAI, Senior Managing Director, HVS and 35-year friend Mr. William H Reynolds Jr.,...
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