IDeaS Releases 2024 Hotel Technology Predictions
IDeaS | November 15, 2023
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Lodging Interactive | July 11, 2023
Smart Strategies
A Fresh Start for U.S. Hotel Brands in Cuba?
JLL Real Views | July 28, 2016
Behind the colonial facades of Havana's historic hotels, times are changing as Cuba and the United States start to rebuild their fractured relationship. The recent opening of the Four Points Havana marks a significant milestone in the easing of economic restrictions between the two countries. Managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, it is the first American-operated hotel in Cuba since the 1959 revolution effectively ceased diplomatic relations between the two countries. It's far from being the last – Starwood will assume management of a second hotel, the Gran Caribe Inglaterra, at the end of August, and Marriott International ha...
How Islamic Finance is Shaping Europe’s Property Markets
JLL Real Views | July 27, 2016
As Middle Eastern money continues to make its way into global property markets the number of investors seeking specialist, Sharia-compliant advice and financing is on the up, especially in the UK and, increasingly, in Germany. While many wealthy Muslim investors own expansive property portfolios in the UK capital, for example Qatari investors now own £1 billion worth of luxury property in London's exclusive Mayfair district, others are snapping up stakes in new developments and regeneration projects. The Shard, Battersea Power Station and Chelsea Barracks – three iconic construction projects – were all three built usi...
Asia Pacific First-Half Hotel Transaction Volume Rises 13.2 Percent
JLL | July 26, 2016
Japan seen dominating investment volume for the rest of the year SINGAPORE, 26 July 2016 - Asia Pacific hotel investment volumes in the first half of this year climbed 13.2 percent to US$3.8 billion compared to the same period last year as yields recovered to pre-global financial crisis levels, according to a report by real estate consultancy JLL. During the first six months of this year, a total of 14,025 keys traded across the Asia Pacific region, higher than the 10,976 keys achieved over the same period a year ago, according to JLL's Hotel Investment Highlights report. Japan lent considerable weight to the rankings, representing five...
Why Timing is Everything for Convention Center Hotels
JLL Real Views | July 21, 2016
By Maggie Nichols Visit any major convention center in the U.S. and chances are there's a sizeable hotel development either on site or just around the corner. These convention center headquarters (HQ) hotels have sprung up over the last two decades in major cities including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston, Austin and Nashville, to name a few. They're continuing to grow in number – Cleveland opened a new HQ hotel in June, Houston will open its second one with 1,000 rooms in the fall, and Chicago will open its second HQ hotel in 2017. Furthermore, there are large HQ hotels in the planning stage in Kansas City, Miami Be...
A Special Edition of Tourism Tidbits – July: Tourism’s Trying Half-Month
Dr. Peter Tarlow | July 18, 2016
By Dr. Peter Tarlow The month of July has not been an easy month in the world, and especially in the world of tourism. Until recently, tourism oriented nations experienced one or another form of crisis on a tri or bi-monthly or monthly basis. During the last few weeks, the crisis du mois seems to have become the crisis de la semaine (the crisis of the week). During the last few weeks, the Middle East, especially Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and the Asian sub-continent have witnessed an upsurge of violence. Attacks have not only been against tourist hotels but also against restaurants, in such diverse places as Dacca, Bangladesh and Bagdad Ira...
Six Ways Cities Are Changing How They’re Perceived
JLL Real Views | July 15, 2016
By Natalie Holmes Cities are becoming increasingly innovative in their quest to attract visitors and residents, and to stimulate the local economy—giving rise to a number of initiatives that aim to draw the eyes of the world. "Competition among cities is greater than ever thanks to increased global mobility and connectivity," says Jeremy Kelly, Director of Global Research at JLL. "City leaders are being forced to pay more attention to building stronger city identities, whether by improving branding or adding new functions in order to compete globally. For example, many cities are establishing themselves as convention hubs or devel...
Luxury Hotels Heading Underwater to Deliver the Wow Factor
JLL Real Views | July 14, 2016
By Neasa MacErlean Luxury hotels with underwater features are offering unusual experiences for their affluent guests who want to dine below the waves and sleep nearly nose-to-fin with the local sea life. The world's largest underwater restaurant opens at the 5-star Hurawalhi Resort Maldives in August – in a setting worthy of James Bond on the Lhaviyani Attol in the Maldives. The 5.8 Undersea Restaurant will offer guests 360 degree views of sea life as well as its luxury menu and wine cellar. But the food and wine will probably seem like small bait in comparison with the dancing manta rays, butterflyfish and brightly colored damsel...
Serviced Apartments: The Rising Star of the Hospitality Sector?
JLL | July 12, 2016
According to research from JLL, serviced apartments are soon set to become an established asset class as demand for the sector grows due to the rise of the 'bleisure' market. Since 2008 investment volumes in the UK have grown from £7.3 million to £325 million in 2015. JLL predicts that transaction volumes will grow as a result of the attractive yields compared to other asset classes. Over the next three years there are around 3,500 serviced apartments planned in the active pipeline, three times more than 3-star hotels. While London is seeing the majority of this (around 40%) regional hubs such as Manchester and Edinb...
Robots: Coming Soon to a Hotel Near You?
JLL Real Views | July 12, 2016
by Natalie Holmes From hotel lobbies to restaurant floors, robots have started servicing customers' basic requests. In March, Spencer began escorting lost travelers to their gates at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. That same month, robot hosts welcomed visitors to big trade shows like ITB in Berlin while the Hilton McLean Virginia in Washington, D.C, welcomed Connie the robotic concierge. Then there's the robotic receptionist at Belgium's Ghent Marriott. Not only can Mario speak 19 languages, he does so while dancing to Michael Jackson. While these may have a certain novelty factor for now, it's behind the scenes where artificial intell...
Third-Party Management Companies Move to Embrace New Technology
Concord Hospitality | July 8, 2016
Technology is a non-negotiable in the lodging industry. The exciting news is that hotels are able to use technology to provide value-added services and conveniences that personalize the guest experience in more ways than ever. The challenge is that technology is advancing at a pace that makes it nearly impossible to keep up. This is one of the areas in which a third-party management company can be especially valuable. Hotel brands typically dictate basic requirements like core property management systems, but third-party management companies have the flexibility to innovate beyond these systems and exceed basic requirements. Here are a ...
The Lodging Landscape: 2016 Midpoint by Robert A. Rauch, CHA
Robert Rauch | July 6, 2016
The first half of 2016 included a bit of a negative impact from China's economy, some terrorism events and a softer than predicted first half in terms of financial performance. Here is a primer on where we are in this noble institution of hospitality as of the 2016 midpoint. The Cycle and Baseball Analogy The typical analogy of what inning we are in is fairly easy. We are in the 8th inning and the real question is, what happens when the game ends and the cycle is over? Nothing. We are headed toward a soft landing in 2017 and that is not bad news. Gross Domestic Product growth of 1-2 percent will likely lead to slowing RevPAR growth for ...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 163: Hotel History: The Otesaga Hotel, Cooperstown, New York*
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | July 5, 2016
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1.Hotel History: The Otesaga Hotel (1909), Cooperstown, New York (132 rooms) This magnificent Federal-style structure with an imposing front portico supported by massive 30-foot columns occupies 700 feet of lakefront on the southern shore of Lake Otsego. The Otesaga Resort Hotel was named for the Iroquois word for "A Place of Meetings" when it was built in 1909. It is one of Americas great lakeside hotels. The Otesaga Hotel was developed by Edward Severin Clark and Stephan Carlton Clark, two grandsons of Cooperstown's prominent benefactor, Edward Clark. The family's other building projects inclu...
Tourism Tidbits: Tourism, Transportation, and Security, Part 2 of a Two Part Series
Dr. Peter Tarlow | July 1, 2016
by Dr. Peter Tarlow As noted in the June edition of Tourism Tidbits there is a symbiotic relationship between tourism and transportation. Tourism, as we know it, cannot survive without a good and safe transportation system. Although the inverse is not absolutely true, much of the transportation industry depends on tourism. Although, some forms of transportation would appear to be independent of tourism, for example the trucking industry, tourism is such a major economic factor that without it even the trucking industry would have fewer goods to deliver and thus suffer. Thus, although there is not a perfect symbiotic relationship between...
Data Center Outages: Why Humans Can be a Building’s Biggest Hazard
JLL Real Views | June 29, 2016
Somewhere in the world, someone spills a cup of coffee in a data center. In millions of homes and businesses across the United States, televisions go dark just as Jordan Spieth aims his final putt in the U.S. Open golf tournament. Possible? Absolutely. To err may be human, so preventing costly business interruptions should include the human factor as well. Even a simple spilled beverage can create a major problem, as happened in a 2015 incident that that knocked out 300,000 Bloomberg data terminals. In fact, an estimated 22 percent of data center outages in 2015 were attributed to human error—not including cyber-crime. The price i...
Infor Enhances Hotel Management in the Cloud
Infor | June 20, 2016
Infor HMS with Advanced Mobility Helps Speed Daily Operations and Improve Guest Experience for Hotels and Casinos NEW YORK - Jun 20, 2016 - Infor, a leading provider of beautiful business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, today announced the availability of Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) version 3.7.4 to help hospitality customers promote a superior guest experience with enhanced industry-specific features. In today's competitive market, utilizing an integrated suite of industry-tailored applications such as Infor HMS can be a critical function to help drive brand loyalty and facilitate measu...
Super Metrics for Hotel Marketing & Online Revenue Optimization
Vikram Singh | June 15, 2016
by Vikram Singh Analytics metrics have evolved over the past few years. In my last article, I discussed the dinosaur metrics that have fallen in value since the last mass extinction event. Since online marketing and digital advertising are rapidly changing, looking at outdated metrics can allow you to be completely blindsided in regards to your online revenue and profitability. In this article, I cover the five super metrics that now dominate the analytics and marketing world. These metrics have been around forever but are more relevant today than ever. These metrics have always been are near and dear to my heart – this is not jus...
The Orlando Terrorism Attack: A Special Edition of Tourism Tidbits
Dr. Peter Tarlow | June 14, 2016
by Dr. Peter Tarlow The June 12th attack at the popular Orlando Nightclub "Pulse" has once again brought terrorism to the tourism industry. The recent attack is not the first terrorist attack on nightclubs. For example, as far back as 1998 the world witnessed the terrorist bombing of Cape Town's "Planet Hollywood". That incident ought to have served as a wake-up call for the tourism industry. In 1998, however, it was still rare to attack tourism centers. Such attacks were still a rarity. Over the years, unfortunately, terrorism has both changed and evolved. What was once a rarity has become all too common and today we real...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 162: Hotel History: Hotel Monteleone*
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | June 13, 2016
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. Hotel Monteleone (1886), New Orleans, Louisiana (570 rooms) The oldest hotel in the French Quarter is the Hotel Monteleone, with its ornate baroque facade, which was built in 1886 in the Beaux-Arts architectural style. It remains one of the few longstanding family-owned hotels in the U.S. Antonio Monteleone arrived in New Orleans from Sicily in 1880 and set up his cobbler's shop on Royal Street. In 1886, he bought a small hotel on the corner of Royal and Iberville Streets and merged it with the Commercial Hotel. Since then, the Hotel Monteleone has expanded five times. In 1908, when 300 new rooms were adde...
Food to Go: New Delivery Services Reshape the Restaurant Industry
JLL Real Views | June 10, 2016
by Natalie Holmes Gone are the days when take-out options were limited to greasy fast food. Today, hungry city-dwellers can enjoy meals by top chefs in the comfort of their own home, or hotel room, thanks to a swathe of third party delivery services that are revolutionizing the restaurant industry. Over the past few years, a growing number of delivery start-ups have made waves in the market by providing an online platform for ordering food and taking care of the real-world logistics. London start-up Deliveroo made its debut in 2013 and after several rounds of investment, has expanded to major cities worldwide. Competitors such as Doorda...
Fact or Science Fiction? The Office of 2021 Tells All: Facility Managers Will Need to Think Like a Concierge
JLL Real Views | June 8, 2016
Picture yourself at the office in 2021, five short years from now. An app on your smartphone reserves your favorite cubbyhole—you don't have a fixed desk. You settle in, using a different app to set the lighting and temperature to your liking, and play your favorite background music. A colleague comes by with a question, so you wirelessly connect your laptop to a nearby whiteboard to share a presentation. Far-fetched? Not for some corporations. Offices are evolving faster than at any time in history, and becoming more accommodating of individual choice. Five years from now, the office could be nearly unrecognizable—particul...
Contact Centers Say Farewell to the Cubicle Farm
JLL Real Views | June 7, 2016
'Call centers' are dead; long-live the multi-channel 'contact center'. Today, customer service is just as likely to happen via email, online chat or social media as it is to happen over the phone. In today's digital world, providing multiple communication channels has become a necessity for many customer service organizations. Voice traffic in contact centers is steadily dropping, while digital (non-voice) traffic is mushrooming, driven by the habits of young adults. Over three quarters of customers between the ages of 18 to 24 now use smartphones to contact customer support, and just under half use live online chat. For contact center ...
Tourism Tidbits: Tourism, Transportation, and Security, Part 1 of a Two Part Series
Dr. Peter Tarlow | June 6, 2016
by Dr. Peter Tarlow The connection between tourism and transportation is so close that often people use "travel" as a synonym for tourism. In fact, in many languages, tourism is another way to express travel. Even in English it is hard to miss the connection between the words "tour" and "tourism". Transportation methods allow us to travel. Unfortunately, in an age in which elegance has given way to a form of pedestrian practicality, and terrorism is psychologically connected to transportation systems, the tourism industry cannot avoid transportation issues. With the exception of hiking, transportation companies are linked to tourism in ...
A Slow Start, But Will It Continue?
Robert Rauch | June 2, 2016
By Robert Rauch Midyear Forecast Update At Woodstock, Neil Young got up to the microphone and said, "this song starts out slow and fizzles out altogether." Well, this year started out slow but it will not fizzle out. Contrary to those pundits who feel the party is over, 2016 will continue the trend line of 2015 albeit with a somewhat muted feel and as mentioned, a slow start. This summer will jump with average rate growth due to unprecedented leisure demand stimulated by low gasoline prices and that American mindset: "It is my birthright to travel and visit my friends and family!" Because the headwinds we expect in 2017 will not have fu...
Nobody Asked Me, But…No. 161: Hotel History: The Island House Hotel (1852), Mackinac Island, Michigan (92 rooms)*
Stanley Turkel, CMHS | May 24, 2016
My New Book "Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry" Is Available Now By Stanley Turkel, CMHS 1. The Island House Hotel (1852), Mackinac Island, Michigan From its beginning over 150 years ago as a waterfront beach house to the family-restored hotel it is today, the Island House has opened its doors to over a million tourists from around the world. With its handsome Victorian structure and family-owned intimacy, Mackinac Island's oldest hotel is a tradition not be missed. Originally constructed for Charles O'Malley in 1852 as beachfront resort, the Island House was one of the first summer hotels on Mac...
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