October 2012

Sam Nazarian compares outsourcing to a table that’s missing a leg. To maintain stability, the 37-year-old entrepreneur prefers to fill his hotels with homegrown restaurant and nightlife brands. An all-inclusive business strategy retains control of the guest experience and yields a more profitable investment, Nazarian says, which is especially attractive to developers in tier-one cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. “The fact that we

On Aug. 18, Trudy Rautio—then executive vice president and chief financial and administrative officer of Carlson—received a game-changing phone call from Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the company’s chair of the board and co-owner, asking her to be the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Rautio is the fifth chief executive to be named at Carlson in its 74-year history, and its second female president and CEO. She replaces Hubert Joly, who abr...

While new development is tentatively rising overall in the hotel industry, it is booming in certain U.S. states. This demand is being fueled by the growing energy opportunities in places such as Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and West Virginia where advances in drilling technology have spurred a surge of workers in need of places to stay. Comparing statewide RevPARs through June of 2012 to five years ago, a report from Marcus &...

Hotel bathrooms have evolved over the years from purely functional spaces to high-tech havens that entice guests to relax and unwind. To stay ahead of the curve, hotels are merging new technologies with innovative design to make guestroom bathrooms a memorable part of a guest’s overall stay. “The bathroom is one of the most important elements in a hotel guestroom,” says Lalaine Tanaka, design principal at JCJ Architects, a firm that specializes...

At its Phoenix headquarters this week, Best Western International unveiled preliminary plans for a new prototype that incorporates extended-stay suites, designed in anticipation of money being freed up for new builds. The prototype, which should be ready to present by the first of the year in 2013, is flexible so developers can decide the percentage of extended stay units they want to include, depending on their market. Amy Hulbert, managing di...

Blackstone has big plans for Motel 6. The day after the investment company finalized its $1.9 billion acquisition of the Motel 6 and Studio 6 brands, Jonathan Gray, the 42-year-old head of Blackstone’s real estate division, provided a tantalizing glimpse into the near future to the hundreds of owners and operators gathered for the annual Motel 6 brand conference in Las Vegas. Gray said that Blackstone intends to massively accelerate the growth...

To meet consumer demand for value, transparency and high quality, fresh food in a fast-casual environment, Hilton Worldwide is introducing new food and beverage concepts for its full-service brands—Embassy Suites, DoubleTree, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts. “People are more savvy today, and to ignore that would not be smart on our part,” said Beth Scott, vice president of food and beverage concepts for Hilton Worldwide. The compa...

Last Thursday, Rezidor announced that Wolfgang M. Neumann would succeed industry veteran Kurt Ritter as president and CEO of Rezidor Hotel Group at the beginning of 2013.  Ritter, who has been in his current role with Rezidor since 1989, will aid Neumann with the transition into his new role with the company. 
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Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts has struggled in the past with developing a strong brand identity. But at the annual IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. last week the global hotel company made it clear that revitalizing the Crowne Plaza brand was a top priority. Gina LaBarre, Crowne Plaza vice president of Americas brand management, explained to an audience of owners, gen...

Despite a multitude of uncertainties in a slow and uncertain economic recovery, the hotel industry has had a strong performance this year, with record levels of demand, double-digit profit growth, and more people working in the lodging industry today than ever before. News coverage of the high unemployment rate, lack of lending, European debt crisis, a potential war with Iran, the fiscal cliff, cuts in government spending, tax increases, and a ...

While U.S. lodging projects may not match the explosion of developments underway in countries like Brazil, India, and China, pipeline metrics show that a period of moderate growth has been underway for a while in this country. In Q2 2012, 525 hotel projects were under construction, containing a total of 66,917 rooms. Room counts were up for the fourth consecutive quarter from the bottom of 387 projects and 49,028 rooms experienced in Q2 2011, signaling that...

Performance management systems are really for performance measurement or sometimes; they are tools that are designed to help management improve performance. The crucial component therefore in order to ensure optimal use of these technologies is a managers ability to use them effectively. I continue to be fascinated by many managers’ attitudes towards the usefulness, applicability and efforts to be applied to fully utilize performance measurement tools that ...

Many hotel brands are so eager to get involved with mobile—mobile marketing, mobile booking, mobile services, etc.—that they don't stop to consider what that involvement should achieve and what it can offer guests while remaining consistent with their brand goals and customer expectations. Others, meanwhile, are reluctant to take the leap and invest in a comprehensive mobile strategy at all. Either way, hotels recognize the vast majority of the...

In a mid-morning ceremony filled with fun, excitement, and Kimpton quirk, the lifestyle hotel company opened its newest Hotel Monaco property in Philadelphia. Monaco Philadelphia is located in the historic Old City neighborhood and has transformed the historic Lafayette Building, which dates back to 1907, into a modern 268-room hotel. The hotel marks the 10th location for Hotel Monaco, and Ki...

UPDATED 12:44 p.m. Oct. 31 —Although the extent of damage to hotels along the East Coast is still not known, hotel companies and owners are taking initial steps to reopen and rebuild after Hurricane Sandy hit earlier this week. In a statement, Cesars Entertainment, which operates Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah's Resort, Bally's Atlantic City, and Showboat Atlantic City, said, "As we continue to monitor the aftermath of Hurri...

The positivity at the annual IHG Americas Investment & Leadership Conference was palpable as high-level executives addressed the nearly 5,000 owners, general managers, and sales directors at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. With the theme of “Winning Together,” IHG executives such as CEO Richard Solomons and Kirk Kinsell, president, Americas highlighted the company’s recent successes and its plans for creating preferred brands by wor...

Kevin and Shawna Walker knew rebuilding an 80-year-old historical landmark was going to be tough, but not this tough. They closed the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, an English country manor house-inspired boutique hotel on Vancouver Island overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Canada from the United States, in 2006 with the goal of reopening it three years later. Now after six years and $52 million the hotel will finally be ready to receive guests. ...

Even though James Ponce retired from the hotel business 30 years ago, he still shows up to The Breakers in Palm Beach every Tuesday to conduct a riveting walking tour for guests. Ponce, who turned 95 in July, is the official historian of the Florida resort and a living legend in the Palm Beach community. The nonagenarian, who grew up in St. Augustine, can trace his ancestry back to Juan Ponce de Leon’s brother. He also is a descendent of the S...

Just in time for Halloween comes the movie Hotel Transylvania , in which Dracula runs a hotel that gives creatures such as the mummy and Frankenstein a place to get away from it all. And releasing alongside the movie is the Hotel Transylvania Dash smartphone app, which puts players in the role of running this monsters-only resort. The game has been well received since it came out in September, and according to Becky Ann Hughes, VP of Produc...

The conference center industry has benefited in many ways from the continued recovery in the hotel industry. According to a survey published in the 2012 edition of Trends in the Conference Center Industry, the average revenue for U.S. centers increased by 5.5 percent in 2011 and net operating income (NOI) grew by 8 percent. While revenue growth is certainly welcome news, conference centers continue to be challenged by a number of factors. These...

When Red Roof launched its NextGen design for rebuilds and renovations last year, the company used extensive customer research and input from its franchise advisory board to develop a comprehensive plan that would appeal to today’s business and leisure traveler. Now that the NextGen design has been implemented into approximately 75 of the brand’s 345 properties throughout the United States, Red Roof is starting to see a bump in revenue and occupancy. <...

The lodging industry has recently dealt with several large and quick moving issues that almost exclusively affect hoteliers. From the online hotel booking tax to the Americans with Disabilities Act pool lift requirement, AH&LA has been busy serving as the unified voice of hoteliers. But perhaps the best example of our ability to quickly shift and defend the industry is seen in the response to the U.S. Government Service Administrators’ (GSA) proposal to...

Redbury is the kind of place where young creatives stay up all night, write poetry, have a great meal, make love, and sleep until noon with their sunglasses on. Situated at the convergence of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, the Redbury is SLS Hotels’ scrappy younger brother. Its 57 guest flats exude a warm, bohemian counter-culture vibe with design elements drawn from old-world cultures. Cleo, the hotel’s signature restaurant from SBE Executive Chef Dani...