Lodging Daily News

Last year at this time, Lodging featured a cover story on Best Western’s first Premier hotel. It was the beginnings of the company’s descriptor program, which created the Premier and Plus designations for its hotels. A year later, Managing Editor Megan Sullivan checked in with President and CEO David Kong to find out how the strategy has been working and what we might expect from Best Western moving forward. 1. Megan Sullivan: It’s been about

In December, Red Roof Inn rolled out its first complete NextGen redesign renovation at the Red Roof Inn Miami Airport. During the renovation, the property’s guestrooms, lobby, and meeting rooms were transformed into a new sleek, modern, and comfortable space. Interior upgrades at the Miami Airport property include home-like rooms, modern design flooring, plush, high-end bedding, flat-screen Panasonic televisions, and Superior Rest Suite Beds by Serta. “NextGen represents our commitment to meeting the needs and

When guests have a diet-dependent condition like celiac disease, it takes the fun out of dining if they aren’t confident in the hotel’s chef and kitchen staff. Celiacs manage this lifelong digestive disorder—and prevent uncomfortable, painful, and sometimes debilitating symptoms—by maintaining a gluten-free diet. Consumption of even the tiniest speck of gluten, which is a protein found in grains like wheat, barley, and rye, can trigger an autoimmune reaction in the small intestine. To avoid

Healthy eating has been a global hot button in recent years. Anyone who has attended hotel-hosted conferences and corporate meetings has experienced food choices that are often high in calories and low in nutritional value. Frank Widmer, the executive chef at the Park Hyatt in Zurich, Switzerland, decided to make a positive change with a new, innovative healthy menu, called “Brain Food,” developed especially for business meetings and events. Working closely with a nutritionist, Widmer

When Yotel New York opened in June, it came armed with an innovative solution to storing luggage. CEO Gerard Greene wanted to replace a boring administrative task with technology. Enter Yobot, a robotic concierge that uses its articulated arm to pick up and store guests’ luggage in one of 117 lockers. The new system builds on the Yotel brand’s existing high-tech features, like its fully automated guest check-in/check-out at airport-style, self-service kiosks. Housed behind a