Restaurant renovations and conversions often appear to be somewhat of a magical transformation process to customers. It’s always a surprise when suddenly, and sometimes without warning, your favorite neighborhood Mexican taquería is completely changed into a high-end American gastro-pub. On reality TV, such as Gordon Ramsey’s popular FOX show “Kitchen Nightmares,” dramatic “overnight” refurbishments regularly shock viewers and thrill the restaurant owners. Of course, restaurant industry insiders know that TV is not real life. Repositioning
REITs and the Recovery
Category: Real Estate
Last May, Tom Baltimore, president and CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust, and his management team were engrossed in some strategic thinking. Part of the diverse business portfolio of The RLJ Companies, founded by Robert L. Johnson, who is probably best known as founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and one-time owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, RLJ had mostly operated in the private equity space. But now it was surveying the landscape of the hotel
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company L.L.C. has opened its first luxury resort in Japan on the island of Okinawa. The 97 guestrooms and two suites of the Ritz-Carlton, Okinawa have balconies or terraces that overlook the East China Sea and the Kise Country Club. The hotel features the Shurijo face motifs, red clay roof tiles, white walls, and holy water ponds. “We are delighted to be able to bring our first true luxury resort hotel to
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), energy represents the single fastest-growing operating cost in the lodging industry. The EPA estimates that a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption would be equivalent to increasing RevPAR—revenue per available room—by $0.60 for limited service hotels and by more than $2 for full-service hotels. Further, if the entire lodging industry reduced their energy use by 10 percent, a whopping $745 million would be saved each year in
During my tenure in the hospitality industry, I’ve worked both onsite as the director of sales and marketing for several hotels, as well as on the corporate side as a director of brand performance support and as vice president of brand marketing. As a result, I have the unique perspective of seeing firsthand how branding in the hotel industry is approached on both the property and corporate levels. Through these distinct experiences, I have developed
