Hotel Business Review: Week of May 13, 2013

Ken Hutcheson
  • Maintenance
  • Hotel Gardening: Tips to Keep the Green in Your Lawn and Wallet
  • By Ken Hutcheson , President, U.S. Lawns

  • In today's economy, staying within budget while keeping a landscape looking beautiful can seem impossible. But a healthy, attractive landscape does not have to break the bank. In the article "Hotel Gardening: Tips to Keep the Green in Your Lawn and Wallet," U.S. Lawns President Ken Hutcheson discusses how hotels can help preserve a healthy landscape that retains its maximum value while generating cost savings over the long-run. Ken's article provides tips that can help hotel owners and managers can stay within budget while still showcasing a property in its best light.

Clifford Ferrara
  • Sales & Marketing
  • How to Effectively Deploy Hotel Management Resources for Maximum Bottom-line Impact
  • By Clifford Ferrara, Vice President of Sales & Revenue Management, Chesapeake Hospitality

  • It is not exactly a revelation that hotel owners and operators are always looking to drive sales, increase operational efficiencies and maximize revenue. For all but the best hotel management companies, however, the proverbial pot of revenue gold at the end of the rainbow can sometimes be elusive. At a time when many hotel management companies are engaged in or have recently completed meetings with their sales teams—dissecting performances, evaluating 2012 accomplishments, and reviewing goals for 2013 and beyond—this might be an appropriate time to look at some of the specific strategies and techniques that hotel professionals can use to achieve those goals.

Tara K. Gorman
  • Hospitality Law
  • What’s in a Name - Everything!
  • By Tara K. Gorman, Attorney, Greenberg Traurig LLP

  • A brand name carries with it intangible value inherent which can translate into a higher average daily rate, a positive image, or a higher market share. In order to maintain that value, the brand must ensure that there is consistency in the guest experience no matter where in the world the branded hotel is located. This is where the interaction between the brand standards and the hotel management agreement comes into play! Our article in this week's Hotel Business Review, What's in a Name - Everything! How Brand Standards Play into the Hotel Management Agreement, will focus on what brand standards are, and how a hotel owner knows if it is "measuring up" and maintaining brand standards - and in fact complying with the obligation to operate the hotel in accordance with brand standards.

Steven Ferry
  • Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt
  • Slaying Oxymoronos Maximus, the Great Dragon of Cheap Imitation in the Luxury Market
  • By Steven Ferry, Chairman, International Institute of Modern Butlers

  • When it comes to luxury, nobody is under the misapprehension that a Ford, as good as it is in its context, can be passed off as a car that would cost $100,000 because it is built of the finest materials and is designed with a host of features that would warrant such a price tag. The same goes for a hotel: as good as Hiltons are, for instance, few if any of them are rated as five stars/diamonds for the simple reason that their furnishings and appointments are not so designed. So while the obvious features visible to the naked eye are clearly evident and determinable as to their quality, the less visible but no less palpable features of service levels receive less scrutiny when it comes to assigning quality.

MAY: Green Hotels: Eco-Friendly Principles and Best Practices

John Cario

As kids we probably all heard our parents tell us not to waste our food. Ever since our opening in the restored historic Miller & Rhoads department store building, our Hilton Garden Inn Richmond Downtown takes that sentiment to heart. Our hotel established a baseline environmental program in 2010 and made commitments to continuously improve our environmental performance over time. In March 2011, we made the decision to begin composting our food wastes. Since then, the hotel has diverted nearly 30 tons of food waste from piling up in landfills. We are the first and only hotel in the region to compost its food wastes. READ MORE

Christopher Bush

It was only natural that the son of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau would carry on his father’s legacy of conservation through education. Thrown overboard into the ocean by his father when he was seven years old, Jean-Michel Cousteau has since dedicated his life to preserving the seas. As the founder of the Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau has produced dozens of films, written hundreds of articles and developed school curricula that strengthen the critical bond between people and the sea. In 1989, seeking to demonstrate the economic benefits of sound environmental practices, Cousteau first associated himself with the Jean-Michel Cousteau resort in Fiji. READ MORE

Lawrence Adams

As hotel owners invest in sustainable systems and obtain LEED certification they look for the benefits that derive from their investments. Savings in energy costs and water bills may be evident on the hotel's financial books but the hotel's contribution to the health of the planet may not always be evident to the guests. Many hotels feel it is important to wear their LEED badge on their sleeve by having visible attributes such as solar panels, retention ponds, solar shading and wind generators as physical evidence of their good deeds. These hotels are striving to be conspicuously sustainable. READ MORE

Robert Kwortnik

As the international tourism industry grapples with increasingly complex matter of sustainability reporting, a series of roundtables and studies developed by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research focus on the "material items," that is, the practices and products that count the most in a hotel or restaurant's carbon footprint. These material items are the key issues for stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and regulators, and these items have the greatest impact on a company's sustainability profile. While there is some variation in the material items for various businesses, the most important issues are remarkable similar across different industries. READ MORE

Coming Up In The June Online Hotel Business Review


Feature Focus
New Trends in Hotel Architecture and Design
On any hotel design project, architects are generally serving at least three masters - the owner/developer, the hotel operator, and the general public who will utilize the hotel - and each have their own goals, objectives and demands. The owner/developer is concerned with brand standards, the target market and the hotel's locale, while the operator is concerned about achieving the highest possible revenue through efficient design. The public is demanding that architecture and design be fully integrated into the guest experience, based on prevailing tastes and preferences. The architect's role is to respond professionally and efficiently to meet the demands of all and to develop a unified solution. Though each project has its own prerequisites and obligations, there are some general design trends which seem to be prevalent across the industry. First, there is an increased emphasis on the importance of the lobby. The principle here is that first impressions matter and that a hotel has only a few minutes to convince a guest that they have made the right decision. Hotel lobbies are being completely re-imagined - from eliminating front desks altogether to turning lobbies into warm, intimate social spaces, replete with fireplaces and comfortable furniture. There is also an increasing use of ambient natural light, even in large spaces like ballrooms and meeting rooms. In addition, there is greater emphasis on incorporating the distinctive attributes of any given location into the hotel design, which guests are defining as central to their experiences. The June issue of the Hotel Business Review will report on all these exciting developments in the fields of architecture and design.
In this issue...
Experiential Design Across All Sectors
By Ellis Katz, Principal, John Portman & Associates
Challenges of Contemporary Design in Historic Buildings
By Gary Meadows, President, HCI Architecture, Inc.
Ideal Meeting Spaces Should Offer Flexibility, Flexibility and Then Some
By Ronald M. Lustig, Design Architect/Principal, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc.
The Hotel Lobby
By Jennifer Skaife, Senior Associate, DiLeonardo
PLUS: Keeping an Eye on the Return on Design; Check In To the Future; L'AND Vineyards Wine Resort; How to Preserve Architectural Detail; Catering to Women in Hotel Design; Sustainability Retrofits, and much more.