Because of COVID-19, many revenue teams had to be furloughed. Not all will return, leaving vacancies. Could it be time to evaluate the kind of Revenue Manager that will move your property forward? The revenue manager of the future will be part accountant, part marketer, part guardian. This revenue manager will be the gatekeeper of revenue. There are five strong foundational skills to look for in the revenue manager of the future. Lily Mockerman explains these skills, how to recognize them in a revenue manager, how to keep them on your team, and how to help them shine. READ MORE

Pandemics though less inevitable than natural calamities have been confronted in the past. They have to be accepted and dealt with in a sensible manner. The discovery of a viable vaccine for the coronavirus as soon as possible is everybody's hope. Meanwhile, what can you as a business, do for the rebuilding crusade going forward? Reaching out and assuring your customers, employees, communities and stakeholders about their safety in your establishment is the first step. As a business with a standing, this is the minimum you owe to your customers, employees, partners, communities, stakeholders as well as yourselves. This hopefully, will bring business back and cause the coronavirus pandemic chokehold to ease over time. READ MORE

The hotel industry is facing an extended crisis. As governments impose travel restrictions and hotel guests cancel trips or avoid booking them altogether, the hotel industry worldwide is collectively experiencing dire economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with plummeting occupancy rates, hotel performance has been negatively impacted on an unprecedented global scale. As the global economy enters a recession that many predict will be as bad as the downturn in 2007-2008, it is likely that hotel owners and operators will, once again, experience conflicts as their disparate economic interests collide. This article explores the conflicts of interest between owners and operators. READ MORE

Prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the US spend for meetings alone was over $399 billion annually. This amount was for company spend, so doesn't include the Association, SMERF or Sports spend, and it doesn't include rooms-only group blocks. That means that there is well over $450 billion spent on meetings alone in a "normal" year. Even if meetings are reduced by 50% for 2020, there is still the potential staggering number of $225 billion in meetings, groups, and events potential. In this article EproDirect's Executive Vice President, Chaunsea Keller addresses what hotels are offering post-COVID and how planners are responding and what they want. READ MORE

A chance to escape to an artfully conceived hotel with flawless service seems like a distant memory today. The entire world is dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and our hospitality industry has been ground to a halt. We're entering the transition that follows every crisis and we must address ways to become resilient and anticipate the impact of unforeseeable disruptions. As designers, we need to be empathetic to these times and build strategies into our vision of the future of business travel and societal changes. READ MORE

In a post COVID-19 world, it is critical for brands in the hospitality sector to engage consumers in a manner that provides a high likelihood of positive experiences, engenders loyalty, fosters referrals and return stays. Advances in digital media and artificial intelligence (AI) offer new ways for brands to deliver and enhance these experiences. By obtaining intellectual property (IP) protection for technical achievements and differentiating service, brands can develop a stable of assets to help lawfully keep competitors at bay. This article discusses effective techniques for identifying opportunities and strategies to seek and obtain IP protection for inventions relating to digital media and AI that enhance the guest experience. READ MORE

In response to COVID-19, HEI Hotels & Resorts has implemented new standard operating procedures and hygienic practices at HEI's portfolio of more than 80 independent and branded hotels. In this article, Rachel Monez, Executive Vice President of Operations, talks about the changes implemented at various HEI hotel properties, giving readers an insight into what to expect as the 'new norm'. The article will provide tips about what hotels can do to adjust their cleaning protocols and educate employees to rise to the challenges presented in the new COVID-19 environment. READ MORE

Hospitality may well be the industry most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it is also possibly the industry that has done the most to mitigate the effects and been the most innovative in developing programs and protocols to serve the needs of their customer, retain whatever revenue is possible and keep everybody safe while doing it. As an industry, we can all feel proud of how our colleagues have responded. But, it's not clear that in their haste to introduce mitigating programs, hotels thought through what will happen when this thing is over. READ MORE

Mark Heymann – an industry expert with over 40 years of experience in hospitality and restaurants, sheds light on the importance of labor management optimization amid the COVID-19 recovery period. The entire labor management process has changed, and hotels will need to develop an enhanced focus on internal staffing variables in order to recover. Guest expectations will drastically change so hotels will have to evolve in order to exceed these new expectations. In this piece, Mark details the various ways hotels should look to adjust their approach which includes fostering an engaged staff, balancing flexible scheduling, shifting to task-oriented labor and more. READ MORE

The hospitality industry exists to serve the intrinsic human desire to gather, celebrate and rejuvenate. This fact has driven hotel architects for the past several decades to place continual emphasis on the design and creation of evocative communal spaces. Today, the hospitality industry finds itself faced with an enormous challenge: in the wake of COVID-19, people no longer feel safe in public areas. Tom Bergerson, Principal at architectural services firm AO, offers solutions and insights on how the industry can continue to provide comfort, convenience, and social interaction while providing guests with a sense of safety and well-being. READ MORE

Hotel executives understand how knowledge management as facilitating organizational processes and activities enhances corporate learning to organize existing information. I stress that knowledge management is a strategic resource for corporate learning. Many hotels still implement corporate learning development projects without sufficient consideration of their knowledge management infrastructures. Hotel executives can see that cultivating corporate learning requires developing knowledge management infrastructures within hotels---not only at the higher echelons of the hotel but at every level. They can manage knowledge to expand the growth opportunities available to hotels that may be challenging but important to close the gap between success and failure. READ MORE

PART III. In the last two weeks, we compared the demands made by governments (to protect us from a vicious and omnipresent viral scourge) to the harmful results (economic, health, individual freedoms) brought about by acquiescing to those demands while no pandemic materialized. We examined the censorship of all information departing from the official narrative and the harmful nature of the enforced vaccinations that lack efficacy and consistently demonstrate harm. This week, we examine who has been pushing this travesty and offer solutions to help put an end to the monkey business so the hospitality industry, and society in general, can regain diversity and its former joie de vivre. READ MORE

Futurology can be understood as the scientific study of the future. This is a particularly important paradigm to view a post-COVID-19 environment for the lodging industry. The changes this industry will experience in the coming years due to the global pandemic are as of yet unknown, but through effective modeling and open discussions with industry leaders there is a chance to identify emerging best practices and be forward-thinking and proactive in approaches to working within a new reality for the hospitality industry. This article identifies emerging trends due to COVID-19 as well as speaks to opportunities for returning to profitability in a new normal. READ MORE

AHC Hospitality's vice president and managing director George Aquino's thoughtful and realistic COVID-19 reflection explores the state of the travel industry and how hotels can reopen safely through permanent changes to protect guests and employees. Mr. Aquino touches on sanitation practices, new design for amenities, meeting spaces and hotel restaurants, the importance of social media, as well as evolving traveler preferences. He proposes new protocols such as regular temperature checks for employees, increased hand sanitation stations on-property and more remote meetings for hotel teams. READ MORE

Coronavirus has cast many dark shadows across the world of hospitality. It has highlighted certain disagreements between hotels and their guests when it comes to payments, in particular whether money should be refunded or put towards future bookings. To progress beyond the global crisis, a new form of mutual respect between all parties is required. One way of achieving this is for everybody to agree that people are an important part of the ecology of the planet and that by creating a Travel Emotional Intelligence a long overdue appreciation of each others' needs can be attained. READ MORE