If only the travel industry were like the banks, or the biofuels business. Then it would have this huge stimulus fund to research and develop product, attract new customers and access the capital necessary to grow without the burden of huge debt. However, the travel industry does find itself in a good position presently. It is in the midst of a comeback. But economic comebacks have a flaw, being that access to ready capital. It is time for marketing innovation, a stimulus fund if you will. That stimulus program for the travel business has come in the form of direct response innovation. READ MORE

Butlers first began to appear in hotels a quarter of a century ago. However, they have been in service for a millennium and have become synonymous with the highest level of service to employers and guests alike. How butlers reached such giddy heights is not the subject of this article, but how their standards of service are being recognized and adopted as the most important consumer trend in 2010 is what you will find in the following few paragraphs. High-end hospitality providers and those who care to provide superior service will recognize their own standards being validated, and it is to them this article is dedicated. READ MORE

Over the last decade mobile phones have changed the way we conduct our personal and business lives. No longer just a communication tool, mobile users now need their phones as a life management tool. The mobile community has an agenda. They no longer want to merely interact, they want to streamline their life via a tool where they can conceptualize, organize and categorize their daily life tasks. As hotel marketers we need to strategize and monetize. READ MORE

The ageless cliche that "time is money" has never been so appropriate in our industry. As valuable to you as the accuracy of the data you use to ensure the success of your business is the timeliness of that same data. If you are working with anything less than "real time", you are potentially bleeding cash you don't have, and negatively impacting your bottom line, your flow, and by extension, the value of your asset. There are solutions - both systematically and in terms of time management. Do they cost? Of course they do - either in dollars or changes to your routines. The return, however, could be the difference between success and dramatic failure - especially now. READ MORE

National climate and energy policy has been batted around for the last several years. In 2009, Obama introduced a plan to cap carbon emissions and spend $15 billion on R&D in the clean energy space, but it was met with heated resistance. In early 2010 legislators went back to the drawing board, and created a new draft of an energy bill. Very little has been disclosed about the contents of the bill. However, we do know that it aims for a 17 percent reduction of 2005's levels of climate-altering gases by 2020. So why should hoteliers prepare themselves for effects of climate legislation? READ MORE