Another year for hotels has passed where little has happened in terms of the economy, but a lot has evolved in the spheres of marketing, communication, and the world of social media. 2010 marked the year of digital media in hospitality. While the industry was fairly late in adopting social media, hotels thankfully realized its potential and caught up relatively quickly. While I am unsure of specific numbers and statistics, hotels keep joining Facebook and Twitter everyday. And as they learn how to feed these monsters the right information that can make a difference in the guest experience, it's important to keep in mind what trends are forming as the economy picks up, albeit at a slow pace. Read my article on Boutique Hotel Trends for this year. READ MORE

Payroll is likely one of the biggest expenses your hotel incurs - and one that can cause the most headaches. It's one thing to have an unhappy guest, but an unhappy employee - or worse yet, a suspect government office - can have a significant impact on your business. Many of those headaches are avoidable by taking the appropriate steps from day one with the onboarding of a new hire to making changes to an employee's status, position or compensation level all the way through to retiring an employee from service. READ MORE

When it comes to thinking about giving good service, everyone in the hotel business talks about the importance of guest satisfaction. You have to satisfy your guests. You have to conduct surveys asking them, "Are you satisfied with.." Guest satisfaction is your number one goal. Bunk! Baloney! Hogwash! While satisfaction is certainly better than dissatisfaction, in today's competitive lodging environment, satisfaction doesn't cut it. Merely satisfying your guests will not be nearly enough to keep you growing and prospering over the long run. READ MORE

Committing to offering spa services within your hotel is just the first and easiest step to creating a guest experience that is memorable and pleasant. Spas within hotels are specialty amenities and need to be planned and managed accordingly. As a consultant I see a great many spas in hotels that just don't measure up. Read on for 5 big mistakes and a list of easy "do's" for making your spa facility more complete within your hotel. READ MORE

For hotel executives, managing stress levels is just as important as managing the hotel's business. Managing stress helps us become more efficient and better equipped to handle the daily onslaught of stresses and challenges with clarity and optimism. And at hospitality's fingertips is one of the best resources for stress reduction. Our spas realize that there are as many stress-reducing techniques as there are individuals and have built up a cadre of techniques, therapies and activities. Read further to see the great resources hospitality managers have in their own back yards. READ MORE

One might assume that the fitness center is likely among the healthiest places to be in a hotel or resort.or it could be the least. The virtues of providing your guests with a functional and well balanced fitness facility are plentiful and today well known. However, ensuring the safety of your guests while they use the facility goes beyond the simple maintenance of your fitness equipment. Today, the threat of wide scale microbial contamination is greater than ever. The gym environment presents a natural breeding ground for these contaminants. Understanding what the risks are, and what can be done to create a hygiene friendly facility will help you comprehensively achieve a most healthy fitness experience for your guests. READ MORE

Fostering a culture of innovation pays off handsomely in guest satisfaction and employee engagement. . . and those result in better bottom line performance. Ideas from Paris France, Cairns, Australia, Lagos, Nigeria, and elsewhere give you easy-to-implement insights. In this easy-to-read article, you'll see some terrific low- and no-cost ideas to help you mine the valuable creativity in your employees and improve your profitability. You will be inspired to put these simple suggestions into action and that will reduce employee turnover and increase morale. READ MORE

For travel marketers there is always a good reason to stay active in direct response TV. But the seasonality of most travel companies and destinations makes having a keen sense of the calendar extremely important to a successful direct response campaign. Of course, not all companies are seasonal. Cities like Las Vegas are year round destinations. But ski resorts, golf courses, and other destinations have ebbs and flows. Regardless, all travel companies need to be prepared. That preparation starts with an awareness of the range of TV advertising rates from month to month and season to season. READ MORE

Recovery continues in both the corporate and leisure travel markets. While the leisure sector sustains a slow but steady pace, corporate travel has eclipsed the recovery with both strong booking volumes and record-high growth in average daily rates (ADR). However, despite the significant increases in reservations of greater than +24% over 2009 each month since April, according to data reported in The Pegasus View, hotel revenue is still being hampered by weak ADRs, particularly in the leisure sector. What's a hotel to do? Examine and understand the state of their rates, then seize control of their pricing strategy by understanding their market position, their guests and their resources. READ MORE

Mobile marketing is "top-of-mind" among travel & hospitality industry marketers, and for many, it's a bit overwhelming. It goes into that same black hole as social media - too prolific to ignore, potentially promising, but somehow too challenging to map a course forward. And even for those who recognize the importance of including mobile within an integrated cross-channel marketing strategy, where do you begin, how do you do it, and how to you know if you are successful? Regardless of which camp you fall into, the goal of this article is to help you move forward confidently. READ MORE

The fitness industry thrives on trends. Peoples need for the latest and greatest equipment to get them on the fast track to health has spawned countless trends, both beneficial and useless in terms of their effectiveness. Added to this is the boredom that sets in with the same fitness routine it is understandable how the fitness industry must constantly reinvent itself to keep the general population interested in staying fit. This article will highlight some of these key trends that should be integrated into the hotel fitness center. READ MORE

One of the characteristics of the service industry is tangibility. While the product is tangible, service is intangible. Unlike tangible products many services are not measured easily nor can be tested for quality. While it is easy to improve the quality of a product any time it is difficult to improve the quality of services because service is always of a temporary nature. As a hospitality manager the first rule of any good quality service is you should know your customer very well. Gaps model is a conceptual model developed to qualitatively measure service quality. One of the most important gaps is "Expectation of a guest and the perception of management". READ MORE

Social media is at the front desk, is your hotel ready? These days everyone is on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In the second of a five part series, in this article we take a look at the best way to engage guests by using Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging site that has over 190 million users worldwide. Corporations, businesses, and hotels are using it to instantly connect with their customers. Point-by-point, this article tackles the best methods for engaging guests, driving new business, and improving customer service; all in 140 characters or less. READ MORE

Hoteliers will tell you that dealing with online travel agencies (OTAs) is a necessary cost of doing business. Yet, in recent history, they have been much more than that for hotels - in fact, for some hotels, particularly in 2009, OTAs were an essential marketing channel for staying alive. However, 2010 has been a different story, and 2011 will be an even more different story. READ MORE

When planning a family vacation, most families pick and choose a hotel based on the amenities and programs in place for families and their kids. Families are loyal and committed to brands that have proven themselves worthy of such affection by offering exceptional services and well designed family programs. This article will provide an overview of many well established initiatives taken by some of the largest names in the hospitality industry. The time is now for your property to seize the opportunity, become a destination for families, and earn your share of the lucrative family travel market. READ MORE