Imagine a real estate scenario where investors enjoy higher margins, developers plus sales and marketing teams enjoy decreased costs, managers enjoy streamlined operations, buyers enjoy the very real perception of getting more than they paid for, everything is legal, and everyone is happy. Welcome to the world of fractional ownership. READ MORE

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a popular concept in IT today, and with good reason. The paradigm of SOA enables the intersection of technology and business processes: to ensure that IT directly supports the business's most vital functions. In the world of hospitality, this means connecting IT to guest service. We call it Guest Service-Oriented Architecture. READ MORE

The Hospitality & Leisure industry continues to undergo dramatic changes due to the impact of technology on business travel, the dynamics of geopolitics and its impact on individual behaviors, the changing competitive landscape, and more. As a result, hospitality operators are highly focused on guest loyalty and the product/service and personal attributes that foster return on such loyalty. Furthermore, globalization and technological forces are accelerating a shift in customer demands toward a desire for services and products that are tailored to individual style and preferences. To be successful, organizations must improve the customer experience and develop lasting customer relationships. READ MORE

At The Peabody Orlando, we believe hotel awards are extremely important. They are all about credibility, marketing and public perception of quality and excellence. Ignore or naysay these awards at your peril. Each association, industry, profession, or trade has its series of awards. Each award or accolade is a coveted prize that is diligently sought after and proudly displayed. Similarly for us hoteliers there is a slate of awards to be won for which most of us are in serious, hot pursuit. Some visionary hoteliers have departments specially assigned to the pursuit of award happiness. READ MORE

Although catering has always been an important factor in the success of hotel food and beverage departments, today it has evolved to share focal point status with the other outlets. Food quality and service is expected to equal, if not exceed, what you would find in the restaurant. Clients want creativity and variety. They are savvy, they hold numerous events in many different venues, and they are constantly challenging operators to come up with new ideas. READ MORE

Hotel managers, operators, investors, and analysts typically now use RevPAR as a basis for their hotel performance measure and analysis. This widely used measure reflects the guest rooms revenue on a per room basis, thereby monitoring the success or otherwise of the hotel's rooms inventory management. Hoteliers aim to maximise RevPAR by means of an occupancy and average rate trade off. Rooms revenue makes up a large portion of total revenue. Typically, full-service three- to five-star hotels derive about 50-65% of their revenues from rooms. Budget and extended stay hotels with limited additional facilities make up to 90% of their revenues from rooms. While RevPAR is one of the most recognised and used performance measures in the hospitality industry, providing general market trends and some revenue indications, there are some pitfalls to be aware of when analysing a hotel's performance based solely on RevPAR. This article shows the major pitfalls of RevPAR, and elaborates on the advantages of using a complementary performance measure, GOPPAR (Goh-Par). READ MORE

Usage rates for hotel/resort fitness centers have increased steadily; in turn increasing the priority that hotel operators are placing on these facilities as a source of both customer satisfaction and retention. Let's review some of the benefits and considerations that can make or break the success of a hospitality-based fitness facility & some of their corresponding challenges... READ MORE

Improving the features and amenities of a property are an important part of any renovation, but making over your staff is the real differentiator. By training employees to elevate customer service levels and positively impact the guest experience, you'll see real improvement - especially in the bottom line. In this article I share how one Las Vegas property has combined organization-wide customer service training with an extensive renovation, elevating the property to four-star status and boosting room rates by $100 per night. In this case, the overall improvement to the guest experience was not only a competitive strategy, but a profitability strategy as well. READ MORE

Design is constantly changing - there's always something new and better to try. As a designer, this inspires me. Currently, one of the hottest trends is the merging of residential and hotel design. This article explores this trend in detail - and suggests ways you can capitalize on it for the benefit of your hotel property and your bottom line. Certainly it's a trend that's not only changing the way we travel, but changing the way we enjoy travel. READ MORE

When renovating and refurbishing, the owners of hotel properties need to think about the potential use of federal investment tax credits for historic preservation. These credits are most typically found in the context of a "soup-to-nuts" building rehabilitation, that is, those occasions when a property is adapted to hotel use. However, the use of these tax credits need not be defined in such narrow context. Without thinking about it, owners may well leave money on the table. Tax credits need to be distinguished from tax deductions. An income tax deduction lowers the amount of income subject to taxation. A tax credit, however, lowers the amount of the tax owed. In general, a dollar of tax credit reduces the amount of income tax owed by one dollar. The federal government offers tax credits for the rehabilitation of older buildings... READ MORE

It is an extreme example, but in the 1970s, grain silos in downtown Akron, Ohio were transformed into a Hilton Hotel. Though the example is quirky, it illustrates how hotel architecture is responding to the desire of a seemingly ever growing market of urban adventurers looking for memorable spaces. This affinity for "character" has led to the rise of boutique hotels, defined not only by size, but by design - typically historic in nature. One of the pioneers was Bill Kimpton, whose foresight created the Kimpton Group. Others leaders in the field include Ian Shrager and Andre Balazs. This affinity for character has also prompted larger projects, such as Sage Development's proposed Marriott Renaissance in a redeveloped Portland, Oregon department store which will have 330 rooms. As a result of the success of these and other pioneers, hotel developers are often on the prowl of unique opportunities, thinking about the hotel potential of transforming warehouses, office buildings, Masonic temples, train stations and more. READ MORE

In the day, Portland, Oregon's downtown was home to a cluster of downtown department stores. With names as Rhodes, Olds, Wortman & King, and Lipman, Wolfe & Company, these were the local versions of retail giants as Gimbels, Macy's, Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field. The retail concept was simple - they sold everything and anything that customers would buy. Clothes, shoes, toys, sporting goods, furniture - even boats and bagels! They marketed themselves as THE destination for the 20th century woman including style shows, tea rooms and special events. Thanks to American ingenuity, women in this era enjoyed new found leisure but American family values did not permit entrance to the workplace. In Portland, the grand dame of the genre was the Meier & Frank Store. It was a conglomeration of three buildings on a single block: The first built in 1909, the second in 1915 and the third in 1932. READ MORE

Part 3 - Measuring and tracking the impact of your policy with guests. Have you wondered what the true impact of your environmental efforts is on your sales as well as your operational cost? Have you struggled with ways to quantify the impact of these efforts? This article will outline how you can begin to put some numbers around your efforts. I will discuss simple tips on tracking your company's reduction in energy, water, and waste as well as your company's increase in guest sales and loyalty. By the end of this article you will be able to look at your environmental efforts in a completely new light, which can give you a better ability to inspire your employees, peers and superiors to support your efforts. READ MORE

Part 2 - Leveraging your environmental policy in your marketing and sales efforts. You may not realize that a number of the initiatives you have started in your hotel in order to cut costs and survive during the last four tough years can actually be turned into marketing and sales tools. I am referring to everything you have pursued in order to reduce your waste, energy usage, and water usage. Many guests are currently looking for reasons to visit your property over the property next door. An increasing number of guests are looking for properties where they can feel their stay is in harmony with the environment. Just imagine if you could add 5% more loyal guests by publicizing your environmental efforts. READ MORE

It is said that history, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But from a financial standpoint, history begins at 50. That is to say that the federal government - as well as many state and local governments - offer financial and other incentives to buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And typically, to be listed, a building must be 50 years old. READ MORE