The hotel and service industry evolves in the front of the house all the time to meet the ever-changing expectations of our guest. Sometimes these expectations can start eating away at the bottom line, which good managers adapt to and change these environments to encourage a good rapport. But we have seen a change in the business aspect of the hospitality industry. Not only have guest's demands sometimes become unreasonable, our service supply change is being disrupted by ever increasing back of the house costs. The standard percentage of goods, labor and debt on our Profit and Loss statements are obliterating the Net profit line. This has been concerning investors and managers, making our careers as managers of revenue, a juggling act. READ MORE

Soft Branding is the new “it thing” in hotel marketing. Much has been written about how it works for developers, owners and operators, but the more important question is whether and how they work for travelers. In this article we look at the fundamental structure two of the brands that are successful in the soft brands space, and view this in terms of consumer's functional and emotional needs. The answer, from a consumer point of view, might surprise you. Is soft branding the answer to everything? READ MORE

The best way for a hotel to thrive is by really understanding its customers and what they really want. We make too many assumptions about what our customers want and how they interpret our marketing and services. Kodak, for example, buried its own invention of a digital camera because it thought customers wanted printed pictures. Far too late they realized that what customers really wanted was a convenient way to capture and revisit special moments. It didn't have to be print. This article shows ways you can use market research and tools like personas to identify, understand and successfully cater to your ideal customers. READ MORE

Increasingly, hospitality marketers are turning their attention away from Baby Boomers towards gratifying the instantaneous needs of the Millennials. There are currently around 79 million Millennials in North America - that is three million more than Baby Boomers who are predicted to dwindle to just 58 million by 2030. Otherwise known as Generation Y, they were born between 1980 and 1999, children of the Digital Age. This article focuses on the behavior of this generation, and offers some tips on how hotels can be creative in attracting, satisfying and retaining this demanding demographic. READ MORE

Analytics and personalization are more relevant to the Customer Travel Planning Journey than ever before. As these factors evolve in parallel with innovations in technology, unique value propositions become crucial for every conversation and conversion. For the world-class brands we serve, every ad, offer and delivery should consist of more than just a currency exchange - more than a discounted room rate or property value points. Instead, travel brands need to understand where each customer stands within the travel journey - from search to shopping to booking. We need to develop conversations with our prospects by unifying the customer experience across devices and guiding each customer toward the next stage of the journey. READ MORE