Sonesta International Hotels offers Liquid Art as homage to locally sourced ingredients in craft cocktails, local small batch spirits and ales, throughout the property regional wine lists and even down to the coffee served. This provides another opportunity to create a sense of place for our guests, extending the local inspiration found in our hotel design and decor into the menus for food and beverage. Examples from our full service hotels and resorts help illustrate how our beverage teams are delivering Liquid Art in new and innovative ways. READ MORE

Hotels with restaurants and bars are continually challenged to compete with freestanding food and beverage operations. I believe that many hotels and resorts however may have a unique opportunity to exploit a consumer trend that shows no sign of waning in popularity. In many cases a hotel or resorts location, physical plant, diversity of talent and volume may help them to create compelling programs to supply local ingredients for hotel guests READ MORE

I fondly remember my grandfather's very own vegetable patch where he meticulously grew, besides other delicious contributions to the family kitchen, exactly 31 chive plants. Why 31 you ask? Well, my grandfather was neither a restaurateur nor had many hungry eaters in our family he simply was a gourmand hence very particular when it came to fresh produce, quality and taste. Subsequently, one organically grown chive plant to harvest each day of the month was what he wanted to satisfy his quality requirements. Nothing could compete with the crisp taste of these freshly harvested chives of ours taken straight from the garden to the dish without having ever seen a refrigerator. READ MORE

Twenty years ago people chose hotels through travel agencies, word-of-mouth reviews, or simply driving by and stopping at the first clean-looking motel they spotted. Today, the rise of the smartphone and advent of online review websites like TripAdvisor marks a crucial paradigm shift in how average consumers make their travel arrangements. The Internet has given every consumer a voice — a voice that may love or loathe your product. Time and time again in articles, op-eds, and essays published in thought-leading websites and journals, hospitality experts agree: customer satisfaction should be a hotelier's number one priority, and that this is best achieved through better listening to your guests. READ MORE

Daily deal websites like Groupon burst into popularity towards the end of the 00s. Since then, they have generated much controversy. Despite being valued at over $6 billion in 2010, Groupon's value has degraded significantly. It's stock value has crashed 43%, heralding many to proclaim the death of flash deals. Not so fast. Groupon's stock woes are due to Groupon's aggressive marketing, and it's stock allocation decisions. Despite it's troubles, Groupon still sits on $868 billion in cash reserves. In 2011, a BIA/Kelsey report predicted that consumers would spend $4.2 billion on daily deals by 2015; by 2016, they predict the number will rise to $5.5 billion. READ MORE