Most hotels now ask for guest feedback through comments cards or surveys, but too many forget to put the follow-up systems in place so they can really benefit from that feedback. Here are some of the things you need to think about to collect the right feedback and deal with it in a way that benefits your hotel as well as its guests. READ MORE

Emerging markets, though exciting and ground breaking, can be tough to manage singularly. Partnerships are needed; not in the sense that individualism is not enough, but in the hopes of realizing maximum operational potential. In the hospitality industry, where there is such a broad range of expertise, partnerships are necessary not only to survive, but also thrive. Combining these two, emerging markets and the hospitality industry, and we find ourselves turning to the African stage. An area of the world where vast takes on so many meanings -- opportunity, size, culture. But what also comes with such a gift is the cost of knowing that individuality without partnerships will make success impossible, especially in our industry. READ MORE

Just like people, brands need to be carefully nurtured and managed, and just like people, they get old and tired and need reinvigorating. In today's State of Brand world, every hotel owner/manager has to perform a regular health check on the hotel's brand. I don't mean just looking at occupancy levels, rack rates, or even food and beverage revenues. I mean fully understanding the health of your brand image, internally and externally. This means doing regular refresher sessions on the state of your brand for all key leaders to ensure that they are passionately connected and understand who they are and where you are going as a hotel. In this article, you'll see how the State of Brand has evolved over time and where it is going in the near future. READ MORE

Remember when free Wi-Fi was considered cutting-edge? Now, of course, most hotel guests expect it—if not in their room, then certainly in the common areas of the property. Hotel technology is evolving rapidly. Digital solutions are becoming the norm for solving common pain points in accommodation management. In particular, mobile technology and cloud-based software services are revolutionizing both the guest experience and the job of the hotelier. That will continue to be true in 2016. The year ahead promises to bring more developments in mobile and digital solutions for hospitality, as well as continued emphasis on the direct channel. READ MORE

Until the early 2000s, hotels were often owned by individuals, small groups of investors, or the companies under whose flag they operated. In that era - circa 1960s through the early 2000s - there was a significant alignment of interests between those traditional owners and the in-branded hotel managers. This alignment was not surprising because hotel-owning brand managers had to comply with the very policies and practices they dictated for their brand-wide standards. However, by the start of the new millennium, the players and landscape began to change as the hotel chains began divesting themselves of their hotel assets and the well-financed private equity investor became a central player. READ MORE