Creating an unforgettable guest experience involves much more than simply good interior design or a striking logo, particularly in today's competitive and product-flooded hotel industry. Guest columnist David Ashen, principal and founder of dash design, shares the "why and how" behind weaving brand and culture together successfully. Doing so not only helps a hotel brand differentiate and compete, it also creates a meaningful stay for hotel guests that extends way beyond check-out. READ MORE

Do your established procedures for processing credit card information and payments match up with the best practices outlined by credit card brands? Find out by reading about the six most important best practices for hotel credit card processing. Adhering to these practices can reduce your risk, save money, and minimize the headaches of lost disputes. READ MORE

In the past decade, the United States has experienced a major cultural and economic shift as downtowns become the hub of a city's economic activity and culture once again. This trend is having major implications for how people work, eat, and play, and most importantly for our industry: how they travel. As more travelers seek the uniqueness of a city by visiting their urban core, restaurants, attractions, parks, and hotels are benefiting from this return to a destination's roots. READ MORE

As a Detroit-based designer, I have always had a strong appreciation for historic buildings and the way they are able to narrate the past through architecture. Adaptive reuse projects, which literally reuse an old site or building for a contemporary purpose other than what it was originally built or designed for, have led to the resurrection of some of my city's most iconic landmarks. My firm has had a hand in many of those projects, and my experience working on them has only enhanced my affection for and understanding of the power and potential of adaptive reuse. READ MORE

The ongoing recovery from the “Great Recession” has not produced the flood of hotel property sales and associated major renovation projects in the United States that some in the hotel industry had anticipated based on past experiences. However, rebranding activity has remained fairly constant: just as renovating guest rooms is part of an ongoing cycle, so is rebranding. But as owners know, rebranding poses greater challenges than guest room renovations, and there is far more at stake in assuring the best possible outcome. READ MORE