About 25 years ago, as the number of limited service hotels in the U.S. began to grow, hotel franchisers began to add perceived value to their brands by offering guests a free breakfast.
Today, the lines are blurring between limited and full service as hotels add a variety of paid and free food and beverage options no matter the chain-scale classification or price segment.
During the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles last week, Lodging Leaders interviewed hoteliers, restaurateurs and brand designers who are remaking existing F&B programs or introducing new dining concepts in hotels.
In today’s episode we feature Danica Boyd, global head of Wyndham Garden; Steve Palmer, restaurateur and managing partner of Indigo Road Hospitality Group, and Larry Spelts, president of its new hotel division; Tom Horwitz and Adrianne Korczynski of NELSON Worldwide, a hotel design and branding company; and Matthew J. Stone, associate professor of recreation, hospitality and parks management at California State University, Chico, and one of the researchers of the newly released report on culinary travel trends from the World Food Travel Association.
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Global business travel is a $1.4 trillion industry. The Global Business Travel Association calculates the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 resulted in a loss of $113 billion in business travel spend in hotels, airlines and other sectors of the travel industry. But all is not lost. GBTA, industry analysts and travel management companies see some green shoots of hope for 2021 as the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out and corporations put some of their people on the road again. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.
Long Live Lodging, an online multimedia news organization that covers the hospitality industry, found itself tossing aside its plans for news coverage late in the first quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and devastated the hospitality industry. The year turned out to be ground-breaking for Long Live Lodging, which developed the industry’s first live digital conference, and its podcast, Lodging Leaders, which increased its followers through timely, credible and balanced reporting on trends and issues driving the industry during the historic year. The company also won international recognition for its coverage of the COVID-19 crisis and its work as a whole. Long Live Lodging is a startup media company, formed in 2019, with Lodging Leaders, which was founded in 2015. In today’s report, we celebrate the podcast’s 300th episode. Podcast founder and co-host Jon Albano and co-host Judy Maxwell have a free-wheeling conversation in which they review the top podcasts of 2020 (Can anyone say ‘fair franchising’?) and give a brief preview of what the media organization plans for 2021.