LATEST NEWS
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LEADERSHIP
August 14, 2019225 | LinkedIn Means Business: How to use social media to grow
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. That career adage is about 100 years old, but it still rings true today, especially when it comes to social media. If you’re not tuned into social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, it’s time to reconsider. With more than 3 billion people read more
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Feature
August 7, 2019Mixed Message: Multicultural and heritage tourism is big business
Most people the world over think of the United States as a multicultural melting pot. We are still quintessentially American, but from north to south and east to west, our cities and outlying communities are dotted with districts defined by residents’ ethnicity and culture. Today, the more developed and culturally defined areas are attracting visitors in search of new experiences and information. Multicultural or heritage tourism is good for the hospitality industry, and it is beneficial to a city’s economic growth, say supporters.
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Feature
July 31, 2019Grading Curves: NAACP diversity report card reveals weaknesses in hotel companies
“Equal opportunity for people of color in the United States remains an unrealized goal.” That is the opening statement in a recently released study by the NAACP. The 2019 study titled “Opportunity & Diversity Report Card: The Hotel & Lodging Industry,” not only shows stagnation in racial equality in hospitality workplaces, it reveals African Americans have lost ground over the past decade in their climb to the top in U.S. hotel companies. NAACP representatives attended NABHOOD’s summit to share the report’s results and find ways to reverse the trend, engage hotel companies and come up with clearer data, including counting the number of minority franchisees.
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DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
July 24, 2019222 | Flying Solo: What it takes to go from franchised to independent
Independent hotel supply in the U.S. has decreased in the past 10 years, reports STR. The lodging-data company reports independently owned and operated hotels account for less than 40 percent of all hotels. About 1 percent of those close each year. But that trend may take a turn. It appears more and more hoteliers who read more
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HOME SHARING
July 17, 2019221 | Home Sharing’s Heavy Hitters: Airbnb’s genius is branding (Part 2)
Last week, part one of our report on Airbnb looked at the home-sharing giant’s impact on hotel business performance. We reported on a study that shows for every 100 percent increase in Airbnb accommodations in a market, hotel RevPAR declines by an average 3 percent. We also reported a growth in the number of whole read more
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HOME SHARING
July 10, 2019220 | Disruptive Innovator: Measuring Airbnb’s impact (Part 1)
More than 10 years ago, the short-term home rental industry began to shapeshift with the birth of Airbnb. The technology company has quickly grown from a small peer-to-peer home-sharing platform into a virtual behemoth with more rooms than any hotel company on the planet. Today, Airbnb has more than 4 million listings in nearly 100,000 read more
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EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT & RETENTION
July 3, 2019219 | Train and Retain: Hospitality apprenticeship fills high-level jobs
It’s no secret the hospitality industry in America is in dire need of skilled employees. Many hotel owners and operators continually seek ways to attract and keep talent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the hospitality industry has a turnover rate of nearly 75 percent per year, compared to a healthy rate of 10 to read more
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DIVERSITY
June 26, 2019218 | Yes, Girls Allowed: More women venturing into hotel investment
Who invests money better, men or women? Fidelity Investments found surprising answers to that question when it surveyed nearly 3,000 people. The group was almost evenly divided between the sexes. Yet only a tenth of women said their investments would outperform men’s. Meantime, a separate analysis by Fidelity shows women consistently generated larger returns on read more
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LODGING LEADERS
June 19, 2019217 | Rainy Days Ahead: Hotels advised to prepare for a downturn
Many hotel-business experts believe an industry downturn is at hand. Some say it will happen as soon as next year. Others expect business to slow in 2021. So, is the forecasted slowdown based on fact, an economic algorithm, or is it more of a gut feeling? In this episode of Lodging Leaders we try to read more
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Feature
June 12, 2019Wellness Travel: Get your business in shape for an emerging trend
Business and leisure travelers are growing more wellness-minded.
The Global Wellness Institute reports wellness tourism is a $640 billion industry. A quarter of that is spent by travelers in North America.
Wellness is an emerging sector in hospitality, growing at 6.5 percent a year. The growth is spread across hotels of all price segments and guest demographics.
Wellness-minded travelers seek a path that not only introduces them to healthy concepts and choices, but allows them to return home feeling better than when they left.
If your hotel can live up to that promise, you can build a healthy bottom line. -
HUMANS OF LODGING
June 12, 2019Secret of a Healthy Chef
Ryan Ellis is familiar with the adage, “Never trust a skinny chef,” but for the executive chef at Fit Farm, it works the opposite. Ellis, 32, joined the fitness and wellness retreat in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, about a year ago. He said he’s learned about the significance of portion control in meals – for Fit read more
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Feature
May 29, 2019Hotel Crime: How to manage a high-profile case
When a hotel becomes a crime scene, there is little an owner or manager can do to ward off publicity. But a hotel can recover from a crisis and save its image if it has a plan in place to deal with the aftermath of a high-profile incident. Hoteliers and a PR expert offer advice on how to respond to a crime at your hotel.
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Feature
May 22, 2019The Weed Frontier: How hotels are capitalizing on cannabis
As more and more states legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, hoteliers are experimenting with integrating the cannabis lifestyle into their amenities and programming. The hospitality industry is eager to jump on the bandwagon as the cannabis is predicted to grow to a $23 billion market in the U.S. over the next few years.
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LODGING LEADERS
May 15, 2019213 | Event Entrepreneur: What’s behind The Lodging Conference success
Harry Javer is founder of The Lodging Conference, one of the hospitality industry’s must-do events. This year, The Lodging Conference will mark its 25th anniversary. Lodging Leaders talks with Harry about the genesis of The Lodging Conference, what it offers industry leaders, as well as newcomers to the hotel business, and how attendees can make read more
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LODGING LEADERS
May 8, 2019212 | Can We Talk? Why women don’t negotiate
This episode of Lodging Leaders explores why women in business often don’t negotiate and why they don’t win at the negotiating table as often as their male counterparts. We identify some fundamental stumbling blocks and barriers to women’s ability to get what they want. And we offer experts’ advice on how to craft a negotiation read more
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HUMANS OF LODGING
May 1, 2019From Bellman to GM
Juan Mera is general manager of North Point Hospitality Group’s tri-brand Marriott hotel in downtown Nashville. Taking the job was a challenge that Mera knew was a rare career opportunity. And it made him break a promise to his wife. Mera is a native of Lima, Peru. He came to the U.S. nearly 30 years read more