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Hotels undergoing management transitions are commonplace throughout the industry, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, but seamless transitions are quite a bit harder to come by. That’s where Charlestowne Hotels feels it has a leg up thanks to an experienced management team and thorough process designed specifically to limit disruptions at the property level.
What is your take on diversity and inclusion in today’s hospitality industry? In the hospitality industry, we’re in the business of creating memorable experiences for our guests. We strive to exceed expectations, anticipate needs, and deliver a warm welcome that feels like coming home. While having a beautiful setting and flawless guestrooms is key, the heart of hospitality lies within your team and their ability to deliver friendly, thoughtful service.
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? My inspiration stems from my family who always embody hospitality and friendliness towards others. Growing up, we often lived in tourist destinations due to my father’s career in civil engineering, and I cherished our vacations together as some of my happiest times. These experiences fueled my desire to bring that same feeling of joy to others.
Choice Hotels International‘s exchange offer to acquire the issued and outstanding shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts expired. Wyndham issued a letter to shareholders asking for their support of Wyndham’s nominations for their Board of Directors and issued another statement following Choice’s expiration announcement. All of the news from this morning from both companies is below: NORTH BETHESDA, Maryland—Choice Hotels International, Inc. announced the expiration of the exch
Tim Gerhold, general manager, The Golden Hotel, Ascend Hotel Collection in Golden, Colorado, definitely has the often-mentioned hospitality gene. That guest-first sensibility was on full display when, mid-interview with LODGING, he didn’t hesitate to pick up the phone and proceed to offer the caller—a honeymooner inquiring about a room—an upgrade to a suite with a fireplace and river and mountain views.
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? My mother, Janine Goodin, was a catering manager for a full-service hotel. I was fortunate to be able to join my mother and her team on sales calls and MOD (manager on duty) shifts as a teenager. My experiences during those moments allowed me to see a future in the industry. Who were some of your mentors or role models, male or female, and what […] The post Pushing Through Boundaries appeared first on LODGING Magazine.
CHICAGO—Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced a collaboration between the Hyatt Regency brand and Future, a personal training platform that connects users with a fitness coach to create customized virtual workouts. Launching at 26 Hyatt Regency hotels and resorts in the United States, the collaboration includes workouts developed by Future trainers that are customized for each hotel and resort’s fitness center and equipment.
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? Hilton is an iconic brand and the vitality, complexity, and community surrounding hospitality are unique to this industry and continue to inspire me. Now that I am in hospitality, the team members, owners, and suppliers—the community I have the pleasure of working with—are why I will probably never leave this business!
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? I was born with a love of travel and hotels, but it was really my grandmother who instilled in me a deep appreciation for beautiful and special places around the world. My father was also hugely influential in my interest in hotels as real estate and creative problem solving. Who were some of your mentors or role models, male or female, and what were their most […] The post Meeting With Success appeared first on LODGING Maga
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) announced that Kevin Carey will serve as AHLA’s interim president and CEO while continuing in his role as AHLA’s senior executive vice president and COO. Carey succeeds former AHLA President and CEO William “Chip” Rogers, who resigned last Friday to pursue other professional interests. Carey will report directly to AHLA’s Board of Directors until a permanent president and CEO is selected and onboarded.
SAN FRANCISCO—eTip has been named an approved digital tipping provider of IHG Hotels & Resorts. This partnership enables associates across IHG’s network of more than 6,000 franchises, managed properties, restaurants, and bars to access eTip’s contactless tipping technology. By using the eTip platform, hotel colleagues have the potential to increase their tipped wages while guests can access cashless tipping. eTip’s payment and banking system, designed as an end-to-end digit
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? I was not specifically seeking a hotel career. A friend told me about a position at a hotel as the administrative assistant to the director of catering (DOC). Two weeks into the position, the DOC left. Having very little training, I did the best I could to assist the director of sales & marketing.
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? I worked my way through college and early in my career to supplement income within the restaurant industry. A few years post college, I landed an entry-level development role with a major brand company and have been in that space ever since. In my foundational roles within hotel development, I gained first-hand exposure to hotel owners’ entrepreneurial mindsets.
What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business? When I was 18, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant my Uncle Vince managed. I did not like the restaurant business very much. Then, I got a job at a hotel in Philadelphia. I thought, ‘This is temporary until I find my dream job.’ The rest is history! Who were some of your mentors or role models, male or female, and what were […] The post In Her Comfort Zone appeared first on LODGING Magazine.
The Q4 2023 Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE) revealed that the global hotel construction pipeline hit all-time high project counts in Q4. At the close of 2023, LE analysts stated that the total global construction pipeline stands at 15,196 projects/2,367,727 rooms, a 7 percent increase in projects, and a 3 percent increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).
LODGING Editor-in-Chief Dennis Nessler speaks with representatives from a diverse cross-section of the industry to discuss the current state of labor in the lodging industry. Participants discuss everything from the advantages of flexible pay and hours to technology advances, specifically the AI revolution, and how advances in those areas are impacting today’s workforce.
Hotel Equities announced two promotions in finance and accounting. Hyangsoon Ha has been promoted to expand her role as vice president of finance and accounting, and Suzanne Heller has been promoted to vice president of accounting. WaterWalk announced the appointment of Rebecca Billups to national director of sales—STAY. Billups brings experience in corporate sales, general management, and training to the company.
Aimbridge Hospitality announced that Craig S. Smith will join the global hospitality management company as CEO, effective March 18, 2024. As only the third CEO in Aimbridge’s history, Smith is expected to leverage decades of operational experience and leadership with Marriott International to solidify Aimbridge’s position in the industry. Having begun his hospitality career in hotel operations, Smith was a general manager before being tapped for executive spots in several international markets,
Nearly every hospitality leader mentions a special quality sought in prospective team members, one that’s generally universal within their own ranks. Yet, as Jennifer Krapp, Director of Operations at Indigo Road Hospitality Group (IRHG), told LODGING, developing those with the potential to find success and fulfillment in her organization can require an investment, something she said, her company is proud to make through a program that rewards—and encourages—a select group of food and beverage em
PLANTATION, Florida—Marriott International announced a year of room signings and additions across the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) in 2023. The company nearly doubled its number of deal signings in the region versus the prior year, signing 57 transactions and nearly 7,300 rooms in 2023 to reach a solid pipeline of 24,000 rooms across the region at the end of last year.
About three years ago, Oracle Hospitality acquired Nor1 to deliver an AI (artificial intelligence) solution for real-time pricing and inventory management—specifically to create ancillary offers to guests—and embedded that tool into Oracle’s property management system, OPERA Cloud. Despite the availability of sophisticated AI tools, Jason Bryant, vice president of Nor1, considers the hotel industry to be in the early stages of adopting them, but expects the usage to ramp up exponentially in the
WASHINGTON—The U.S. hotel industry reported lower performance results month over month, according to January 2024 data from CoStar. January 2024 Percentage change from January 2023: Occupancy: 51.9 percent (down 1.7 percent)ADR: $146.33 (up 2.7 percent)RevPAR: $75.99 (up 0.9 percent) Among the Top 25 Markets, Oahu Island experienced the highest occupancy level (79.0 percent), which was up 6.2 percent year over year.
MCLEAN, Virginia—Hilton shared a year of growth in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), entering new markets in 2023. Last year, Hilton opened 19 new hotels and approximately 4,000 rooms in the Caribbean and Latin America, representing more rooms added in the region than in any other year in the company’s history. Hilton’s CALA portfolio is comprised of more than 220 hotels and over 40,000 rooms spanning 15 brands and 29 countries and territories.
There are numerous barriers to hotel ownership—like industry awareness, access to capital, and market knowledge—causing groups of entrepreneurs to be underrepresented in hospitality. To create spaces that encourage, promote, and assist these groups in becoming hoteliers, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts created two programs: Women Own the Room and BOLD (Black Owners and Lodging Developers).
DALLAS, Texas—The commercial real estate lending market demonstrated signs of stabilization at the end of 2023, with borrowing costs appearing to have peaked, even as transaction activity remains subdued, according to the latest research from CBRE. The CBRE Lending Momentum Index, which tracks the pace of CBRE-originated commercial loan closings in the United States, increased by 1.0 percent from Q3 2023—marking the first quarterly increase since Q1 2022.
As hotels and hospitality businesses grapple with the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape, one of the most massive challenges they face is ransomware. Potentially causing data loss and costly recovery procedures, ransomware is a cybersecurity attack that encrypts files, making them inaccessible without a decryption key that only the attacker holds.
LODGING brings you the first installment of our three-part Ownership Series, providing owner perspectives on various hot topics and industry trends. For this installment, Vinay Patel of Fairbrook Hotels and Mitesh Amin of KARA Hospitality discuss some of the key benefits of operating within the extended-stay segment and share their model for success.
To make their guests “feel at home,” hotels have had to continually update the entertainment offerings in their guestrooms to match the amenities purchased for home use. Radios were first introduced at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel in 1927, followed by the offering of televisions at the Roosevelt Hilton in New York City in 1947. In the 1960s, hotels and motels began to proudly promote the advent of color televisions, and during the 1970s, hotels […] The post Beyond the TV: Hotel In-Room Ente
The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas, opened its doors on Jan. 23, 2024, becoming the newest addition to The Ritz-Carlton’s collection of over 110 hotels and resorts. The property has a 38-year-old legacy in the Dallas area and is undergoing a substantial $55 million renovation following its acquisition in 2022 through a joint venture between Trinity Investments and Partners Group.
Even for properties that are not “convention hotels” per say, group business can be a key part of their clientele. Executive retreats, board meetings, training sessions, incentive programs, and a variety of other corporate and association gatherings can find a home in hotels of all sizes, bringing revenue from room nights, F&B, meeting venue rental, and more.
MILWAUKEE—Marcus Hotels & Resorts announced that it has reached an agreement to jointly acquire the Loews Minneapolis Hotel with Hempel Real Estate and Robinson Park Investments. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed and are subject to the satisfaction of certain standard closing conditions. Upon closing, Marcus Hotels & Resorts will assume hotel management, which will be rebranded under another major global hotel system.
Hotel companies sometimes hire independent entities—persons or firms—to provide certain guest services. In most such cases, the laws of agency are in play: the hotel is the principal that empowers someone else (an agent) to act on its behalf and controls the methods used by the agent to carry out delegated tasks. Whether expressed through contract or implied through actions, the principal’s relationship to the agent creates a fiduciary relationship between the parties that requires the […]
You can’t succeed and thrive for 35 years and multiple generations without learning to pivot and adapt to change, and Raines has certainly done that. But for the longtime hospitality company, there has been one constant, and that is putting people first. It’s that philosophy that has been a core tenet of the integrated Florence, South Carolina-based development, management, and investment company and has helped it steadily expand its portfolio of Southeastern properties.
In 2023, rising international travel and nationwide workforce restoration resulted in a boost for the hospitality industry. Despite these positive strides, the landscape is not without challenges, as inflation and various economic hurdles have prompted travelers to curtail their discretionary spending. In response to these evolving dynamics, hotels are poised to continue their adoption of cloud technology and AI innovations that aim to enhance the guest experience throughout the rest of 2024.
As a college student, Expotel Hospitality President and Chief Development Officer Michael Nixon was considering different careers—medicine, law, and especially, espionage—while working summers at a hotel. Describing his journey from his college days, he told LODGING, “I had majored in the Russian language and minored in international affairs, with thoughts of joining the CIA or the NSA, that is, until I factored in the starting salary.
ARLINGTON, Virginia—Knowland reported meetings and events in secondary markets outpaced the traditional Top 25 markets in January. Most notably, the highest growth Top 25 market, Nashville, Tennesee, was up 16.1 percent, while the top growth secondary market city, Lexington, Kentucky, had a 76.4 percent uptick in meetings and events for the month. This suggests a trend that indicates meeting planners are sometimes opting for secondary destinations to reduce costs.
As the dynamics of workforce management evolve, the landscape of managing paid time off (PTO) and various leaves is undergoing a significant transformation. The once-simple administration of PTO is now a complex web of state and federal mandates, demanding meticulous attention to ensure compliance across diverse jurisdictions. The Complexities of Evolving State Laws In recent years, the intricacies surrounding PTO have been compounded by the divergent laws across states and localities.
Looking to build on a longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, Davidson Hospitality Group has unveiled some new initiatives and partnerships designed to reinforce its efforts. Kenny Imafidon, VP, operational excellence, recently detailed for LODGING the newly created DE&I Council he leads, the company’s continued investment in DE&I training programs and workshops, and a strategic partnership with the college-based National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH).
Aligned Hospitality Management appointed Deborah Lahti as chief operating officer. Lathi will join Aligned’s corporate team to lead and manage the hotel’s daily business operations and supervise hotel and corporate initiatives. MCR welcomed Sameer Mehra as chief revenue officer. With 25 years of hospitality experience, Mehra will lead the company’s revenue and sales team.
ABERDEEN, South Dakota—My Place Hotels of America is partnering with Grubhub for guests’ dining experience at its hotels. Guests of My Place Hotels can order from Grubhub’s network, which includes more than 365,000 restaurants and convenience stores, for delivery directly to the hotel, with $0 delivery fees on eligible orders. The partnership is available at all participating My Place Hotels across the United States.
NORTH BETHESDA, Maryland—Choice Hotels International announced an agreement with Tesla to offer Tesla Universal Wall Connectors to participating Radisson, Cambria, Comfort, Country Inn & Suites, Quality Inn, and other Choice-branded hotels across the United States. Through this agreement, Choice-branded properties can add four or more charging stations for guests, helping to meet the demand for electric vehicle (EV) charging and eliminating a pain point for EV drivers traveling for business
PLANO, Texas—Aimbridge Hospitality outlined plans to streamline its U.S. operations, including adding an Owner Relations team to its structure and moving to two focused operating divisions named Aimbridge Select and Aimbridge Full Service. The changes announced reflect the company’s pledge to deliver comprehensive management service. The addition of an Owner Relations team nods to the fast-paced environment hotel owners, asset managers, and hospitality brands face daily and looks to provide part
WASHINGTON—As more than two-thirds of hotels continue to experience staffing shortages, hoteliers are offering more pay and incentives to attract and retain talent, according to a new survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). Over the last six months, 82 percent of respondents have increased wages, which hit a record-high average for hotels in December 2023.
The security and safety of all guests, employees, and visitors at hotels is top priority for hotel security management teams. Investing in upgrades to security and safety technology helps hotels stay compliant, manage assets, and prevent security incidents. One component of security technology that hotels invest in is key control and asset management solutions.
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