NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The U.S. hotel industry continues to roll along in its recovery to and beyond 2019 performance levels.
Speakers throughout the second day of the 14th Annual Hotel Data Conference acknowledged that the industry still isn't fully back to 2019 levels across the board, particularly when adjusting for inflation, but it is well ahead of earlier projections.
There's been a lot of talk about when things return to normal, but hoteliers are also taking into account that may not happen because of guests and the changes to the way they travel. They're still traveling, but for different reasons and for different lengths of time with different budgets.
The changes that started in the earlier parts of the pandemic are still happening, and they're creating further changes, leading hoteliers to further adapt to those challenges and find more opportunities to grow their business.
Photo of the Day
Slides of the Day
Quotes of the Day
“I would argue that you can't build authenticity. I would argue that you have to live authentically in order to have a location that people want to come to.”
— Kristina Anderson, senior client sales consultant for Revinate
"I think the key takeaway is there's room for us both,"
— Kelsey Fenerty, senior research analyst for STR, on the growth of both hotels and short-term rentals.
Editors' Takeaways
I spoke about recession concerns yesterday in our recap video, and I’m going to write about it now. During the closing session of the conference today, Isaac Collazo, vice president of analytics, North America, at STR, said several times “So what?” in response to all the talks and headlines about a possible recession. He agreed with Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks that the numbers don’t indicate a recession within the next three months and went even further, saying he doesn’t think it’ll happen in 2023 either. Kelsey Fenerty, senior research analyst at STR, had a slightly more pessimistic view.
I remember there was a lot of talk about recession worries during the Hotel Data Conference in 2019 and whether the country would talk itself into a recession. That, of course, was before the pandemic hit, and while there’s talk again of recession, the people in the industry I’ve heard from and talked to are generally much more optimistic about how hoteliers would handle one if it happens because of how quickly they adapted to providing hospitality during COVID-19.
Whichever side you come down on, people are definitely worried about what a recession would mean. If one were to happen, most signs point to it being a mild one, but the thing to remember is that may be difficult for people to imagine. You say the word "recession" and most people who were adults when the Great Recession hit are going to remember home foreclosures, massive layoffs and lots of people applying for a handful of jobs. The conditions that led to that recession are not what are at play right now, but that could really skew how people think of it, especially those who suffered losses from it, and that could affect their financial decisions going forward.
— Bryan Wroten, senior reporter
@HNN_Bryan
This might be an overly simplistic takeaway for an event so rich in data and insights, but the one thought I've kept having the past two days is "I'm so glad I'm not a revenue manager." Now that isn't to say it isn't a great career path to take, but really what's driving that feeling right now is the realization of the increasingly complicated and almost Herculean task of trying to sort through the endless streams of data available to them to not only identify what's the most relevant but then crystallize it into a cohesive strategy and coherently express that strategy to various stakeholder groups, many of whom aren't particularly data literate.
It's no small feat to do the job of a revenue manager right now. At many recent revenue-management-focused events, I've heard executives talking proudly about how they've managed to tear down the walls between revenue experts, sales and marketing departments and operations. And while that's great, the sheer enormity of the task ahead of revenue managers might be enough to make them wish they could go back to hiding in their silos.
— Sean McCracken, news editor
@HNN_Sean
The most common phrases of the day were “authentic experiences” and “know your guest.” I sat in on “The great outdoors: Leveraging demand for outdoor leisure” panel, and while each panelist agreed that the increased leisure demand trend is here to stay, they also said it’s evolving as time goes on.
For travelers who started going on more outdoor trips since the start of the pandemic, they’ve already hit some of the more popular tertiary markets, such as Boseman, Montana. Demand numbers have leveled off at these outdoor resort locations. Instead of marketing toward existing guests, Kristina Anderson, senior client sales consultant for Revinate, said now’s the time to capture new guests and take a part of the market share in up-and-coming high demand areas.
To capture those new guests, Anderson said companies need to be authentic from leadership down, cultivating a culture of caring about the guest experience. In order to do this, she said it’s important to collect data from both past and potential guests on what they want out of an outdoor resort and then meet those needs if it aligns with the brand’s values.
“I would argue that you can't build authenticity. I would argue that you have to live authentically in order to have a location that people want to come to,” Anderson said.
While this panel was specifically focusing on outdoor resorts, I’d argue it’s generally good advice for all brands who are looking to perfect their hotels’ business model. Take the time to find out what guests want and then worry about how to make it profitable; starting with the latter lacks authenticity and can only take you so far.
— Trevor Simpson, associate editor
@HNN_Trevor
This year’s Hotel Data Conference has been full of discussions about evolving guest mix as hoteliers are trying to predict when a full demand recovery will happen. What’s interesting is that now there’s plenty of data from the pandemic summer of 2021, which was overflowing with pent-up demand and “revenge travel.”
Different types of travelers hit the road with money to spend, often infrequent travelers who were caught off guard by the operational changes as a result of the pandemic. This topic came up during a Friday panel titled “Full- vs. select-service: What guests want, and what they’ll pay for.” Lisa Smith, senior vice president of asset management at Noble Investment Group, talked about how consumers seem to be less loyal to specific hotel brands, and it really comes down to the price of a room and what value they think they’re getting when they book.
Smith added this transcends hotel segments such as select-service or full-service properties, and most importantly for hoteliers, “pricing power is everywhere.” In such a healthy rate environment, hoteliers industrywide are capturing revenue while demand still has room to grow, which hopefully is still on the horizon in the near term.
— Dan Kubacki, production editor
@HNN_Dan