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April 2, 2025
Hotels are obsessed with guest data, but are they ignoring their biggest profit driver?
For a long time, the hotel industry has been obsessed with guest data — constantly trying to optimize and curate every experience to maximize engagement and revenue. Hotels invest millions of dollars collecting this data, and while that remains important, it often overshadows an equally critical area: back-of-house (BOH) data.
April 1, 2025
Blended travel can be the big boost for all demand segments in 2025
Bleisure has been a buzz word since well before the pandemic, but since that event catalyzed the adoption and acceptance of remote and hybrid work, the notion of blending traditionally disparate travel segments has taken on a whole new, and lucrative, meaning. Entering 2025, though, the concept of combining business and leisure — hence the portmanteau bleisure — no longer really encompasses all the different travel behaviors and sources of revenue that hotels can activate.
March 31, 2025
What I expect to hear at the International Hotel Investment Forum
By my calculation, the 2025 International Hotel Investment Forum will be my 11th edition, and as I write this the weather in London is reminiscent of Berlin’s weather in mid-April last year, which is when the 2024 conference took place.
March 27, 2025
Positive change for women is a marathon, not a sprint
We're nearly to the end of March, wrapping up this year's Women's History Month.
March 26, 2025
Maximize the impact of earned media coverage in the hotel industry
There’s nothing like the thrill of being featured in the press. Articles can be framed, podcasts and news stories sent to friends and colleagues, and social media posts shared with your entire network. After that initial high, however, many organizations let media coverage fade into the background, where it quickly is overtaken by the next news cycle.
March 24, 2025
Extended Producer Responsibility: The devil is recycled in the details
All the best ideas are simple at their core but also can devilishly complex in their detail.
March 21, 2025
Remember what makes hospitality great
If you've been paying attention to the news recently, and this week in particular, you're aware that the economic outlook isn't as rosy as it was a few months ago.
March 19, 2025
Taking the funnel by the neck
Managing one’s distribution is key to maximizing demand throughout the year, for those hoteliers that wish to remain truly independent and make their own decisions, and are not just trying to build a brand that can join a Marriott or Hilton stable further down the line.
March 19, 2025
Standing up to today's hospitality headwinds
Our hospitality industry remains robust, even as we have navigated some challenges in recent years, including inflation and supply chain issues. Ours is a fun and meaningful industry, for our guests and ourselves, which bears reminding. We are proud of what we do and thankful for belonging to hospitality.
March 18, 2025
How do you solve the value-add equation in hotels?
Historically, hotel investments were made by brands or wealthy individuals and families diversifying their portfolios. In the 1990s, major hotel brands such as Marriott International and Hilton shifted to asset-light strategies to reduce asset-heavy balance sheets and accelerate their expansion. By focusing on franchising and management contracts, these brands grew aggressively without property ownership, benefiting from revenue streams while maintaining strong balance sheets.
March 17, 2025
South African hotel establishes first-ever pangolorium
Another hotel has come up with another first, and it is a supremely worthy one.
March 13, 2025
Making the most of your 2025 business plan
Hoteliers put a lot of time and effort into their annual business plans.
March 12, 2025
Hotel industry success in 2025: It’s not just heads in beds
Q2 is just around the corner — check your success strategies and tactics.
March 11, 2025
Hospitality is the fluff
Throughout my career as a hotel trainer and conference speaker, I have often had some version of this conversation when I meet new people in casual social settings when a polite conversation migrates from “So, Douglas, where are you from?” on to “So, what do you do for work?” Unlike so many traditional professions, my life’s work seems to be a bit harder to understand for most people, and the conversation usually goes like this:
March 10, 2025
London’s Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel a sumptuous history lesson
Last week I visited the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel in London, one of the capital’s finest.
March 6, 2025
It's Hotel Data Conference season
This week, registration opened for Hotel Data Conference 2025, taking place August 6-8 at the Grand Hyatt Nashville.
March 5, 2025
Peak experiences at hotels mean peak wellness
A question that guides our approach when the two of us are working with hotel owners and executives to achieve their financial goals is: What’s your property’s reason to visit?
March 4, 2025
CapEx success: Secure the funds, build the team and identify your experts
We are midway through the first quarter of 2025, election uncertainty is over, the economy is overall solid and the Fed is currently holding steady on interest rates. Today, one would think the hotel real estate market could accurately price or value hotels, and the spread between bid and ask for existing hotels would narrow. We should be in a robust transaction market.
March 3, 2025
Business profits when people listen, rather than interrupt
I see that today, March 3, is World Hearing Day.
February 28, 2025
See you at NYU
As I sit here to write this, my calendar still says February, but already my mind is on June.