I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like to get something for nothing. While the old adage, “you get what you paid for” might turn some people away from accepting free stuff, there is actually a lot of great information and data that can assist hotel owners, operators and lenders which can be obtained absolutely FREE! My column will provide you the sources of free stuff that I have found to be particularly helpful.

Since I don’t want to be fired as a columnist for Lodging Hospitality, I must start with the wealth of information that comes at you each day from this publishing organization. Particularly noteworthy is their franchise fee data that is available in hard copy from their publication along with the franchise fee calculator that is on their website. This tool enables users to compare the cost of going with one franchise opposed to another—and it is amazing the cost differences amongst various franchises. I also like LH’s lists of the largest hotel companies, the top brands and largest management companies—the entire Hotel Development Center is a tremendous resource if you are looking for a brand or someone to operate your hotel.

Although Smith Travel Research is in the business of selling data and information, it does give away useful information on macro hotel industry trends. Each week STR reports the latest supply, demand, occupancy, rate and RevPAR data for the U.S. lodging industry so you can get a sense of where the industry is heading. If you want more in depth information on hotel trends, the STR website posts the Powerpoint slides of the various presentations made by the STR staff at various hotel conferences around the world. For example, if you want a copy of the slides used by STR President Mark Lomanno during his NYU Hotel Investment Conference presentation, you can download a copy for free on their website.

The Cornell Hotel School is a rich source of helpful data and information. Numerous articles and research publications are available from the Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. One of the most downloaded free tools from this website is actually a set of three highly sophisticated software programs called Hotel Valuation Software. These programs were developed by HVS and adapted for Excel by Jan DeRoos, a noted Cornell finance professor. This software enables users to perform a complicated hotel supply and demand analysis market study, create a 10-year projection of hotel income and expense and value a hotel using a 10-year discounted cash flow model. For years this software was proprietary, but recently HVS donated it to Cornell to be distributed to the hotel industry for free.

The U.S. Travel Association performs extensive research in the various types of travel demand, traveler characteristics, trends and so forth. Like STR, it is in the business of selling data and information, but it also provides macro data on traveler characteristics and trends that is very interesting.

The World Travel and Tourism Council is a great resource for global travel trends. It compiles travel data showing trends for individual countries and regions. While it sells some of the information, much of it can be downloaded from the website for free.

Last but not least I need to plug the wealth of free information available on my firm’s website. By clicking on the library tab you can search the archives of hundreds of articles, and research documents published over the years by the professionals at HVS. If you want to know what appropriate hotel cap rate is; attributes to look at when hiring a general manager; how to make money developing a timeshare project or what is happening in the Shanghai hotel market you can download an article covering these topics and more.
Success in the hotel industry requires staying up to date with industry trends, innovations and news. A number of data and information sources charge you fees for staying current, but some will give you the stuff for free. If you know of any other hotel data sources that have great free information send me an e-mail at srushmore@hvs.com and I will include them when I update this column in the future.

Stephen Rushmore is president and founder of HVS, a global hospitality consulting organization with offices around the world. Steve has provided consultation services for more than 12,000 hotels throughout the world during his 35-year career and specializes in complex issues involving hotel feasibility, valuations and financing. He can be reached at srushmore@hvs.com or 516 248-8828 ext. 204.