November 1, 2009
FORUM
Boutiques Point to Silver Lining
OPINION: Segment May Lead Industry Out of the Downturn
While it's been hard spotting the silver lining in this difficult period for the hospitality industry, I may have found it last month at the inaugural Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference Lodging Hospitality and HVS Hotel Management sponsored at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. ...
CHECK IN
Green Answer From CBH Hospitality
FEATURE: New La Quinta Being Built to LEED Silver Status
Bhavesh Patel has been asked the same question too many times to count. It’s always the first question he gets from other developers, builders and journalists: Why? Why are he and business partner Hitu Bhakta spending extra money and time to build a green hotel? And not just any hotel ...
Concord Hospitality Launches Equity Fund
NEWS: A $300-Million Pool To Buy Distressed Hotels
One man’s crisis is another’s opportunity. And in this economic environment, those companies with spotless operating records and clean balance sheets are best able to take advantage of the situation. That’s what Concord Hospitality Enterprises hopes to do with a $300-million private equity fund ...
Hotel Slide Is a Reset, Not a Cycle
NEWS: Focus On Costs, Advises Magnuson
What the U.S. hotel industry is experiencing today isn’t simply the downside of a highly cyclical business, emphasizes Thomas Magnuson, but rather a massive fundamental shift. “It’s a reset,” declares the CEO and principal of Magnuson Hotels, ...
Tracking Hotel Values
OPINION: Hotel Valuation Index Helps Investors Find Opportunities
In today’s turbulent hotel market, one of the most challenging professions has to be appraising hotels. The combination of very few transactions, coupled with the lack of financing and uncertain future profit projections, makes it extremely difficult to develop an estimated value. With that said, the need for well-founded appraisals ...
Innovation Is Key to Hotel Recovery
NEWS: Thayer Lodging Chief Sees a Bumpy but Bright Future
The path back to prosperity for hotels and hotel companies is clear but treacherous, lodging company mogul Fred Malek told an audience of hotel asset managers last week in Arlington, VA....
How to Gauge the Economic Upswing
OPINION: Country Needs to Scrape Away the ‘CRUD’
If we better understand the distinct nature of the current economic recession, we can also better understand how and when conditions will improve in the hotel industry and when hotel values will begin to increase. ...
FEATURES
Americas Best Value Celebrates 10 Years
FEATURE: A Decade of Growth, Fairness and Success
Ten years ago, a lot of hotel industry skeptics thought Americas Best Value Inn was a bad idea. The industry didn’t need a new brand, especially one steeped in the values of fair franchising, the naysayers moaned. And who were these upstart hotel and non-hotel people who thought they could elbow their way into a crowded brand landscape?...
New Face of Lancaster
FEATURE: Marriott and Convention Center a Seamless Blend of Old and New, Public and Private
Lead architect Bob Neal isn’t most proud of the hotel tower and convention center he helped build or the historic façade he helped save. It’s the exposed raw concrete columns connecting the two that are his biggest sources of pride. They join the century-old Beaux Arts facade to the newly built Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square and Lancaster County Convention Center. The seamless blending of...
Timesharing Regains Its Footing
FEATURE: Battered By Credit Markets, Business Seeks New Directions
You can’t blame Holiday Inn Club Vacations for acting like it’s in the catbird’s seat of the timesharing industry. Parent IHG was one of the last mega-brand companies to enter the vacation ownership segment, doing so just a year ago, and it did it using a model radically different from other hotel brand companies....
DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
Greenwashing Harms Entire Movement
OPINION: Hospitality Industry Needs To Learn From Consumer Markets
Green products have inundated the marketplace and the number of companies making green claims has also exploded. The timing has never been better for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address green marketing claims so that consumers ...
Design Elements November 2009
Tishman Construction recently finished a $17-million renovation of the historic Copley Square Hotel in Boston. The 118-year-old hotel is now a modern...
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
Automation Eases Business Center Worries
The traditional hotel business center may be dead. In its place, lodging properties of all sizes and serving all markets are installing self-service units...
IQware Helps an Independent
The $1-billion relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand includes new signage at more than 3,200 hotels. The signage uses Tetra LED lighting from GE, which the...
BACK OF HOUSE
Look for Green in AB 32
LOOK FOR GREEN IN AB 32 Hoteliers in California, and likely soon in many more states, must grapple with key environmental regulations requiring them to...
Products November 2009
ATMS ATM Systems provides custom designed cabinets to blend with any hotel dcor. Custom screen graphics help promote your amenities and inform guests...
Product Showcase November 2009
UniMac UW60TV UniMac's UW line of washer-extractors keeps operating costs low with fast cycle times and high extraction speeds. For more than 60 years,...
