At the American Lodging Investment Summit held last month, five hotel executives participated in a USA TODAY roundtable lead by Barbara DeLollis, a reporter from the newspaper. The following CEOs were present:  Mike Depatie, CEO at Kimpton Hotels David Kong, CEO at Best Western Jim Abrahamson, Chief...read more

Like a chalkboard, incentive travel was erased from hotels. In 2006 before the recession, more than $13.4 billion was spent on incentive travel. Since then, there has been a tremendous decrease in incentive travel. The average per-person expenditures have decreased, but overall group incentive...read more

When destination events are popular enough to result in hotels selling-out, hoteliers can relish it. Events like the Presidential Inauguration and Jazz Fest in New Orleans are popular events where most hotels sell out. But, what if your tentative bookings aren’t resembling a “sell out?" You'll need...read more

The GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) BTI Outlook-United States 2012 Q4 released in January forecasts a promising 2013 with a 4.6% increase in overall travel. The report mentions three key factors in this much awaited increase. Alex Eaton, president of World Travel Service in Tulsa, is...read more

Remember when Grandma's telephone was a shared line with the neighbors (a party line) and the only computers were in big hidden rooms in banks and other businesses? Remember when you got your first cell phone and it stayed in the car because it was larger than a bread box? Remember your first...read more

Meetings and Conventions Magazine recently polled 242 meeting professionals in order to find out what is a real turn off when it comes to hospitality marketing efforts. As it happens, the hard sell is probably the fastest way to make certain they never call you back.  But hotels and convention...read more

Guests who enter the front doors of your property are impressed and well they should be. Your entrance is eye catching. Your service is top notch and the decor is impeccable. The bottom line is looking much better than in 2009 and group business is booking with greater lead times! Things are going...read more

Two of the biggest fears a hotel employee should have are, “Does our competition have better service than us to sway our best clients?” and “Does the competition’s customer service levels steal potential hotel group business?” The worst way to approach customer service is, “This is how we’ve been...read more

Often, the best marketing comes from trial and error, seeing what works or doesn’t. While it can be an expensive route, everyone hopes to get it right the first time. Yet, most marketers realize there are mediums that won’t always perform as expected – and its “OK” to fail at marketing. There are...read more

A smart move was made on GSA’s part earlier this week. The agency made a decision to freeze government-wide per diem travel reimbursements rates at the current 2012 levels for 2013 which will save $885 million in revenue and thousands of industry jobs. Although the meetings industry has not made a...read more

Summer vacation season is just tapering off, but those sweltering temperatures are still hanging on. Hard to think about the upcoming holidays, but the time is NOW to design holiday packages that will entice groups to host their special occasions at your resort! How can you create a package that...read more

A group business bird in the hand is worth two resting on the proverbial telephone line and will lead to booking treasures! Moving out from behind your desk and trading inside sales work for property site tours that "nail the sales" can help you to reach your goals and boost the bottom line of your...read more

Account Executive, Sales Manager, Business Development Consultant, Sales Representative or a myriad of other designations—regardless of your title your role is to increase hotel group business, ensuring there are heads in the beds accompanied by food and beverage dollars all going to the bottom...read more

Statistics are abundant showing that Internet usage, in particular social media, is growing by leaps and bounds all over the world! Internet Statistics shows an overall growth of over 12% between 2011 and 2012 of those using Facebook and a total of 835,525,280 users worldwide with more being added...read more

The Olympics are here and who doesn’t enjoy the competition, the stories and the fruition? Behind the glory of each competitor lies a strategic plan for success. There are many examples that can be applied to your own quest for success! Below are seven gold medal lessons for selling group rooms like...read more

You finally earned buy-in to create a social media program with your thorough research and professional presentation to upper management. Those efforts are just the beginning! For your initiative to get off the ground and provide the best results, you need to build the program on a foundation...read more

Your hotel marketing person has created a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account for your property and they periodically go on the site to post something of interest. Sometimes they post everyday and sometimes it seems like cobwebs are growing on your sites. When I inquire why this has happened,  I...read more

When reading an article about Cirque du Soleil, I was impressed by the vision, mission and culture of this relatively young organization and what it has accomplished thus far. Invocation, provocation and evocation of imagination, the senses and the emotions guides the Cirque du Soleil vision....read more

In Telling Your Story Part I: Three Keys to Increase Group Business we discussed the importance of weaving your hotel’s past, present and future into an engaging story to bring depth to your brand and increase hotel group business. But, how are you going to tell your story? Content marketing is the...read more

Are you ready for the next big trend in hotel marketing that will increase your revenue? In a HotelNewsNow.com article, John Buchanan reports that about 11,000 baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, will retire each day for the next 19 years. That's 4,015,000 people a year! This group has free...read more