Roomkey.com should be your booking tool!

Finally, Franchises collabarated and came up with a website to compete with marging eating online booking giants such as hotels.com and Priceline.
Roomkey.com Panel moderator Adam Weissenberg, vice chairman at Deloitte, asked whether the hotel companies are now competing with the Online Distributors.
“The more places you have your product, the more likely you are to sell it,” was the answer from a high end executive. For hotel owners, this comes as good news as this is the beginning of seeing direct consumer booking, foregoing fees due to online companies. This will not only bring more revenue to the hotel, but also providing better rates for the consumers. Let's hope roomkey.com is successful in attracting consumers.

Should we build a Franchise or Independent Hotel?

This is a question most people ask themselves when they pay a large percentage of their revenues in fees to Franchises. Its common knowledge that without an great location, being a franchise or an independent would not matter, due to chances of failure are high to begin with. Saying that, if you have a great location, you would need to make a decision on which option to choose. Due to social marketing blowing up in the last decade, Independent hotels have the same marketing medium as Franchise hotels, with access to third party wholesalers and other booking mediums. Independent hotel owners also have the advantage of not being pushed financially by a Franchise - who make you spend money, without taking a peek at your financials to see if it would be affordaeble. Franchises are sort of like teachers who make you do your homework, and independent hotel owners tend to procrastinate and make improvements at a snails pace. Maybe thats why, the independent hotel market, has not gotten a foothold in the industry. Consumer reviews are generally better for franchisees rather than Independent hotels/motels. Also, the ADR you can command on a good brand is far more than a independent can due to its preceeding reputation. I am generally in favor of building an franchise only if the brand is good enough to invest in. I would deter from buying an Wyndham or Choice Property simply because the return is not good nor is their brand awareness. I have years of experience in the hotel industry, and would gladly help anyone who needs help choosing an franchise or conducting market studies for such decisions.

Best Books for Travel Destinations

What do Travel Books Tell You?
Travel books tell you all that you might want to know about different places on Earth. From very exotic locales to bustling metropolises, there is hardly a place not described by travel books. These books offer amazing insights into the pros and cons of visiting a place and details about the weather, famous landmarks, festivals, culture, etc. In fact, no matter what kind of holiday you are planning, travel books can help. I came across a very good site, which recommends books based on Geographic locations. Check it out and you will see an insight on experiences in traveling through books!

Bailouts to Banks do not help small Businesses

During the financial crisis, policymakers put capital into banks and increased loan guarantees. However, these efforts were not very effective at encouraging lending to small businesses, the report shows. Banks' goals are very different from those of the federal government: While policymakers want to keep credit flowing, bank executives want to shore up their companies' financial strengths, which may lead them to curtail lending. This difference meant that during the financial crisis, some banks simply refused the additional capital the government offered them while other banks took the money but didn't increase lending. To make sure that banks keep credit to small businesses flowing, policymakers need to require financial institutions that are cutting back on small business lending to take government money and use it to maintain their loans to those companies.

Government needs to define small businesses consistently across to help

Define small business in a coherent manner. The White House, Congress, and various federal agencies all define small business differently. This makes it difficult to compare policy proposals or data. When officials use definitions that encompass 99.9 percent of all companies—including businesses as disparate as a self-employed house painter with no employees and a manufacturing business with 495 employees—they create too much variation to identify common credit problems and solutions. Unfortunately, as the oversight committee report explains, policymakers have done little to narrow the definition of small business or to identify types of small businesses, hindering their efforts. Reach out to local Govt reps to get your business noticed.

Should we add more countries to the VISA waiver program to drive revenue?

Currently, more than 60% of international tourists do not require a U.S. visa, in most cases because they travel under the Visa Waiver Program. The Secretary of State has formally requested that the Secretary of Homeland Security consider Taiwan for the Visa Waiver Program. Over the past year, Taiwan has undertaken significant efforts to improve its law enforcement and document security standards to meet the strict requirements for Visa Waiver Program eligibility. Under the Visa Waiver Program, participating nationals can travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa. The program was established to promote travel and tourism with our foreign partners, stimulate the tourism industry, and permit the Department of State to focus consular resources in other areas. Since November 2008, the Department of Homeland Security has added nine countries to the Visa Waiver Program, bringing the program total to 36 countries.

Increase in Travel coming?

President Obama signed an Executive Order and announce new initiatives to significantly increase travel and tourism in the United States. The U.S. tourism and travel industry is a substantial component of U.S. GDP and employment, representing 2.7% of GDP and 7.5 million jobs in 2010 - with international travel to the United States supporting 1.2 million jobs alone. The travel and tourism industry projects that more than 1 million American jobs could be created over the next decade if the U.S. increased its share of the international travel market. Today's announcement offers important steps to bolster job creation through a range of steps to better promote the United States as a tourism destination and improve secure visa processing. This is the most recent of a series of executive actions the President has announced to put Americans back to work and strengthen the U.S. economy.
"Every year, tens of millions of tourists from all over the world come and visit America. And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work. We need to help businesses all across the country grow and create jobs; compete and win. That's how we're going to rebuild an economy where hard work pays off, where responsibility is rewarded, and where anyone can make it if they try," said President Obama.
According to me, till i dont see an result from an property point of view, all these promises will be just promises.

Expedia fined for lying to clients

Internet holiday site Expedia has been ordered to pay €427,000 to French hoteliers after being found guilty of a series of 'false price reductions', 'false prices for hotels' and 'false information on hotel availability'.

The world's No1 internet travel agency - which also includes travel advice site Tripadvisor.fr and hotel booking site hotels.com - was condemned by the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris for misleading customers and ordered to pay the money as damages.

It must pay €305,000 to the hoteliers federation Synhorcat and the rest to two hotels which sparked the initial complaint: €79,000 to the Hôtel de la Place du Louvre in Paris and €43,000 to the Château Guilguiffin, in Landudec, Finistère.

Expedia was investigated by the anti-fraud agency DGCCRF who found that internet bargain-hunters had been misled by the American-based sites. Buyers were given information that certain hotels were full and were directed towards other hotels with whom Expedia and Hotels.com had commercial links.

Hotel Franchisee wins 25million lawsuit

InterContinental Hotels Group, owners of Holiday Inn Worldwide, has been ordered by a court to pay $25 million in damages to an Arkansas franchisee for fraud involving a hotel in Texas.
J.O. "Buddy" House of West Memphis, owner of Hotel Associates, claimed in a lawsuit that InterContinental Hotels Group breached its contract and fiduciary duty with his company over a Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Wichita Falls, Texas.
House claimed he lost millions of dollars in renovation costs and loss of value during various changes in ownership and personnel at the world's largest hotel franchiser.
All 12 members of a Crittenden County jury agreed that Hotel Associates was the victim of "deceit," while 10 jurors agreed that House proved he suffered from promissory estoppel, meaning the hotelier lost money after relying on a broken promise from InterContinental Hotels Group, according to verdict forms filed Friday.

IHG to launch new brand in China

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC Wednesday said it will launch a new upscale hotel chain in China in the next six months and eventually export the brand across the booming economies of Asia Pacific as it strives to become the operator of choice for increasingly wealthy Chinese travellers at home and abroad.
In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Jan Smits, chief executive of the Asia, Middle East & Africa operations, also said the outlook for the hotel industry in his region continues to show positive growth indicators, even as economists and investors are concerned that macro-economic weakness in key Western markets, including the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, will spill over into emerging countries of the East. Will wait to see what the new brand name will be.

Why is the Indian Rupee losing its value

the rupee has crashed 18.3% this year. But the fact is that India is the only country in the region with such a huge current account deficit, where imports far outstrip exports, a number that is dodgy. The trade deficit and fiscal deficit numbers cannot change overnight, and they did not deteriorate overnight either. Which makes this topic extremely debatable, to why the Indian Rupee is losing value at an torrid pace.

Dubai - a hot hub of luxury resorts

Millennium & Copthorne has revealed it will be moving into the deluxe serviced apartments sector when it opens a modern and stylish property in the popular Dubai Marina area in the coming six months.
The brand is already one of the world’s largest owned-and-managed hotel companies, with more than 120 hotels across 20 countries.
Once open, this Marina Promenade property will boast 151 spacious and contemporary serviced apartments, comprising 91 one-bedroom, 36 two-bedroom, 13 three-bedroom units, two penthouse apartments and eight villas.
Bringing together excellence in service, value and location, I foresee a good level of demand from the start.

Dunkin Donuts opens 10,000th store

Dunkin’ Donuts, America’s all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods, today opened its 10,000th restaurant. The landmark 10,000th new restaurant is located in Xi’An, China. Several other Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants, which opened throughout the world over the past few days, vied for the honor of being the 10,000th location. These include three new locations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as well as new restaurants in Bogota, Colombia and Kingsland, Ga.
“We are proud to have opened the world’s 10,000th Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant in China, a country which we believe offers tremendous opportunity to both our Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins brands,” said Nigel Travis, CEO of Dunkin’ Brands and President of Dunkin’ Donuts. “From its beginnings as a single restaurant in Quincy, Mass., Dunkin’ Donuts is today a global brand located in 32 countries around the world. Our geographic diversity is truly a testimony to the fact that customers everywhere, from China to Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Georgia, appreciate what Dunkin’ Donuts offers - high quality food and beverages served in a friendly, fast environment at a great value.”

75% of New York City Visitors Happy With Their Hotel

Almost three-quarters of New York City visitors are happy with their hotel stays according to a recent survey compiled by NewYorkHotels.org. A leading hotel booking site for New York City, NewYorkHotels.org specifically looked at NYC travelers' evaluations of their accommodations over the past 12 months.
Indeed, despite headlines like the one run late last year by the Associated Press, "Bedbugs Scaring Off New York City Tourists," only 13% of NYC guests awarded their hotels a negative rating. A full 73% were satisfied with their accommodations, with the remaining respondents attributing a neutral evaluation to their hotels.
When looking at the various areas inside Manhattan, the Downtown area performed a bit better than Midtown and Uptown, but the differences among the three regions were too small to be considered significant. Therefore, travelers should not be concerned about hotel rooms when they go to NYC. Of course, with the price these hotels charge, the product better be good. The Average ADR in NYC is the highest in USA.

Taj Palace New Delhi Debuts Ultimate New Suite

Taj Palace New Delhi, set on six landscaped acres in the heart of Delhi's diplomatic enclave just 20 minutes from the international airport, is fresh from a grand renovation that updated its 402 gracious rooms and suites, the exclusive Taj Club Lounge and 40,000-square-feet of banquet and conference space.
The jewel in the crown of this restoration is the luxurious Tata Suite. Named for Taj Hotels' founder, this 7,500-square-foot retreat is well-equipped to accommodate world leaders, corporate scions and celebrities alike.
The price to rent this suite is $15,500/nt.

Indian rupee slides

The Indian rupee slid to a record low of 52.77 on Monday as signs of a sharp slowdown in Asia's third-largest economy prompted investors to buy dollars.
Traders said possible buying by local oil importers, the biggest buyers of dollars in the local forex market, also pressured the currency.
The local currency is the worst performing unit against the dollar among major Asian peers this year and investors continue to stay bearish on the rupee, a Reuters poll last week showed.
In fact, India may face its worst financial crisis in decades if it fails to stem a slide in the rupee, leaving the central bank with a difficult choice over how to make best use of its limited reserves to maintain the confidence of foreign investors.

Travel Exports Up 13.9 Percent for 2011

David Huether, senior vice president of economics and research at the U.S. Travel Association, provides analysis on the Commerce Department announcement that the overall trade deficit edged down slightly to $43.5 billion in October:

"Travel exports are up a strong 13.9 percent compared to 2010, outpacing not only other service exports but exports of capital and consumer goods as well.

"As our country's number one domestic export industry, international travel in the United States generated $241 billion in economic output last year, which supported 1.8 million American jobs that cannot be outsourced. Increased travel exports over the past year have been a key reason why job growth in the travel industry has outpaced the rest of the economy by 60 percent through October of this year. The travel industry created 115,000 jobs through the first 10 months of 2011, accounting for nine percent of the total U.S. jobs created this year.

"Though positive, these figures could be greater if a significant barrier were removed: a U.S. visa system that fails to match the demand of millions of international travelers who want to travel to the United States. Research shows that U.S. visa system reform would bring additional international business and leisure travelers to the U.S., creating additional jobs and economic output for our struggling economy. Given the fragile state of the economy, we should not wait to implement important reforms."

Mobile digital wallets in - traditional wallets out

With the value of transactions made over mobile devices estimated to be $240 billion this year (Juniper Research) and predicted to triple that size over the next five years, it's not surprising that the battle over mobile wallets will continue to intensify. And with analysts at Forrester predicting that by 2016 consumers may be able to leave their traditional leather wallet at home and pay for most of their shopping over their handset, retailers need to think about the impact of mobile wallets as they build out their loyalty programs.

Surge expected in mobile coupons

Juniper Research forecasts that the total redemption value of mobile coupons worldwide will be more than $43 billion by 2016, representing an eightfold increase from $5.4 billion this year. Cost effective mobile coupon campaigns provide merchants with an easy way to build customer loyalty. Has anyone used mobile coupons to book?

The importance of Capital Expenditures

Normally when a new hotel breaks ground it creates panic in the competitive set and puts in motion a ticking "time bomb" for the competitors. With everything else being constant, if the only difference between the new build and the competition is the condition of the existing property, then investing capital expenditures into that property while the new build is under construction can negate much of the downfall when the new build opens.
Also, if the competitive set is in disrepair and the market is looking for a renovated product and can support that increase in rate, then being the first mover in the market and getting a head start on your capital improvements can provide significant gains in demand and rate. Would you agree?