Hotel Rates in relation to NFL Games

Many of you wonder, what effect Sunday night Football or Monday night Football have on hotels in cities hosting those games. Like any event, one would expect rates to increase around the stadium of the hosting city. However, it is quite the opposite when it comes to Sunday and Monday night games. Hotels are offering discounted rates on these nights as compared to other days of the week. The main reason being they are willing to discount rates, while wanting to maximize their occupancy levels. In hotel terms, raise the REVPAR. Also, Sunday nights in most markets are the slowest day of the week-thus to fill rooms, you would expect cheaper rates on Sundays irrespective of a night event in town. Sunday nights are similar to Tuesday and Wednesday for Airlines (slowest day of the week-where you get cheap rates). Thus, unless it is Super Bowl weekend, do not be scared of hotel rates if wanting to go see a game during the season. You are more likely to be paying cheaper rates. Go for it and root for your favorite team.

Best Swimming Pools in Las Vegas

DialAFlight, one of the UK's leading travel operators, is proud to unveil its top selection of hotel swimming pools in Las Vegas. The city, famed for its grandeur hotels and casinos, also holds a reputation for its surreal range of luxurious hotel swimming pools- a selling point which is persuading more and more families to book holidays to Las Vegas.
Mandalay Bay Beach: Laden with 3000 tonnes of authentic sand, Manadaly Bay Beach has certainly been created to resemble a real seaside. The pools themselves cover a massive eleven acres and are equipped with wave machines and rapids to keep swimmers occupied. Beach villas on the 'shore' allow extra privacy and even private service.
The Garden of the Gods: Located at Caesar's Palace, these pools echo the hotel itself- decorated with Greco-Roman statuary and palatial splendour. The most unusual pool here is the newly opened "Chocolate Pool," officially dubbed the Sokolati Pool, which features a chocolate waterfall and three acres of literally sweet swimming. A must for Charlie and the chocolate factory fans!
The Flamingo: The pool complex at the Flamingo is a tropical paradise squeezed into 15 acres along the main Strip. Lagoons and a waterfall connect the various pools together, and a seasonal waterslide is certain to amuse both the young and the young at heart. Lifeguards keep watch over the swimmers here and pool attendants roam the grounds seeing to the refreshment needs of guests.
The Monte Carlo: The lazy river at this pool complex is hundreds of feet long, and there are four pools in total, including one equipped with realistic wave action to mimic the seashore. On weekends, the complex adopts a "beach party" theme complete with a sand volleyball competition and live DJs playing a variety of music from the golden oldies to the most recent hits.
The Tropicana: This casino is themed as a Polynesian resort, with the pool completing the image of a South Pacific paradise. The main pool features a central island complete with foliage, a perfect place to stretch out and relax after an invigorating swim through cool crystal waters

Do you guys have varying opinions about this list?

Lost and Found - Mostly Lost?

In my experience in traveling, I have seldomly recovered items left behind. If my experiences are indicative of any trends, most hotels invest little effort on organizing an effective lost and found process. The most common experience these days is being transferred to a "lost and found" voice mailbox, in which you are forced to leave my verbal plea for the return of your item. I believe a good lost and found department is a hotel's best PR (public relations) tool. It develops trust with the guests and its followed by them telling others about the honesty and integrity of the hotel. On the contrary, once a lack of trust is built, gaining it back could be harder than convincing your guests to come back after they checked into a dirty room. I would like to get statistics on which hotel brands perform the best when it comes to Lost and Found Department. If I were to guess, the industry Stalwarts like Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton might be near the top, while sloppy Franchises, namely Choice and Wyndham products are near the bottom.

Hotels looking to challenge Tripadvisor

Marriott will join Starwood in allowing guests to post a review on their website. Like Starwood, Marriott will confirm whether a review writer actually stayed in the hotel before publishing the review, eliminating skepticism that a bad review might come from someone looking to undermine a hotel's reputation for whatever reason.
Also like Starwood, Marriott does not plan to offer incentives to customers to write reviews. Tripadvisor allows the general public to write an review on hotels, thus a negative campaign against a particular hotel competitor could do some serios damage. Here is an article about an hotel suing Tripadvisor over accusing her of posting fake reviews.

Starwood and Marriott have started a great trend, which I hope other hotel companies like Choice International and Wyndham follow. Irrespective of the review being positive or negative, the key here will be qualifying the person who is writing the review.

Are more Hotel Foreclosures on the way?

There will be a "huge increase'" in U.S. hotel foreclosures next year as debts come due and little financing is available, said Robert Sonnenblick, a hotel developer.
The wave of commercial mortgage-backed securities needing replacement debt "is going to be a close-to-catastrophic problem," Sonnenblick, chairman of Sonnenblick Development LLC, said today at the Bloomberg Commercial Real Estate Summit in New York. "The end result of all of this is you're going to see a huge increase of hotel foreclosures."
About $21.7 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities on 232 hotels are coming due in the next 12 months and need to be refinanced, according to Realpoint, a securities ratings firm now owned by Morningstar Inc. At best, a third of that will be refinanced, with many properties being taken over by lenders, Sonnenblick said.

From my understanding, this means, buyers will wait to bid on thousands of bank owned assets rather than building new hotels. It makes sense, as statistically, 2011 has shown a growth in occupancy levels - with the market starting to show an upward trend hereon. Therefore, the reason for the foreclosures would be the bad inflated loans the hoteliers signed of on, not because of business. Thus, look out for these bank owned hotels to be a good buy.

Increased US VISA Demand?

“As the U.S. seeks to regain the historic 17 percent share of the world travel market it had in 2000, the U.S. visa system must evolve with innovative solutions and new resources,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We greatly appreciate the attention Secretary Clinton and Deputy Secretary Nides have given to improving the U.S. visa process, and our industry looks forward to working together to develop and implement systemic and long-term visa processing improvements across all high-growth travel markets that, at the same time, maximize security.”Of the 9.6 million visa applications in fiscal year 2011, 7.5 million U.S. visas were issued, an increase of more than 17 percent over 2010. Increased demand continues to come from some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Lets hope this trend continues. Disney World must be smiling!

Stalled Baltimore hotel project to be auctioned Nov. 30

A former downtown Baltimore office building that was being converted to a Staybridge Suites Hotel is scheduled to go on the auction block Nov. 30. The foreclosure sale will be held on the site of the 11-story Jefferson Building at 101 N. Charles St., according to auctioneers GoIndustry DoveBid. In August, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge cleared the way for lender RL BB Financial LLC to foreclose. Work on the hotel stalled during the financial downturn, but the lender was prevented from foreclosing after the developer, 101 Charles Street LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2010.
The developer had a nonbinding letter of intent from the InterContinental Hotels Group, a management company for the Staybridge Suites brand, but completed only about half the renovations before running into financial trouble. No work has been done since 2009.
I am familiar with the Baltimore market, and I believe any hotelier interested would be getting a good opportunity in a growth market.