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Hotel Revenue Management: What You Probably Don’t Know About Rate Changes May 28, 2012: Earlier this year Hotel Compete began collecting data to test this hypothesis. We gathered a random sample of rate changes from a range of stay nights from February to late July 2012. The sample includes almost three million stay night rate observations, from just over 32,000 US hotels. The analysis monitored the rate changes applied by hotels on specific stay nights to understand the frequency and magnitude of rate changes.

What Guests Want - USA Hotels Amenities Survey May 28, 2012

According to a survey conducted by Hotels.com Free WIFI is the most important amenity for hotel guests, beating out a free breakfast.

We have always wondered how the whole Free vs Pay WiFi works. It doesn't really make any sense at all. How come I can stay in a midrange major brand hotel and get free WiFi but if I stay in a high end hotel and pay in excess of $250 per night for a room I have to pay. You would think that it wold be the other way around. Or, perhaps there is a simple explanation. The high end hotels figure if you are paying $250 for the rooms what's another $15. The less expense hotels are trying to add value to get you to stay with them.

How to Add Value: It’s Got Nothing to Do with Price! May 26, 2012: How to Add Value: It’s Got Nothing to Do with Price!

Conor Kenny On How To Add Value

10 Things I Hate About Hotel Websites – Infographic May 25, 2012: Jitendra Jain (JJ)
Here’s a cheeky look at what’s wrong with so many hotel websites out there…most of these issues are elementary and fixable…all that’s required is some forethought and keeping users top-of-mind.

Collaborative selling key as demand returns May 25, 2012: With the demand for meetings growing and with owners and operators itching for a return to those pre-recession days, once again we’re seeing pressure put on hotel sales associates to push for higher room rates and greater total spend.

How to pre-open a hotel [Part One of Two - social media and digital marketing] May 24, 2012: The pre-opening phase of a new hotel is both a big challenge and a great opportunity at the same time. Hotels open and close at a astonishing rate, especially in emerging markets and traveller hotspots, and many work hard to avoid common mistakes made in the process.

Some of our hotel pre-opening tips below.

Hotel Comp Set Analysis – Untapped Opportunity #1: Market Dynamics May 23, 2012: In a recent article we introduced some ideas that run contrary to industry wisdom on Hotel Comp Sets. The competitors that hotels include in or exclude from their comp sets influence the results of competitive analysis.

Stakeholders in hotel performance should therefore treat comp set selection as a bigger priority than they do today. In this article we use data to show how we know this to be true.

A web site is absolutely useless unless search engines can find it. May 23, 2012: As a marketing strategy for increasing a site’s relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for; SEO efforts should involve a site’s coding, overall design, content, and structure; as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engines from indexing and fully spidering a site.

A "What If" Approach on Assessing Performance from An Industry Leader May 22, 2012

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.

7 Ways to Make Email Work May 22, 2012: Email is a very powerful direct marketing medium. Done correctly it can produce an amazing return on investment.

Beware of Internet Predators May 22, 2012: In 2011, HospitalityEducators.com lost Guest Columnist Neil Salerno, The Marketing Coach, to illness. We are pleased to recognize his contributions to the industry with this BEST OF series .

How Do You Make The Decision If You Need A Person Dedicated To Selling The Services Of Your Hotel? May 17, 2012: Most hotels with more than 100 rooms are likely to have one or more people focused on property sales. Depending on the meeting space or food & beverage options, there may be staff assigned to catering sales as well. Many hotels, especially rooms’ only properties, have come to rely on their location or brand affiliation. The question posed above, though, concerns what factors one needs to consider. The numbers of rooms, competitive set, your brand or location are all ingredients, but they are not the only factors.