Lodging Hospitality

As we countdown the days to year-end, it’s time for that favorite American past-time: list making. You know, Top Newsmakers of the Year, Top Movies, Top Hollywood Marital Breakups…

Not to be excluded, The International Society of Hospitality Consultants just released its list of Top Ten Issues in the Hospitality Industry for 2007. While not quite as scintillating as this year’s Top Anorexic Models or Top Kazakhstan Potassium Producers (you had to see the movie…), these issues were identified as ones that can be expected to potentially have the greatest impact on the industry next year, and consequently, your hotel’s economic performance. So, take note:

1. Labor & Skills Shortages: growing shortage of qualified and skilled employees

2. Construction Costs: escalation of construction and renovation costs

3. Technology: lightning speed of changes; keeping up

4. Changing Demographics and Their Impact on Travel Trends: shift in baby boomers to Gen X

5. Future of Hotel Profits: balancing escalating expenses with the need to increase rates

6. Branding: mitigating consumer confusion over brand proliferation and investor concerns over cross brand impact

7. Distribution Revolution: keeping up with rapidly changing playing field

8. Travel Restrictions: and their impact on the travel industry

9. Global Emerging Marketing: are travel patterns changing?

10. Capital Availability: will investor and lender confidence continue?

I recently returned from a whirlwind trip of Europe and points east, courtesy of Wyndham Worldwide. The giant franchisor took me to hotels in London, Dublin, Berlin, Malta, Budapest and Dubai between Nov. 3 and 14, and I’m just beginning to digest the trip (talk about jet lag).

One thing all this travel affirmed is that hospitality is different when you leave the U.S. Sure, service here can be as good as the hotels that showcase it. But in Europe and Dubai, service seems routinely ingrained, not merely learned. In addition, hospitality is a career to aspire to rather than a dead end. One cab driver in Malta who handles a lot of trips from hotels to airports told me he badly wants to work at the Corinthia San Gorg, a deluxe oceanfront hotel recently acquired by Wyndham. That way he won’t be so irked by speed traps—and he’ll make more money.

I also discovered that a Days Inn in Dublin is very different from one in suburban New Jersey and that a Ramada can take many different shapes and approaches. Days Inns we visited in Ireland are modern and technologically sophisticated. They also feature full-service restaurants, appropriate to places where food is viewed with respect rather than as fuel. And Ramadas in London, Berlin and Dubai came in all different styles and personalities.

The idea of the trip was to see how cultures and benefit each other. Travel is indeed illuminating. And I haven’t even begun to describe Dubai, the boom town to beat all boom towns (Las Vegas, move over). I look forward to writing stories about my trip.

I’m feeling a bit vulnerable and edgy today. The morning didn’t start off that way. Returning to work after a week’s flu-like illness, I armed myself with antibacterial wipes and avoided other hackers in the germ-charged environ of my hour-long bus commute.

I arrived at work, washed my hands (for the third time in two hours), and popped a mega vitamin. Confident in my new Howard Hughes-like germ offensive, I perused the daily headlines.

My Purell-fueled confidence deflated with the first news item I read. It reported yet another food contamination outbreak in recent weeks, this time from salmonella affecting fresh tomatoes served in restaurants. The outbreak sickened dozens of people in 21 states, according to an AP story. This report comes on the heels of an E. coli outbreak caused by tainted spinach from California.

What a crap shoot. You try and eat right, practice safe food handling at home, and yet you can still get zapped by these nasty and sometimes life-threatening bugs. For hotels and other commercial foodservice operators, it’s critical to protect trusting customers and workers alike. While you might not be able to control where all your ingredients are sourced, as a manager, you can reinforce safe food handling practices and personal sanitation. If you haven’t done so lately, consider putting together a refresher seminar for all foodservice employees. Post sanitation and safety issues prominently. At the very least, review your current operations carefully, question your suppliers and visit your kitchen more often, making any necessary improvements or corrections. Such measures just might hold the line on a costly and dangerous crisis.

Las Vegas is flying high, and boasted its busiest year ever in 2005 with 38.6 million annual visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The mega resorts get bigger and flashier, and the crowds keep pouring in.

So I was caught off guard by the relatively low-key opening, last week, of a new player in the Vegas hospitality game, The Platinum Hotel and Spa, a member of Preferred Hotels and Resorts and managed by Marcus Hotels and Resorts.

Not only is the 255-suite property worth noting as just the second condo hotel to open in the city (the first was Signature at MGM) it’s being heralded by its promoters for outright rejecting two very Vegas vices—gaming and smoking. That’s right, The Platinum is nongaming and nonsmoking…and proud of it. It’s also betting, (of course), that many potential guests will embrace it as “a wonderful alternative for Las Vegas business and vacation travelers,” according to Vice President and GM Peter Rockwood.

The upscale, amenity-rich Platinum is targeting a demographic of 35-65-year-old sophisticated travelers who’ve been to Vegas several times previously and have had their fill of the kinetic gaming resort scene.

That would include, me, for certain. I travel there maybe twice a year, on average, and I’m past being mesmerized by the Strip’s sensory seduction. I’d welcome a scaled down, intimate, yet full-service alternative. The neat thing about the Platinum is, guests are just a block from the Strip and all its attractions, should one get an itch to place a bet, or light up a smoke.

Speaking of condo hotels, keep an eye out for the November issue of Lodging Hospitality, which will feature a package of stories focusing on the condo hotel phenomenon.

Germs bug travelers. So do bed bugs, which four percent of travelers have experienced in a hotel room. Those are among the findings of a survey from TripAdvisor, a website devoted to reviews of hotels, vacations and other things travel-related.

TripAdvisor’s poll of nearly 4,000 travelers found that:

—Twenty-four percent of travelers won’t leave home without disinfectants and/or cleaning supplies, shower shoes, their own pillow, sheets and pillow cases, even their own towels. Travelers from the U.S. are more than twice as concerned as travelers from the U.K.

—Four percent of travelers are likely to do something illegal on a trip that they wouldn’t normally do at home

—Ten percent of travelers have stayed at a clothing-optional or adults-only resort, and two percent want to but their spouse or significant other inhibits them

—Seventy-five percent of travelers think a clean restroom makes an airport great, while 28 percent said their worst hotel experience was a dirty bathroom

—Sixteen percent of travelers checked their work e-mail or voicemail at least once daily on their last vacation

—Eighty-one percent of travelers plan to drive for leisure trips this year versus 71 percent a year ago

—Fewer travelers this year—47 percent—intend to visit a spa. Last year, the number was 55 percent

—Forty-three percent are likely to go hiking while on vacation; more women than men plan to participate in outdoor activities in 2007.

“Perhaps the most intriguing discovery is that adventures in the great outdoors has trumped luxuriating at the spa,” says Michele Perry, TripAdvisor’s communications director. Sound like an argument for ecotourism? Yes, but only if you can drive there.

Hotel foodservice often gets a bad rap. And while I can’t think of anything worse than being forced to eat in a Courtyard by Marriott restaurant, there are plenty of lodging properties that have the best restaurants in town, even the best in the state.

Last week, AAA announced this year’s winners of its Five Diamond Awards for both hotels and restaurants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Ninety-three hotels and 58 restaurants—or just .25 percent of the nearly 60,000 establishments rated by the organization each year—got the coveted five diamonds. What struck me, however, was that 35 of the 58 five-diamond-level restaurants are in hotels. In some locations—Arizona, Nevada and Virginia, for example—all the top restaurants are in hotels. While Mary Elaine’s in The Phoenician in Phoenix or the restaurant in the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas are a long way from the Courtyard, it shows that in many instances, the best culinary, design and service talent is found in hotel restaurants. It’s time the industry trumpets that fact in its advertising and marketing efforts. Except for Courtyard, of course.