Lodging Leaders

Ginny Morrison of Evanston, Illinois, is a 33-year veteran of Spire Hospitality, a hotel management company with a portfolio that spans coast-to-coast. As vice president of sales and marketing, Morrison saw the coronavirus pandemic decimate the meetings business. More than a year later, she’s witnessing a comeback as small-meeting planners are actively booking events for the last half of 2021 and beyond. As public health agencies expand COVID-19 vaccination programs across the U.S. and states ease up on public-gathering restrictions designed to keep the virus at bay, the hotel industry is seeing small meetings begin a comeback. In Episode 317, Long Live Lodging covers the state of the small-meetings sector and how hotels can grab their share of the meetings business during and post-pandemic. This report is part of our ongoing coverage about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the hospitality industry. The post 317 | Together Again: U.S. hotel industry begins to see return of small meetings first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

The Hunter Hotel Investment Conference will be the industry’s first large event to be held during the coronavirus pandemic. The Atlanta event will be a hybrid format of in-person and virtual access, also an industry first. Lee Hunter, chairman of the conference, knows the level of expectation is high among other conference planners as well as industry professionals eager to network after more than a yearlong hiatus. Episode 316 of Lodging Leaders podcast features Hunter as he tells what it takes to re-launch the industry’s conference circuit amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The post 316 | Pandemic Trailblazer: Hunter Hotel Investment Conference leads lodging industry’s 2021 event circuit first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

The coronavirus crisis has dramatically altered the traditional competitive set most hotels use to benchmark their business performance. During the pandemic, properties have reduced services; they’ve closed either permanently or temporarily; or they’ve transitioned to alternative uses by contracting out to essential travelers or social agencies in search of housing. Episode 315 explores the genesis of the hotel industry comp set and how the COVID-19 outbreak has changed the strategic business tool. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry. The post 315 | COVID Comp Sets: The pandemic has dramatically altered hotels’ playing fields first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

More than 1,760 hotels or 5 percent of U.S. room inventory have permanently or temporarily closed since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first gripped the country, reports Kalibri Labs. Though last year was the worst on record for hotel business performance, the reason behind the change in the metrics is different than in previous economic crises. The shuttering of hotels as well as government restrictions on travel are skewing national averages in key performance indicators, including average daily rate, experts say. For the most part, hoteliers have been smart about holding rate as much as possible in contrast to the “race to the bottom” seen in past economic crises. Episode 314 explores what is truly impacting hotel rate during the coronavirus pandemic. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry. The post 314 | No Discounts Available: Smart rate management keeps hotels afloat amid COVID-19 storm first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

NextGen in Lodging launches its inaugural program with an episode featuring three self-starters carving unique paths in the hospitality industry. Their ventures encompass hotel investment, management and education. The entrepreneurs tell how they altered business strategy and professional goals amid the coronavirus crisis. NextGen in Lodging co-host Davonne Reaves leads the conversation with Purvi Panwala of Panwala Property Management Corp. and CRC Construction Corp; Andrea Aguilar of Typsy and Preshift; and Kendra Plummer of Elise Capital. The post 01 | First But Not Last first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Ron Vlasic has held several leadership roles over the course of his 30 years in the hospitality industry. While serving as COO at Hostmark Hospitality Group, the Chicago native has answered the call to help the U.S. travel and tourism industry recover from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. For the next two years, he will serve on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In an interview with Long Live Lodging, Vlasic tells the story of his career journey and what it will take to revive the industry post-pandemic. This feature story introduces our Lodging Luminaries program. The post 313 | Staging a Comeback: Hospitality leader Ron Vlasic helps industry build post-pandemic revival first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Twelve years ago, Merriam-Webster added the word “staycation” to its online dictionary. In doing so, the publisher said it traced the word to a 2005 article in the Huntsville Times in Alabama. The publisher noted that modern society might mistakenly think because the word is relatively new, the concept of a staycation is also novel. read more The post 312 | Spring Breaks for Homebodies: Staycations are a growing trend amid the coronavirus pandemic first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

As hospitals throughout the U.S. turned to hotels to absorb patient overflows caused by the coronavirus pandemic and public agencies contracted with properties to house unsheltered populations, many owners weren’t prepared for the challenges these urgent decisions have created, including property damage, increased costs and eviction bans. Episode 311 of Lodging Leaders podcast is the final in a two-part series examining the pros and cons of opening hotels to alternative uses amid the coronavirus crisis. The post 311 | Shelters From the Norm: Hotels used for hospitals and housing face unexpected problems first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Dhruv Patel, president of Ridgemont Hospitality, in October shared a bittersweet moment with his parents, Pravin and Sima Patel, when the family business sold the first motel that Pravin had built from the ground up more than 30 years ago. But they rest assured knowing it was the right decision because the 22-room property is being converted into affordable housing for military veterans at risk of homelessness. The transaction is among hundreds taking place across the U.S. as state and local governments work with non-profit agencies to create affordable housing solutions for vulnerable populations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Episode 310 Long Live Lodging reports on the financial and legal aspects of what it takes to convert a hotel into long-term housing. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s special coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry. The post 310 | Hotels Convert to Housing: Federal COVID-19-relief funds fuel transactions first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Resources and Links Kathleen Bertrand The post 309 | ‘Stay the Course’: Kathleen Bertrand recalls hospitality career focused on growth through diversity first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Crestline Hotels & Resorts, a third-party management company in Fairfax, Virginia, recently celebrated its first-place position in J.D. Power’s inaugural Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark. Long Live Lodging features Aaron Olson, senior vice president of operations at Crestline, and Andrea Stokes, who led the benchmark study at J.D. Power. They share best practices hotel managers are implementing to keep guest satisfaction at an all-time high, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry. The post 308 | From Guests’ Mouths to Managers’ Ears: J.D. Power study reveals what satisfies hotel customers in COVID-19 age first appeared on Long Live Lodging.

Noelle Trent is director of interpretation, collections and education at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The museum is in the historic Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The venue is hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition, which tells the history of Black travel in mid-20th-century America. In this report, Long Live Lodging explores how African Americans travelers learned to safely navigate the nation’s highways and byways during the age of segregation. We also feature the Lorraine Motel and its enduring significance to racial equality in America.

Ben Seidel is founder, president and chief executive of Real Hospitality Group, a third-party manager with a portfolio of more than 100 hotels. Like most owners and managers, Seidel and his team view the coronavirus pandemic as the biggest risk facing hotel performance but acknowledge that other threats also loom large. The number and severity of climate-related catastrophes in the U.S. broke a record in 2020. As a result, Seidel has seen property insurance costs dramatically increase for 2021. Long Live Lodging explores how changes in commercial insurance coverage is affecting the hotel industry. This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

Andrew J. Young Jr. became a civil rights activist 65 years ago, starting as a Baptist minister in Georgia. For more than a decade he traveled alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in pursuit of racial equality in America. Young, 88, has a storied career of public service. He served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a U.S. congressman and mayor of Atlanta. In this special report, Young shares his remembrances of hoteliers and private homeowners showing hospitality to civil rights workers in mid-century America. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s special project commemorating Black History Month and how the hospitality industry impacted the Civil Rights Movement.

As a former analyst with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fred Washington knows commercial real estate development, if done with the community in mind, can change residents’ quality of life. Washington wants to do the same thing with the six hotels he’s building in Florida. A new hotel investor, Washington recently made history when he signed Choice Hotels International’s first minority-led multi-unit franchise development deal. This report kicks off Long Live Lodging’s special series commemorating Black History Month when we explore the impact the hospitality industry has had on the Civil Rights Movement. This report also is part of our ongoing coverage of the state of diversity, inclusion and equality in hospitality leadership.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing hoteliers to deploy new technology to run more cost-efficient businesses and to ensure customers that properties are safe by providing such services as contactless check in and mobile key. Long Live Lodging explores how the COVID-19 outbreak has invigorated hotels’ adoption of tech solutions and looks at what types of products owners and operators are investing in during the coronavirus crisis and for the post-pandemic era. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

Hotel appraisers and brokers expect distressed assets to come to market as the pandemic recession continues into 2021. Analysts say billions of dollars in private equity are waiting in the wings to acquire hotels underperforming as a result of the coronavirus crisis. But pricing will be different than in previous economic downturns. While a transaction may be distressed, it will not necessarily reflect distress pricing,” said Daniel Lesser of LW Hospitality Advisors. Long Live Lodging explores the state of hotel values as well as what may lie ahead with regard to transactions in 2021 as the spread of COVID-19 continues to stifle lodging performance. This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

Global business travel is a $1.4 trillion industry. The Global Business Travel Association calculates the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 resulted in a loss of $113 billion in business travel spend in hotels, airlines and other sectors of the travel industry. But all is not lost. GBTA, industry analysts and travel management companies see some green shoots of hope for 2021 as the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out and corporations put some of their people on the road again. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

Long Live Lodging, an online multimedia news organization that covers the hospitality industry, found itself tossing aside its plans for news coverage late in the first quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and devastated the hospitality industry. The year turned out to be ground-breaking for Long Live Lodging, which developed the industry’s first live digital conference, and its podcast, Lodging Leaders, which increased its followers through timely, credible and balanced reporting on trends and issues driving the industry during the historic year. The company also won international recognition for its coverage of the COVID-19 crisis and its work as a whole. Long Live Lodging is a startup media company, formed in 2019, with Lodging Leaders, which was founded in 2015. In today’s report, we celebrate the podcast’s 300th episode. Podcast founder and co-host Jon Albano and co-host Judy Maxwell have a free-wheeling conversation in which they review the top podcasts of 2020 (Can anyone say ‘fair franchising’?) and give a brief preview of what the media organization plans for 2021.

The damage wrought on hotel businesses by the coronavirus pandemic is wide and deep. But the longevity of the pandemic is proving to be truly devastating, especially as the U.S. experiences another surge in the infection rate. In the early days of the crisis, owners, operators and asset managers acted quickly to prevent hotels from closing. Some advisers helped owners weigh the pros and cons of remaining open or temporarily closing. As the pandemic continues its assault, hotel operators are figuring out ways to stabilize their businesses while holding out hope the vaccine will trigger the start of a recovery. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.

A little more than a year ago, the National Restaurant Association forecasted the hot culinary trends of 2020. Among its top 10 were “delivery-friendly” menu items and recipe ingredients that relieve stress. Here we are nine months since the coronavirus pandemic came to America, and at least these predictions were spot on. Owners and operators read more

The coronavirus pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of business. Consumer buying habits are no exception as more sales than ever have shifted online. Omnisend recently charted a dramatic increase in consumers’ response to emails from retailers since the start sheltering in place. The hospitality industry can take a page from retailers’ email-marketing playbook as hotels and other accommodations brainstorm for creative ways to reach out to a captive audience of travel consumers. We explore how hotels can use email to connect with both loyal and prospective guests as the lodging industry prepares to emerge from its COVID-19 quarantine. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

It’s well known extended-stay-hotel and short-term-rental sectors have done better than their transient hotel counterparts during the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the crisis hit, residential-type accommodations were seeing a growth in interest from travelers as well as investors. The COVID-19 outbreak is proving mixed developments of hotel rooms, leased apartments and owned condominiums offer a unique value proposition during and after the pandemic. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the lodging industry to rethink health and wellness. Designers such as Blanche Garcia of B. Garcia Designs see this as an opportunity for hotels to revise their messaging beyond clean and safe by introducing wellness products and programs they can market and attract guests who want to feel good during their stay and return home feeling better than when they left. Those who promote healthy buildings as well as safe travel are exploring how implementing elements of wellness can be a cure for hotel businesses struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

She Has a Deal, a program that promotes women as hotel owners, last month minted several new investors through its inaugural pitch competition. Long Live Lodging examines what it took for the three women who comprise the team called Datcher to win the top prize of $50,000 in equity in a fund that would include their $27.4 million project proposed for downtown Detroit. Two additional projects proposed during the competition were selected to benefit from She Has a Deal’s first investment fund. Datcher’s winning formula as well as the other project proposals can be emulated as hotel developers and investors search for ways to fund upcoming projects that reduce investors’ risk while delivering a healthy return as the lodging industry navigates its way through the business downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

General managers of hotels throughout the U.S. are redefining their job descriptions as they make beds, do laundry, vacuum lobbies and patrol parking lots – all jobs once done by employees they’ve had to lay off when the coronavirus pandemic struck in March. GMs also are charged with cutting costs and finding ways to maintain asset values amid a steep downturn in business. A recent study shows that even though hotels are calling some employees back to work, the number of hours GMs are spending at work has not decreased. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

Hoteliers might think of a travel influencer as a selfie-obsessed millennial looking to wrangle a free night stay in exchange for a positive review. But in the COVID-19 age even influencers would agree: Nobody’s got time for that. Influencers have come of age and are turning out to be digitally savvy sophisticated content creators who can be part of a hotel’s marketing strategy as it works to emerge from the coronavirus crisis with new business on the books. Long Live Lodging peeks into the world of travel influencers and how they generate online content that promotes people, places and things to audiences traditional marketing might never reach. This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

Leaders at AAHOA and the American Hotel & Lodging Association say time is running out for the nation’s 57,000 hotels in need of federal government financial relief as the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. heads into its eighth month. Cecil Staton, president and CEO of AAHOA, and Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA, who are tirelessly rallying the industry to implore Congress to act soon before half of the country’s hotels go into foreclosure. This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

With hotel occupancies hovering around an average of 50 percent, owners and operators are seeking new ways to generate revenue beyond traditional overnight stays. One solution in the works is day use of hotel rooms. Hotel companies Accor and Hilton are promoting the practice and individual hotels are also accommodating work-from-hotel concepts to boost business read more

Reform Lodging is a new organization of hotel owners formed to address problems its members are facing as a result of the downturn in business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. First issue on its list is the size of commissions levied by online travel agencies. Reform Lodging is asking its nearly 2,000 members to remove their rooms from OTA inventory on Friday and Saturday to protest the compensation practice. Long Live Lodging reports on the “Lights Out, OTA!” campaign and explores the financial implications of OTA commissions and franchisers’ reservation fees on owners of branded hotels. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

Two viruses emerged in the U.S. this year – COVID-19 and society’s backlash against racism. The coronavirus pandemic forced hotels to close or drastically cut back on their workforces as occupancy plummeted to unprecedented lows. And America’s streets resounded with the voices of citizens protesting racism as businesses began to respond by promising new and better commitments toward diversity, inclusion and equality in hiring and promotion. In Episode 288 of Lodging Leaders podcast, we explore the issues hotels are facing in bringing back laid-off workers and recruiting new employees in the midst of a health pandemic that seems to have no end and society’s desperate call for Corporate America to get serious about ending systemic racism.

Extended-stay hotels are weathering the coronavirus crisis better than their transient cousins, according to reports. The Highland Group’s half-year report shows economy and mid-priced extended-stay hotels are faring better than upscale extended-stay accommodations. Second-quarter earnings reports from companies such as Extended Stay America prove the resiliency of the sector, especially when sales teams shift their focus to new prospects such as college students, leisure travelers who value the kitchen and essential workers in it for the long haul. Long Live Lodging examines what gives extended-stay its muscle in a weak economy. This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the wants, needs and desires of consumers. Buying habits have changed. The crisis has changed the way consumers value businesses. Hotels have an opportunity to succeed during and after the pandemic by adopting sales and marketing strategies that acknowledge the COVID-19 reality and embrace consumers with the warmth of heartfelt care. Long Live Lodging examines how the traditional sales tactics have been pushed aside as hotels reexamine the ultimate goal of hospitality during an uncertain and frightening time. This report is part of our ongoing coverage on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

Almost overnight, the roadside motel is a hot commodity. Travelers are going by car and when they stop they want the safest stay possible. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed health and safety to the top of hotel guests’ most-favored-amenity list and exterior-corridor properties appear to provide more of a risk-free stay than their interior-corridor cousins. Long Live Lodging examines the new shine travelers have put on exterior-corridor motels during the COVID-19 crisis and how brands heavy with motel-style properties are responding to the trend. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting downturn in the travel industry will make it difficult for investors to find the capital they need to acquire and develop hotels. That means minority investors, in particular Black Americans, might face an uphill climb in qualifying for bank loans unless they can close the ever-widening equity gap. Several read more

In a recent Zoom conference hosted by the African American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, hospitality entrepreneur Kristin Kitchen talked about her lodging company that showcases Black heritage and supports minority-owned companies. Kitchen is part of a trend toward building hospitality ventures related to Black history and culture, a sub-sector of read more

The coronavirus crisis has put unprecedented amounts of stress not only on health care systems and economies but on workers’ mental health. That’s the first and bottom line of a recent study by the Society of Human Resource Managers. The professional association surveyed more than a thousand workers in mid-April and found that nearly half read more

In June, Watermark Lodging Trust, a Chicago REIT, sold its Hutton Hotel in Nashville for $70 million. The price is $7 million less than what the REIT said it paid to acquire and upgrade the hotel seven years ago. A month later, Watermark said it signed a deal in which it sold shares worth $200 read more

As the hospitality industry struggles to mitigate the massive loss of revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of hotel owners are filing lawsuits to force their property insurance providers to cover their financial casualties. Meantime, state and federal lawmakers are considering legislation that would mandate U.S. insurance companies pay for business losses related to read more

We’re trying something different today. We’ve teamed up with a group called Next Generation in Lodging, a diverse team of mid-career hospitality professionals who want to have significant input into the future of the hospitality industry. We’ve worked with them to produce and provide a platform for a panel discussion about diversity and inclusion in read more

Since the beginning of March, the hotel industry has lost more than $40 billion in room revenue. Hotels continue to lose $400 million every day, according to STR and Tourism Economics. The historic loss of income caused by the coronavirus pandemic is rendering hotel owners unable to pay their property mortgages. While many have worked read more

In the introduction of his book, “Hotel, an American History,” A.K. Sandoval-Strausz writes: “The hotel as we know it today did not evolve randomly or naturally, nor did it develop as some sort of automatic response to structural needs. Rather, it was the deliberate creation of an identifiable group of people who lived in a read more

Many companies in the hotel industry claim they practice diversity in their hiring practices. When questioned about how many Black people they employ, most companies can back up their hiring outcomes with data. That’s all well and good, but what’s missing in most employment demographics is a measurement of how inclusive the company is not read more

Imagine holding a conference on racism, diversity and inclusion in Corporate America and seeing your event invaded by outsiders shouting racial epithets and vulgarities while flying both the Nazi and American flags. Actually, there is no need to imagine it because it happened earlier this month during a digital event organized by the founders of read more

In the first quarter of this year, more than 140 new hotels opened in the U.S., reported Lodging Econometrics. In March, the U.S. had 150,000 rooms under construction, said STR. It’s the highest end-of-month total the company has reported. Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights at STR, said he expects hotel construction to read more

The U.S. hospitality industry is slowly getting back to business. Leisure travelers are responsible for occupancy boosts in late May, especially Memorial Day weekend, STR reports. Leisure travelers will continue to drive demand as the coronavirus crisis begins to ease, experts say. Meanwhile, Oxford Tourism Economics reports that business transient and group bookings are not read more

As the U.S. lodging sector begins to get back to business amid the coronavirus crisis, technology will play a much bigger role in operations than before the outbreak paralyzed the industry. Technological solutions in operations and guest management were emerging in hotels before the COVID-19 pandemic. But experts say the next generation of tech is read more

The U.S. hotel industry has begun its comeback as all states are reopening their economies. The numbers show that occupancy is slowly but steadily increasing as hotels get back to business. But, to be sure, it is not business as usual. Relatively few hotels completely closed during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 80 percent remained read more

With more than half of the states in America reopening their economies, owners and operators of lodging accommodations might be tempted to return to business as usual. That includes sales and marketing strategies that management was deploying before the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the hospitality industry. But hotel marketing experts we interviewed say business will be read more

The COVID-19 crisis is far from over. How long the crisis remains is still an unknown. As many states are taking steps to reopen their marketplaces, government leaders and business owners may want to look to the hotel industry for some best practices. While nearly 20 percent of the nation’s 57,000 hotels have closed, according read more