Lodging Leaders

Americans for the Arts’ public-opinion survey in 2018 found citizens value the arts and believe it benefits the community and its businesses.

In the U.S. hospitality sector, art is becoming more mainstream as hotels integrate different artistic mediums into design and décor as well as guest programs.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders, we explore how hotels use art to set themselves apart from the competition and attract guests who would not have otherwise stayed at the hotel.

Along with the business perspective, hotel owners and managers also promote non-traditional art concepts and support artists whose works enrich the lives of guests and locals.

We talk to Jean-Luc Laramie, general manager of the Hotel Chicago West Loop, which integrated art into its renovation plans in unique ways; Asend, the muralist who plans to create a work on the exterior of the hotel; and Terry Eaton of Eaton Fine Art in Austin, Texas, who creates and curates art programs for hotels of all sizes all over the world.

Hunter Hotel Advisors brokered the sales of more hotels in 2019 than in any year in its history.

Sellers and buyers that generated $1.2 billion under Hunter’s guidance were a mixed bag and included institutional firms, private investment groups and hotel companies.

Many hotel brokers expect to tally similar results, making 2019 one of the most active years in hotel transactions in the U.S.

Industry analysts we interviewed expect 2020 to be an even busier period of hotel investment in part because private investors will continue to recycle their capital and shop for places to stash their cash.

This episode of Lodging Leaders takes a look at the history of hotel transactions last year as well as the whole past decade, including the growth of REITs, the emergence of private equity and the expansion of ownership groups that aggressively grew their portfolios with branded select-service assets. We also explore what might lie ahead this year as hotels in many major markets experience a slowdown in business.

We talk to Teague Hunter, CEO of Hunter Hotel Advisors in Atlanta; Lou Plasencia, CEO of The Plasencia Group in Tampa, Florida; Daniel Lesser, president and CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors in New York City; Kevin Mallory, senior managing director of CBRE Hotels in Chicago; and Brian Waldman, executive vice president of investment for Peachtree Hotel Group in Atlanta.

This is the second of a two-part update about people, campaigns and programs that are furthering the mission to promote more women into leadership roles in the hospitality industry.

In this episode we touch base with Jagruti Panwala and Rachel Humphrey who are in top leadership roles at AAHOA, the world’s largest hotel owners association with more than 19,000 members.

Panwala is chair of AAHOA and Humphrey is the COO and VP of franchise relations who just finished a year of serving as interim president and CEO of the association.

For the first time in AAHOA’s 30-year history, the association was led by women.

We talk to Panwala and Humphrey about how they view their experiences, what it was like to work together and how they applied their female perspectives to significantly move the needle on challenges facing the hotel industry, including the issue of human trafficking.

A new study by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org reveals that over the past five years Corporate America has made some progress in gender diversity, including increasing the number of women in leadership.

Although that finding is promising, women remain underrepresented in business leadership across the board and continue to lack access to opportunities available to their male counterparts. Representation of women in high-ranking leadership has grown since 2015, according to the findings in the report titled Women in the Workplace 2019.

Forty-four percent of the 330 companies participating in the study have slightly increased the number of women in executive roles.

The 44 percent have three or more women in their C-suites. That’s up from 29 percent of companies in 2015.

It’s progress, but it’s not a dramatic difference. This and other studies show women continue to face barriers to leadership and financial gain in Corporate America, including the hotel and travel sectors.

As the year 2020 kicks off we wanted to check in with some women in the hospitality and travel industry who are either role models of leadership or are organizing programs that celebrate, educate and empower women to keep climbing and not stop until they reach the top.

This episode is the first part of report about the progress women are making in leadership in the hospitality industry. It is a mix of interviews with guests, including Peggy Berg, founder of Castell Project; Kristin Intress, returning CEO of WorldHotels; Laura Mandala, founder of Mandala Research and creator of Women in Travel and Tourism International; and Clara Carter, founder of Multi-Cultural Convention Services Network and founder of Women in Tourism and Hospitality.

The annual employee turnover rate in the U.S. hospitality industry is 70 percent.

When compared with 10 to 25 percent at other industries, the rate at which people leave hospitality jobs is at a “disastrous level,” said one of the experts we interviewed about recruiting and retaining employees.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders, we report exclusive data on retention and turnover rates.

Guests also offer practical solutions to the problem, including better managing labor costs to be able to give employees a pay raise.

Overall, the experts agree that creating awareness about the opportunities to build a meaningful career should be the central strategy to recruiting and retaining employees.

We feature Ron Mitchell CEO of Virgil Holdings, which owns Hcareers, a recruitment website; Del Ross, chief revenue officer at Hotel Effectiveness, which helps hotels manage labor costs; Davonne Reaves, CEO of The Vonne Group, a hospitality consulting firm; and Sarah Smart, vice president of global recruitment at Hilton Worldwide.

Coworking is a primary growth driver of the office market, reports JLL. The sector has an annual growth rate of about 24 percent. No segment of the market has demonstrated more overall growth than the coworking industry.

JLL’s report is focused on the office sector, but the commercial real estate asset class is crossing over into hospitality as hotel companies, investors and owners are either incorporating coworking programs into their hotels’ public spaces, building separate coworking facilities or both.

In today’s episode, Lodging Leaders takes a look at the coworking trend and its impact on the hospitality industry. We talk to hotel owners and developers who are invested in the sector and we hear from consultants who are witnessing the integration of coworking and flexible working spaces into hotel design and programming.

Featured are Raj Chudasama of Kriya Hotels in Dallas, Texas, and Kamal Rama of Siddhi Hotels in Greenville, South Carolina. Both men are building coworking facilities to complement their hotel investment portfolios. Also interviewed are Philip Bates of Bode, a new hotel company that serves communal travelers; and consultants Paul Breslin of Horwath HTL in Atlanta, Georgia, and Hank Fonde Jr. of CBRE Hotels in Jacksonville, Florida.

In the 19th and early-20th centuries, hotels in America offered more than room and board. They defined a community by attracting crowds to their lobbies and restaurants and establishing themselves as vital centers of civic life, writes A.K. Sandoval-Strausz, author of “Hotel: An American Story.”

“Hotels,” writes Sandoval-Strausz, “were points of contact between local communities and the larger society beyond.”

As the saying goes, “Everything old is new again.”

Modern-day hotels are returning to the communal spirit that early accommodations depended on to attract business from travelers and locals alike.

In today’s episode of Lodging Leaders, we explore the concept of shared space and spotlight companies answering travelers’ quests for more communal experiences – both in their rooms and in the hotel’s common areas.

We hear from Clay Markham, head of the global hospitality sector at CallisonRTKL. We also feature Jason Fudin, CEO of WhyHotel; Philip Bates, CEO of Bode; and Mike Mueller, senior vice president of Super 8 Hotels at Wyndham Hotel Group.

The holiday season is upon us.

For many hotels, regular business tends to drop off this time of year.

Seasonality takes different forms and depends on several factors, including your hotel’s target market and its location.

In this episode, we find out how hoteliers can leverage the traditional retail sales season as well as the consumer-spending mindset to drive business to their properties.

We talk to Stephanie Sparks Smith, founder of Cogwheel Marketing in Seattle, Washington, and Stuart Butler, COO of Fuel Travel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Hotel industry analysts and watchers expect property renovations in the United States to surge over the next two years.

They cite several reasons for the outlook, including:

• The industry has surpassed the peak of its recovery from the Great Recession;
• A slowdown in revenue growth is predicted for this year and next;
• The leveling off of a robust construction pipeline; and
• A record-breaking transaction pace in 2018.

Construction companies, suppliers and others anticipate investors will focus on upgrading and improving existing assets. The 700 hotels that changed hands in 2018 and the approximate 115 assets sold in the first three quarters of this year have given owners plenty to work with over the next two years or longer.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders, we explore the hotel renovation outlook. We find out what owners need to know before tackling a renovation project, how to keep guests happy during the transformation process and what steps to take to grow your business after the renovation dust has settled.

We talk to Heather Tuskowski, director of operations at Winter Construction; Mark Matz, co-president and COO at Premier Project Management; Mario Insenga, founder and CEO of The Refinishing Touch; Stuart Butler, COO at Fuel Travel; and Simon Rizk, vice president of operations at Pro Hospitality Group who recently oversaw a renovation at GreenTree Inn & Suites in Pinetop, Arizona.

STR recently reported the hotel construction pipeline for the U.S. was up 5.5 percent in October. It was the lowest year-over-year increase in lodging construction activity in six months.

Despite the slowdown, construction companies say they are as busy as ever. However, they do anticipate a leveling off of new builds over the next couple years.

In this episode of Lodging Leaders, we talk to specialists in hotel construction to find out what they think is causing the muted growth. They share industry challenges and outlooks and discuss emerging trends such as Design-Build that help get hotels up and open in time and on budget.

Featured in today’s report are Bill Wilhelm, president of R.D. Olson Construction in California; Dale White Sr. and Stephanie Hall of D.A.G. Construction Co. in Ohio; and Brent Reid, CEO of Winter Construction in Georgia.