The issue of whether or not to discount is becoming increasingly contentious as properties and groups struggle to compete in an ever more strained market.
Veteran hotelier George Goring summed up the problem in these terms: “The biggest sin is to overprice, and the second biggest sin is to underprice.” In other words, he told delegates [...]

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As hotels reach out to a new generation of travellers, white-glove service is giving way to laid-back welcomes, signature scents and lobbies that serve as hip community hangouts.
With its pulsing streets and wild, cloud-splitting skyline, Shanghai has a reputation as the metropolis on the edge. And walking into the new Park Hyatt hotel here feels [...]

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Hospitality industry has always tended to be reactive, rather than current, to changes in the economy. After all, hotels don’t create travel, they serve it. There is little hotels can do to induce people to travel. People don’t travel for the purpose of staying in hotels, they stay in our hotels because our hotels are [...]

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In the difficult year we expect 2009 to be, a well-executed Internet marketing strategy can help smart hoteliers generate incremental revenues, improve marketing ROIs, retain existing and attract more affluent travelers, and out-smart the competition.
Here at HeBS we firmly believe that a comprehensive, ROI-centric Internet marketing strategy is the hotelier’s perfect ’survival tool’ in the [...]

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The Air Transport Association projects U.S. airlines will carry 9% fewer travelers this holiday season than last year, as Americans postpone trips or stay closer to home.
Now in the throes of global recession, travel demand is declining for the first time since the period following the 9/11 attacks. From July to November, travelers on the [...]

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Certainly visibility is low right now, and it’s probably better to err on the side of stone-cold sobriety than blithe optimism, but I think we can count on several things in 2009. Not all of them are positive, mind you, but there can be some comfort in quantifying the pain we all know is coming.
1. [...]

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Suppliers seem to have won the battle for online leisure and unmanaged business travel market share in the US, according to December 2008 PhoCusWright data.
Fully 61% of online travel sales are now made directly at supplier sites, compared with 39% for online travel agencies (OTAs) in 2008. This balance is projected to hold steady through [...]

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As the online leisure/unmanaged business travel market in the U.S. has matured, supplier Web sites and online travel agencies (OTAs) appear to have reached relatively stable market share, a new report from travel industry research authority PhoCusWright Inc. reveals.
PhoCusWright’s Online Travel Overview Eighth Edition, finds that supplier sites account for 61% of the online market [...]

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The average price for hotel rooms across the world fell over the summer, according to the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index. The average price paid by travellers for a room during the period July-September 2008 fell by 3% globally, when compared to the same period in 2007.
This is the first year-on-year fall in prices measured in [...]

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