Author: Guy Lean

Briefing: Hotels invest in innovative design

Posted on by Guy Lean

Last month IHG announced plans to open a new Hotel Indigo in The Sustainable City (TSC), a new large scale community development in Dubai. The city is intended to have the highest sustainability standards and the new Hotel Indigo will match this with a building designed to recycle all waste water and use 100% solar power. Also in May an innovative hotel design Snoozebox won the Good Design Award Trophy in the Architectural Design category at the Good Design awards in Sydney.

In this briefing four experts discuss the value of innovative design:

Great design ideas are helping hotel companies modernise, differentiate, increase sustainability, and tap into new markets.

Snoozebox is a self-contained portable hotel which can be set up at events and festivals as an alternative to camping. Each room has an ensuite wet room bed a TV and wi-fi. Each pod room is 7.5 square metres. Snoozebox is providing accommodation at many of the festivals around the UK this year including Glastonbury.
IHG’s Hotel Indigo brand has been around since 2004, it is focused on design with each hotel intended to reflect the area it is in and look like a boutique hotel despite being part of a brand.

CitizenM is another brand hinged on design. Its hotels incorporate bright colours, modern style furniture, ‘luxurious living room style lobbies’ and a 24hour canteen and bar to appeal to modern travellers and distinguish itself from more traditional hotel design.

The Good Design Awards is an annual international event which covers design in all industries. The European hospitality industry also has its own European Hotel Design Awards. Last year the wellness hotel the Lanserhof Tegernsee, Marienstein, Germany won the European Hotel Design of the Year Award at EHDA, and The Edible Hotel by Dexter Moren Associates won Tomorrow’s Hotel for a design with an open plan lobby, an edible wall, and an aquarium.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: High staff turnover is costly for hospitality businesses

Posted on by Guy Lean

A new report from Deloitte, Hospitality 2015 – Game changers or spectators, found that employee turnover in hospitality can be as high as 31% and may increase further as the recession is left behind. This is nearly double the average rate for other industries and can be expensive for businesses. So how can hospitality businesses hold on to valuable staff for the long term?

In these videos hospitality experts discuss staff retention:

Staffing costs account for a tremendous proportion of hotel operation costs. Deloitte’s report states that, ‘An average hotelier spends 45 percent of operating expenses and 33 per cent of revenues on labour costs.’ High turnover rates cause extra costs in recruitment and training. According to the report 52% of the cost of replacing staff is productivity loss and 14% is orientation and training.

The report shows that the top barriers to retaining employees are lack of compensation increases and excessive workload. At entry level, hospitality jobs can typically have somewhat irregular hours and fairly low pay and can attract younger workers who may not considered hospitality a long term career. However hardworking, happy and engaged staff are essential for the smooth running of a hotel and the longer staff stay in their roles the more they will have to offer the company.

In order to impress guests companies need staff across the business who understand the industry well and are able to represent the brand at the level expected. It is well worth focusing attention on giving staff a good experience so that they want to perform their best.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Reviews & credibility – Websites strive to build trust

Posted on by Guy Lean

Online reviews continue to influence customer decisions. Data from Deloitte shows that 81% of general consumers read reviews and check ratings. In the hospitality industry these reviews are being published on different social media sites, direct on hotel and booking sites, and are frequently being written on mobiles and on mobile apps. Knowing that fake reviews are possible, trust between companies and consumers is becoming increasingly important.

In this briefing four experts discuss credibility and making the most of reviews.

According to Deloitte 42% of holiday makers use review sites. But companies are also looking for ways to show reviews on direct platforms. As discussed in the above videos, Choice Hotels is verifying reviews that are posted on its website, and TrustYou is a company offering tools and solutions for Travel and Tourism companies to display credible reviews to customers. Expedia is also taking step to ensure only true customers can leave reviews, whilst also displaying TripAdvisor posts alongside these.

Foursquare is a mobile app and review site for food, drink, activities and shopping, on which comments are always linked to specific locations. The site has more than 55 million users worldwide who have ‘checked in’ to locations over seven billion times. Business can ‘claim’ their locations in order to interact with the customers who are posting on the site. Two million businesses have done this so far. Research shows that connecting with customers who are leaving reviews can have a positive impact on business.

One review site that covers all industries is Yelp. In the first quarter of 2015 more than 50% of Yelp content (reviews and photos) was generated on mobile devices and 65% of searches came from mobile devices. Interestingly in the first quarter of 2015 there were many more positive reviews posted than negative ones with 42% of reviews giving a 5 star rating, 25% giving 4 stars and only 14% of reviews giving 1 star.

Validity and trust is of course important to the success of review sites themselves. Yelp has a review filter which it says helps to spot fake reviews. It has taken legal action against people trying to buy and sell reviews and has recently filed a lawsuit against a company which falsely said it could remove negative reviews form the site.  Yelp is not the only company taking this kind of action. Amazon too has recently taken out a lawsuit over fake reviews.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Business, Leisure, Community – Hospitality for millennials

Posted on by Guy Lean

New hospitality brand Zoku launched this week. This and other brands are responding to the needs of the millennial business traveller. BridgeStreet’s Bleisure Report 2014 found that the line between business and leisure travel is blurring as more people are looking for ways to include leisure activities into their business trips. In the survey ‘Nearly half of respondents (46%) add personal travel days to business travel “every trip” or to “most trips”.’

Young business travellers want to experience the city they are in and socialise and want to stay somewhere that enables them to do this, as discussed in these videos:

BridgeStreet’s survey of 640 international guests shows that instead of only exploring cities on leisure trips, ‘83% of respondents use time on business trips to explore the city they’re visiting.’ The report also states that: ‘The top reason for bleisure travel is a desire to see the world and gain cultural experiences’. This is also shown in TripAdvisor’s Trip Barometer 2015, in which 29% of people said their reason for visiting a specific destination was that they ‘love exploring the area’.

Zoku is aimed at people who need short or extended stay accommodation in a new city for work. The accommodation incorporates social spaces, events, and app to help guests to make connections. Zoku’s launch announcement goes so far as to proclaim the ‘end of the hotel room’. Instead of bedrooms there will be ‘lofts’, which are designed to be living and work spaces rather than just places to sleep, and are intended to be more homely and social in the same sized space as a hotel room. There is a new take on the holiday rep as ‘Zoku Community Managers’ will help make introductions between guests. The first Zoku will open in Amsterdam in autumn 2015.

Services apartment brand SACO is also targeting the bleisure traveller. Their research shows that Millennials are 50% more likely to have travelled for business in the past two years than people over 35. It says that 14% of millennials see travelling as an important networking opportunity (as opposed to 7% of their older peers), and that ‘millennials look for accommodation with shared spaces for socialising in’.

Radisson Red is a new brand from Radisson hotel group which again is promising spaces for Gen Y to work, play and socialise.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Meta-disruption in hotel bookings

Posted on by Guy Lean

According to Statistica, over 35% of Millennial and Gen X travellers (all adults under 48) use ‘meta-search’ when planning travel, allowing them to automatically combine search engine results. It is ten years since the launches of two well-known meta-search sites Kayak and Trivago in 2005. In 2015 meta-search is one technology that is developing fast and impacting on hoteliers. According to Skift, changes to Google’s hotel finder search will make Google a big player in the meta-search arena this year.

With the hospitality booking landscape constantly changing these videos have expert discussion on approaches to distribution:

Meta-search allows the consumer to limit the amount of ‘clicks’ from the beginning of their holiday internet research to their booking. While the actual booking is made with the OTA or the hotel the search site allows the researcher to compare deals on the same trip across different sites. This ease and efficiency has made meta-search popular. With consumers choosing to use this shortcut it is important for hospitality businesses to consider whether or not they are showing up in the search results. To appear in meta-search results hoteliers can list themselves on the website (an option on sites such as TripAdvisor or Kayak), or on an OTA (Trivago only lists OTA inventory), which tend to be more prominent in results.

Trivago is the world’s largest online hotel search with 100% growth every year since 2008. It shows results from 266 booking sites (which encompasses 726,065 hotels).

Kayak receives over one billion queries each year. It also has a mobile app which has been downloaded 40 million times.

Metasearch is also frequently used for booking flights on sites such as Monomondo, Skyscanner, and Travel Supermarket.  There is even an apartment specific meta-search site Apartum for consumers preferring alternative accommodation to hotels.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Look to the Future of Hospitality

Posted on by Guy Lean

If we could take a glimpse at the hospitality industry in five or ten years’ time what would it look like? 95% of people think, ‘hotels will increasingly look to new technologies to drastically increase efficiency, reduce costs, personalize the customer experience and improve service’. In the Future hotels will need to provide more personalised service and enhance guest experiences online and off. They will need to connect with their guests and allow them guests to connect to their devices. They will be deconstructing and reimagining hospitality spaces and considering new possibilities.

This week our videos explore what the future of hospitality will look like:

Connecting to mobiles and apps can help hotels personalise service. According to Grant Thornton’s Hotel 2020 report: ‘46% of millennials agree that being able to check in/out using a mobile device would motivate them to return.’ The report also shows that towards 2020 hotels will be making a bigger effort to connect with customers on digital platforms, with 30% of global hoteliers planning to hire staff specifically for social media.

Technology will continue to enhance guest experience with guest being able to more easily control their room features through mobile devices. New technologies like augmented reality could change how travellers interact with the space around them using wearable technology or mobile phones. Some companies are already starting to use virtual reality technologies. Best Western gave children an opportunity take a photo with a virtual Disney movie star and Marriot offered a 4D virtual travel experience, as reported in the Guardian.

A survey for Amadeus, Hotels 2020-Beyond Segmentation, asked people in the travel industry and on hotel discussion forums about the future of hospitality. 86% of respondents thought that by 2020, ‘customers will have the ability to choose the size of room, type of bed, amenities, audio-visual facilities, business equipment, etc. on booking and pay accordingly’. 96% said that ‘hotels will need to develop strong social media ‘listening skills.’

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Hospitality is a valuable job creator

Posted on by Guy Lean

Travel & Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries and offers many fantastic opportunities for a great career. According to figures from WTTC the industry supports 277 million jobs and generates 9.8 per cent of world GDP. In the UK hospitality currently has a 3 million strong workforce and, in the run up to the general election, is being recognised as a key contributor to the UK economy.

In this briefing four experts discuss hospitality careers and share why they fell in love with the industry:

Key political parties in the UK have mentioned hospitality and tourism in their election manifesto’s, with each pledging to support the sector through various means. The recognition for this suburb industry has been welcomed by the British Hospitality Association, an organisation which campaigns for jobs and growth in the industry. The organisation is campaigning for 60,000 new job opportunities for young people in the UK by 2016 and has recently reached the 40,000 milestone. A report from the TourismAlliance, UK Tourism Statistics 2014, states that, ‘Tourism is the fastest growing sector in the UK in employment terms, responsible for almost one third of the net increase in UK jobs between 2010 and 2013.’

According to UNWTO one job in tourism generates 1.5 jobs elsewhere. UNWTOs publication Measuring Employment in the Tourism Industries says; ‘International tourism continues to exceed expectations, supporting economic growth in both advanced and emerging economies and bringing much needed support to job creation, GDP and the balance of payments of many destinations.’

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: UK and Europe expect growth in 2015

Posted on by Guy Lean

A new forecast from PwC suggests that in 2015 the UK could see a 1.6% increase in hotel occupancy (to 78%), a 5.6% gain in RevPAR, and a stabilisation of GDP growth to 2.5%. In wider Europe, 17 out of the 20 cities in PwC’s European Cities Hotel Forecast 2015 and 2016 are expected to enjoy RevPAR growth close to or in excess of 2%.

According to the UK Hotels Forecast 2015 the number of hotel rooms in London will increase 5.3% in 2015, and with the current UK housing shortfall, hospitality is not the only market set for development. The UK real estate market in general has a positive outlook, as reported in the FT advisor, having seen 19.3% returns in 2014, the best since 1988.

In these videos four experts discuss the hospitality and real estate markets in the UK:

In Europe; Dublin, Madrid and London are set to have the highest RevPAR growth at 8.8%, 5.6% and 4.6% respectively. However no significant new supply is expected in Dublin in 2015. Room supply in London stood at 135,000 in 2014 and 7,200 more rooms are expected this year. The London Olympics in 2012 encouraged tourism to the capital city. In 2015 PwC predict that the Rugby World Cup will once again drive demand up in the UK. The forecast also predicts that UK regional rooms supply will increase by 1.7% in 2015, adding 9,000 rooms to the 2014 total of 464,200.

Hoteliers in the UK are recognising this positivity and feeling confident, according to the Hotelier Confidence Index from TripAdvisor. 77% of hoteliers are optimistic about profitability and 48% expect room rates to increase. According to the report UK hoteliers’ highest investment priorities are small scale renovations and online reputation management.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Serviced apartment sector is mature and growing

Posted on by Guy Lean

A new report from Travel Intelligence Network (TIN) shows that there has been a 14% growth in the serviced apartment supply chain globally since last year. The report, commissioned by The Apartment Service, found that there are almost 750,000 serviced apartments worldwide. It shows that serviced apartments are increasingly used by businesses for project work. And, like the rest of the hospitality industry, this sector has not gone unaffected by changes in distribution with 75% of operators receiving bookings from OTAs.

As serviced apartments gain prominence in the hospitality industry, four experts discuss the unique benefits and challenges of business and investment in the sector:

According to The Apartment Service: ‘The report highlights that the serviced apartment industry has reached a level of maturity that is showing future growth of supply.’ Deals are being done across the industry. At the end of 2014 there were approximately 1.700 units in the development pipeline in London according to the UK Serviced Apartment Report – Q4 2014 by Savills. There is also strong industry growth in Scotland with RevPAA up 16.2% year on year.

A recent merger between SACO and Oaktree Capital Management, announced on the 2nd March 2015, has resulted in the formation of a £60m hospitality company. The combined company has an inventory of 1645 apartments and is launching a new brand – Beyonder ApartHotels, which will focus on millennial travellers and will open its first ApartHotel in December 2015.

Frasers Hospitality announced the development of a new property in Hamburg recently (20th March 2015) which is the 50th city the company has entered.

Dublin based serviced apartment company StayCity has 1000 apartments across Europe and is due to open properties in Birmingham, Lyon and London in 2015.

And an industry leader BridgeStreet Global Hospitality, which rebranded last year, is going strong with 50,000 apartments in 60 countries and a collection of awards.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Data Security fears rise among consumers

Posted on by Guy Lean

A new report by Symantec found that 49% of UK consumers and 57% of European consumers are worried their data is not safe. The State of Privacy Report 2015 found that 81% people now recognise that their personal data has value, and one in three people give fake personal data so that their real information remains private. Whilst hospitality companies continue to find innovative ways to organise data and use it to personalise service, it is imperative that they ensure security is robust or they risk losing customers.

In this week’s videos, industry experts discuss responsible data usage:

Symantec’s survey of 7,000 people was conducted across Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK in December 2014. On average 88% of respondents said that a company keeping data safe and secure was an important factor in choosing a company to shop with. This ranked higher than great customer service (82%) and having quality products (86%).

A second information security company, TRUSTe found similar results in it’s 2015 Consumer Confidence Privacy Indexes which showed that 42% of Americans and 33% of UK residents are now more worried about their online privacy than they were year ago. The reports state that 77% of Americans and 80% of UK residents have moderated their online activity in the last year due to privacy concerns.

It is clear that there are negative impacts on a business when security is not properly addressed. One hotel booking site closed down last year after a major issue with the way it handled data meant that customers’ booking information could easily be accessed by members of the public, according to this BBC report.

There are regulations in place that all business are required to follow which define how they can hold data and what they must tell the consumer when collecting information. In the UK there is the Data protection Act 1998 which now includes a paper specifically written to address the issue of big data. In the US the Consumer Bill of Rights is being drafted to update data privacy policy.

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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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