As the season changes and kids get back to school, the kind of guests many hotels can expect to host switches from families to seniors. This is the traditional time of the year for the active retired set to hit the road, often for weeks at a time...

The hotel industry has lately been the subject of a lot of headlines in the consumer press. Sadly, many of the stories deal with topics that could give the industry—long regarded in high esteem by many consumers—a public relations black eye or...

As New Orleans and the Gulf Coast brace for the arrival of Hurricane Isaac, seven years and one day after Katrina slammed the same region, it's a harsh reminder to hoteliers everywhere to have a disaster plan in place and ready to go. ...

As the lifestyle and boutique segments of the hotel industry have grown in recent years, so has the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference. Now in its fourth year, the event returns to the Fontainebleau in Miami Oct. 17-19 with its...

There have been a number of interesting news stories in the hotel industry in the past few weeks you may have missed. They cover issues ranging from security to branding to pool chairs and more: ...

I have no idea how close the General Services Administration (GSA) was to altering its methodology in calculating federal per diem rates, but it sure sounded like it was more than a distinct possibility. Tuesday's announcement that rates were...

The hotel industry has been riding a wave of good news for so long it seems hard to remember the bad, old days of 2008, '09 and '10 when occupancies sucked and rates were worse. For the past 18 months or so we've seen impressive weekly, monthly...

By now, everyone has probably heard these numbers or something similar: Social media directly influences 83% of all online bookings, and 50% of guests won't book a hotel room without first reading at least one review. Those numbers came from Ben...

A new, but growing movement in the American educational system could rob some hotels of their precious high-season business during the summer. As reported by The New York Times, a number of school districts and independent schools have lengthened...

The Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference is still almost three months away (Oct. 17-19), but I'm already excited. South Beach in October (Fontainebleau)? Sure beats Cleveland, and oh yeah, the show is pretty good, too. This year we've...