Lodging Leaders

Dave Shah grew up in his family’s hotel and watched his parents and other hoteliers struggle to stay in business during the Great Recession. He thinks the economic situation for hoteliers during the COVID-19 crisis is growing worse than that time. Shah founded Pineapple Capital Group five years ago to help hotels and other small read more

As hotels in the U.S. are forced to dramatically scale back operations or close altogether because of the new coronavirus pandemic, government officials are looking to use the empty rooms to fight the spread of the virus or help patients recover. Meantime, hotel operators are taking a fresh look at cleaning procedures to assure guests read more

Cecil Staton has had his hands full to say the least. He has been at the helm of AAHOA, the world’s largest hotel owners association, for just four months. The new coronavirus outbreak and its devastating effect on the travel industry has hotel owners turning to him for solutions. This is the third installment of read more

Seemingly overnight, the new coronavirus pandemic has dramatically curbed travel in the U.S. Hotels are feeling the pain as occupancies dropped to historic lows, in some cases down by 80 percent. The American Hotel and Lodging Association on Monday reported major hotel managers said they’ve laid off or furloughed one million employees. Long Live Lodging read more

The U.S. hotel industry is undergoing an unprecedented experience as the new coronavirus or COVID-19 grows more and more real every day. Long Live Lodging and its Lodging Leaders podcast has decided to put a temporary hold on its usual programing from one report a week and move to providing updates throughout the week with read more

Fair franchising. It’s a phrase that’s been used countless times in negotiations with brands, at industry conferences and among associations formed to ensure a balance of power between franchisers and franchisees. As the hotel industry in the U.S. celebrates nearly a decade of growth, leaner times are ahead, say forecasters. Owner operators are cutting as read more

Welcome to the second edition of BulletInn, a news report of Long Live Lodging and its Lodging Leaders podcast. In this episode, we cover three topics: The spread of the new coronavirus and its impact on travel and the legalities around cancelling group meetings in the U.S. Surprises in a report by CBRE Americas Hotels read more

Online travel agencies. Hoteliers love them. Hoteliers hate them. Brand.com, GDS, call centers, travel agents, groups and so on. There are many types of business in every market. In this episode, Lodging Leaders explores how hotel owners and operators can learn to use third-party platforms such as OTAs and when to tap other resources for read more

Do you love to mingle and meet new people or would you rather sit home and watch paint dry than subject yourself to a crowd of strangers? Today’s hospitality environment practically demands you attend conferences and other people-focused events if you’re going to be successful in business. But how do you: Make events work in read more

At the beginning of the Americas Lodging Investment Summit on Jan. 27th, a panel of women in hospitality leadership advised the audience that, in some cases, it is smart to move down a career rung to be able to make a much bigger climb up in the future. Forward, Women Advancing Hospitality, is a project read more

About 25 years ago, as the number of limited service hotels in the U.S. began to grow, hotel franchisers began to add perceived value to their brands by offering guests a free breakfast. Today, the lines are blurring between limited and full service as hotels add a variety of paid and free food and beverage read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more

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 read more