Weekly Insights. November 16, 2024

Best hospitality industry articles focused on 💵revenue, 📊markets, and 🎯strategy (Nov 10 - Nov 16, 2024).

Alex Kapichin 16 Nov 2024

How to be a successful Hotel General Manager

This article outlines five key steps to becoming a successful hotel manager: mastering operational excellence, fostering leadership and collaboration, building stakeholder trust, adapting to industry trends, and balancing hard and soft skills. It emphasizes the importance of financial acumen, empathy-driven leadership, and leveraging technology and innovations to navigate the competitive hospitality landscape. By focusing on streamlining operations, enhancing guest experiences, and maintaining strong relationships, hotel managers can achieve long-term success in a dynamic industry.

U.S. hotel F&B revenue resurgence: The south leads, corporate groups drive growth

The article highlights the resurgence of U.S. hotel food and beverage (F&B) revenue, driven by corporate group demand and regional variations. The Southern U.S. leads in profitability with efficient operations and strong flow-through percentages, while the West faces challenges in flexibility and cost management. Conference and Banqueting (C&B) revenues have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, driven by the return of in-person events. Despite inflationary pressures, hotels are innovating through tailored pricing, partnerships with delivery companies, and diversifying guest offerings, including wellness services. These trends underscore F&B's growing role in driving profitability amid evolving guest expectations and market conditions.

WTM London 2024: AI, digital marketing, and business travel trends

The article summarizes key insights from the World Travel Market (WTM) London 2024, focusing on trends like the rise of AI in hospitality, the growth of bleisure travel, and evolving consumer behaviors prioritizing quality experiences. It highlights strategies for leveraging first-party data, personalizing guest offers, and adapting loyalty programs for independent hotels. Themes also include resilience in global travel recovery, event-based travel growth, and actionable use of technology to drive ROI and guest engagement.

Everything you need to know about hotel wholesalers

This article explores the role of hotel wholesalers—middlemen who purchase rooms in bulk at discounted rates and resell them to OTAs, travel agents, and other partners. It highlights how wholesalers help hotels maintain steady occupancy, especially during low-demand periods, and access niche markets like international travelers and tour groups. However, challenges like rate parity issues arise when discounted rates surface on metasearch platforms, undercutting direct bookings. The article emphasizes the need for strategic management of wholesaler relationships to balance stable occupancy with brand integrity and revenue optimization.

30 hotel trends shaping the industry in 2025 and beyond

his article outlines 30 key hotel trends shaping the industry in 2025 and beyond, categorized into guest behavior, technology, and marketing trends. Highlights include the growing demand for sustainability, personalized guest experiences, and slow travel focused on local culture. Technology trends emphasize mobile-first approaches, AI integration, and seamless check-ins, while marketing shifts focus on targeting solo travelers, remote workers, and "goods getaways." The piece provides actionable insights for hoteliers to adapt to evolving traveler preferences and stay competitive.

Why hiring consultants and coaches is the cheat sheet to success in the hospitality industry

This article highlights how hiring consultants and coaches can fast-track success in the competitive hospitality industry. It explores their role in addressing challenges like market volatility, high operational costs, evolving guest expectations, and the complexities of digital transformation. Consultants bring expert insights into revenue management, brand positioning, and operational efficiency, while coaches focus on staff training, customer service, and leadership development. Together, they help hospitality businesses streamline processes, adopt sustainable practices, and optimize marketing strategies, making them invaluable partners in driving growth, efficiency, and guest satisfaction.

MICE tourism overview: Key players, destinations, trends, and economic impact

The article offers a comprehensive overview of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) tourism, a key segment of business travel. It highlights MICE’s economic impact, growing at a 5.5% CAGR to reach an estimated $1.3 trillion by 2033. The piece breaks down the four MICE categories, emphasizing their influence on business development and leisure spending. It also identifies top destinations, industry trends, and major players like travel management companies and accommodation providers, showing how MICE events boost local economies and drive innovation in the travel sector.