Sign of the times – Ritz Lake Las Vegas to close 2nd May.  The economy may be leveling off it’s slide, but foreclosures lurk everywhere.

Gulliver points out a fairly brilliant honors scheme hatched by Intercontinental Hotel Group over Hilton’s disastrous alteration of honor awards points.

This is sort of scary, but nothing new to our industry:  Hotel industry needs flexible graduates.  “Skeleton staffs don’t bode well for hospitality students preparing to enter the market today. As if the long hours and weekends shifts in the hospitality industry weren’t unattractive enough, students entering the job world in today’s economy are forced to be more flexible than ever, often taking jobs outside of their geographical preference and much lower on the corporate ladder than they had hoped.”  Honestly – if I had known the hours I was going to work prior to starting my career in hospitality, I don’t know if I could have done it.  Of all the things I have dealt with in my life, the hours as manager at every property were dehumanizing and exacerbating.  Looking back, I don’t know how I did it for over a decade.  But that is what our industry is… high pressure, fast paced, grueling grinds, and the self delusion that it is as important as saving lives and that it will all be better tomorrow – oh, and that “lateral promotion” you took to get out of the department you are currently pigeonholed in… was totally worth it. (a little cynical humor, of course – not at all from my career.  Riiiiiiiiiiight).

Why do hotels have so much trouble answering emails? This is an epic, well timed, post.  It’s a HUGE problem, and not enough companies have corporate policies.  It becomes a disaster for communication if people think they can reach you, but have zero real access to you.  It makes our industry look bad, and it has to stop.  On the up side…. if you make it a priority to reply to emails, and it becomes everyone’s priority, maybe they will slow down with better communication.  More phone calls, less emails (including those horrible passive ones hiding the real question of “why haven’t you answered my emails?) – but that might just be wishful thinking.

Interesting and thoughtful piece on being a cautious, calculating restaurateur & entrepreneur in these times.  Fact is, it pays off big in a lot of situations.

Hotels converting F&B space into meeting space. A lot of hotels are looking for revenue, and this was an actual conversation we had with a client in the last couple weeks…. nice to see the article agreeing with us.  Lounges and comfy spots don’t generate revenue – but meeting space does.

Here are some interesting thoughts on Luxury Lifestyle and Travel Trends for 2010

Is Social Media the next Search Engine?  Some people think it is, just as we find out Facebook directs more online users than Google.

Augmented Reality is buzzed about for a reason… and not just because it is PHENOMENALLY AWESOME.  But it may actually create business, even for small businesses.

Is geolocating the future of hotel marketing?  I love that hyperbole, I really do… but let’s just leave it at “a really important, impacting development” before waving the white flag at all other types of marketing.  I actually think it is… for one, there’s FourSquare.  But I don’t like getting *too* carried away. =)

Foursquare does have some strategic growth;  First Zagat, then Chicago.  Some pretty big stuff happening, and it makes me excited that with all this activity, and other industry people cloning their format in multiple ways, Foursquare seems aware and fluid enough with a solid enough business acumen, to withstand the turbulence in this crowded arena.  They seem smart, and I think you need to keep an eye on them.  If you haven’t gotten a google alert from them about someone “checking in” to your hotel or business, trust me… you will.

The future of marketing in hotels? This is a tech guy with idealistic notions of what hospitality *COULD* do – with money, foresight, more labor, and planning.  It’s a good idea, some luxury brands might try to get there with this as a gimmick, to start….. but interesting and enthusiastic read nonetheless.  Beyond that, I liked the idea… and don’t mind plugging him.  He has got to be one of the only people out there that I know building Iphone (and I assume Android as well) apps that has even the most rudimentary understanding of the hotel business.  A lot of people are yapping about apps in our industry…. we might not be able to afford one, but for those that moved enough of your 2009 marketing budget online, and have a bit to spare…. check him out.

An interesting blog about the development of social media in the Kenyan hotel industry, and can possibly be extrapolated to other small inns and boutique properties that don’t have the monster marketing budget, but know there is an audience to reach.

The UK heats up about online hotel reviews, looking for some sort of validation process for Tripadvisor.  Is this another aspect of GPS & Geolocation that could help curtail fraud and shill reviewing?  Whatever the case, I think the industry can handle itself…. it’s in their best interests.  Getting the government involved to regulate seems a bit much.  The only winner when you start legal proceedings are the lawyers.  Very few other people actually win besides them.

Speaking of Tripadvisor… here are a couple best practices for a top ranking.

Social media as customer service for hotels.  Thank you for not saying social media as a way “to sell” or “drive revenue”.  Social Media may have a valid ROI, but this is more about being a cost of operations than a revenue stream.  We can all drive revenue with it…. but it is simply more important to *ENGAGE*.  Because in the end, ignoring it will cost you.

Here’s an odd piece – great thoughts… horrible grammar.  I didn’t understand this, so I include it to see if you have any thoughts?

That’s it!  Just thoughts and links and interesting stuff!  A real post is coming soon, I promise!

I know I sound like a fanboy, and a bit cliche, but if any of you realized what he went through on his last green-build/historic renovation/national park land reuse… you would understand.  Very rarely do we see a holistic approach to development, with as much concern for the land use as well as the people that are impacted by it.

It is no wonder why he is featured in this month’s Contract magazine, and I post those articles here because… well… it’s important.  For any developers, architects, designers and more… he really has a wonderful philosophy to this madness that we “do”.  I think his words will make you think, and the ideas he is promoting are relevant, if not before their time.  Maybe not all that too soon… apparently commercial builds are still heavily enthused and leaning towards green builds, regardless of the economy.  This editorial from Contract [ED NOTE: dead link, can't find article] says a lot about that… and about people like Tom that make it a priority to “lengthen the timeline” of development mentality, and focus on the Native American “7th Generation approach” in a business sense.

Tom is trying to spread some very big ideas around… magnanimous in their complexity, to be sure.  But huge in their forward-thinking, dedication to building community, and creating sustainable structures that are functional and practical, aesthetically pleasing and innovative.  Actually… all the people at Equity Community Builders in San Francisco have put together some amazing work.  So three cheers to Tom, and a moment in the spotlight for one of the most humble people I have ever worked with.

PERSPECTIVES, with Tom Sargent; Principal with Equity Community Builders

After two decades of slowly getting there, the practice of being ecological in the hotel industry has gripped us at every angle.  One of the reasons green has finally been benchmarked into the hotel industry is that people caught on that “green” can often mean “saving money”.  Many aspects of being green are really just about being conscious about how you use your resources, and how you conserve.  That is what a good GM is doing all the time! Many of these things significantly increase savings, and general managers seem to begetting it.   Less wasted paper, reusing and readapting office furniture, I have even seen products from craigslist for back of house operations.  The hotel industry has finally settled into being green aware and acquiescing to guests’ desire to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Just a few of these powerful tools that are environmentally friendly as well as create savings: In room Energy Management Systems (needs room key to have lights work), refrigerator’s with absorption technology, CFL lightbulbs, thin client networks, laundry water recycling systems, cogen heat capture systems, bathroom amenities’ current trend moving away from small bottles to refillable dispensers, installing solar at properties (Cavallo Point in Sausalito has panels on their contemporary buildings, while Wilbur Hot Springs is 100% solar). All these things are, primarily, about savings for the hotel. If that is the way you need to sell it to the owners, then so be it. You can simply relax and enjoy the added benefit of helping the environment, as well as catering to your guests, echoing their ideals, creating a brand they can identify with, endorse, and come back to.

Now let’s look at some ways this becomes incredibly complex. There are some design issues that come into play when you are designing with something like LEED in mind. This isn’t necessarily about saving money or resources. This is about building responsibly. However, there are many people that aren’t sure LEED is all that responsible themselves. It comes under intense scrutiny from equity and construction people, as well as environmentalists. Construction types think it is an out of date, inefficient system. Equity people think it is too expensive. Green people think it is too wasteful, and full of endless missed opportunities. Most agree it needs overhauling.

It isn’t an option with building at this point… you must go green. You *want* to go green, but going LEED creates a conundrum for project managers. You need the designation so that people know you are legitimate. If you didn’t have it, and kept saying “we are really eco conscious with design” it doesn’t mean anything for consumers. They can’t identify with it or understand it, and prefer something tangible that verifies any “green” claims made. Hence the popularity and near necessity for people to passionately campaign for LEED accreditation, a process that can take years of planning, and years of operating before status is granted. What is problematic is that the cost associated with creating this marketable aspect to your green building limits how green you can be. When you spend $200K on a LEED architectural consultant just to vet the complex process, it becomes pretty obvious you *could* spend that on actually being more green. The arcane regulations are difficult to get through, and it is an inefficient process. The costs associated with abiding a frustrating, and at times arbitrary and muddy, process such as becoming LEED compliant. I have seen some projects that got into the millions in pursuit of the title LEED. I think it is important to build and operate green, and for now the only thing we have is LEED. I just find it an obvious “throw the hands in the air and shrug” moment in regards to whether LEED needs an overhaul. By spending money to be green, you limit your ability to be green. This is a problem, and LEED needs to address it if they want to stay the industry leader in green certification. If it isn’t addressed, someone else will and we will have a brilliant new process to vet the altruism of equity, architect, design, and management.

I am excited about the future of all this, and thought I would just address some of the majour points. Green has been done to death, but not by me. I think it is just the way business is happening at this point, and if you aren’t aware of that…. get hip and go green!

The below is overkill, but here are some thoughts on LEED from treehugger and grist, as well as a couple others. I just raise the point because I apparently like adding complexity to an already dizzying issue. =)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/slate_on_decide.php

“The point system creates perverse incentives to design around the checklist rather than to build the greenest building possible.”

http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/10/26/leed/index1.html

Grist says “Let’s fix it”

http://www.icsc.org/srch/government/briefs/200810_leedtalking.pdf

council on shopping centers doesn’t like it, but does have a few good, key points

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4184/is_20041028/ai_n10047515

3 key problems