Briefing: Pipelines, predictions and provinces in the UK

According to STR’s July 2016 Pipeline Report, Greater London has the most ‘rooms in construction’ in Europe, with 5,400 rooms in 32 hotels. PwC reports that the UK accounted for about 60% of European M&A volumes in 2015. The UK continues to be a strong market, although it is not without its complications. The EU referendum and the introduction of the National Living Wage have been two issues affecting the UK’s hospitality industry this year.

In these videos hospitality experts discuss business in the UK.

Figures from STR for Q2 2016 show that the UK has experienced steady results across three metrics: occupancy (-0.7% to 78.9%), ADR (+1.7 to GBP89.71) and RevPAR (+1.0% to GBP70.82). STR analysts say it is still too early to quantify the impact the vote for the UK to leave the European Union has had or will have on hotels and the European hotel industry as a whole.

Since April this year workers over 25 in the UK have been entitled to a National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour as compared to the minimum wage (previously applied to anyone 21 and over) of £6.70. This is great for the many minimum wage employees working in hospitality in the UK, but has also meant an extra budget consideration for managers. Predictions from PwC last year showed that this National Living Wage would increase the wage bill for Hospitality and Leisure by £2.2m in 2016 and £13.2m by 2020.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

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

Briefing: Social needs influence consumer behaviour

A recent poll of American leisure travellers by Choice Hotels found that almost one in 10 respondents’ summer travels were motivated by the opportunity to brag to friends and family on social media. This is great evidence of how social behaviours, influenced by current technology, have affected how people make purchasing decisions. Another finding was that 42% of travellers like to stay in a hotel during the summer because they don’t have to clean the bathroom!

Four experts discuss how new consumer demands have changed hospitality.

Statistics from Google show that mobile continues to have a huge role in the travel experience with 60% of people now searching for destination information on a mobile and two thirds of watch time for top travel videos on YouTube happening on mobile. Consumers also continue to rely on their mobiles once they are on holiday. Google says that there was a 30% increase in smartphone searched from hotel properties in the last year.

Choice Hotels’ poll labels 8% of respondents as Social Travelers – for these people the holiday is all about showing of on social media. But a larger percentage, 26% of respondents are classified as Experience Travelers, who prioritise the experience and activities while travelling.

Choice also found that 57% of American travellers save up all their hotel loyalty points towards that all important Instagramable summer vacation.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

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

Briefing: In the Clouds – Changing IT systems in hospitality

The latest data from Cisco suggests that by 2019, more than four-fifths (86%) of workloads will be processed by cloud data centres and only 14% will be processed by traditional data centres. Cloud has been a game changer in all businesses, but in hospitality there has also been widespread upgrading of PMS and the introduction of customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

In these videos our experts discuss how the right technology systems can really make a difference:

Cisco’s statistics show that global cloud IP traffic will more than quadruple (4.1-fold) over the next 5 years. In the digital economy data use is rising fast. Cisco report that the workload for cloud data centres are already higher than traditional data centres, and this is increasing. Cisco say that “the workload density (that is, workloads per physical server) for cloud data centres was 5.1 in 2014 and will grow to 8.4 by 2019.”

A separate report by Fruition Partners suggests that switching to the cloud requires careful management. It revealed a fear in “85% of CIOs in the UK and US that cloud is reducing their organisations’ control over IT.” Using cloud systems and teaming up with technology partners with specific expertise is worthwhile part of modern business, but as with any change it should be carefully thought through to ensure it gets maximum results.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

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

Briefing: Hospitality leadership is more than revenue management

A survey published in the Harvard Business Review has revealed that the top two leadership qualities, as rated by global leaders, are having ‘high ethical and moral standards’ and ‘providing goals and objectives with loose guidelines/direction’. In hospitality, leaders at hotel management level and brand executive level have different but equally important roles to play in the success of a business.

In these videos industry experts discuss the importance of good leadership in hospitality:

In 2016, 89% of companies see leadership as an important or very important issue (up from 87% in 2015). That is according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016.

As a business or industry develops leaders must be able to change and learn. This was reflected in the number four choice in the HBR survey; having ‘the flexibility to change opinion’.

One report that focused on leadership in a world of change is IBMs Global C-suite Study. This found that today’s CEOs say technology is the chief external influence on their enterprises. They think that user-based mobile solutions and cloud computing will be big drivers of change. 82% of the CEOs surveyed expect to engage more digitally over the next 3 to 5 years.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

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

Briefing: The distribution channels keep coming

In June, Ryanair announced its intention to enter into the world of accommodation. “Ryanair Rooms” is just the latest addition to the changing sphere of hospitality distribution. The company has 116m customers and this move from air travel to accommodation booking, again highlights the potential for any established brand to disrupt the industry. There is still much debate around where Airbnb, which has a “mission to change the way people travel”, could sit in the industry in the future.

In these videos, experts discuss developments in distribution and booking behaviour:

In April this year Airbnb launched an updated mobile app with a focus on personalisation that aims to match people to better hosts, neighbourhoods, and experiences. This product indicates Airbnb’s continued effort to use developing technology as an edge.

Ryanair Rooms will launch on the 1st October, and will provide a variety of low cost accommodation in the form of hotel rooms, hostels, B&Bs, holiday villas and homestays. Diversification is a common move from aspirational business in today’s business world. Ryanair sees this as a natural progression towards Ryanair.com becoming the “Amazon of air travel”. Ryanair already has a hire car service which it launched last August.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

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

Chat Button