Briefing: Ownership structures are changing

This month, easyHotels announced the signing of a new franchise agreement for a 54 room hotel in Reading. Franchises make up the bulk of easyHotel’s rooms with 1,512 franchised rooms, verses 390 owned rooms. The hospitality industry is seeing a clear increase in franchising and management agreements, which means a separation of roles across businesses.

In these videos four hospitality experts discuss franchising and owner/ operator relationships:

The new easyHotel is an existing hotel that will be converted during 2017. The company’s expansion strategy is largely based around franchising. This agreement brings easyHotel’s total committed development projects to 1,658 rooms under development, 576 of which are owned and 1,082 are being developed by franchise partners.

Franchising and management agreements allow hospitality companies to expand quickly and diversify their porfolios. Elegant Hotels Group plc in Barbados recently signed its first ever management contract, which is also its first hotel outside of Barbados. Hodges Bay Resort & Spa by Elegant Hotels in Antigua is currently under construction and is expected to open its doors in mid to late 2017.

Similarly, earlier this year Compass Hospitality Group, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing hospitality management companies, took on operations of its first hotel in Scotland; The Columba Hotel in Inverness. The hotel has 82 rooms views of Inverness Castle across the River Ness. The hotel is owned by Singapore based Seacare Hospitality.

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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: Business keeps moving forward

According to statistics from STR, in Q2 2016, Europe’s hotel industry reported nearly flat occupancy growth (+0.6% to 73.9%) and Central/South America region reported a decrease in occupancy. This year there has been a lot of reasons for concern around where we are in the economic cycle and whether geopolitical issues could disrupt the market. With all this happening resilience and focus on the future is important.

These videos show different attitudes towards this year’s hospitality market:

STR’s reports show that in the Central/South America region there 5.1% decrease in occupancy to 54.1% compared to Q2 2015. Average daily rate was up 5.3% to US$89.75. Revenue per available room was flat at US$48.58.

Performance in Europe was more positive with average daily rate going up 2.1% to EUR114.33. and revenue per available room up 2.7% to EUR84.49. However, in France there were decreases on all three of these: occupancy (-5.5% to 68.2%), ADR (-7.5% to EUR138.43) and RevPAR (-12.6% to EUR94.34).

And in Asia Pacific again performance is flattening out with an 1.3% increase in occupancy to 68.3% alongside an average daily rate decrease of 1.1% to US$96.95. Revenue per available room was nearly flat (+0.2% to US$66.18).

While these figures look gloomy there is reason to believe that with one recession in recent memory under the belt and markets showing an increased ability to bounce back, businesses can stay positive and face any possible obstacles head on.

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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: Understanding your digital skill level

According to the L2 Digital IQ Index, Marriott has the highest digital IQ of all luxury hotel brands, at 162. This is a considerable margin above the second ranked hotel group, which has been given a Digital IQ of 137. An understanding of how to engage online is vital to the success of a hospitality business today, but given that traditional hotel brands’ strongest skill is in service, they will always be at a disadvantage to specialised tech companies in the digital arena, as our hospitality experts discuss:

The Index assesses the digital competence of 55 Luxury Hotel brands by looking at the ‘effectiveness of brand site and E-commerce investments’, ‘Search, display and email marketing efforts’, ‘Social Media presence, community size, content and engagement,’ and ‘Mobile compatibility, optimization and marketing on smartphones & tablets’.

One reasons for Marriott’s high score is its online visibility. The study shows that in a Google search made from the US, Marriot is the most visible brand when looking for hotels in The Americas and Asia, and top three in Europe and Asia.

The study found that 81% of online travel booking is abandoned before completion. The study highlights frustrations during the booking process as key factor in and says that nearly 40% of sites surveyed required four or more clicks from search result to reservation.

Another barrier in the booking journey is the device used. According to the study, 46% of travellers who performed research via a mobile device did not execute their booking on that same channel.

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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 age of data

Hospitality is one of the most data rich industries on the planet. There is no doubt that most industries are truly envious of the depth of knowledge and understanding the industry has about every single person that walks through the doors. Data that can be so specific to an individual’s preferences when staying in a hotel.

How can the industry use this vital information in order to make a customer’s experience truly engaging?

The opportunity that the digital world now affords hospitality is prevalent on so many different levels and experts this week discuss where to exploit this data abundant industry. Including comment from::

  • Sean Worker, CEO of Bridgestreet on making data work for your business
  • Andrew Sangster, Editorial Director of hotelanalyst on utilising data within your organisation
  • Leo Brand, CEO of SwissCom Hospitality Services on making data personal to a customer
  • And Nigel Huddleston, Industry Head of Travel for Google on the early stage developments of permission based data
 


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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: investment in data is the future of hospitality

Staying connected to your customer is of paramount importance as customer loyalty is to brands. The hospitality sector is very unusual as the amount of data a hotel might have about an individual is perhaps more than any other industry. But how should hospitality embrace new technology to capitalise on the enormous amount of data it has?

Many believe there is a revolution coming in the way we communicate with consumers, colleagues and stakeholders and investment decisions about the use of new technologies requires much thought and understanding.

In this briefing we hear from technology experts in the realm of hospitality that discuss where the future of the digital world lies and where hospitality fits into this picture, including:

  • Nigel Huddlestone, Industry Head for Travel at Google on making data relevant to your business
  • Andrew Sangster, Editorial Director for Hotel Analyst Distribution & Technology on connecting the huge data silos within a hotel business
  • Cyril Ranque, SVP of Global Market Management for Expedia Lodging on his company being the ‘technology lab’ for many hotel business
  • And Arthur de Haast, Chairman – Hotels & Hospitality for Jones Lang LaSalle on the speed in which digital technology speeds up businesses.
 


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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: successful deal-making in 2013

As the 2013 International Hotel Investment Forum makes its annual appearance in the calendar, many will be looking to network and understand where the next great deals of this year will come from. Where are the hot markets? Which are the most innovative hospitality companies? Who should we be watching? How will projects get financed? Many of the delegates will be looking for answers to these questions at the conference.

In this briefing we hear from key experts with their thoughts on where the finance will come from and what makes a great deal.

Including:

  • Kingsley Seevaratnam, of Westmont Hospitality Group, on what he thinks defines a good deal
  • Andrew Sangster, Editor of Hotel Analyst, on deal activity picking up
  • Simon Vincent, President – Europe for Hilton Worldwide on what they look for in a deal
  • And Sean Worker, CEO of BridgeStreet on the bank’s situation as we move out of recession.
 


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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Europe still a challenging environment

Deal making activity has undoubtedly slowed in the past couple of years, with Europe feeling the full force of economic instability. In many ways this period of uncertainty and distress has allowed many from the hospitality world to restructure businesses and cut relevant costs in order to survive. Consequently, businesses are now run much more efficiently.

There are still challenges with growth and hospitality needs to demonstrate that it is a valuable industry that the Governments of Europe, and the World, should take seriously.

In this briefing we hear from:

  • John Brennan, of Jurys Inn Group on the challenges with growth in Europe
  • Robert Shepherd of IHG on re-focusing for the European market
  • Andrew Sangster Editor of Hotel Analyst on opportunities emerging in restructuring
  • And Clive Hillier, of Vision Hospitality Asset Management on no more cost-cutting left to do

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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: financing future hospitality developments

The world of finance has seen huge change in the past couple of years, impacting on the majority of sectors across the globe. Trends seen in hospitality are no different. A new market for investment is now apparent as we move into 2013.

Understanding which developments, innovations and renovations will get funding is important. What are the banks looking for? And what are the trends seen in the hospitality funding market? Questions answered in this briefing by:

  • Timothy Lloyd-Hughes, of Deutsche Bank on lending trends seen in Europe.
  • Clive Hillier, CEO of Vision Hospitality Asset Management, on debt still being the major stumbling block in deal making.
  • Nick van Marken, of Deloitte about where he sees investment coming from.
  • And Andrew Sangster, Editor of the Hotel Analyst, on what he perceives banks’ attitude to lending is.

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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: is hospitality harnessing online data?

The explosion of social networks in the past couple of years has opened new opportunities to engage with customers. People are quick to post comments, ask questions and write reviews. This trend is only going to continue.

Organisations cannot remain on top of everything that is going on, but they certainly need to be aware of what is being said. With numerous ‘listening’ tools in the market there is a need to be intelligent with online commenting as a business as well as getting a feel of what the market is saying about you.

But is hospitality doing enough in the digital world? This question is answered in this week’s briefing, including comment from:

  • Sean Worker, CEO of BridgeStreet on whether the industry is using the data intelligently.
  • Andrew Sangster, Editor of Hotel Analyst on applying the data to the consumer.
  • John Brennan, CEO of Jurys Inn Hotels on using data to target his customers.
  • And Peter O’Connor of the Essec Business School on the industry uptake of the new social technologies.
 


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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: providing value for money in low cost hotel operations

One trend in hospitality has not changed for over 2000 years – people want a good bed, a decent shower and somewhere safe to sleep the night. The growth in the low-budget sector has been testament to this.

Hotel brands still need to deliver value for money, but if the above components are at the core of any offering, the likelihood is that the perceived value of the product is high.

Many believe there will be continued growth in the budget sector with new innovations allowing the best use of space.

Experts in this week’s briefing include:

  • Joe Stenson, of Queensway Group on the transparency needed with hotel products.
  • Peter Malone, Managing Director of Madison Mayfair on delivering a great service at a reduced cost.
  • Andrew Sangster, Editor of the Hotel Analyst on the 2,000 year old trend.
  • And John Brennan, CEO of Jurys Inns Group on targeting customers at the right price.

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Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interviews from industry conferences such as the most recent IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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