Briefing: Upgrading room technology

According to a 2015 Lodging Technology Study, properties last year were allocating nearly 17% of their overall IT budget to guestroom technology. The study also found that 45% of properties had planned to upgrade their wireless in 2015.

Demands on bandwidth are ever increasing as more internet enabled devices are entering the hotel space, and are being used for streaming and other demanding tasks. Guests expect a smooth and speedy internet connection and will become frustrated by a substandard connection.

In this briefing experts discuss hotel technology and demand for wi-fi:

Hospitality Technology’s 2015 Lodging Technology Study highlighted another area where technology is being upgraded – entry to the hotel room. In 2015, 34% of properties were upgrading their room looks to use electromagnetic keycards (RFID keys) or smartphones as keys.

Individual room thermostat controls have also allowed hotels to improve their energy efficiency as it has meant that heating could be off in rooms that are unoccupied. This can also please guests as it allows them to adjust the temperature to one that suits them.

Next Gen thermostats are not the only smart objects appearing in rooms.  According to Travel and Leisure, Starwood hotels can convert any appliance in the hotel room to a smart object, which would be controlled through an app.

Today’s traveller will bring his or her own mobile devices to a hotel, but that is not say their hotel experience cannot be improved with high quality in room technology. The Lodging technology study showed that at the beginning of 2015 15% of hotels were using Smart TVs and a further 16% were expected to add them. These Smart TVs allow the guest to connect to access TV or films that they may have a subscription to through an account such as Netflix or Amazon. 36% of properties planned to add or enhance HD content.

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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: Developing career confidence, passion and leadership

In a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 77.8% of employers named both “leadership” and “the ability to work in a team structure” as key attributes they look for on a job application. According to a study by LinkedIn, more than half of the people surveyed feel more comfortable voicing their opinion at work now than when they first started their career.

Building confidence is an important part of career development. In these videos successful hospitality professionals discuss leadership and taking charge of your own career:

Leadership skills can be developed within a supportive working environment. A report by DDI found that 70 % of leaders say developmental assignments are most effective way to develop leadership. The Global Leadership Forecast 2014/2015 also suggests that not having enough time or opportunity holds people back from growing as a leader.

But attitudes to work are changing, people are building their own paths to success. In the LinkedIn New Norms @Work study a third of people said that if they were unhappy, leaving within a month would be ok. Interestingly the survey also found that the number of jobs professionals think looks good on a LinkedIn profile is 3. An unrelated survey from RecruitFi also looked in to attitudes around multiple jobs. This Millennial Outlook Survey found that 83% of millennials would change jobs to pursue their passions, even while acknowledging that it could look bad to prospective employers.

When people do decide to change their careers, according to a survey by Accountemps, two in five executives in the United States would turn to a spouse or significant other for advice first, with friends and mentors being turned to by 20% and 21% of people respectively.

Those starting a career may not have the confidence or experience to lay out a plan for their career, and may feel uncertainty about job prospects and security. Therefor opportunities to gain skills and step into an industry are appreciated. According to the Milkround Student and Graduate Career Confidence Survey Report 2015, 61.2% of student and graduates felt that “work experience or an internship” would make them feel more confident about their career prospects.

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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: How hospitality companies are evolving into digital businesses

According to CSC’s Leading Edge Forum, less than 4 out of 10 companies are ready to take advantage of the new business opportunities arising from developments in digital technology.

In the hospitality industry there have been some digital successes, and some companies struggling to keep up. A good digital culture needs good leadership and the right partnerships.

In this briefing four hospitality experts discuss building digital into the business plan:

Depending on a business’s resources, ‘becoming digital’ will mean different things, large companies may invest money in new plans and new specialist staff, independents may look into what platforms and partnerships they can use to help themselves.

While digital is changing the way business works, it is also creating jobs and, according to Deloitte, is boosting the economy. A report from Deloitte on the impact of technology on jobs in the UK found that over the past 15 years technology-driven change has added £140 billion to the UK’s economy in new wages.

The report states that ‘In the future, business will need more skills, including: digital know-how, management capability, creativity, entrepreneurship, and complex problem solving.’ Business leaders will already be keenly feeling this need and it will only continue, which is why having a plan that incorporates digital and having people to push this agenda forward is essential.

Research from McKinsey&Company also highlights the need for digital leadership. They found that ‘90 percent of top digital performers have fully integrated digital initiatives into their strategic-planning process.’ They say that there has already been an increase in digital focused executive positions. They found that ‘CDO (Chief digital officer) roles doubled from 2013 to 2014 and is expected to double again this year.’

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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 real estate perspective

A survey by Berwin Leighton Paisner earlier this year found that, 70% of hotel professionals believe hotels will continue to outperform “traditional” commercial property investments.

A separate survey by PwC ranked hotels number 6 for investment prospects in a list of 20 real estate sectors. 62% of respondents to the survey said hotels had either good or very good prospects. Serviced Apartments came at number 9 with 59% of respondents saying the prospects were good.

This briefing features professionals from the hospitality industry whose focus is on investment and ownership:

The Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report from PwC showed that London was the most active European real estate market in 2014. A global ranking showed New York was the top city for commercial property investment in 2014 with a sales volume of $57,012, and London was second with $42,889.

The report also highlighted issues and concerns in the real estate industry. 47% of property professionals said a ‘shortage of suitable assets to acquire’ was a significant issue impacting real estate business. 78% of European respondents and 80% of US respondents said ‘demographics and social change’ would have an impact on business decisions in the coming years.

In the US, real estate business prospects for multifamily developers were rated as good (3.9 out of 5). Business prospects for real estate brokers where rated at 3.91 out of 5, and private local real estate owners had prospects of 3.86 out of 5. Prospects across all business sectors listed showed an improvement on the previous year.

Within the hospitality industry, BLP’s European Hotel Market Survey 2015, found that; 80% of hotel professionals say hotels are becoming more of a valued asset class for investors, but are still perceived by many as risky. In the survey, 89% of respondents foresaw increased competition from the residential market with short term lets.

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

Briefing: A surge in hotel investment

2015 has been a great year for hotel investment so far. There has been renewed positivity in the market and a rise in portfolio transactions. According to JLL, the UK has led transactions in the EMEA, with deals up 172% in the first half of 2015 compared to 2014. Overall in the EMEA region half year transaction volumes are up 85%. The US has also seen a rise in investment with transaction volume nearly doubling in the first half of 2015.

In this briefing industry insiders discuss the state of hotel investment, and who is investing in what:

JLL have reported that significant amounts of investments into the EMEA region has come from China and North America. Chinese investment has amounted to $1.9 billion so far this year.  Investment from North American private equity funds, which has reached $1.1 billion, has accounted for 57% of regional UK portfolio deals.

International investment into America amounted to $6.6 billion in the first half of 2015 representing nearly 30% of deal volume and showing a marked increase on 2014.

Some portfolio moves this year have included Accor’s restructuring of HotelInvest’s assets, which has involved the sale of 29 hotels in Germany and the Netherlands under a €234 million sales & Franchise back agreement in April, and the sale of seven hotels in the UK and Ireland for €38 million in May.

In June, Ashford Trust announced its intention to sell a 23 select-service hotel portfolio. And last month Pinnacle Hotel Management (PHM) sold a 15-hotel, select-service portfolio comprised of Marriott- and Hilton-branded hotels for $203 million to the Blackstone Group.

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

Briefing: High staff turnover is costly for hospitality businesses

A new report from Deloitte, Hospitality 2015 – Game changers or spectators, found that employee turnover in hospitality can be as high as 31% and may increase further as the recession is left behind. This is nearly double the average rate for other industries and can be expensive for businesses. So how can hospitality businesses hold on to valuable staff for the long term?

In these videos hospitality experts discuss staff retention:

Staffing costs account for a tremendous proportion of hotel operation costs. Deloitte’s report states that, ‘An average hotelier spends 45 percent of operating expenses and 33 per cent of revenues on labour costs.’ High turnover rates cause extra costs in recruitment and training. According to the report 52% of the cost of replacing staff is productivity loss and 14% is orientation and training.

The report shows that the top barriers to retaining employees are lack of compensation increases and excessive workload. At entry level, hospitality jobs can typically have somewhat irregular hours and fairly low pay and can attract younger workers who may not considered hospitality a long term career. However hardworking, happy and engaged staff are essential for the smooth running of a hotel and the longer staff stay in their roles the more they will have to offer the company.

In order to impress guests companies need staff across the business who understand the industry well and are able to represent the brand at the level expected. It is well worth focusing attention on giving staff a good experience so that they want to perform their best.

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 so here. It’s free.

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

Briefing: Reviews & credibility – Websites strive to build trust

Online reviews continue to influence customer decisions. Data from Deloitte shows that 81% of general consumers read reviews and check ratings. In the hospitality industry these reviews are being published on different social media sites, direct on hotel and booking sites, and are frequently being written on mobiles and on mobile apps. Knowing that fake reviews are possible, trust between companies and consumers is becoming increasingly important.

In this briefing four experts discuss credibility and making the most of reviews.

According to Deloitte 42% of holiday makers use review sites. But companies are also looking for ways to show reviews on direct platforms. As discussed in the above videos, Choice Hotels is verifying reviews that are posted on its website, and TrustYou is a company offering tools and solutions for Travel and Tourism companies to display credible reviews to customers. Expedia is also taking step to ensure only true customers can leave reviews, whilst also displaying TripAdvisor posts alongside these.

Foursquare is a mobile app and review site for food, drink, activities and shopping, on which comments are always linked to specific locations. The site has more than 55 million users worldwide who have ‘checked in’ to locations over seven billion times. Business can ‘claim’ their locations in order to interact with the customers who are posting on the site. Two million businesses have done this so far. Research shows that connecting with customers who are leaving reviews can have a positive impact on business.

One review site that covers all industries is Yelp. In the first quarter of 2015 more than 50% of Yelp content (reviews and photos) was generated on mobile devices and 65% of searches came from mobile devices. Interestingly in the first quarter of 2015 there were many more positive reviews posted than negative ones with 42% of reviews giving a 5 star rating, 25% giving 4 stars and only 14% of reviews giving 1 star.

Validity and trust is of course important to the success of review sites themselves. Yelp has a review filter which it says helps to spot fake reviews. It has taken legal action against people trying to buy and sell reviews and has recently filed a lawsuit against a company which falsely said it could remove negative reviews form the site.  Yelp is not the only company taking this kind of action. Amazon too has recently taken out a lawsuit over fake reviews.

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 for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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