Hospitality

The idea of learning something new while on vacation is nothing new. Hotel guests have been perfecting their golf swings and swirling wines for decades. But there’s a new trend among hotels to offer ever more in-depth and hands-on learning. At hotels around the country, you can live your fantasy of becoming an artist, or a British pastry chef, or a master mixologist — even if only for a day.

Here are 10 hotels offering creative, hands-on workshops guests won’t soon forget.

Modern guestrooms are losing a lot of things: Closets. Desks. Even dressers. But what about the coffeemaker? Is that an essential amenity, or an unneeded luxury?

This turns out to be a subject for passionate debate among frequent travelers. Some can’t live without in-room coffee. Others prefer to get their fix in the lobby. One thing’s clear: most guests believe complimentary caffeine is a constitutional right. Here’s how to keep them happy.

The hotel lobby is rapidly changing from merely an entrance into a place that entrances. “We’re trying to make this more of an experience, a place to go to rather than a place to go through,” Alexandra Jaritz, global head for Tru by Hilton, told the New York Times.

But will you see a real ROI from transforming your lobby into a multifunctional hub for work, socializing and entertainment ? We spoke with Bob Bomholt, Director of Operations for hotel design-build firm Pinnacle South, to find out. Here are five reasons to consider a lobby revamp.

In the hospitality industry, disruptors are nothing new. There was a time (pre-WWII) when only the wealthy stayed at hotels, as Chip Conley, head of global hospitality and strategy at Airbnb, pointed out at a recent conference. Ordinary Americans stayed in boarding houses.

Now, ordinary travelers are using Airbnb and other home-sharing services. Airbnb demand is still less than 2 percent of hotel demand in the United States,  but it’s growing fast. How can hotels compete?  

In the late 1960s, the height of hotel interior design (in Wisconsin, at least) was a collision of rough stone walls, purple wall-to-wall carpet, smoked-plastic chairs and circular waterbeds. The home of this mind-boggling décor was named the Gobbler, and it was “the ugliest, and somehow coolest, motel in America,” according to author James Lileks, who compiled a detailed tribute to the Gobbler on his website.

Your hotel probably isn’t that outdated. But is it time for a refresh?  

We spoke with Nicole Gould, Director of Interior Design for Vertically Integrated Projects, to get her advice on how to give a hotel property a fresh look while minimizing disruption to hotel operations. Vertically Integrated Projects is a North Carolina-based company that specializes in furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) design for hotels throughout the southeast and mid-Atlantic.

Even the most seasoned hospitality pros sometimes get weary of the same routine. Spending day after day parsing data and solving guests' problems can make you forget why you began working in the hospitality industry. That's when you begin to daydream about donning your Stetson and working at a ranch resort. Or managing animals instead of staff. Or.... becoming a professional marshmallow roaster? Here are three of the most fun (and unusual) hospitality jobs we could find. 

Managing one property (or more) is hard enough. Keeping up with all the news and trends in the hotel industry is almost impossible. The solution is finding great hospitality blogs to follow — not dry, press-release-heavy newsfeeds, but sites that are entertaining and offer valuable insight. Here are eight of the best hospitality blogs we've found.

Is there any better guest than the business traveler? They stay mid-week. They have expense accounts. And it doesn't take too much to make them happy (more on that in a moment).

The global tourism industry experienced a seismic shift in 2014, when a record 109 million Chinese travelers went overseas. China has overtaken the United States to become the world's largest outbound tourism market, spending $165 billion in 2014. The wealthiest 10 percent of Chinese travelers wield formidable buying power; they spend more than US $2,000 per day (including on accommodations) according to Hotels.com's 2015 Chinese International Travel Monitor report.

How are hotels adapting to the surge in Chinese travelers? Here's a summary of the latest trends. 

Hotels are facing a green-tinted dilemma. Guests now expect hotels to operate some kind of sustainability program, but they remain motivated more by price and convenience than concern for the environment, according to a 2015 study by Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research. And "the link between environmentally sustainable programs and improved customer satisfaction is weak compared to standard drivers like facilities, room, and food and beverage quality."

In short, guests want green hotels, but they're not going to pay any extra. Not only that, but if sustainable practices cause them any inconvenience, they'll be upset. The question for hotel operators, then, is how to shift toward sustainable operations while saving money and keeping guests happy. Here are some ideas and sustainability best practices from leaders in the industry.