“It’s not as bad now as it was even two years ago, but you still have legacy airlines trying to compete on who’s got the nicest prison cell,” Mr. St. George said. “We’re in a different class than that and I think the whole industry is going to be better off if we all up our game a little bit.”

Plenty of downdrafts remain, of course. “How many times have Wall Street guys come in and said ‘You know, if you charge five bucks for TV, you’d make a lot of money’?” Mr. St. George said in the interview, with Joel Idelson, senior VP and creator of opportunities at Allen & Gerritsen. “You know what, you’re right, but then we wouldn’t be JetBlue.”

“It’s actually kind of liberating,” he added, “compared to other places where you’re continually in this fight of ‘What’s the next thing I can take away from my customers?’”

This story originally appeared on AdAge, a Skift content partner.

Additional links from AdAge:

• A Peek Into Starwood Hotels’ Marketer Immersion Program
• Qantas to Flyers: Ditch Your Kindles, Read Our Custom Books
• Loyalty Programs Need to Put Customers’ Needs First

The post JetBlue exec: Airlines shouldn’t compete over “nicest prison cell” appeared first on Skift.

American Airlines outfitted in its new livery takes off from Montreal, Canada. Patrick Cardinal / Flickr

Last week at the 54th annual CLIO Awards creative marketing agency FutureBrand North America was received a trophy in the corporate identity design category for its recent work with iconic American Airlines brand.

According to the agency, the honour marks the first time an airline brand has been awarded a CLIO in Corporate Identity Design.

Launched around the world on January 17th, 2013, the new American Airlines identity and livery reflect a more modern, vibrant and welcoming spirit for the brand, according to FutureBrand. It also marks the first time the identity has been updated in 46 years.

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Salt Lake City Airport is getting passengers' feedback about what they like to see in the redeveloped facility. / Salt Lake City International Airport

Mountain views, faster takeoffs and workout equipment are a few things Salt Lake City officials are considering as they draw up plans for a nearly $2 billion remake of the city’s airport.

The bulk of the budget for construction comes from fees airlines pay to use the facility and from passengers buying tickets, among a few other sources. Federal grants make up about 11 percent of the bankroll.

Some wings of the airport are about 50 years old. Others date back over 30 years. That means a new facility is overdue, said Salt Lake City International Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann.

“Airport years are longer” than human ones she said, due to changing technology and increases in traffic. The original facility was designed to shepherd about 12 million travelers each year, roughly half as many as it does now.

“We’re very space-constrained,” Gann said. “We’re constantly trying to squeeze more space out of these security checkpoints.”

Workers are set to break ground on the new airport next spring and have it finished by 2024. Officials and architects have sketched out a design for the takeoff area. Now, they’re asking travelers what they’d like to see at the airport before they reach the gate.

Authorities say the planned airport will be more efficient and likely have a design that showcases mountain views. Others say the airport will be more environmentally responsible, with a lofty goal to try to generate as much energy as it uses.

Delta Air Lines operates about 3 out of 4 flights leaving from the airport. It began using the facility as a hub in the late 1980′s. Southwest comes in second for its proportion of flights, now about 12 percent.

Last year, about 21 million people passed through the airport. The redesign is set to take on about 24 million travelers annually and go up right next to the current one.

Salt Lake City is already regarded as one of the most on-time airports in the country, but officials say that’s due more to good weather than efficient engineering.

Right now, the airport’s gates are set up in a few different horseshoe formations. That means planes have to take turns backing out of the cul-de-sacs.

The proposed plan calls for a derby setup, with each gate tucked into a straight line. That means less traffic on the ground.

Officials are asking for public input on the airport’s website and say they have already received requests for a gym, more secluded seating areas and more electrical outlets.

“We’re due for an upgrade,” said Art Raymond, spokesman for Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker. Solar power and environmentally-minded engineering are components of the new plan, he said, and will help the airport toward its goal of producing as much energy as it uses. The new construction will also make the airport safer in the event of an earthquake, Raymond said.

The new airport’s design, Gann says, will likely show off Utah’s mountain views for travelers before they reach the baggage claim.

Gann says she has received requests from people who want the airport to better reflect Utah’s reputation as an outdoors capitol, incorporating more natural elements like glass and granite.

“People want it to reflect Utah,” Gann said. “They want it to be bright and airy.”

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TripAdvisor singles out the Nashville Music City website as one that effectively uses responsive design, altering its display based on the type of device a visitor is using. / Nashville Music City

TripAdvisor is advising its hotel customers that they should definitely fine-tune their mobile offerings, but should probably steer clear of mobile apps.

“They can be expensive to create, so only develop an app if you have enough
frequent travelers who’ll use it often enough,” TripAdvisor says, referring to downloadable mobile apps, in a new TripAdvisor for Business guide to mobile marketing.

“With an app, you ask a lot from travelers. First, they have to download the app. Then find it and log in. And then actually take the time to use it. So your app has to be helpful, easy to use and work well enough to justify all that effort.”

To be sure, TripAdvisor is not dispensing this mobile advice for large chains, such as InterContinental Hotels, that have the resources to build and market mobile apps. In fact, TripAdvisor gives high praise in its mobile marketing guide to InterContinental’s Priority Clubs Rewards app.

“Take a look at the Priority Club Rewards iPhone app. It’s highly rated with plenty of positive reviews. Why? Because the app makes it easy to book reservations, keep track of upcoming trips and check on loyalty points. In other words, the things busy, frequent travelers care about most.”

Instead, TripAdvisor is advising its Business Listings customers, likely smaller chains and properties, to stick with either websites with “responsive design” or mobile sites to spearhead their mobile efforts.

With responsive design, the display of a traditional desktop site is reformatted depending on whether the user is accessing the site via desktop, smartphone or tablet.

TripAdvisor points to the Nashville Music City website (displayed at right via an iPad) as one that effectively uses CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 3) technology to adapt to varying devices.

Among the advantages to this responsive design, TripAdvisor says, is that hotels only have to maintain one version of their website, and having a solitary website is better for SEO than having duplicative content (Google doesn’t like that) in two sites.

On the other hand, mobile websites for smartphones, such as Marriott’s with its “quick links” to reserve a hotel or cancel reservations, are an attractive alternative for hotels because they are easily customizable, relatively cheap to build, and they facilitate quick page downloads, TripAdvisor says.

Mobile sites can be cheaper to build than websites using responsive design, TripAdvisor says, and they can be faster to load because hotels can reduce the size of images. On the other hand, hotels would have to take up the task of maintaining two sites, one for desktops and one for smartphones.

TripAdvisor has been ingratiating itself with hotels on a variety of fronts, including new review collections services and widgets to display a positive review on hotel websites, and this latest mobile marketing guide is part of that effort to enhance TripAdvisor’s relationships with its hotel customers.

Think of TripAdvisor as a resource, and not just as a line item expense in marketing or advertising budgets.

There is self-interest in all of this, of course. When hotels can drive more business by advertising on TripAdvisor, and they see guests book more frequently because of improved mobile services, then this helps TripAdvisor’s advertising and subscriptions business.

Few companies, including TripAdvisor, can be expected to do things purely for altruistic purposes.

Here’s TripAdvisor’s mobile marketing guide for hotels:

Download (PDF, 1.67MB)

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The stylish, Finnish designed sleeping pods…feature a partial or fully enclosed sliding shade that isolates the customer from noise, light and crowds.  After an initial launch phase, the chairs will be upgraded to include Internet access, will include secure storage for luggage and other valuables, and will allow customers to charge their laptops, mobile telephones, and other electronic devices.  Passengers will be able to use the chairs at a rate of AED 45/hour (about $12) using a credit card.

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Designer Vivienne Westwood and Virgin founder Richard Branson. / Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. has hired U.K. designer Vivienne Westwood for the first makeover of its scarlet uniforms in a decade, turning to the pioneering figure of punk fashion to spearhead a renewal of the brand.

The revamp of more than 7,500 outfits for cabin crew, pilots, lounge staff and Virgin Holidays employees will seek to combine a futuristic look with elements of 1940s French fashion and tailoring drawn from London’s Savile Row, the company said.

Virgin Atlantic has seen its trendsetter-status eroded by rivals including British Airways, which pioneered flat-bed seats, and Gulf and Asian carriers like Qatar Airways Ltd. and Singapore Airlines Ltd., which have won plaudits for their cabin service. The U.K. company has responded with innovations such as a cheese trolley and afternoon tea for its premium passengers.

“From a design perspective we continually try to challenge the norm and stand out from the crowd,” founder and majority shareholder Richard Branson said in a statement, adding that other airlines have begun to copy the existing uniforms.

The new designs from Westwood, who found fame with her punk outfits in the 1970s in a partnership with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, will be trialed in July and rolled out in 2014.

The project unites two figures known for their freewheeling fashion sense, with Branson last month revealing pants with the words “stiff competition” under a Virgin-red kilt after a flight to Scotland, and Westwood photographed in 1992 twirling her skirt outside Buckingham Palace to show she wore no underwear.

The outfit to be worn by female flight attendants features an “extremely feminine” silhouette, according to Virgin.

“The jacket enhances the female form with the aid of cleverly placed bust pleats, a nipped in waist and a curved hip line,” the Crawley, England-based company said. “The pencil skirt, which looks deceptively simple from the front, then reveals a cheeky dart and double pleat at the back.”

Male cabin crew will wear a burgundy-colored three-piece suit. The airline said it plans to use recycled materials including a polyester yarn made from plastic bottles, and that a special nano finish will help the uniforms last longer.

Editors: Chris Jasper, Benedikt Kammel. To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net. 

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The Superbude Hotel Hostel in Hamburg build its brand through Instagram photos like this one. Superbude Hotel Hostel Hamburg / Flickr

With the wine tasting in the lobby bar approaching, I rinsed the green-tea shampoo from my hair, grabbed a towel from the queen bed and settled into a Philippe Starck chair, espresso in hand. A flat-screen TV flickered in the next room of my suite, but I was more captivated by the view that lay just beyond the glass doors of my balcony: the orange tile roofs of Lisbon, washed in the glow of a setting sun.

A rooftop Jacuzzi at Bunk in Istanbul; a cinema room at Design Hostel Goli & Bosi in Split, Croatia; a sleek basement nightclub in One80° Berlin: Whether they bill themselves as “design hostels” or “boutique hostels” or “hostel and suites,” these new accommodations are striving to raise the standard of an institution that was once the lodging equivalent of a Greyhound bus.

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The pool at the Delano Hotel in Miami. Dan McQuade / Flickr

Kim Walker was the sixth employee at Morgans Hotel Group.

Straight out of Boston University, with a degree in finance and a minor in hotel management, she was hired nearly 22 years ago by none other than Ian Schrager. The famed American real-estate developer — credited with creating the “boutique hotel” segment and known for his days as owner of legendary New York club Studio 54 — gave her a job as a front-desk agent.

For Ms. Walker, joining Morgan’s was an intentional choice. She eschewed bigger hotel chains like Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott in favor of a more hands-on experience. And, boy, did she get it. She worked in virtually every department, including stints as a concierge, room-service manager, housekeeping staff and in sales. But there was a common thread in the things she enjoyed most, whether it was sending mailings for events to Mr. Schrager’s “movers and shakers” list or helping design uniforms. It all came back to the brand.

Today Ms. Walker is senior VP-marketing and creative director for the chain, which owns boutique brands like the Hudson, Delano and Royalton. She’s responsible for overseeing Morgan’s public relations, marketing, partnerships, online and digital presence, special events, uniforms and guest-room amenities. During the next two years, she’ll be instrumental in the brand’s expansion, which includes new hotels in the Bahamas; Istanbul; Moscow; Las Vegas; and Doha, Qatar. Ad Age recently caught up with her.

Ad Age: How do you convey the value of a luxury, boutique hotel in what’s largely a price-driven travel market?

Kim Walker: Our guests choose to stay at our hotels not just to sleep and have a bed. They want to experience our entire culture. Whether it’s our public spaces, nightlife or restaurants, you get the feeling that it’s more than just a place to sleep. We have created a very loyal customer base that knows what to expect when they come. Our guest experience is different than other hotel brands. For example, we aren’t formal — we are more interactive with our guests and make them feel like they are at a home-away-from-home and welcomed, but all while still providing great service. And by continuing to push the envelope with design, we are always trying to create lifestyle and restaurant venues that not just guests but also locals want to go to — which is really important — to hang out on the weekend. We give guests the essence of the city in which they are staying.

Ad Age: Are you working on modernizing the Morgan’s culture through new digital and mobile initiatives, like others in the hospitality industry?

Ms. Walker: Yes. Right now it’s all over the place. What our site looks like on mobile and on a tablet, it’s not consistent. Flash has prohibited us from doing the things we want to do. We’re also trying to bring [digital capabilities] more into the hotel so that you can experience them in the hotel and after you leave — pulling it through your entire stay. Over the past year and half we have been trying to figure out the plan for 2013, and we really felt that since consumers are relying heavily on mobile access it was going to be our key focus for this year. Also our last website was designed five years ago, so it’s time for that. [The goal is to have a new one live this summer]. We met with about eight different agencies from Seattle, New York, Los Angeles and Brooklyn and hired Firstborn. Firstborn did a fabulous job and showed us some interesting things and really stood out amongst all the companies. It’s probably two months since we’ve been into the project and we’re very in sync.

Ad Age: Each of your hotels are designed differently and have a unique aesthetic, unlike other hotel brands where customers know what to expect wherever they are in the world. What are the opportunities and drawbacks of having a brand that actually prides itself on inconsistency?

Ms. Walker: We absolutely don’t want to be a chain and be cookie-cutter where you expect the same thing every city you’re in. The design should reflect the city, and it’s very purposeful that way. We think it makes it more interesting for the guests. Relying on one design to carry us through for the next 15 or 20 years isn’t what we want to do; we’re always looking for up-and-coming designers. Our audience is very sophisticated and they don’t want the same all the time. The one drawback is that we’re starting from scratch each time we do that. Right now we’re opening eight hotels in the next two and half years. We would have a very easy life [if they all looked the same] but because each is different it makes it more challenging. But also more gratifying.

Ad Age: What do you think a loyalty program needs to be? And what has Morgan’s done to enhance its own?

Ms. Walker: Our loyalty program is called the Global Card and made up of our guests who have 25 stays or 50 nights over the course of the year, as well as tastemakers in design, art and fashion that we want coming to hang out at our hotels. We don’t give points away. We may offer discounts at our spas and restaurants and shops, but it’s more about having exclusive access to events or giving them a dedicated guest-services manager to help curate their stay — making them feel like it’s their own private concierge while they are staying with us, rather than a point program to cash in for free nights.

This story originally appeared on AdAge, a Skift content partner.

Additional links from AdAge:

• How P&G, Ford and Wendy’s Are Redefining Value
• The Manhunt for Media Screw-Ups
• Is the World Ready to Buy a Car Made in China?

The post Morgans Hotel creative head talks luxury, branding and boutique properties appeared first on Skift.

The Brady Street Pedestrian Bridge is an attractive walkway above the Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jeramey Jannene / Flickr

Republican lawmakers are making a move to end a state Department of Transportation program that funnels up to $15 million a year into murals, landscaping, stamped concrete and other aesthetic features to ensure community buy-in for road and bridge projects.

The GOP lawmakers are also targeting for elimination plans to install color-changing decorative lights on Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge. They say money for such projects should go toward roads.

“I don’t think it’s a time where we can afford all of the extras,” said Rep. Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna).

Transportation officials counter that the program — called community-sensitive design — gets residents on board with major projects that become defining features in their communities. They say the program also helps attract more businesses and prevents litigation from citizens upset about how road projects are built.

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt praised how the program was used in the ongoing reconstruction of Highway 41. Having aesthetically pleasing roads and bridges gives visitors a good first impression of his city and helps invite higher-quality development, he said.

“We do not want to look like a concrete jungle,” he said. “We do not want to take the cheap way out.”

The debate over the program comes as lawmakers prepare to take up the state budget. Steineke, the Assembly assistant majority leader, wants to amend the budget to ban spending on community-sensitive design, and he said he is making headway with this proposal.

Indeed, DOT officials faced skeptical questions about the program when they briefed the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on their spending plan last month. Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), the committee’s co-chairman, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said they saw room for cutbacks.

Nygren said in a statement his committee would seek ways to find savings for transportation and “scrutinize the need for ‘embellishments.’ ”

A legislative task force earlier this year determined the state faces a $6.8 billion funding gap over the next decade for transportation infrastructure and recommended raising taxes and fees to cover it. Steineke said he couldn’t ask taxpayers to pay more for roads while the community-sensitive design program remained in place.

He acknowledged the program accounted for comparatively small amount of money — about 1.5% of highway construction — but said that money would be better spent on additional road projects.

“Fifteen and twenty million here, fifteen and twenty million there — pretty soon that adds up to real money,” Steineke said.

Transportation officials say the program improves relationships with local residents, helping ensure they welcome major infrastructure projects. Steineke found that approach problematic.

“When it comes down to it, using taxpayer money to grease the locals, I just think that’s wrongheaded,” Steineke said.

He said the department should provide local governments with options for such enhancements but require that they fund it.

But Schmitt, the Green Bay mayor, said people in his city have embraced what the program has provided in his community — bike and pedestrian paths, wrought-iron railings on bridges and design elements that incorporate the heritage of the Oneida tribe.

“People aren’t saying, ‘How much did it cost?’ They’re saying, ‘That is awesome-looking,’ ” Schmitt said. “We’re looking like a real metro area.”

The community-sensitive design program started in 2006 and is commonly used, particularly on the largest projects, such as the Marquette Interchange, said Steve Krieser, the executive assistant to Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb. Such programs are recommended by the Federal Highway Administration and used by most states.

Stamped concrete and other visible results of community-sensitive design are just one aspect of the program. What’s crucial about the program is that it involves neighborhoods from the outset, before a project is designed, Krieser said.

“It’s really about a process of helping a project fit into a community,” Krieser said. “It becomes more of a collaborative process.”

It can also make projects more efficient. Under the old system, projects sometimes had to be redesigned late in the process because of the public reaction to them. Krieser said the new approach can also prevent lawsuits over how projects are designed.

Gov. Scott Walker’s Commission on Fraud, Waste and Abuse last year found that the program was valuable but said spending for it should be curbed, recommending that it be limited to 1.5% of the budget for road construction.

Under that guideline, spending would be about $15 million a year. Krieser said he expected the department would spend less than that.

The Highway 41 project, which runs from Green Bay to Fond du Lac, is expected to cost $1.5 billion, with $21.4 million of that going to community-sensitive design work. That spending is higher than what the DOT would likely approve now, but department officials believe they need to honor the commitments they have already made, Krieser said.

Plans to spend about $700,000 on accent lights on the Hoan Bridge are not part of the community-sensitive design program, but they have become fodder for the debate. The Hoan is one of just nine bridges in the state that are eligible for aesthetic lights, Krieser said.

Rep. John Jagler (R-Watertown) said he was frustrated by plans for the Hoan’s lights because he learned about them just days after being told of a delay on road work in his district, at the intersection of Highways 16 and F in Ixonia.

“It just seemed like a bit of misplaced priorities,” he said. “We just can’t afford (the Hoan lights) right now.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said in a statement the bridge provides wonderful views of Lake Michigan, downtown and the Summerfest grounds.

“Not funding enhancements at a time when we are all working — including the governor, (the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.) and the state Department of Tourism – to promote Milwaukee’s water-related assets and the city’s value to the state’s tourism economy, is a step backwards and runs contrary to the goal of making the Hoan a signature and gateway bridge,” the mayor’s statement said.

The Hoan Bridge is slated to be rebuilt starting this fall at a cost of $278 million. The lights are estimated to cost $700,000, but could cost anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million.

The DOT’s Krieser said the special lighting for the Hoan Bridge was being proposed because of its “iconic nature” and because it is part of distinctive skyline that includes the Calatrava addition of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

(c)2013 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

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A rendering of the NextGen rooms that Red Roof Inn is hoping will attract business travelers. / Red Roof Inn

When Red Roof Inn wanted to upgrade its rooms, the easy part was designing them: faux-wood floors; granite countertops and vessel sinks in the bathrooms; flat-screen televisions; and lots of outlets for laptops and smartphones.

The hard part “was getting our guests to experience our NextGen rooms,” said Andrew Alexander, president of the Columbus-based chain celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It has 345 inns in 38 states, did better than other economy-class hotels during the recession, and is poised to expand.

“We can and did offer special deals at our properties, and then we said, ‘Why not take the room to them?”" Alexander said.

So Red Roof installed a model of a NextGen room in a truck trailer that will tour the country. It made a stop at the Ohio State University spring football game in Cincinnati on Saturday. It also is scheduled to appear at the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach, Calif., this weekend, and the Memorial Tournament in Dublin from May 27 to June 2.

Alexander joked that a Red Roof room gets more miles to the gallon than the competition.

The competition is always fierce among the economy-class hotel chains, a market segment that has been slower to recover from the recession than other hotel sectors.

“The lower end of the spectrum has not rebounded as dramatically as the upper end,” said Rick Swig, president of RSBA & Associates, a San Francisco hotel consulting firm.

“And that’s because corporate business travel has rebounded, but when people are spending their own money, for vacations, they’re still not spending like they used to.”

The occupancy rate at economy hotels was 57 percent in 2007 and dropped to 49.1 percent in 2009, according to Smith Travel Research.

It has slowly been on the rise since and reached 54.3 percent in 2012.

Red Roof’s occupancy rate was a little better, around 60 percent in 2012, Alexander said. The average room rate was $55, which is higher than the segment average of $52.50.

“Our recovery has been at least as fast as the mid-market hotels,” Alexander said.

That is because his hotels attract more business travelers than other economy hotels, he said. ” Our mix is about 50-50.” He said competitors generally attract 80 percent leisure travelers.

The goal of Red Roof’s NextGen room is to build on its appeal to business travelers by offering them the amenities they need at prices lower than what the mid-market hotels charge.

“They’re really going to benefit if they can cross-pollinate between segments and reach even more into the mid-market segment and draw guests from the Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn,” said Eric Belfrage, a hotel specialist with commercial real-estate firm CB Richard Ellis in Columbus.

“And Red Roof certainly has a history of doing this.”

The Red Roof Inn near the Greater Columbus Convention Center was the first to undergo the NextGen conversion, in 2010. About 150 others have been upgraded, and the remaining hotels in the chain are expected to be renovated in the next three years, Alexander said.

The most-visible change is the floor, which is made of wood-look vinyl.

“Guests love that wood look,” Alexander said. “And it’s cleaner. You can see dirt and clean it, and it doesn’t retain the smells and stains you see in carpets.”

Flat-screen televisions are now standard in the rooms.

“That’s a first in our market segment,” Alexander said.

The electrical outlets on nightstands resulted from customer comments during renovation of the Downtown Columbus Red Roof.

“You have to listen to your customers,” Alexander said. “It’s a simple thing but turned out to be one of the most important for our guests.”

Swig believes the upgrades will strengthen Red Roof’s brand.

“Whenever a product is better, that’s when the magic happens,” he said. “As long as they can get the word out, they’ll do better.”

Red Roof plans to add about 150 new hotels in the next three years, all of which will be built to the NextGen standards. About half the chain’s hotels are owned by franchisees.

The NextGen truck tour will cost Red Roof about $180,000, money that Alexander believes is well spent if it helps get the word out.

“We need customers, especially the midscale customers who dismissed Red Roof before as an option, to say ‘Why not … it’s better-priced and a better value?”" he said.

(c)2013 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio). Distributed by MCT Information Services.

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