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Surprise, surprise, hotel restaurants have become locavores
RoomsFor years, most hotel restaurants could easily be dismissed as unremarkable and unsurprising, their menus seemingly unchanged from year to year. But lately, they have been following the lead of upscale restaurants and offering ingredients grown or produced nearby. “Most hotels for years tried to cater to a mass market,” said Charles D. Dorn, managing [...]
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TripAdvisor advises against mobile apps for its hotel customers
DigitalTripAdvisor 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 [...]
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Ritz-Carlton makes a bet on Tunisia and Morocco with 3 new properties
DestinationsThe Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has announced the brand’s latest property in its growing North Africa portfolio. The Ritz-Carlton Marrakech and its first property in Rabat, Morocco, which will become the third property in the brand’s growing North Africa portfolio. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company expects the resort to open in December 2014. The resort will benefit [...]
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Marriott boosts first quarter profits based on rate increases and group business
RoomsMarriott International Inc. says it turned a better-than-expected profit in its first quarter thanks to higher room rates and a return of events by large groups. The company, based in Bethesda, Md., said Wednesday that it earned $136 million, or 43 cents per share, in the three-month period that ended March 31. That’s up from [...]
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The vacation home market continues to do quite well, according to Marriott
DestinationsMarriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. Thursday reported a better-than-expected surge in first-quarter profit, on higher revenues. The company benefited from the sale of vacation ownership products and rental income, resort management and other services revenues. The company raised its outlook for fiscal year 2013, sending its shares up nearly four percent in afternoon trade on the [...]
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Marriott employees get to know their inner guest
DestinationsEvery employee at the Tampa Airport Marriott needs to have an inner hospitality radar. It should go off whenever anyone staying at the hotel or attending an event there comes within 15 feet of the Marriott employee. The worker should acknowledge the visitor’s presence, usually with eye contact, a friendly nod or some other gesture. [...]
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How Marriott practices the science of hotel room design
RoomsContrary to what skeptics like me may think, decisions about what goes into a hotel room aren’t made in a vacuum by some executive who has never stayed in an outpost of his brand’s midrange chain. At least not entirely. The decisions are the result of research. Research into what you, the traveler, want, need [...]
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Consumers say Southwest, Choice Hotels and Marriott have top travel apps
TransportSouthwest Airlines, Choice Hotels and Marriott have the best travel apps and mobile websites, according to the Mobile Satisfaction Index: Travel Edition, released today by Ann Arbor-based ForeSee data analytics company. Still, even those travel sites need to get better, according to the study of consumers’ mobile experiences with 25 airlines, hotels, online travel agencies [...]
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Marriott loses appeal in its case against owners of Miami’s Eden Roc Hotel
RoomsMarriott International Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. hotel chain, lost an appeal in its lawsuit against the owners of the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. The owners of the 57-year-old Eden Roc sued Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott in April, saying the company mismanaged the property after they invested more than $300 million [...]
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Global hotel brands plot significant growth in sub-Saharan Africa
DestinationsNew hotels are springing up across Africa, despite the trials of bureaucratic delay and poor infrastructure, to take advantage of an increasing number of tourists and business travellers serving a growing middle class. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting economic growth of around 5.8 percent in sub-Saharan Africa this year, second only to developing Asia, [...]
