2013 › October

A localized hotel experience is the #1 marketing mantra in the American hospitality industry today, three decades after Bill Kimpton invented the idea.

Amtrak has done a good job highlighting these stations, but a lot more can be done to enhance their tourism business value, and here we're doing our small bit.

If Expedia was worried about angering hotels by pushing into vacation rentals, the cat is now officially out of the bag. Another factor behind the Expedia-HomeAway deal is that Booking.com has been making inroads in the U.S. with its 356,000 properties, and Expedia is hungering for more supply.

Incorporating local culture into hotels might have started as a trend, but it's now here to stay. IHG's early local venture can teach other brands how to play nice with neighborhoods.

The hotel operators worry whether going green means sacrificing their service standards at times, and this study show it surely won't hurt. And there are bigger benefits beyond bookings, including energy savings and tax credits from local municipalities, among others.