Business Travel Tips

Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotel performance, reported that in the U.S. luxury hotel occupancy averaged 72.2% in March, the best in any hotel category. Luxury hotel also was more profitable than any other hotel segment; average daily rate was $323.80 (up 5.6% from March 2007) and revenue per available room rose 1.5% over last March.
These figures show the demand for luxury hotels is not as affected by the economy as other hotel categories.

usatoday.com listed few trends selected by industry analysts in this hotel segment

- Personalized experience
Many high-end hotels are giving hotels a less formal and more individual feel. Jim FitzGibbon, president of worldwide operations for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, an industry leader, says: “you have to create an experience for the customer and not just put them through a (cookie-cutter) system.”

- An influx of luxe brands
Big names such as Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton launched heir own high-end boutique chains, Andaz and Reserve, respectively. Marriott is partnering with boutique godfather Ian Schrager on a new project. Boutique-style brands, including W Hotels, Thompson and the Gansevoort Hotel Group are expanding.

- High-tech toys
With guests getting more electronically sophisticated, luxury hotels are answering the demands of technology with cutting-edge furnishings and gadgetry (from TVs embedded in bathroom mirrors to remote controls that control temperature, TVs and curtains with a flick, to fingerprints or eye scans serving as a room keys).

- A new emphasis on value and recognition
With heated competition and the cooling economy, guests’ expectations are more acute […] concierges are being used more like personal assistants.
(source)

Marriott has opened its first Courtyard hotel in Hong Kong. This new 245-room Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong, is located in the Sai Ying Pan district on Hong Kong Island.

The location provides easy access to the financial district in Central as well as to Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wanchai.

The hotel offers a free shuttle bus service between the Sheung Wan, Central, Admiralty and Wanchai districts.

For Business travelers, Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong features a full business center with two work stations, boardroom, executive lounge and 24-hour fitness center. Furtherly, each of the 245 guestrooms comes with high-speed internet access.
Room rates start from US$199 per night.

According the analysis on business travel cost for 2007 released yesterday by American Express Business Travel, international rates experienced increases while rates in the U.S. remained stable.
Tight global supply and high fuel costs drove continued price growth for international business travel in 2007. However the average airfare for U.S. stabilized in 2007 due to a combination of factors including the expansion of low fare models and the behavior of travelers who book their trips further in advance by taking advantage of lower, advance purchase fares.

Herve Sedky, Vice President and General Manager, Global Advisory Services, American Express Business Travel, says: “Companies can achieve savings in this environment through a well managed, dynamic travel and entertainment program allowing the flexibility to adjust their travel policies in real-time accordance with fast-moving industry changes“.

American Express Business Travel has recently added Change Management as a consulting competency. A practice area that offers best practices for monitoring and influencing traveler behavior to improve compliance to corporate policies and procedures.
Frank Schnur, Vice President, Advisory Services, American Express Business Travel, says incremental cost savings made possible through this new practice area can range between 11 percent and 33 percent of a company’s total air spend.

Below data from American Express Business Travel’s analysis on business travel cost for (more…)

Despite about 20 hotels were scheduled to open in Manhattan in 2008, no one of them seems to be aiming at luxury segment. With one exception, the Mark Hotel, at 77th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, which reopens later this year after an extensive renovation. Its room rates will start at around $1,000 a night.

(photo by atomicshark licensed under
the Creative Commons license).

The New York Times quoted Bjorn Hanson, who tracks the hotel industry for PricewaterhouseCoopers, saying about hotels opening in Manhattan in 2008: “They’re either very small, or they’re not at the price point the Mark will be at,”. He adds “it is still a very positive time to open a hotel in Manhattan, especially at the high end.”

James Sherwin, who recently took the job of general manager at Mark Hotel, said one of his goals would be to keep prices from slipping.
He explains: “Today, hotels are likely to lower prices whenever demand softens. But by doing you potentially take in people who aren’t necessarily the caliber that the business is based on.” In short, he said, “I’m a great believer in, if necessary, letting the occupancy drop a bit, but keeping your rates as you wish.”

Mr. Senbahar, co-owner of Mark Hotel, says: “People are willing to spend the money, but you’ve got to make it stress-free for them. That’s basically the game plan.”

Mark hotel won’t have to manage its own dining room because it has formed a partnership with Sant Ambroeus, an Italian restaurant on Madison Avenue, which will open a branch inside the hotel. (source)

Courtyard by Marriott has just unveiled its first new Courtyard hotel lobby at a property just outside Washington, D.C. Below a video of the new lobby.

Courtyard by Marriott and its hotel owners and franchisees in the U.S. and Canada expect to introduce the complete new lobby concept at a minimum of eight more hotels this year and as many as 100 in 2009. The first of the new lobbies has been introduced at the Courtyard Fairfax Fair Oaks in Virginia. The new lobbies will be introduced next at the following (more…)