glenn haussman

The lodging industry is breaking more records and making more beds

September 24, 2013 By admin

“The good times are going to last for several more years,” said Hotel Interactive journalist Glenn Haussman.

Following his time at the 19^th annual Lodging Conference last week, Haussmann reflected on the somber attitudes in 2009 and happily compared to the upbeat crowd he so enjoyed in 2013.

While many feel as though the hospitality industry isn’t in the clear just yet, statistics show that stability is on the horizon. With hotel stocks up 12%, high-demand and increased room rates driving profits, and record-breaking bookings – 108.5 million rooms were occupied in the month of July – it’s no wonder hoteliers filling the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa were so optimistic.

With increased revenue, profits and guest retention – renovation is on the rise. As budgets increase, hotel management is looking towards long-ignored Property Improvement Plans (PIPs) to ensure customer satisfaction and efficiency.

As a long-standing provider of furniture asset management services within the sector, The Refinishing Touch has seen the effects of the economic turnaround firsthand. In response to recent years, hoteliers are more budget conscious than ever – they understand that services such as refinishing, re-upholstery and remanufacturing provide the perfect on-site solution to improving appearance, extending the life of assets, and meeting sustainable goals.

Do you have furniture in need of a revamp? Get in touch with us at [email protected] or request a free quote on our website.

The Refinishing Touch speaks with Glenn Haussman: Part 2

August 19, 2011 By admin

Welcome to the second installment of our chat with Glenn Haussman of Hotel Interactive. If you missed the first part, click here to check it out.

TRT: If a hotel has gone through a complete renovation, say they’ve reopened after doing a 70 million dollar renovation, they advertise and promote it heavily do you think that does have an impact on the occupancy rate or the interest of travelers to book that particular hotel?

GH: Absolutely. I think that at the beginning of the Great Recession that we had (I hate using that term) it was really all about figuring out ways to take costs out of your hotel business. Now that we’ve done such a great job as an industry at paring down those costs, we need to try and maintain that cost structure without letting price creep back in, or raise rates. Renovation is a really smart, great way to freshen your property and be able to push those rates. You can then say, sure the guy down the road is charging a little less, but look at our great new product. And people want that new product. They want something new, they want something different, and they want something that feels refreshed. This is especially true if you’re doing it sustainably. If you’re able to figure out ways to be more sustainable while also lowering your ongoing costs while being more appealing to the consumer, I think that’s where you’re going to see a win-win.

TRT: With those renovations, do you have a sense of whether they are replacing old furniture with new. Do you have an idea of what that ratio might be?

GH: I think it really depends on each individual property. But what I can tell you is between 1995 and 2000 so many hotels opened up in this country and a lot of those hotels have not gone through a major refurbishment. They were thinking of doing it, but then the economy ducked down, so what we’re seeing now is a lot of pent up demand for renovations. And a good chunk of those properties are going to need to go through full renovations, which include having to replace some of those hardgoods. Now if they have an opportunity to not spend that kind of money and refresh their product, I think that’s going to be better. And here’s an interesting statistic about renovations: According to Lodging Econometrics, right now we’re seeing 10 times more rooms being renovated than are being built this year. And the same holds true for 2012.

TRT: With green initiatives but also cost savings, obviously refinishing is a combination of the best of both worlds, when you speak with others about these issues, what kind of responses are you getting?

GH: I think the audiences are very encouraged by the amount of renovations that are going to take place. And when it comes to the suppliers they’re downright ecstatic. Even though new construction has dried up for the time being, there are plenty of opportunities for them out there. And buyers, the ones who are refinishing these rooms are really starting to see projects pop. For a while now, the brands have kind of laid off the need for hoteliers to keep up with brand standards, and now they’re putting their foot down which is forcing owners to have to do renovations. The economy was so bad the brands were like “OK, OK, you don’t have to worry about the PIPs (Property Improvement Plans), we understand.” But you can only go so long by doing that without destroying the fundamental quality of each of those brands. And they have no choice now but to tighten the reins on people and say you have to put money into the property. I know a lot of people anecdotally who were saying “My business sucks” and in the last six months they’re like “Wow I can’t believe this happened. We’re getting call after call, we’re hiring people, and the jobs we’re getting are great, it’s fabulous.”

TRT: You mentioned increased occupancy. What do you ascribe this to? The economy is still struggling, why are you seeing increasing occupancy rate?

GH: Well number one is people feel they have the right to travel, or they need to travel. Businesses sat on the side so much [without traveling] they can no longer afford to do that. They have to get out there and pound the pavement and meet clients. They have no choice. Further, the whole idea of businesses not having big group meetings has abated and meetings and incentive travel is resurging now. After the Obama administration pilloried it, everyone was kind of scared for a while, but that’s over and meetings are coming back in force. Everyone I’ve talked to at the big convention hotels have said, “I’ve gotten nice business this year” and things have really solidified in their calendars for 2012 and ‘13.

TRT: In looking at the whole hospitality industry do you believe they have a strong focus on the green initiative or sustainability and how it can help their industry?

GH: I believe they have gone through a strong educational process the last few years, and green no longer the big buzz word that’s out there, and that’s good. Now that everyone has stopped talking about it as a concept, they’re now enacting it in their businesses. It’s no longer the hot new thing because everyone is doing it. Now everyone is digging down deep to figure out how they can incorporate sustainable elements into their properties and future projects. Again it’s being motivated by cost savings and not out of altruism, but I think the end result is really the same which is lower expenses and less impact on our environment.

TRT: Going back to value, when you go and book a stay at a property, you expect a good room that is well furnished and well serviced. What other types of value benefits do you think customers are looking for when choosing a hotel?

GH: They don’t want to feel like they’re being nickel and dimed. One of the things that they want is true high speed internet access without paying an extra fee. I think people love a breakfast that’s included. People just want to know what the overall cost of their trip is going to be and not have to keep pulling money out of their pocket. And that’s why there’s been a great surge in all-inclusive types of properties.

TRT: Do you have a sense of whether the same issues are affecting properties overseas as well as the US? The same issues regarding value and keeping sustainability and costs low?

GH: While I can’t speak too much on this issue, I can say I do feel that Europe and Asia have done a much stronger job at following sustainability trends and really getting in there no matter what the cost. I think the culture of Europe in particular is demanding it more. And in Asia, there are so many hotels that are so new they incorporated a sustainable mindset into the development process.

TRT: What can hospitality learn from or even teach some of the other industries some of these best practices in terms of reuse, sustainability, renovations. Are there lessons that can be shared?

GH: Yes. I think the biggest lesson of all is that you can’t do the sustainability effort from the top down. I think you need to give the people in your organization the power over the program so that they feel emotionally engaged in the process. And by them taking it over, they’re going to come up with great ideas. They’re really going to spearhead those programs and make those businesses successful in the long run.

TRT: Glenn I appreciate your time and thank you for participating and giving us your ideas on sustainability and green initiatives.

GH: My pleasure, thanks so much for allowing me to share my thoughts.

The Refinishing Touch speaks with Glenn Haussman: Part 1

August 16, 2011 By admin

We’re pleased to have Glenn Haussman, editor-in-chief of Hotel Interactive join us to talk about the hospitality industry, the green initiatives within it and the next steps he sees the industry making to continue its recovery.

Glenn got into writing about the hospitality industry after being a music and entertainment writer. Unsurprisingly, he found celebrities to be disdainful and decided to move to the hospitality business because it’s the closest thing to living like a Hollywood rock star outside of Hollywood. Hard to argue when he gets to travel to some of the best locations and hotels around the country.

The Refinishing Touch: It’s been a fairly tough economy in the last few years, do you think that the industry has changed in any substantial way or has it been recovering from the downturn over the last few years?

Glenn Haussman: The hospitality industry is definitely recovering from the downturn in the sense that demand for hotel rooms is higher than it has ever been in the entire history of the hotel business. You can expect that in 2011 we’re going to sell more room nights than we’ve ever seen before. Well over 100 million room nights are going to be sold this month (August). Right now, there’s not a lot of new construction happening, so demand is beginning to outpace supply. The only thing that’s holding hotels back now is the lack of confidence in their desire to raise rates. They say they are going to but they’re not actually pushing rate.

TRT: How have rates been changing? On average have they changed up or down in the last few years?

GH: Well they were down quite considerately but now they’re inching back up. The general temperature of the industry is that ‘things are back’. Guests have changed somewhat. It’s more about personal experiences. Guests are out there trying to collect experiences no matter what the purpose of their trip is, even if it’s for business. They also want higher value in what hotels are offering. They’re not as price conscious as the general managers of hotels think they are. Meanwhile, group business travel is solidifying at the same time but a lot of those business they’re having an inability to move those rates because, in those scary days of 2009 and early 2010, deals were made that locked these people into lower prices than they could probably get now if they were negotiating contracts.

TRT: What is the mix of business travel vs. vacation, or personal travel?

GH: Even through the downturn, leisure travel remained strong. Americans feel it’s their right to vacation. But now, business travel is surging back. You have those two things working together to restore the industry.

TRT: What about oversees visitors? Do you see an increase coming to the US?

GH: Oversees visitors have been coming into America but not at a pace that Americans need. Tourism has an opportunity to be our biggest export. The average international guest stays twice as long and spends more than twice the average of what the American guest would spend. So we really want to get those international travelers coming here. But the problem is that we’re not really addressing the needs of those travelers to come here easily.

TRT: How so?

GH: Well, for example: China has got this surging middle class of hundreds of millions of people that finally have the money to start to travel. But in that massive country of over a billion people, they only have five consulates that they can go to in the entire country to try to get a visa to come here. And even then, it’s only good for a year. People are waiting to try to get permission to go on vacation. A Chinese traveler can pretty much show up in any European country and be let in without any issue, but not in the US. So the US government needs to expand their visa waiver program in order to get more folks to come here in a more streamlined manner.

TRT: We can see how that would be an issue.

GH: One of the cool things that has finally been passed during the last year is the Tourism Promotion Act and what that’s done is it’s created a public/private partnership which is being funded by fees that are being paid by travelers that are coming into the US. Those fees are then being used to create advertising to people to visit the United States. International visitors coming to the US remained stable over the last 10 years, but the actual percentages have shrunk considerably because there are so many more people now that have the financial means to travel and they’re simply not coming to the US. Pumping fees into the advertising is hopefully going to help change things

TRT: In terms of value do you think that visitors and travelers are looking at the impact of green initiatives in their hotels? Is that part of their decision making process when deciding where they’re staying?

GH: While there are plenty of people who do, I don’t think that individual travelers overall are making decisions based on that. They’re making decisions based on price and value and not whether or not something is green. It’s just I don’t think it’s something that’s consumer driven.

TRT: The fact that there’s not a lot of new building going on, does that correlate to a lot more renovation in existing hotels?

GH: Absolutely. Right now there are more renovations going on in the hotel industry than ever before. When you talk about green, the real great thing about going green is that you are able to save money and shorten ROI as opposed to buying newer products. I’ve been preaching this for like 5 years. I think everybody got caught up saying that travelers are all going be into green, but I kept saying you need to look at the bottom line. That’s where people are going to be able to make a difference. I think at some point in the future, consumers are going to have a lot more interest in green.

On Friday, we’ll present the rest of our conversation with Glenn to get his thoughts on sustainability in hospitality, more on the value guests look for and his ideas on where you’ll find the hospitality industry most committed to sustainability.