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Posted Aug 18, 2010
Many National Business Travel Association convention attendees cut out on the morning of the last day to avoid overbooked fights and delays, but I tend to stick around for the final education sessions. Along with a few stragglers, I attended the Federal Aviation Administration panel discussion last Wednesday hoping to gain a bit more clarity or information on the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen), or to learn something new. Thirty-four slides later, I hadn't.
Posted Jun 9, 2010
Speaking during this week’s New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment conference, Best Western International CEO David Kong said since June 4 hotels located around the Gulf Coast experienced a "tremendous amount of cancellations" and "the number of inquiries coming in have dropped significantly" due to the British Petroleum oil leak raging through the Gulf of Mexico.
Posted Jan 15, 2010
Starwood Hotels & Resorts added some scandalous new claims to its lawsuit against Hilton Hotels Corp. Starwood alleges Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta and at least 44 other executives were aware of the “corporate espionage” breech and “tried to cover up” the happenings.
Posted Jan 13, 2010
Choice Hotels International has yet to see a pick up in corporate bookings demand, and expects corporate negotiated rates to remain flat in 2010, according to CFO David White, speaking during an investor conference call last week.
Posted Jan 12, 2010
Starwood Hotels & Resorts today announced that it would add more than 12,000 new jobs in 2010. Though the company slashed 35 percent of its sales team in late 2008, the new jobs won't include corporate sales positions on the national or global level.
Posted Jan 8, 2010
Building its hotel program portfolio the new-fashioned way(?), program leaders for the U.S. General Services Administration's FedRooms are using Twitter to ask followers which properties they would like included in the program.
Posted Dec 11, 2009
The Gamboa Rainforest Resort in Panama, located where the Chagres River and Panama Canal meet, does not come to mind as a major business destination, but it has hosted conferences for corporations like Cola-Cola, Ford, General Motors, Philip Morris, along with some pharmaceutical and insurance companies within the past two years. One incentive for these companies to bring their meetings to Panama is that travelers don't have the hassles of exchanging money as the U.S. dollar is its form of currency, according to property officials.
Posted Dec 2, 2009
Marriott’s top 100 corporate clients "on average say they are going to be traveling more next year," Marriott vice chairman William Shaw said yesterday during an investor conference call. That little light is at the end of a long tunnel which includes a 19 percent year-over-year decline in group bookings thus far in the fourth quarter of 2009, and 12 percent lower group business booked for the following year than Marriott was showing this time last year.
Posted Nov 19, 2009
The governor of Connecticut Jodi Rell announced plans for Starwood Hotels & Resorts to move its headquarters in January 2012 from White Plains, N.Y. to Stamford, Conn.'s Historic Waterfront. With the state's Department of Economic and Community Development granting Starwood a $9.5 million loan, up to $75 million in urban and industrial site reinvestment tax credits and $5 million in sales tax exemptions for building materials through the Connecticut Development Authority, "Stamford was an ideal choice," according to Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen.
Posted Nov 11, 2009
The American Hotel & Lodging Association during the past few days produced interesting dialogue providing some insight into where the lodging industry is heading. Hotels are bracing for a tough 2010 that will see further rate declines; luxury properties will be the first to come back; business travel will remain weak; and hotels will continue to charge ancillary fees for amenities like high-speed Internet, according to comments made at AH&LA's fall conference here in New York.
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