MEMPHIS, Tennessee Technology was pushed to the hot seat as industry leaders discussed the challenge

MEMPHIS, Tennessee Technology was pushed to the hot seat as industry leaders discussed the challenges and opportunities in social media and online travel agencies during a general session Wednesday at the Southern Lodging Summit hotels in central london at Memphis.
Chad Crandell, president of Capital Hotel Management, said a cohesive direction needs to emerge hotels in central london for the vast, diverse world of social media. He s looking for hotel brands to step up and take a larger role or an intermediary is going to take control just like third parties have wriggled their way into online distribution channels.
If you are not managing that properly or understanding it, just think about all the people that won t stay with you, he said. If you don t have the tools and resources in your organization or hotel to address it, you could be sitting there wondering why you re not getting business. The reason is people are not even looking at you because you are not even bothering.
As is the norm during sessions such as this, the conversation turned to online travel agencies. Panelists agreed the psychological effects of OTAs are more of a challenge than the actual bookings they produce. hotels in central london They said the more sophisticated distribution channel management hotels in central london requirements are becoming a big challenge for smaller operators.
Crandell questioned why brands that operate/manage hotels hotels in central london use opaque sites such as Priceline. He understands franchisors have no control over what owners do, but brands that manage properties for their licensees can start reversing the commoditization trend by not using sites that encourage the trend.
Pepper agreed hotels in central london there is a degree of commoditization taking place, particularly for urban hotel rooms that see a lot of activity through OTAs. But he said individual hotel owners can control what is sold through the OTAs by closely hotels in central london managing the inventory.
We ve trained the consumer that if they want to deal they should go to OTAs, he said. We could have just as easily trained the consumers to get deals through brand.com, but we don t do that. We let other groups come into our industry and profit from it that s very frustrating.
We had this great saying when I was at Promus (Hotels Corporation, which in 1999 became part of what is now Hilton Worldwide): We have seen the enemy, and it is us, Fields said. This is a perfect example of that. We created the monster.
Hostmark s Cataldo: The direction we re giving properties (regarding group business) depends on the market they re in. Generally, understanding your customer and their situation is critical to participating positively in the (request for proposal) process. It s not always rate. We re also watching carefully what other giveaways hotels are including. In the immediate future, the (economic) uncertainty is a problem because it leads to stagnation. Unless there s some economic progress, 2012 will be flatter than we would like it to be.
CHM s Crandell: It s really a focus on revenues. With our larger hotels in central london hotels, it s revenue per guest. With hopefully hotels in central london a healthier economy, we re hopefully going back to (group) customers hotels in central london and getting them to increase their spend. He said group business on the books for 2012 is pacing well ahead of 2011.
Choice hotels in central london s Pepper: The owners have done a great job squeezing as much cost out of the business that they could. If things continue in 2012 the way they re going this year, we will all say we are cautiously hotels in central london optimistic about 2013.
Pyramid s Fields: hotels in central london If we hadn t had the equity and debt markets in the past 10 days go haywire, we would all say 2011 was a good year and we d see 10 to 12% (revenue per available room) growth in 2012. 2012 will be a good year. He said the loan maturities coming up, coupled with the lack of refinancing options, will weed out some of the secondary players who aren t in the hotel industry for the long term.
Fields said any kind of recovery is determined market by market. Pyramid has one hotel that can t give rooms away, but there are several markets where he is telling general managers to step on the gas.
Cataldo: At the company level, we ve spent the last two or three years focusing on core values of the company and communicating those throughout our portfolio. It s never stopped being about the basics.
The length and depth of a downturn is largely affected by the supply in the pipeline, Crandell said. If you re going to cycle stuff in, you have to cycle stuff out. We don t do that very well in our industry. We don t exterminate, terminate these hotels, he said.
Pepper said urban markets were showing signs of development opportunity because real-estate investment trusts hotels in central london had been buying in those markets during the first half of the year and therefore driving up valuations. We re still seeing the financing at 50 to 60% (loan-to-value), he said. A lot of developers need companies like us, Hyatt (Hotels Corporation), Marriott (International) to play 15 to 20% in the capital hotels in central london stack.
TAGS: Southern Lodging Summit , OTA , social hotels in central london media , Chad Crandell , Capital Hotel Management , David Pepper , Choice Hotels International , Warren hotels in central london Fields , Pyramid hotels in central london Hotel & Resorts , Jerry Cataldo , Hostmark Hospitality Group
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