Moving day!

We've relocated the HotelTalk blog, as part of our new homepage ... but don't worry, you can find all of our old posts (along with user comments), along with new ones at hotelworldnetwork.com/blog. 

Thanks for following HotelTalk, and we look forward to keeping you abreast of all the exciting things that are happening in this industry.

And while you're at it, please take a look around the new HotelWorld Network website. It includes content from four publications: Hotel & Motel Management, Hotel Design, Luxury Hotelier, and The Hotel Times. That, along with original content from our dynamic editorial team, makes this the place to go for comprehensive industry news and analysis.

Hilton to unveil new lifestyle brand

There's a lot of interesting Hilton Hotels Corp. activity percolating in this new year. We've been hearing for some time that the company is planning an announcement just before the ALIS Conference in San Diego, on January 26th. And now the even larger Hilton announcement that had also been on hoteliers' radars, scheduled for the IHIF Berlin Conference in March, is coming into focus.

Hilton now says that on the evening of Tuesday, March 10th, it will do a global reveal of its new Lifestyle Brand. Early reports are that the event will be in a funky, industrial setting in Berlin. Hilton said in a release this morning that, "Guests of the soiree will experience a journey through the world of the brand amidst an eclectic adventure enlightened with the next generation of hospitality."

There's been almost a blanket of secrecy around Ross Klein's activity at Hilton, after the high-style trendsetter left Starwood and W last year. It will be interesting to see what he and the Hilton team have been working on.

Calling all young leaders!

IHIF, in conjunction with the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), is introducing the IHIF Young Leader Award.

Please nominate any leaders you know who are:

1.) under 35 years old; 

2.) work in a hospitality-related field; 

3.) has completed a significant project for their hotel or organization; and 

4.) is recognized by leaders, of their hotel or organization, as an emerging leader.

Please click here, print, complete and email back the nomination form. Nominations must be submitted by a sponsor to the ISHC by February 1, 2009.

The recipient of the IHIF Young Leader Award will receive the Award on March 11, 2009 at 10:10 during IHIF. The winner will receive Euros 1,000 and be invited to attend the IHIF.

Judges for the Young Leader Award include:

Andrew Cosslett, Chief Executive Officer, InterContinental Hotels Group

Frank Fiskers, President & CEO, Scandic Hotels

Ed Fuller, President & Managing Director, Marriott International Lodging

Gerald Lawless, Executive Chairman, Jumeirah Group

Chris Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hilton Hotels

Anders Nissen, Chief Executive Officer, Pandox AB

Jean-Gabriel Pérès, President & CEO, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts

Ruud Reuland, General Director, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne

Kurt Ritter, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Rezidor Hotel Group

Roeland Vos, President Europe, Africa & Middle East, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Christian G Windfuhr, Chief Executive Officer, Grand City Holland BV

A real-life hospitality lesson

Students in the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism at the High School for Enterprise Business and Technology in Brooklyn, N.Y., aren’t just learning about the industry, they’re living it.

And after a recent trip to The Hague, Netherlands, it sounds like some of them may be looking to live it in the long-term.

I have to say, as a former education reporter for a local newspaper, I love hearing about school programs that really captivate students and prepare them for a future career. I think too often we see school districts teach the kids X, Y, Z and then wish them luck on their ways to college, technical school or a first job. But, honestly, did you really know what you wanted to do with your life at 16?

With programs like AOHT, which can be found at more than 110 high schools across the country, some students might have a better chance of figuring that out.

In this case, three members of the school’s faculty took students across the big drink to help them develop a broader perspective and knowledge of international travel and tourism.

“Our students not only get a general education but they learn about the hospitality and tourism industries at the same time,” said Regina Flannery, director of the New York AOHT program, in a press release. “Part of our focus in making this education relevant is having the students interact in the real world of hospitality. That’s why internships and job shadowing events are such a large part of our program. These international trips show our students the importance of the hospitality industry in not just this country but the world.”

While they were there, the students also got to interact with students of the Mondrian College of International Tourism & Leisure Management and talk about the industry. And I’m willing to bet they got a fair amount of information on what being in hospitality school is all about and may be closer to deciding on that same path.

Could these be your future employees? I think it's a pretty good looking bunch.

Zell’s zeal for Starwood deal?

Sam Zell, the investor who led the deal to take newspaper publisher Tribune Co. private (which turned into a mess last month when Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy), appears to have his next target in mind: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

According to regulatory filings with the SEC on Monday, he increased his stake in Starwood by 7.7 percent to become the company’s second-biggest shareholder.

Starwood signed a confidentiality agreement with Zell's Equity Group Investments LLC last week, according to a regulatory filing.

"We are delighted that you are showing such confidence in the company," Starwood wrote in a letter to Equity Group appended to the filing. "We agree to make available to you ... certain confidential information about the company.”

A Bloomberg report quotes James Corl, chief investment officer for real estate securities at Cohen & Steers, saying that Zell’s emergence as a buyer may signal the commercial real estate market has bottomed.

“It’s a huge data point,” Corl said. “Sam Zell as a seller started the REIT market decline last February and I think Sam Zell as a buyer probably marks the bottom in real estate stocks.”

So readers, any thoughts on what this will mean for Starwood?

How about bets on what consolidation we’ll see in the industry this year?

Looks like 2009 is getting off to a quick start.

Is work ethic affecting hotels?

A few times in this blog I've advocated hotels offering more niche, fun activities for guests to use, like bocce courts, because I think people like to be afforded time to play, be competitive and social. Well, a dent is starting to form in this theory, which may be a problem for the hotel industry. Mainly, people are apparently playing less and less.

A poll by Harris Interactive shows that Americans are working more (46 hours a week) and playing less (16 hours a week). The time working was a slight increase from this time last year and time playing dipped 20 percent. Recent data from Ypartnership seems to echo this as well, as two-thirds of the likely travelers during the next six months are "staying fewer nights."

It seems the American work ethic is leaving less and less time for American pastimes. In the book "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America," Tom Lutz makes a good case that we're getting away from the true, healthy work week and are now working way too much and not leaving enough time to play and do nothing. And it appears the numbers are bearing this out. This is a problem for hotels, who obviously need people to go on vacation, play and have fun. The hotel industry will obviously benefit from a stronger economy, but also I think it would benefit from a nice societal shift, back to a less stressful, less workaholic world where people balanced their lives with rest and relaxation.

Someone work on that.

The world's craziest hotel resumes construction

When crazed dictators say they're going to finish something, chances are they will. No, I'm not talking about Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, it's our old friend Kim Jong-Il's 105-story monstrosity in Pyongyang, North Korea, the Ryugyong Hotel. For those of you unfamiliar with this bizarre piece of architecture, it began construction more than 20 years ago, and has remained as a mostly topped-off concrete shell since about 1992, complete with an unmoving construction crane poised at its pinnacle. Derided in architectural circles, the 1,083-ft structure's unfinished state has been attributed to either North Korea running out of money or to structural problems that were discovered too late in the construction process. Either way, this massive pyramid has loomed over the city's residents ever since.

Now, strangely, as the rest of the world has paused in the midst of this worldwide economic slowdown, North Korea is moving forward with construction on this hotel, something that observers think has been going on for perhaps 6-8 months. Photos on architectural/construction forums and other sites have been showing glass creeping up the side of the building.

In all honestly, I'm not sure of the purpose or necessity of this project. North Korea's restrictive travel policies—not to mention its lack of a relationship with most of the rest of the world—don't exactly encourage many leisure or business travelers. I'm not really one to argue for killing any sort of hotel project, but here's one where I think that money would certainly better be spent elsewhere.