15 minutes with Eric Danziger

On Monday, Wyndham Worldwide announced the company had hired Eric Danziger, a veteran of more than 30 years in the hotel industry, as the new president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group. Click here for the official release announcing Danziger's appointment, which includes his biography.

I spoke with him Monday evening. Here's a short excerpt from that conversation. Stay tuned to future issues of Hotel & Motel Management for a more in-depth report on Danziger's plans for Wyndham Hotel Group.

H&MM: Why come back to hospitality?
E.D.: It’s all I ever did for 30 years. When you spend a lifetime in an industry, it’s a passion. It’s in your blood. I missed it, and that high level of passion for that industry and its people was important to me. What’s more important was matching it with that company that fit well. This opportunity came along … I wanted to work with Steve Holmes, and it's a perfect marriage.

H&MM: You’ve had an impressive career with top hotel companies—Doubletree, Starwood, Carlson, Wyndham, the board at Kimpton. You’ve got a reputation of growing these brands. Stephen Holmes in the press release this morning said one of your best qualities was your ability to diversify and grow businesses. Wyndham is pretty diverse, brand-wise, and it’s pretty large. What are your plans for the group and its brands? To diversify and grow?

E.D.: You grow business by some pretty simple basics, no matter what size you are. If you create dynamic enthusiasm and operating excellence, you will become the brands of choice--the brands to work at, stay at, invest in, have the hotel franchised with. This is a great company populated with heritage brands.

We don’t have to create a new brand. Let’s just figure out, are we doing all the things we should be doing? If not, let’s go do that. That’s what grows any company. It isn’t about a marketing logo, it’s about doing what you say you’re going to do and having people in the company who have no fear of failure. Playing to win and playing not to lose are two different mentalities. We’re playing to win.

Register for H&MM's live chat with TripAdvisor

Registration is now open for Hotel & Motel Management’s upcoming webinar with leaders from TripAdvisor, the online travel community and reviews giant.

Now all you have to do is sign up at http://www.hotelmotel.com/TripAdvisorWebinar.






The live chat will be at 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 3, and will last about an hour. TripAdvisor will run through a presentation on how hoteliers can become more involved with the online reviews process as well as how to use listings on TripAdvisor to their advantage. We’ll wrap things up with a Q&A session, so be sure to jot down some questions you might have on how to enhance your online presence. The webinar will be open to audience members 15 minutes before the start time.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments on what you'd like to learn from TripAdvisor, please feel free to send them my way: jkovacs@questex.com. And I look forward to welcoming you to our live chat!

IH/M&RS associate editor's product award

The 93rd annual International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show that took place Nov.8-11 was my very first trade show. I was able to meet a lot of people and see a lot of new products. But I personally liked one product more than the others and decided to hand out my first Associate Editor's Product Award. This is a very unofficial product award that is in no way affiliated with the actual editor's choice awards at the show.

My pick goes to The Executive from High Definition Golf. It is an indoor golf simulator that is designed for luxury hotels and destinations. I'm a big proponent of hotels offering unique gaming and entertainment amenities to enhance a stay and make a property stand out, and I think this product could be a great addition to any property that has the extra spending money. (Which properties fall under that category nowadays is unclear.)

The Executive also is more than a sharp-looking golf simulator. It has HDMI inputs so it can be used as a movie or TV screen. Golf and TV—that is a winning combo in my book.

For those interested in the actual Editor's Choice product award winners, here's the list:

Decor- LG's Stretch Screen
Green Decor - Cintas' Eco-friendly Suiting Collection
Essentials- HydroClean Toilet Fill Valve
Green Essential- The Sugar Cane Paper Company's Biodegradable Standard Roll Tissue
Luxury- LG's ART COOL Picture
Green Luxury - Valley Forge Fabric's LIVING FRESH bedding collection
Restaurant- Safe Ice Handling System
Green Restaurant- The Sugar Cane Paper Company's Premium Dinner Napkins
Technology- Raycop anti-bacterial handheld vacuum
Green technology- GohBio 1001, a high-speed food waste decomposition system.

For more information on the editor's choice product winners, check out the Dec. 8 issue of Hotel & Motel Management.

In the clink

I'm in Boston this week at the Leading Hotels of the World annual conference. Boston has three Leading properties: the Taj Boston, the Langham, Boston and The Liberty Hotel. We have heard a lot about The Liberty, and that's where this evening's welcome reception was held. The former Charles Street Jail has been transformed into a stylish, warm, jailhouse-themed hotel, complete with bars on the windows and an event staff dressed in orange prison jumpsuits.

More tomorrow from the conference.

How bad will it be?

This morning I received my Autumn 2008 edition of Hospitium’s The Lodging Ledger. It was no surprise that the majority of this quarter’s analysis focused on the economy, with a spotlight on a few large luxury transactions that have managed to trade, along with some other more gloomy figures.

But then I got to the section “Throwing Darts at 2009 Projections,” and then to its subhead “Bad or Really Bad?” I couldn’t help but release a sigh and solemn “oh no.” Can it really be worse than what we thought? It looks like Hospitium thinks so.

The firm took a look at forecasts made recently by the experts we all know: Smith Travel Research, PKF Hospitality Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The numbers focused on occupancy, ADR and RevPAR estimates for the coming year. While some were similar, for the most part they all differed. Here’s a quick rundown of the 2009 projections that Hospitium analyzed: STR predicts occupancy at -3.5%, ADR at +1.0% and RevPAR at -2.5%; PFK predicts occupancy at -4.4%, ADR at +1.3% and RevPAR at -3.2%; and PwC predicts occupancy at -3.5%, ADR at -2.4% and RevPAR at -5.8%.

To see who might have a leg up on anticipating what could happen next year, Hospitium decided to pull out the same numbers forecasted for 2002, months after the 9/11 attacks. According to The Lodging Ledger, it turned out PwC was most accurate on the drop in occupancy, and PKF accurately forecasted the dip in ADR. However, each turned out to be overly optimistic in the end.

So, Hospitium asked the same question that came to my mind, and probably to yours right now: Are forecasts today once again too hopeful?

Here’s what The Lodging Ledger said: “Based on analysts’ outlooks as well as guidance from many of the public hotel companies, the projections appear to once again underestimate the impact of the economic turmoil. The current state of the economy is far worse than what we experienced in the prior recession. The prior downturn was relatively short and shallow. This downturn is far-reaching, hitting a broad range of industries. Despite the amount of assistance pledged by the government to keep financial institutions afloat, assist with mortgage workouts, and maintain some level of economic stability, the lodging industry is just beginning to see the impact.”

The report goes on to state that due to the softening expected in leisure as well as corporate and group travel, this downturn will be a bit different than what we’ve seen before.

However, Hospitium further stated that some best practices can be taken from what was done between 2001 and 2003 to reduce financial stress, including cost-cutting to eliminate non-essential spending, reduce labor and limit capital projects. “While net income will obviously decline across all sectors of the industry in 2009, reducing expense burdens will hopefully keep companies fiscally sound through this recession as well,” the report states.

I’m guessing that’s pretty sound advice … especially if the “bad” actually does become “really bad.”

Ribbon cutting

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony this evening at the new Four Points by Sheraton SoHo-Village in New York City, and it was a grand event. The design of the property was impressive, and the rooms were stunning. Especially memorable were the 21st floor suites, which feature two-story high angled windows ... complete with a beautiful view of part of the New York skyline. Photos from the event follow.

Dear TiVo, Welcome to the guestroom

When my college roommates and I first got our digital video recording service in the fall of 2005, I knew my life had been changed forever. Similar to when I got a cell phone, getting a DVR was something that once I had it, I knew I couldn't live without it. No longer did I have to wait up until 11 to watch "The Daily Show," and no longer did I have to coordinate class schedules around "The Price is Right." I became a slave to the DVR for the first few days, setting up season passes for at least 12 different shows; but after the initial setup, it did all the work for me.

Today, although my full-time job consumes much of my time, I still record about four hours of television per day and dedicate much of my night and my weekends to consuming the smut. (Don't worry—with DVR, these four hours easily become about three hours and 24 minutes of actual viewing time; even less if the show recorded is "Deal or No Deal," which I can watch in all of about eight minutes.)

Nonetheless, I hate when I have to travel because my work (or leisure) schedule doesn't accommodate my TV watching—and I hate being gone for a week and coming home to a filled DVR!

But now, TiVo—a digital video recording provider—is entering the hospitality realm. According to an article on Reuters, TiVo will install its devices in Morgans Hotel Group's new luxury hotel in South Beach, Fla. I was thrilled to see that, if by chance I happen to stay at the one hotel in the country that offers this service, I can set a DVR up before I head out to record my shows and watch them at my leisure.

I actually am shocked that this hasn't been introduced in more hotels—after all, I've always thought that a hotel aims to offer you things that you have at home, if not better amenities than your home offers.

I am hopeful that this trend will catch on because I believe this is one way you can truly create a great guest experience—for me, at least.

But does this prove too costly a venture? What could the downfalls of it be? The negative consequences of a DVR are up for debate.