May 29: Returning “Borrowed” Items

You may have heard about a few landmark properties sending out notices to past guests looking to collect “borrowed” hotel items. Occasionally these requests are for historic reasons, for an in-house museum, or a special remodeling project. Sometimes these requests for logoed items are tied in to a promotion featuring the return of items along with a special room rate, a way to increase room business from past guests or a way to build name recognition about one’s hotel.

Most times, press releases will feature the amazing amount of items returned – especially linens and towels, the usual ashtrays and small goods, as well as the unusual furniture, plants, paintings, and the like. Innovative properties have instituted amnesty policies (meaning no one is prosecuted for stealing) and turned the event into a marketing opportunity.

Today, many upscale hotels that provide bathrobes or more expensive room items usually have a tent card in the room listing prices of items one can purchase. Sometimes, the hotel will even indicate that guests will be charged for items missing after their departure. This is to discourage these items from going home with their guests.

Upscale or not, hotels that constantly need to replace “borrowed” items incur extra expenses. If only a percentage of the returned items are re-usable, this is still some monies saved. In addition, some items could be donated to charity for community goodwill as well as a tax deduction.

So South Florida, do you have a policy for the return of “borrowed” items? Do you actively solicit their return? How do you discourage their disappearance in the first place?

May 20: Recession-Proofing Your Career

I recently saw an interview with a career expert on a local TV station giving suggestions about recession-proofing your job. Among the items mentioned, she stressed the importance of networking and keeping in touch within your core industry. As I watched the segment on the show, of course I immediately thought of membership in HSMAI. Our South Florida chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association offers the perfect venues at our monthly events to meet and interact with your peers. As you know, the mission of our association is to be
the leading source for sales and marketing information, knowledge, business development, and networking for professionals in tourism, travel, and hospitality.

Another item suggested by the career expert is to become active in your profession – the key word being active. She suggested volunteering in an association. She indicated that this would improve your visibility – see and be seen – within your chosen industry.

So, hospitality folks out there, this is a perfect time to become more active. We are always looking for additional members to assist on our committees. Two areas that come to mind especially right now: for our gala auction we are seeking more members to assist in gathering prizes; And to help with our membership committee -- welcoming current members and working to secure new members.

If you’d like to volunteer just let us know. Contact us at hsmaisouthflorida@gmail.com

May 13: Things Travel Agents Can't Believe You Don't Know

Do you remember reading the article posted here about a radio station DJ’s list of things about hotels consumers should know? (If you missed it, just refer back to February 12, 2008 for the article). Well, another list called “10 Things Travel Agents Can’t Believe You Don’t Know” was recently posted by Fodor’s and continues with a similar theme on advice to the traveling public.

Two of the items caught my eye. One item was “knowing dead weeks.” They tell potential travelers that going to a hotel during these “dead weeks” can lead to huge savings. They do point out that these time periods vary by city, but that it’s a good time for consumers to take advantage of hotel room discounts. I have no problems with this suggestion. Who wouldn’t want to fill our rooms during slow time periods?

The second item was bit more of a concern to me. It dealt with trying to book a room and hoping for a last minute cancellation. Fodor’s list says that consumers should call the resort they’re trying to book directly and “pester them” noting that the “squeaky wheel gets the room” – eek! I’m hoping this advice hasn’t been too widely read. Our reservation agents will be suffering. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt that courtesy gets you a lot further than being obnoxious.

What do you think hoteliers? Will you give the open room to the one who bothers you the most and keeps incessantly calling or the nice person? Let us hear from you.

May 5: South Florida's Bargain Room Rates Fit the Bill

There has been a lot of talk lately about the traveling public trying to find luxury for less money. The idea being promoted is that it’s still possible to have a good time even while watching your spending.

Last month, I caught a television segment called “Hot Hotels for Under $250.” The feature offered ways to travel “even if you’re watching your dollars” and suggested that the consumers find ways to do it for less by using strategy. They advised people to go to Portugal, e.g., or to stay within the United States. The five places mentioned in the U.S. included Palm Springs, Vegas, Jackson Hole Wyoming, Dallas, and Chicago.

Then I read about Conde Nast Travelers latest “Hot List.” This list has the “most promising” hotels that have just opened within the last year. Included in this list is a subsection of 36 hotels “under $250 a night.” Within these 36 hotels, only three of them are in the United States –The Colony Palms Hotel (Palm Springs), Hotel Sax (Chicago), and The Palazzo (Vegas).

Figures for Greater Fort Lauderdale’s March average daily room rates were just released by the local CVB. Our area’s rate was $159.18. Keeping in mind that this rate was for March 2008 (one of our “high season” months) and that our rates in off-season are lower, we really provide good value. If the media (and travel gurus) feel that a hotel is “special” if it’s decent and is under $250 a night, then WE (our South Florida hotels) should be appearing on all these lists.

Face it, South Florida; we need to be promoting our great deals here.
How does your room rate compare? Make sure you’re letting everyone know about our value added options offered (it’s not just the rate alone) – including your local CVB and Visit Florida so they can promote our bargains on your behalf.

May 1: The “Staycation”

With all the talk about the current state of our U.S. economy, the rising cost of gasoline, and the fact that statistically there are still more people traveling by car than airplane, it only makes sense that one of the newly touted trends is the “staycation.”

We know that money concerns, coupled with more job responsibilities, have led many people to take shorter more frequent vacations. This includes shorter lengths of stay and the prevalence of long weekend trips. On top of this, stress factors are increasing in these hard economic times. In spite of these things, we know that down-time and vacations have become more of a necessity than a luxury item.

How to combine a shortage of money and time, yet still satisfy the need for an “escape”? The answer is the “staycation”— the new trend where you visit a resort near your home. I always have been a big advocate of the “playing tourist at home” trip, but now I can call it something new and trendy. I’ve enjoyed many a local stay courtesy of our HSMAI’s annual auction. I’ve checked out competing properties, gotten some great ideas for my travel writing articles, and relaxed at the same time.

Many of our hoteliers advertise locally or cross-state (Fort Myers advertising in Fort Lauderdale and vice versa, for example) during the summer months when in-state vacations are popular. Perhaps you should look to promoting the “staycation” to local residents during all your downtimes? It’s a ready market, getting to your hotel is a short, low-gas usage drive away, and everyone still gets to play tourist and have that much needed break away from home.

Anna Russo with the Riverside Hotel has developed a special summer package just for Florida residents. It’s a stay two nights, get the third night free, and runs from May 1 through September 30th. It also includes a $25 gasoline credit, welcome cocktail, 50% valet discount, 20% discount for their Indigo Restaurant and Grill Room and two Water Taxi passes. How’s this for a great package?

So hoteliers, what are you doing to attract our local residents?

Apr 29: “Table of Eight” – HSMAI Chapter Meeting, April 2008, Mai Kai

The HSMAI South Florida chapter's April meeting was held at the Mai Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. A special thank you to Pia and her staff, especially Angel, at the Mai Kai for all their assistance in making the event a success. And who didn't love those 2-for-1 cocktail hour specials? We had a nice crowd -- about 65 people -- who turned out for the educational presentation, dinner and Polynesian revue show. As you probably know, the Mai Kai's been a landmark tourist attraction in Fort Lauderdale since 1956. It was so nice for us long-timers to see it again and for our "newbies" to visit it for the first time -- part of our continuing "fam" to educate our members on our local venues and hot spots. After opening remarks from our prez, Fernando Harb, in which he outlined national's programs, SIGs, upcoming events, and our chapter's events, he also welcomed our new Managing Director (yours truly) and our special guests.

Great to have Jennifer Stewart with Women In Distress joining us. Then we were treated to a great program by Dan Alpert, President of SFIMA, on the upcoming trends in interactive marketing and emerging technology. Our meeting was a little different than usual -- we normally have more networking time during registration -- and we usually do a web cast of our event; However, due to time constraints for the show time and the venue setup, we went almost immediately into our program and we did not web cast our event -- instead we videotaped it. Thanks, as always, to Dan Cohen, Media 17. Some of our previous programs which were web cast are available by visiting: http://www.media17.com/hsmai It’s especially nice, since we now cover a very wide geographic area, that our members can still enjoy our educational programs even if they can't be at our meetings in person. In addition, Jay Guttveg, Creative Focus, Inc., our chapter's official photographer, was busy taking pictures of our attendees. Some of those pictures are now posted on our website, so check them out, too.

We want to give special recognition to both Dan and Jay for something in addition to their regular filming and picture-taking tasks. They were both so very wonderful to donate their meetings fees -- this enabled us to "treat" two of our student chapter members. Thank you Dan and Jay!The food at the Mai Kai was outstanding, as well. Heard a few people say they wished they could have asked for a doggie bag to take home some of that delicious steak! As always, great to see some old friends and make new ones. Our May meeting is a lunch at the Tower Club (downtown Fort Lauderdale) and with a Port Everglades update. So mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 21st. Reservations can be made online at www.hsmaisouthflorida.org.

AND of course, you've already saved the date for our 25th Annual Auction and Charity event at Tatiana's in Hallandale on Thursday evening, June 12th, right? We're still collecting auction prizes so please donate whatever you can.

Apr 23: Horrendous Hotels

I received an email not that long ago with the headline, “Ready to be Grossed Out?” It seems that Trip Advisor’s travel website was releasing their 2008 list of the dirtiest dumps (their words). This list first appeared in 2005. They put together a list of the 10 dirtiest hotels in the United States and the 10 dirtiest hotels in the United Kingdom. The top ten were chosen by Trip Advisor members based on their ratings of hotels for cleanliness.

Of the 10 hotels on the 2008 list, 3 were in New York and 3 were in Florida. The other remaining 4 (one hotel per state) were in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey.

I was sorry to see that two of the hotels were located in South Florida – the Red Carpet Inn in Fort Lauderdale and the Travel Inn Civic/Medical Center in Miami. The third Florida hotel on the list was the St. Augustine Beachfront Resort.

Our hotels should never appear on the dirty list. It’s hard enough for us to be doing our jobs just getting people to stay at our hotels in the first place. We also want to make sure that they are happy once they are here, come back again, and recommend the resort to their friends and relatives. Cleanliness shouldn’t be something we have to worry about. And we know it’s harder to fill dirty rooms than clean ones.