Austin Hospitality Blog

Do you find enough conveniently located power outlets in your hotel room?

If you’re like most travelers these days, you probably leave home equipped with all sorts of electronic gadgets – whether a Bluetooth headset; Blackberry, iPhone or Palm; laptop; hair straightener or electric razor or maybe your kids’ DVD player or (with our family) their iPod Touches and Nintendo DS players. But Hotel Check-In readers say that hotels often overlook this fact.

Hotel Check-In reader WetFeetTheNovel recently raised the topic in  the discussion area called the Forum, and I figured it’s worth broadening the discussion…

Reader WetFeetTheNovel had just returned from a Doubletree Hotel, which they enjoyed more than they’d imagined. The hotel, in fact, exceeded their expecations from the great shower to room service. But when it came time to plug in the laptop computer, cell phone chargers or camera batteries…whoops!  Now the traveler has to move furniture or unplug table lamps.  Just an idea for hotel designers and renovators…we need power!  Power to the travelers!  Outlets positioned above end tables or desks would add the convenience and accessibility..

Reader SezWho echoed those sentiments in a Forum post, saying that power outlets is a major pet peeve. SezWho wrote that he travels with his laptop, phone, headset, iPod, camera, razor and Cellpod (battery backup) - and that excludes what his wife and family bring when they travel together.

When my wife and I enter a hotel room, the first thing I look for is the outlets while she checks out the bathroom.  It is amazing to me how many of these ‘renovated hotels seem to forget the need for power outlets.  Obviously they don’t think like the guests they claim they are trying to serve…Are you listening hotels?

Reader Hickson Chen also wrote me saying that “there’s never enough of them by the work desk.” He looks for four or give outlets to plug in his laptop, Blackberry, personal phone and Bluetooth headset and possibly a personal game system. He ends up charging his electronics in a few different places. He also raised another problem:

Sometimes, hotels have bad placements of outlets.  Jest recently, I stayed at the Aloft Hotel in Dallas.  They have electrical outlets just behind the bathroom sink faucet maybe three of four inches away.  I was scared to get electrocuted when I has washing my face and water splashed on the socket plate!

Benét Wilson, an online managing editor at Aviation Week Group, said her “dream hotel” in terms of plentiful and convenient outlets remains the Grand Hyatt at Dallas-Fort Worth. “I still have tears come to my eyes when I think about it,” she joked. But in nine out of 10 hotel stays, her hotel room doesn’t have enough outlets where she needs them, she told me.

So what can we do when we’re in a hotel room that has too few power outlets?

Wilson said that she always travels with her Belkin Mini Notebook Surge Portector with Built-In USB Charger, which she bought for about $15 at Wal-Mart. It rotates and fits in tight spaces, plus she uses it to charge her laptop and cell phone, and uses the USB plugs for her iPod and iPod Touch.

SezWho wrote that five-star hotels usually provide the most outlets. But if he’s staying in a less luxurious hotel, he travels with his own extension cord and unplugs lamps to free up outlet space. With his laptop booted, he’s usually able to charge a couple of other items through the USB ports.

Why do casinos smell like they do? No, not the smell of menthols, sticky drinks and desperation. That’s everywhere. Rather, why does the Bellagio smell like the Bellagio and why does the Venetian smell like an old man who has been wearing the same cologne for 40 years and steadily adding more as his tolerance grows?

The simple answer is that there are metal devices the size of breadboxes attached to the ventilation systems of nearly every Strip resort. The boxes vaporize highly aromatic and shockingly expensive oils into the ducts, where the airflow dilutes and distributes them. The first such systems in Las Vegas were installed into the Mirage in the fall of 1991 by Mark Peltier, president of a company called AromaSys. Since then, the systems have spread up and down the Strip and now Peltier has competitors.

But a better question is why would anything so profit-minded as a casino bother?

It’s because humans are wired so that smell is a weird and powerful sense. Smell and its sister sense, taste, have quick access to your emotional conditioning, your sexual urges and your memories. It’s why the smell of a familiar dish can transport you to your mothers kitchen or a perfume can return you to a lover’s arms. It’s also why many neuroscience papers include pretentious little Proust quotes.

You can see why it’s so tempting to use scents in a casino.

But smell is tricky. It’s not that everyone smells something different — scents are the same volatile chemical compounds for everyone. The problem is, smell is tied up with your memories. For instance, Peltier has a good friend who loves the smell of skunk because the first time she smelled it, she was on a pleasant trip to her grandmother’s house. Every time she smells skunk, she remembers that day and is happy.

“There’s no expression in our genes that says you will like this smell and not the other,” Peltier says.

Still, Peltier has some guidelines that work for most people most of the time. Citrus smells are refreshing. Floral smells are relaxing. Herbaceous smells are usually relaxing but can also be invigorating, especially peppermint. Cedar and other wood smells relax and sooth. By blending these various smells, Peltier and his competitors evoke moods or environments.

The environments vary throughout hotels, from lobbies to spas to casinos. In most of the world, Peltier and AromaSys try to make the hotels smell like the ideal version of their location, so that in south Florida he uses citrus scents and at a Colorado ski resort he’ll use woodsy scents. But in Las Vegas, each resort supplied by AromaSys has a signature theme. The Mirage smells Polynesian, Mandalay Bay smells Southeast Asian and the Bellagio has the scent of Northern Italy. The Wynn and Encore “are very unusual, you may never smell anything like that in the world.”

“Mr. Wynn,” Peltier says, “has extraordinary sensory ideas and knows what he wants. It’s more of a co-creative process with him.”

And the Venetian, Mr. Peltier, who is responsible for that smell?

Well, AromaSys is. It’s called “Seduction” and features a very significant amount of musk and is described as “strong, soothing and sensuous.”

“I actually think it’s turned up a little too strong, but the management insists on it being that way and actually kind of resented me offering my opinion,” Peltier says, before adding that the Venetian is a “great and loyal customer” and “They sell a lot of it as room sprays and candles, so what do I know?”

If you want the VIP treatment at hotels these days, show up with an entourage.

Hotel companies have long extended room-rate discounts and perks—such as free breakfast and Internet access—to big corporate and leisure groups who book dozens of rooms. But now, facing a decline in business travel, some hotels are extending similar deals and freebies to much smaller gatherings of family and friends traveling together.

When Lori McVicker travels with her 13-year-old son’s soccer team, the budget usually dictates stays at basic hotels with small, uncomfortable rooms. But during a soccer tournament in September, just $89 a night got the team rooms at the four-diamond-rated Renaissance Fort Lauderdale-Plantation Hotel in Florida, which offers flat-screen TVs, evening turn-down service and free shoe-shines and newspapers. (The hotel’s typical weekend rate during that period was $139.)

“It was a wonderful experience,” says the 44-year-old.

Indeed, as revenue from business travelers and large corporate meetings has fallen this year—a victim of the economy and corporate skittishness about executives being seen holding meetings at luxury resorts—small leisure groups have become increasingly important to hotels.

“We are actually going after” these groups for the first time, says Nabil Salloum, general manger at the Renaissance in Plantation, the Marriott International Inc. hotel where Ms. McVicker stayed. “We understand these groups are price sensitive, so first of all we are working within their budget” by giving them better rates than in the past, he says. Next, “we are adding breakfast maybe with the stay. We might be giving them free Internet.”

In October, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which owns resorts, casinos and restaurants, launched a program that allows any group booking at least five rooms access to a designated trip director who can organize hotel reservations along with shows and meals. And if the group books a restaurant or show, too, it gets to jump to the head of the line of folks waiting for a taxi outside the hotel.

The Alex Hotel in midtown Manhattan—which touts “limestone baths, rain showers and plush bedding”—started giving discounts to tour groups, including youth groups, in late 2008. The hotel “gave them [youth groups] a rate that we wouldn’t give them in past years,” says Mary Lou Pollack, general manager of the hotel. “We decided we wanted to replace that nonexistent corporate business.”

But some business hotels find that it can be tough to accommodate groups of vacationing families—including noisy kids—alongside their typical business clientele. Jamie Eighteen, a 33-year-old banker from Edinburgh, Scotland, who stays in hotels about 60 nights a year, found teenagers monopolizing the business center during his stay at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia-Downtown earlier this year. On FlyerTalk.com, an online form for travelers, he summarized his findings: “Kids permanently using the business centre to access Facebook, Bebo and god knows what else whilst playing music on mobile phones! Swiftly followed by charging up and down the stairs and along the corridors.” When the noise continued into the night, he spoke to a security guard in the lobby. “He was responsive,” says Mr. Eighteen, and the teens quieted down.

While the hotel didn’t comment on Mr. Eighteen’s specific complaint, Bob Cosgrove, general manager of the Crowne Plaza said, “No matter who you are and why you are here we want to make sure everybody has a great experience.”

Indeed, lower room rates mean small, price sensitive groups like high school sports teams and church groups are ending up at higher-end properties. Business is “bad enough that they don’t care who is coming. They just want someone in their beds,” says Patrick Connor, vice president of the Student Youth Travel Association and president of Director’s Choice Tour & Travel, a Texas-based company that operates tours for school band and choral groups.

Hotels are handing out these perks because of a fundamental shift happening across the travel industry: Business travel has plummeted this year, while leisure travel, though still weak, has remained stronger. Hotels and industry researchers say the contrast is especially stark when it comes to people traveling for special occasions like anniversaries, family reunions and children’s choir competitions. People are still willing to spend money on those events because they think “it’s only our 50th anniversary one time,” says Mark Woodworth president of PkF Hospitality Research, a hospitality research and consulting business.

On HotelPlanner.com, a Web site owned by Lexyl Travel Technologies Inc. where groups can solicit bids for their trips from hotels, fewer corporate groups are posting trips on the site, while leisure groups continue to solicit bids, says Tim Hentschel, chief executive of the company. He says rates being offered to groups on his site are down 30% this year compared to last.

Traditionally a hotel starts handing out lower rates and perks for bookings of 10 rooms or more—what they define as a “group booking.” That still stands, but some hotels are being more flexible. Connie Tompkins, owner of Group Travel Specialists based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, says more hotels are willing to give perks to groups as small as five rooms. Earlier this year she booked five rooms for the Cherokee Cheerleaders from Denver at the Embassy Suites New York in the financial district. The standard rate at the hotel at the time was $259, she says. Because it booked five rooms, the group paid $189, an unusually low rate for a group that size, she says. The hotel’s general manager said he could not confirm the group’s rate.

In Hammond, Ind., near Chicago, the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Hotel, is giving out one free room with every booking of 20 rooms. Before, groups had to book at least 30 rooms to get the free room, says Shruti Buckley, vice president of global brand management for Fairfield, a Marriott brand. The Fairfield Inn in The Colony, Texas, near Dallas has started giving small leisure groups that reserve at least 10 rooms—and return their contract within seven days—2,000 to 5,000 Marriott Rewards points.

Making sure groups mingle smoothly with independent travelers is possible with some management tweaks, say some hotel general managers and group-travel organizers. The Renaissance in Plantation, Fla., puts groups on the same floor, saves several floors just for business travelers, and if a group checks in, there is “probably a little more security roaming the floors in the evening making sure it’s calm,” says General Manager Mr. Salloum.

And some business travelers say hotels are working harder to smooth over infuriating moments caused by unruly groups. Dan Nainan, a 28-year-old stand-up comedian and actor from New York who sleeps in hotels about 100 nights a year, says lately hotels are more willing to refund a night’s stay if he complains (nicely) about noise from a loud, unruly group staying near him, likely “because their business is down and they want to keep their customers happy,” he says.

But Mr. Nainan also recommends taking matters into your own hands at times. A few years ago he got stuck next to a rowdy rock band at a hotel in Taiwan. After repeated rude awakenings throughout the night, he got up around 6 a.m. to catch his flight, taking time to get “vengeance.”

He called the next room pretending to be a front desk employee. There is a “very pretty lady that wants to see you,” in the lobby, he explained. “But you must come down to get her.”

I am not entirely sure Hilton’s re-launched meeting incentive will necessarily generate any additional corporate travel, but it is nice that the consumer will be able to see greater valve added to their contracts.  Although I am indeed a firm believer of the necessity of meeting face to face I do find it ironic that the research is in fact benefiting the hotel industry in general.  I recently read of another study preformed by an airline company that came to the same conclusion and I chuckled a bit at the sheer convenience of it all.  Can’t say that I am going to complain about any piece of research encouraging travel though!

As it launches its new ‘1 in 5 go free’ meetings promotion, Hilton Hotels has conducted research that shows face-to-face meetings are far more effective for business than the increasingly popular ‘virtual alternatives.’

Hilton’s international marketing research team conducted a study looking at the impact of the recession on business travel, surveying 600 executives from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.  According to 83% of the respondents, developing personal relationships remains one of the most important elements of doing business and is impossible without meetings, and almost 50% believed that video conferencing and web based meetings are a poor substitute.

Recent changes in company travel policies have seen business trips and events cancelled or reduced and there is a major concern that business performance may suffer as a result.  In the survey, more than 20% indicated that external meetings had been reduced and half of those respondents noted that staff morale is in decline. Overall, two-thirds of the 600 people surveyed said that business travel can increase motivation, performance and teamwork and raised concern regarding an over reliance on technology that could reduce business efficiency.

The results support an academic paper commissioned by Hilton entitled ‘Why Face-to-Face Business Meetings Matter’ published by Professor Richard D. Arvey PhD, Head of the Department of Management and Organization at the National University of Singapore. The paper addresses the business and psychological values derived from face-to-face meetings. Dr Arvey concludes that meetings definitely matter to the modern business and whilst companies are increasingly relying on ‘computer-mediated’ channels such as email or the Internet, they should be careful to ensure that they are still selecting the most appropriate medium for their business discussions.

Speaking about his research Dr Arvey said, “Current trends suggest that face-to-face meetings are increasingly being substituted by virtual alternatives, but research shows that face-to-face meetings provide many positive effects compared to computer mediated alternatives. It is my belief that eliminating face-to-face meetings would be a mistake for businesses because of the variety of positive psychological as well as general business outcomes that meetings can offer corporations.”

The research also highlighted key differences between nationalities, with 90% of those French and Germans surveyed viewing personal relationships as key to doing business, compared to 83% for the UK and 75% for the USA. Additionally, 57% of French and Germans believe technology is a poor substitute for face-to-face meetings, versus 50% of Brits and only 36% of Americans.

The Hilton Family of Hotels has re-launched one of its biggest ever meetings promotions to help organizations continue to hold face-to-face meetings at a time when budgets are tight. The promotion allows up to 20 meeting attendees to go free at meetings held until March 31_^st 2010 at more than 180 participating Hilton Family hotels  - bookings just need to be made before the December 4th 2009.

One in every five attendees booked will not be charged the hotel’s regular meeting rate, so that for a meeting of 10 people, two attendees are free, right up to a meeting of 100 attendees where 20 are free.

According to James Farrow, Senior Vice President Sales for Hilton Family of Hotels, “Our research clearly shows that face-to-face meetings are still the most effective means of business communication, and we hope this ‘one in five’ promotion makes external meetings more affordable for our customers. Businesses should not have to compromise on how or where they hold their next meeting, and we want to offer the best value for customers, whether they need a meeting space for 10 or 1,000 delegates.”

The offer is available for meetings and events to be held up to March 31_^st 2010, both residential and non-residential, and must be booked and confirmed between August 25 2009 and December 4 2009.  With this promotion conference bookers can also earn Hilton HHonors Event Bonus points.

Examples of how bookers can save:

• A group of 20 attendees is booked at a Hilton Family hotel that charges a meeting fee of $50 per attendee. Four attendees are free, offering a saving of $200.
• A group of 60 attendees is booked for an overnight stay at a Hilton Family hotel that charges a guest room rate of $180 per attendee. Twelve attendees are free for the night, offering a saving of $2,160.

During the economy’s prolonged downturn everyone in the hospitality industry is feeling the ripple down effect. Never before have I seen such interesting ways that sales departments are thinking outside the box to keep RevPAR on track and owners happy. One of the bigger of issues to affect the industry’s “bread and butter” seems to be the government’s recent criticism of corporate spending. I am not about to comment with my opinion on this, yes for once I remain silent! Beside, we all know my opinion would be quite biased. So, for the sake of divergence of all the various opinions circulating I wanted to show all of you hoteliers some bit of positive feedback. My only question: where can I get the button that reads “Business Travel Is Not A Sin” (read the whole article and you will understand!)

SAN DIEGO — Business travel is a discretionary expense and “the government shouldn’t be bad-mouthing it,” said former President Bill Clinton, who addressed the National Business Travel Association convention here this week.

“Companies are not in the business of throwing their money away,” he said. “The government shouldn’t second-guess those decisions.”

Clinton said a number of government figures took a dim view of travel when he was president. In 1994, when the Republicans won control of Congress, there were about 100 new Republican members who did not have passports and regarded that as something to brag about, as if they had nothing to learn from anyone abroad, he said.

Clinton said House Speaker Newt Gingrich came to him to complain that “some of my people actually believe what they are saying.” He urged Clinton to ask these freshmen representatives to take information-gathering trips.

Although he used the latest communications technology as one way to confer with others when he was president, Clinton said, “I still never thought it didn’t matter if I went places or if my representatives went for me.”

The former president made these and other comments extolling the value of travel for commercial, political or personal reasons during a session sponsored by Amadeus. His keynote address was followed by a Q&A session with Amadeus CEO David Jones.

Jones said “the travel industry gets a bad rap” and asked Clinton if the industry’s reputation would get a boost if travelers made voluntary gifts to Unitaid.

Clinton said it would be good for the industry “to do the right thing,” but he was not sure that the general public, at heart, has a negative view of the travel business.

“How is it possible to resent travel?” Clinton asked. “Everyone wants to go somewhere [for leisure]. You may be getting some back draft from the insecurity of life here right now.”

Clinton’s remarks came at the conclusion of a convention where the so-called AIG effect was still producing ripples, as illustrated by the “Travel Is Good” and “Business Travel Is Not a Sin” buttons seen at the meeting.

It’s always great to see a hotel chain attempting something new and fresh.  (after all, it’s the only way to stay afloat in this industry!)  Hotel accommodations have increasingly become a very important part of the wedding planning process.  And it looks like one hotel chain has finally discovered this…..Hilton has officially launched “guestiquette” a website targeted specifically for weddings.  I found this article on one of my favorite hotelier pages and couldn’t help but pass along a really great article (be sure to click on the link to Hilton’s website after you read the entire post on all the perks offered!)   The site provides tools for guests’ hotel accommodations, an easy-to-use budget tracker, a straightforward, manageable timeline & that’s just what I noticed from the homepage!  The wedding market has been neglected recently and it is so refreshing to see a family of hotels answering wedding questions that I didn’t even know I had!  And to top it all off, the website is completely run by celebrity wedding planner Samantha Goldberg!  Free celebrity planner at your fingertips?  Can we say Thank You Hilton!

Hilton Family of Hotels has teamed up with Samantha Goldberg, celebrity wedding planner and star of the Style Network’s ‘Whose Wedding is it Anyway,’ to create a new wedding planning Website, ‘Guestiquette’. The online wedding resource will shed light on tricky wedding guest etiquette topics, provide guidance on working with a hotel, offer tips on making out of town guests feel welcome, and offer access to the Hilton Family’s signature online group booking tool at HiltonFamily.com/guestiquette for brides to book and manage their guest hotel accommodations online.  Samantha Goldberg, wedding planning expert, is the voice of Guestiquette. The website covers topics such as:

* ‘I’m Engaged, Now What’ – Help in getting started planning a wedding including tools for guests’ hotel accommodations, an easy-to-use budget tracker, tools for guest hotel accommodations, a straightforward, manageable timeline and more.

* ‘How to Speak Guestiquette’ – Answers to common guest etiquette questions that trip up many couples while planning their wedding.

* ‘Making Guests Feel Welcome’ – Simple ways to help guests feel appreciated for being present on the big day, including tips from real brides and advice on what should go into welcome letters and baskets.

‘Tough questions about modern-day guest etiquette threaten to trip up every bride and groom: Who gets to invite guests and who doesn’t? What do I pay for and what do my guests pay for?’ says Samantha Goldberg, celebrity wedding planner and television personality. ‘The language of ‘Guestiquette’ is tricky, so I teamed up with the Hilton Family of Hotels to provide brides and grooms with this much-needed, helpful advice for planning their weddings.’

Brides also will have access to the Hilton Family of Hotels’ online group booking tool, which allows today’s busy but tech-savvy brides and grooms to plan, book and manage their wedding blocks (five to 25 rooms) online with real-time inventory across the Hilton Family of Hotels, with 24/7 booking access. After brides or grooms book their wedding block online, they receive a call from the catering or sales team of the hotel offering additional assistance and support. The couple also receives immediate access to a tool that allows them to review which guests have booked rooms and which guests need a gentle reminder, as well as a tool that lets them create a personalized Webpage for their wedding and include a direct link to allow guests to book their room in the couple’s hotel block.

‘At Hilton Family of Hotels, we’ve seen an increase of 211 percent in brides who plan, book and manage their wedding room block online through Hilton’s group booking tool,’ said Bob Brooks, vice president – eSales Strategy and Performance, Hilton Hotels Corporation. ‘In addition to providing couples with easy online tools to book and manage their wedding blocks, our new Web site, Guestiquette, provides them with guidance on the ins and outs of working with a hotel and making out-of-town guests feel not only welcome, but right at home.’

Currently, the Online Group Booking Tool is available at all North American Hilton Family of Hotels and will soon be extending its online planning and booking tools to Hilton Family hotels in the U.K. Online group booking is available only at participating locations and is subject to availability at participating hotels. Other terms and conditions apply.

Today is a very proud day for all of us at Austin Hospitality.  Kyle, Kristin and I are fortunate enough to introduce our new website, logo, and marketing material.   Our core business has not changed but with growth comes the opportunity to find  new means of portraying our company.   Special thanks to Donna (the heart and soul behind our new logo), the guys at S-Collective (designers of the new website) and all of our friends, family and loyal customers who have helped support the growth of AH.   We are dedicated and excited for the future….