Skift Pro Columns tips

“Scrappy” is how Ann Schlemmer, CEO of Percona, describes her company’s approach to booking team travel and retreats.

A San Fransisco-based advisory firm is seeing more company bosses and their entourages embark on fact-finding trips around the world to gain better business insights.

Hotel investors want more reliable performance metrics. Hotel companies already offer a few performance measures — and the most popular is revenue per available room — so called RevPAR.

Last fall, bearish commentators had worried that inflationary pressures would lead to rising costs and weakened demand, softening hotel group performance by now. None of that has materialized yet, as underscored by hotel group performance in the first quarter.

Since 2016, I’ve considered Cindy Estis Green to be one of the brightest minds in the hotel sector. Her key insight is that hotel commercial strategy directors have to become more sophisticated about which customers will be the most profitable after accounting for all costs.

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It is generally acknowledged by hospitality professionals that the industry is far behind technologically. In a world where consumers are spoiled by high-tech service in banking and retail, hotels often leave guests feeling unsatisfied.

During the next few weeks, public hotel companies will report their financial performance for the second quarter. Here’s what analysts at investment banks are watching.

Expect a rising demand for hotel asset managers, especially in Asia Pacific. This is a trend I believe has gone mostly unnoticed. The demand will be driven by changes in ownership structure.

Hotel earnings season so far has made me reflect on a manifesto that Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali wrote several years ago: “Travel is a global crucible for everything. It is where the largest consumer and tech trends first meet and are quickly tested. Everything converges in travel.”

At first glance, Omni has the odds stacked against it.

Nordic Choice Hotels rebranded in May to Strawberry. It was a bold move for the largest branded hotel company in Scandinavia.