Guest ratings outshine brand in hotel selection, Raffles comes to India, an interview with the CEO of HotStats and how many tourists is too many?.

Guest ratings outshine brand in hotel selection
Wednesday, 10th April 2019

Price and guest ratings carry more weight than brand value as key attributes to hotel property selection and a new study shows that independent hotels can more effectively compete today with their branded counterparts.

Unsurprisingly, price was by far the most influential driver of hotel selection, as consumers prioritize value above all else when allocating their travel budgets >>

Accor brings its Raffles brand to India with two new hotels
10 Apr 2019 : Expands its foothold in the luxury segment in India: Accor announces two majestic hotels in India - Raffles Jaipur and Raffles Udaipur - in the presence of Accor Chairman & CEO Sébastien Bazin and owner, Ratankant Sharma >>

News from around the APAC region
10 Apr 2019 : Hotel industry and travel news from around the Asia Pacific region: Singapore’s Integrated Resorts to add another 2,100 rooms, China’s star-rated hotels report average occupancy, Scoot and more >>

Ascott steps up growth, including three lyf co-living
10 Apr 2019 : Adds over 2,000 units in Asia, Germany and Saudi Arabia; secures first Ascott The Residence property in Germany to be designed by world-famous architect Ole Scheeren >>

Germany's largest hotel developer increases its volume
10 Apr 2019 : GBI AG is again by far Germany's largest project developer for hotels in 2019: The usable space of the hotels delivered by the Group even increased from 137,000 to 147,000 square metres compared to the previous year's figures >>

HIGHLIGHT ARTICLE

How To Drive The Right Results: An Interview with the CEO of HotStats
Wednesday, 10th April 2019

We caught up with Pablo Alonso, CEO of HotStats, to find out more about what metrics hotels should be tracking, and how they should be using this data.

Here, he talks to us about the challenges facing the global hotel industry, including rising labour costs; offers some sage advice on how to drive top- and bottom-line results, and explains why 2019 is the year in which hotels should be driving rates >>

Letter from UAE: Excuse Me, Have You Got My Reservation Yet? The Art of Dealing with the Last Minute
The last time I was in Abu Dhabi four years ago, there was a lot of talk about the development to come that would transform this emirati of 214 islands into a tourism destination – among them, the Saadiyat Cultural District that would comprise the Louvre, Guggenheim and Zayed National Museum >>

An Entrepreneur’s Journey
What makes a successful entrepreneur? For CEO of planitswiss and imavox Group its all about putting customers first and handling them better than the market.

P.L.A.C.E.: Passionate, Listen, Anticipate, Communicate & Ecological. These are the values that Planitswiss constantly strives to maintain. The company believes that personalization is the key to success. For this reason it's events are always tailor-made, in order to keep the customer at the heart of service >>

How Many Tourists is Too Many?
The phenomenon of overtourism has led cities and rural locales around South East Asia, Japan and Europe struggling with the deluge of travellers. From Dubronik and Venice in Europe to Phuket and Kyoto in Asia, beautiful destinations are caught between the resultant economic spoils and the social costs.

While hordes of travelers keep the hotels busy, the longer-term fallout from overtourism can hurt business >>