Distinguished Blog - Hospitality & Restaurants
Market insights and industry news.
Why Cyber Insurance Is Critical for Limited-Service, Franchise Hotels’ Business Continuity
Hotels are favorite targets of cybercriminals, who are upping their game with increasingly sophisticated tactics to breach and shut down networks, demanding a ransom to get a system back online, and duping employees into providing confidential data and wire transfer of money. According to Cornell University and Freedom Pay research, 31% of hospitality providers have…
Explore Topics
How Tourism May Be Affected by the Travel Ban, Extreme Vetting, and Stronger Dollar
A confluence of events could have a real impact on tourism and the hospitality industry in the United States. There is the proposed travel ban of six countries by the Trump Administration, consideration of extreme vetting of foreigners entering the U.S. by the government, and a strong dollar that may dampen the spirits of visitors…
Fido Plus Your Hotel’s Pillows Equals….
We’re not sure how you feel about dogs in hotels, but what do you think about making sure homeless dogs get to sleep on those comfy hotel pillows? It’s not what it seems…it’s better! A Hilton hotel in West Chester, PA, recently adopted a protocol to donate its used hotel pillows to their local SPCA…
Composting 101 for Hotels
Wait, wait, don’t throw out those coffee grounds! Welcome to hotel composting 101: where your hotel makes a good environmental impact and saves money to boot. Composting programs (for food and plant matter) at hotels can start in the kitchen and exterior grounds and travel all the way into guest rooms. That’s right. A luxury…
Thinking Out of the Box: Our Top 10 Picks for Funkiest Hotel Amenities
When’s the last time you got excited about a 4oz bottle of shampoo? We thought so. Hotels are stepping up their game to pique the interest of travelers looking for something out of the box. Here’s our top 10 picks for coolest hotel amenities:
Robot-Hotels in Your Future?
Could robot hotels be in our future? In Nagasaki, Japan, the future arrived last year and is planning to clone itself exponentially. The Henn na Hotel, staffed by 140 robots (and a half dozen “flesh and bloods” like you and me), takes care of guests’ needs from check in to check out via robotic assistance….
Human Trafficking on the Rise—How Hotels Can Help
How can 1.6 million photos of empty hotel rooms help curb human trafficking? Hotel pics that are uploaded to the TraffickCam website (by anyone—hotel guests, staff, management) are digitally compared to current online photos advertising the victims of sex trafficking. This helps law enforcement locate and rescue the victims. It also helps identify which hotels are…
Now Accepting Restaurant Sales Growth: Will the Industry Rise?
Party of five, your table is ready! Now we’re talking: After nearly a year of consecutive negative restaurant sales growth, the industry experienced a jump in sales, breaking its 10-month-long record of decline. But what contributed to the growth and, more important, will it last?
How Hotels Are Handling the Ban-the-Box Movement in Background Checks
More than 150 cities and counties in 25 states across the country have adopted what is widely known as “ban-the-box” laws so that employers consider a job candidate’s qualifications first, without the stigma of a criminal record. More jurisdictions are also adopting policies in addition to ban-the-box, such as incorporating the best practices of the…
Hotels Under Cyber Attack: IHG Data Breach
The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns thousands of hotels worldwide, disclosed earlier this month that a credit card breach impacted at least a dozen of its properties. This is just the latest cyber attack that has hit some of the largest hotel and hospitality chains over the past years – from Kimpton Hotels to…