Tag Archive for: Hospitality

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Sipping History: The Legendary Bloody Mary at St. Regis, New York

 

When it comes to iconic cocktails, few hold a candle to the legendary Bloody Mary, a concoction that has stood the test of time and remains a favorite among cocktail enthusiasts worldwide. During our recent trip to the bustling city of New York, we made it a point to pay homage to this classic drink at none other than the historic St. Regis hotel.

 

The St. Regis, renowned for its timeless elegance and impeccable service, boasts a gem within its premises – the King Cole Bar. This bar is not only a sanctuary for those seeking a respite from the city’s hustle but also the birthplace of the Bloody Mary.

 

History of the Bloody Mary

In 1934, Fernand Petiot, a bartender at the King Cole Bar, perfected the Bloody Mary recipe. However, the name was considered a tad too risqué for the refined tastes of the St. Regis clientele. To maintain an air of sophistication, the drink was promptly rebranded as the “Red Snapper,” a moniker that has stuck through the decades.

 

Our Thoughts

Stepping into the King Cole Bar is like entering a time capsule, with its rich history exuding from every corner. The ambiance is a perfect blend of old-world charm and modern luxury. The Red Snapper did not disappoint. Each sip was a journey through time, evoking the glamour of the past while embracing the contemporary allure of the present. Whether you’re a history buff, a cocktail enthusiast, or simply someone seeking an exceptional experience in the heart of New York, a visit to the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis is a must.

 

 

Take a Look Into the Not-So-Distant Past

McConnell Marketing had the privilege of working with the St. Regis to create custom postcards that capture the essence of this iconic establishment.

 

If you are looking for custom marketing materials like this, contact us today at 330-286-0487 or email us to get a custom quote. Also, don’t forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. Stay up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!

THIS SUMMER IN HOSPITALITY: THE BIGGEST NEWS OF THE LAST FEW MONTHS

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With just a few weeks to hang on to, summer is pretty much over. This time of year is always a busy season for hospitality and 2015 was no exception. If you were too busy accommodating guests to pay attention to industry news this summer, get caught up with these big stories from the lastfew months:

The U.S. Hit 5 Million Hotel Rooms

The number of hotel rooms in the United States hit a milestone figure this summer breaking the 5 million room barrier according to an industry survey conducted by STR. In 2008 room growth was stalled at around 4.5 million, but since that point growth has been steady at about 5,600 new rooms per month. Additionally, revenue per available room has increased for 64 consecutive months year-over-year.

Past milestones for hotel room quantity include 3 million rooms in 1987 and 4 million in 1999. Though the number 5 million by itself doesn’t mean much, the growth involved in reaching it shows the industry is in great shape.

A Hospitality Industry Veteran was Appointed CEO of Trump Hotel Collection

For the first time in its history the luxury hotel section of the Trump Organization has a non-family member in charge. Hospitality industry veteran, Eric Danziger was appointed CEO of the Trump Hotel Collection this summer.

Danziger is a well-respected and award-winning executive with 45 years of experience. He’s also had a career that sounds like a perfect model of the American dream. Danziger started out in hospitality working as a bellman at a luxury property when he was a teenager. From there he worked his way up the corporate ladder until reaching his current status.

Danziger’s resume includes roles as CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group and most recently CEO of Hampshire Hotels Management.

We Said Goodbye to Hotel Chatter

The hotel news website, Hotel Chatter was discontinued this summer. Though it’s not going to affect the industry, we thought this story was noteworthy because hotel nerds like us are pretty upset to see such a great source of information go. There is some consolation for industry news hounds however. Though Hotel Chatter will no longer be available in its current form, the site’s content is being integrated into parent company Condé Nast’s Traveler website. You can still visit HotelChatter.com to view older articles.

Sheraton Unveiled “Sheraton 2020” Brand Plan

It’s no secret that Starwood Hotels and Resorts has been struggling recently compared to other hospitality mega-companies. After the resignation of CEO Frits van Paasschen in February and speculation about a potential sale of the company, a revamp of their largest brand comes as no surprise.

Sheraton 2020 is a 10 point plan to turn the Sheraton brand around. Some of the most interesting concepts include: new brand positioning, a launch of “Sheraton Grand” and opening 150 new properties in the next 5 years.

But before any of those major strategic initiative could take effect Sheraton took a small step towards progress with the unveiling of a new website in June.

Airbnb was Valued at 25.5 Billion After Latest Round of Funding

Airbnb, the disruptive company that makes it easy for people to rent out their homes on a short term basis, improved their position as a legitimate threat to the hotel industry after their most recent capital influx. After acquiring about $1.5 billion the companies valuation is up to 25.5 billion.

To give that context, Hilton, Marriot and Starwood, the major players in hospitality, are currently valued at 27.6 billion, 20.9 billion and 14 billion respectively. It looks like everyone can stop wondering if this Airbnb thing is just a trend.

What was your favorite hospitality related news story of the summer? Let us know in the comments section below? 

Why Robot Butlers are NOT going to revolutionize Hospitality (Yet)

Robot Butler

Earlier this week, in an article titled  “Hotel’s Robot Butlers Could Revolutionize Room Service” CBS reported on a Silicon Valley Hotel that is trying a novel approach to improving guests experience with room service by adding Robot Butlers to its staff.

As exciting as it sounds… “could” is a very important part of the article’s title. Yes, technically it’s possible that in the next few years robotic hospitality will be all the rage,  but we kinda doubt it.

First of all, the title “Robotic Butler”  is a pretty drastic overstatement. The automated devices the “Aloft” hotel refers to as robotic butler’s are really just automated delivery carts.

The process starts when a guest contacts the front desk with a need. They request towel, water bottle, toothbrush or some other minor item and the front desk attendant loads the object into the robot butler’s carrying compartment.  The robot butler then navigates to the guest’s room using a combination of lasers, cameras and sonar.

If a robotic butler could make a bed, pour a drink and draw a bath all while reading guests a bedtime story than yes, it would probably revolutionize the industry… but that’s not even close to what the Aloft’s “robotic butlers” are.

 Why it’s not going to change anything

1) Doesn’t give guests a benefit 

If anything, the robot butlers are probably going to take longer to deliver items than a human would take.

They also lack any human interaction that adds to guest experience    “have a nice evening sir” or “can I get you anything else?” coming from a good employee adds a level of comfort that robot butlers can’t match.

The only value robot butlers add is novelty. Will guests book a room at the Aloft just to get their room service in a highly futuristic way? Probably, but how long will the excitement last?

2) Detracts from good customer service. 

Oh, you know what, I want to know a good place to go out to eat, maybe I’ll ask the room service person if he knows a good place.

NOPE, your robot butler cannot recommend local places to eat, it can’t  tell you what time the continental breakfast opens in the morning and it probably can’t even set up a wakeup call!

Having a real person do tasks such as room service actually adds to guest service by giving them a real person to interact with. A person  hat can answer questions and give advice.

What hotel’s should be doing instead

Yes, it’s a novel idea, and it does save front desk attendants to work the desk, so it may benefit the hotel. But Hotel’s would be better off by spending their money in actually improving guest experience.

If Hotels want to do something edgy and futuristic they should take notes from the world’s first Twitter Hotel. 

Another option is to create an app, or even a way for guests to enter their rooms using their phones as keys! The point is, their are already some really cool ideas out their that could change the industry. Using robots is a gimmick!

 

What do you think about robotic butlers? Revolutionary or waste of money?  

 

Why the Hospitality Industry is the World Cup’s Biggest Fan!

Yep, two weeks in a row we are posting about the World Cup. Sorry non-soccer    non-futebol fans, but the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world!

That being said, the biggest sporting event in the world is bound to have a pretty substantial impact on the economy. But what about specific industries?

Here are some interesting stats that show how this year’s World Cup is affecting the Hospitality Industry (at least in Brazil)!  

40

Percentage  Increase in price of the average flight to Brazil since last year.

Air Travel to Brazil

4.5 million

Increase in International tourists to Brazil since 2012. International Travel for the World Cup

25 billion

Amount in US Dollars expected to be spent by tourists as a result of the 2014 World Cup.

Money Spent on the World Cup

300 and 461

Average price of a hotel room inBrazil in USD for 2013 and 2014 respectively. Increase in Hotel prices in Brazil

8,000

Increase in the number of hotel beds since 2013. Hotel Beds increase

198

New accommodations built specifically for the World Cup.New World Cup hotels

90

Occupancy at Hotels in Rio De Janeiro expected for the duration of the World Cup!

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Regardless of whether or not you like the World Cup, if you’re in the hospitality industry you should be hoping and praying that it’s coming to your country. It’s hard to match the type of travel increase the event creates!

Where do Brazil’s hotels go from here?

The tough question for Brazil now is how to adjust back to normal tourism numbers after The Cup is over. The honeymoon can’t last forever.

On the bright side, even though the travel from sports fans is temporary,  there is a chance that tourism numbers will remain at an elevated level even after a winner is crowned.

Perhaps the media coverage will provided of a marketing push for Brazil  itself that it will enjoy years of increased tourism. Only time will tell. What we do know is that hotels in Brazil should enjoy this while it lasts!

 

What’s your favorite stat about the World Cup and the hospitality industry ? Let us know in our comment section below! 

 

 

Sources:

 

Hotels will be Twitter pros in 2014: 14 Posts to Prove it!

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It’s only a matter of time.

Twitter’s not nearly as straightforward of a social network as Facebook, Google + and Linkedin. Its short-form style can be tough to get the hang of, especially for industries used to older forms of communication. Hotels however, have had no trouble adapting, Here are 14 great tweets that show that the hospitality tweeting is off to a great start in 2K14.

One of the major themes of this post is going to be value! Even though “Content is King” has become a cliche, it’s still true. Providing valuable content to twitter followers is the most effective way to a successful account.  This historical fact post by the  Willard is a perfect example. While not directly “selling” their hotel, this tweet provides an interesting tid-bit about their property that’s fun to read yet bolsters the hotels reputations at the same time.

 

Pictures are becoming a more and more powerful medium on Twitter. Ritz-Carlton did a great job of using this stunning picture to promote one of their properties in this tweet! 

 

Another example of using a visual this time Hilton does a good job of bringing in a pretty cool historical moment!

 

Who doesn’t like a free playlist?  The W Hotel did a great job of taking advantage of new music technology to deliver some compelling content to their followers. 

 

The InterContinental would have done better to use the Twitter handles @TheTimeMcgraw and @FaithHill , but the concept of this theme still works because they provide useful information.

 

As you may have noticed, a major trend in Twitter (and social media in general) has been the move toward more visual forms of content. That’s why Snapchat, instagram and vine have become so popular. Any time an account is able to post a cool original photo is good! 

 

This post succeeds on three levels, interesting fact, beautiful picture, and hotel reputation.

 

Posts like this are good for building trust with a follower base. Constantly selling and promoting is a sure-fire way to lose followers. That’s why this photo of an old general store in Mast is a great tweet.

 

Even though it’s a straight promotional post the Magellan Hotels capitalized on a current event well. Of course people are going to be booking hotels for New York now that the superbowl mathcup has been set!  They couldf have been more successfull if they would have specifically mentioned the seahawks or broncos though.   

 

We’re not sure what a skittle alley is, but this post get’s it’s point across.

 

MO does a couple of things right , they us an original hashtag and link to an original article about someone in thier organization.

 

Another great photo! Good job to Loews for recognizing MLK day with something other than a quote.

 

Maybe we’re just suckers for historical photos but this is a pretty cool picture.

 

If I was hungry I would definitely want to order something from RitzCarlton right now!

 

Have you seen a tweet that shows a hotel brand or property really gets twitter? Let us know in our comment section below!