hotels - McConnell Marketing

Cleveland’s Underappreciated Hospitality Boom

Though the excitement of the Republican National Convention has come and gone for Cleveland, excitement for the city’s hospitality industry is just getting started.

The convention was actually one of several factors that have helped recently revitalize Cleveland’s hospitality industry. The RNC in particular was an important motivator for development because in order to even be considered in the pool of potential host cities, Cleveland needed to reach a minimum number of hotel rooms.

Another big reason was recent success by the town’s NBA franchise the Cleveland Cavaliers, who just won the NBA championship. Excitement for the team has helped boost the downtown economy including hotels.

With so much national attention recently focused on northeast Ohio’s biggest city here are three new properties worth checking out if you go for a visit!

The Kimpton Schofield Hotel

At the corner of East 9^th and Euclid, the Schofield building opened its doors over a century ago as an office building. More recently, The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group headed a 5-year, $50 million renovation project to transform the building into a hotel. The Kimpton Schofield welcomed their first guests in March 2016. Want to see this historic location for yourself? Book here.

The Drury Plaza Hotel

Housed in the former Cleveland Board of Education building, The Drury Plaza Hotel is the second historic building renovation to open as a hotel this year in Cleveland. The 3-year, $52 million project boasts massive arched windows, elegant bronze chandeliers, and marble columns that wow visitors at every turn. Historic preservation was the focus of this renovation, and Drury did not disappoint. Find more info The Drury Plaza Hotel here.

Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel

This 32-story, 600-room tower is the newest addition to Cleveland’s skyline. It is the city’s largest hotel and was instrumental in landing the RNC. Costing a whopping $272 million to construct, this glass-faced skyscraper is the perfect place to stay on your next trip to The Land. Grab a drink at Bar 32, located atop the 32^nd floor, and watch the sunset over Lake Erie. To book your stay, click here.

These 3 new properties give the Cleveland hospitality industry a much needed and well deserved credibility boost. More rooms in Cleveland can do a lot of good for a city on the rise, and already has done so with the RNC coming to town.

What’s your favorite new Cleveland Hotel? Let us know in our comments section below!

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July 27, 2016

Hospitality News

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

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?

August 15, 2014

Marketing Trends

5 Hotel websites that will make you rethink what a hotel website should look like

You know what a hotel’s website is supposed to look like, right?

Even if you can’t draw one from memory you’ll probably recognize it when you see it.

Well… maybe not.

Here are 5 hotel websites with unique styles that might change how you look at web design in the hospitality industry.

Ace Hotel

We really like the layout and feel of this site. Each destination moves when your mouse hovers over it, creating the appearance of physical pictures. It’s definitely something potential guests will remember.

Kimpton Hotels

Kimpton’s design is a little more typical of contemporary hotel sites. What makes theirs stand out though is the use of a pastel color palette combined with a clean, modern looking interface.

Little Palm Island

An interesting trend in web design is the use of large, high quality pictures to form the basis of a site’s homepage. Little Palm Island exemplifies that style. Their site uses several different images that fill up the entire browser.

Charles Hotel

The Charles Hotel also capitalizes on the “fill up the browser with a beautiful picture trend.” The photo on their homepage does a great job of conveying feelings of welcome and sophistication. And the thin font used for their hotel’s name gives this site a memorable style.

Morgan’s Hotel Group

Morgan’s Hotel Group has a site that might take a few looks before you realize what it’s for. The use of color and typography inside of their four squares gives this site an artistic and modern feel.

What’s your favorite hotel website? Let us know in our comment section below.

May 30, 2014

Hospitality News

Is 2014 the Year of 24 Hour Hotel Stays?

A new year, a new way hotels should be doing business.

Every industry has its own standard accepted practices of how a product is priced and sold. We all know that sticker price is not what a car really costs, and tips at a bar or restaurant aren’t really optional. Though it makes perfect sense to be able to pay for just the channels you want, cable companies only sell packages. Sometimes business practices are just done the same way for so long that they stay that way.

The hospitality industry has established very specific rules for what their product is. Hotels usually adhere strictly to the check-in after 3pm and leave before noon rule. Now, compare that with renting a car. Avis and Enterprise will rent you a car for a full 24-hour period, definitely a different concept of renting.

What if hotels adopted the rent-a-car model? Think about the convenience of not having to worry about checking in and out at specific times. Just arrive at the hotel whenever you want, and leave sometime in the next 24 hours. Rather than enforcing a strict, and often inconvenient, schedule hotels should be accommodating to travelers. Right?

24 hour stays could be a huge competitive advantage!

Clearly there are some disadvantages to this plan, offering more room time at the same or similar price is a major drawback. Giving guests a longer period of time and not knowing when they check out will result in higher operating costs and lower room turnover.

There’s a reason hotels have been so set in their 3pm to noon schedule. It’s easy and cheap.

BUT…

24 hour stays provide such a convenience factor it would have the potential to drastically improve a brands loyalty. It would also bolster a brand’s claim of putting customers first!

Also, brands can get the marketing benefit of 24 hour rooms without actually renting out their rooms for 24-hour chunks. Most people aren’t going to stay from 12pm monday till 11:59 Tuesday. They will come at a convenient time and leave at a convenient time, likely less than a full 24 hour period.

Who knows, maybe we’ve become so conditioned that guests will stick surprisingly close to the 3pm till noon schedule, even though it’s not required.

Testing the Water

24 hour rooms aren’t a completely theoretical idea, they have been implemented before, but only in small, restricted ways. Starwood has a program based on the concept of 24-hour room options, but it requires a certain level of membership in the Starwood preferred guest program.

Other brands, like Meritus have used the idea of 24 hour stays as a short term promotional technique.

Unfortunately these examples miss the true potential of 24-hour stays.

Novelty, or a game-changer?

Are 24-hour stays a novelty or a gimmick, or could they substantial change the way hotel stays are thought of?

If a brand utilized the idea of 24 hour stay as a core part of their business, and not as a limited promotion, they could really differentiate themselves in a market that sometimes border on commoditization.

The idea has been used, but never to the extent of basing a brand’s identity around it. Maybe an established brand could have a sub-set of properties: Holiday Inn 24. Sheraton 24-hour stay etc. The possibilities are endless.

Though we know it’s unlikely to catch on, we’re hoping somebody will give this idea a shot.

Sometimes it’s just interesting to think about shaking up the status quo. Just because everyone else is things a certain way doesn’t mean that that is the best way.

What do you think, can 24 hour stays be the way of the future? Leave us a comment and let us know!

December 31, 2013

McConnell Moments

Hotel Logos Re-created by 6-Year-Olds!

This afternoon we had the pleasure of hosting two guests in our office. 6-year-old-twins Calvin and Olivia had the day off school so we gave them temporary roles in the graphic-design department and asked them for their best attempts at recreating some iconic hotel logos. Having a couple of kindergarteners draw logos that we deal with every day was a fun addition to our Friday!

It was interesting to watch the creative process of the kids. In the world of professional design the process can often become over-thought and muddled down by restrictions, it might sound cheesy, but it’s refreshing to watch someone be creative in such a free-spirited way.

As calvin works to trim one of his pictures you can see that his creative process is a bit messy!

Olivia created this rendition of the Sheraton logo. The choice to cut out and paste the Sheraton S emblem was surprising, and leaving the word “Sheraton” off-center added personality!

Apparently Calvin thought the lettering for the Mandarin Oriental New York would be better placed above the fan logo.

Here’s an attempt at the Broughton Hotels of Chicago: City Suites insignia. It’s impressive that Olivia was able to achieve that shape on her first try.