Wyndham Plans TRYP Hotel in New York

Founded in 1981, Wyndham has been around now for almost three decades. After 29 years of catering to the needs (comfort and pleasure) of its customers, they are now on a new venture realizing the new demand of hotel rooms. Even though we are still in the economic recession, the hotel industry has been doing much better those past few months. This is why “Wyndham” took interest into investing into a new hotel called TRYP in midtown Manhattan that plans to open its doors in April 2011.

Last week, I interviewed a Human Resource Specialist from the Ritz Carlton who mentioned her company’s rapid recovery after the industry’s big hit. Hearing it from someone working on the actual field makes it sound more realistic. Therefore, I can now clearly state my opinion on Wyndham’s investment plans in NYC. I believe that they are taking a good step since not only there now exist a greater demand for hotel rooms, millions of Europeans visit Times Square every year. Already being well known in Europe, Wyndham are more likely to attract the majority of those Europeans over any other American hotel chains.

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/wyndham-plans-tryp-hotel-in-new-york/?scp=1&sq=hotel&st=cse

Takeaways from Interview with Crystal Weaver, owner of Prince Street Cafe

Entrepreneurship is about being self-motivated and setting goals to achieve for yourself, even if you don’t have much experience in the field you are interested in. As Crystal Weaver described from her experience starting Prince Street Café, “It's difficult to plan for something you've never done before and have no experience in.  I had no prior food-service or coffee shop experience.  However - early on in my life - I was taught to solve problems, figure things out, and overcome obstacles.  I was taught to work hard and never give up.  I always wanted to do my best and find a better way...  And I understood what it meant to sacrifice personal immediate pleasure for long term gain.  So there were many obstacles along the way - needing lots of money to get started, learning to organize a food service establishment, and manage 20+ people.  Management of people is my biggest challenge.  I am warm and friendly with my staff and sometimes it's hard to be tough and require a lot of them.”        

I was surprised to find that some companies have actually benefited from the economic recession.  If the environment is right and the competition is not overwhelming, companies can still thrive.  “In some ways I think it has strengthened it.  It seems that the people who typically ate out at expensive $20 per person places... now come to us and pay $10 and they're happy because we provide a nice clean environment. We haven't experienced any loss and in fact continue to climb in our sales.”

I also learned about what an employer is looking for in a potential employee.  It seems that many employees look for similar traits in their employees.  “I look for personality.  A bubbly happy person who can easily make conversation.  I look for people who seem to be thoughtful and compassionate and care about others.  I look for people to show up early for their interview and present themselves well.  I am particularly happy when they show that they are passionate about coffee and people and are super good at multi-tasking.”

Pemberley Tea Shop

The following is information taken from an interview with Nenita Miller, co-owner of a privately owned Tea Shop located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

As a tea shop, there is competition with the big brand name coffee companies such as Starbucks, but Pemberley Tea Shop rarely feels the strain of this competition. Nenita stated that “we have our own kind of clientele, we are the only tea shop around and what we have here is very unique because we make everything here, and the people we serve come here specifically for that.” However,Nenita admitted that the only clients they may lose to companies who offer coffee as well as tea are the international students from the local college.

The majority of the customers of Pemberley Tea Shop are middle aged and elderly people, ranging from in the neighborhood to as far away as Delaware and Baltimore. As an advertising strategy, Nenita admitted that when they were first starting, “we advertised in every magazine”. However, now that they have developed a secure clientele base, Pemberley Tea Shop has set up a register for their clients to sign up and receive “the latests news and mail.” This is in an effort to advertise to their older patrons who do not use email, and to keep customers in touch and interested. Pemberly Tea Shop also still advertises in the local newspaper website and magazine in order to attract newer and younger customers.

While starting their company, Nenita admitted that there were many obstacles facing them. One of the biggest obstacles was finding the perfect location to open a tea shop, so that it received a lot of attention and interested clients. After they found a location and had already developed a solid customer base, Nenita admitted that “we had problems with our landlords. A new person bought the building and wasn't a good landlord. He wanted to kick us out of the building, but realized he needed tenants. This cost us some customers who thought we were leaving, and three years later came around and saw we were still here.” However, the location turned out to be perfect, located right by a college campus and an up and coming hotel, whose customers often come and eat lunch at the tea shop.

Price increase in food industry -John Kwon-

Increasing price for the product had happened with every field of business. There are several reasons for increasing price for products, and depends on how reasonably the price for the product is increased determines customer’s attitude towards the company. The factors for increasing price are primarily depends in increase price in ingredient, and inflation. With understandable reason for increase in price can be beneficial to the business, such as giving positive impression to its customers, and it also stands out among the other competitors.

In this article, Chipotle Mexican Grill INC was the example of a hospitality business that is managing well in terms of increasing in price. Chipotle Mexican Grill INC (CMG) is taking patient stance in its pricing strategy, which waits until the other competitors and try to adjust prices in well-suited, understandable range. Since CMG is leading restaurant in Mexican food, their policy/range of increase in price would have influence on the other “burrito chain business.”

Lastly CMG’s “Food with integrity” mantra, I believe their price changing policy is also one of their marketing methods and differentiate themselves from its competitors and in the business where all similarities exist in each company.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101110-713506.html?mod=WSJ_Hospitality_middleHeadlines

Fast Food A Rising Staple

According to a survey performed Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, 84% of parents interviewed fed their children fast food at least once in the past week. Along with this survey comes data rating fast food meals from different corporations, determining the healthiest fast food meals present in the industry. Among the top healthiest meals are meals produced by places such as Burger King and Subway. Dairy Queen, however, had the worst scoring meal of all, the contents adding up to 973 calories in total.

In response to an earlier blog posting, the emergence of this data further supports the development of a law in San Francisco limiting the amount of calories allowed to be present in fast food meals targeted at young children. With evidence that as many as 84% parents feed their children fast food at least once a week, this law comes into more of a perspective for me. If parents are actually feeding their children fast food on a regular basis, it is more of a necessity for there to be laws limiting the amount of calories present in meals for younger children.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/11/08/report-84-of-parents-fed-their-kid-fast-food-in-past-week/?KEYWORDS=restaurantsKEYWORDS%3Drestaurants

Trends in the Hospitality industry

For the past two years, the hotel industry has been facing significant challenges due to the economic recession. The traveling rate of both, businessmen as well as vacationers has incredibly dropped; therefore, after the industry’s golden year in 2007, occupancy rates experienced a strong decline in 2008 and 2009. However, collected data for this year shows modest improvement from the very weak levels of the two previous years.

Those past couple of years have also been rough for the Restaurant industry; it was affected directly and indirectly by the recession. First of all, eating outside of home became an unnecessary expense that was cut due to economic difficulties. Secondly, the decline of the traveling rate during the past two years had an impact on the Restaurant industry as well. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2007/2008 Operations Review, travelers accounted for a median of 15% of sales at quick-service restaurants, 20% at casual dining establishments, and 40% at fine dining restaurants.

The hospitality industry has been one of the greatest victims of the recession. However, the economy’s ongoing recovery has shown great improvement. Thus a full recuperation promises new large revenues for the hotels, restaurants, and leisure industry.

Bedbugs Proving Problematic for Hotels

            This article addresses the issue of bedbugs in hotels, in particular the Waldorf-Astoria.  A prestigious establishment such as that one would not be expected to have bedbugs, yet two complaints have been formally filed, with patrons claiming that they suffered bug bites and were faced with infestation of their homes upon leaving the hotel.  Bedbugs are a disgusting occurrence to say the least, but it is especially troubling in the hotel industry, where expensive lawsuits and compensation to unhappy customers can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost.  In this economy, it is crucial for hotels to have a solid customer base that will return and pay more money at their particular establishment.  If the hotel develops a reputation for having bedbugs, no one will want to return, meaning lost revenue and customer following.  Also, in order to ensure that the customers will not be upset and spread a negative image, the hotels must put large amounts of money into compensation for such a minimal problem. 

Bedbugs may seem like a small issue in the grand scheme of things, possibly even something to laugh at, but for hotels, these tiny critters can cost big bucks and can spread like wildfire, carrying on their backs an image that could cause permanent harm to revenue and income.  They are just a minor example of problems that can arise in the hospitality industry, and the necessity to keep customers satisfied with their stay at hotels.  If even the tiniest thing upsets a customer, that could mean losing the money they would spend, and, possibly, as in the case of the bedbugs,  facing an expensive lawsuit.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/11/04/waldorf-astoria-faces-second-bedbug-complaint/

Food price changing. John Kwon

This article contains concerns for increase in prices of staples such as milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar. Hence some food makers and retailers will try to pass the price weight on the customers for costs for ingredients. In lots of food business, price for the ingredients have raised in small percentage, however the effect that the price changed impacting the food business to change the price higher and its becoming severer. Also with the downfall of economy, people’s unwillingness to go out spend money on dinning, and other leisure can sometimes become the reason for long term downfall of economy and increase price of products and as well as ingredients. Some experts are concerned about the fact that food price are rising faster than overall inflation, which also can cause the world’s food trading and the downfall of whole trading relationships and economy. food price changing is inevitable when it occurs in naturally over time, however sudden rapid changes in the price might cause whole food related business, and in wider picture, the nation’s and world’s economy can go through downfall.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592313664715360.html?mod=WSJ_Hospitality_leftHeadlines

Increased Food Costs

This article discusses the recent increase in prices of staple food items, such as bread, milk, and sugar.  Restaurants have also begun raising their prices as a result.  Another result of such price increases is that Americans are changing the way they spend throughout the country.  People are staying in more, eating at fast food restaurants rather than expensive restaurants, and are switching the places where they shop for groceries. 

            These price increases are presenting a problem for food companies in this economy.  It is crucial that people continue spending, and, as stated by BJ’s chief financial officer Greg Levin, “In this business, you can't just raise prices without improving the overall dining experience.”  Companies need to change what they’re doing in order to continue attracting customers, especially customers who are choosing to save their money and stay home rather than dine out.  This is yet another example of a way that companies need to constantly change and update their methods of business to keep up with the consumers’ needs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592313664715360.html?mod=WSJ_Hospitality_leftHeadlines

Stricter Health Laws take the happy out of "Happy Meals"

Recently, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 3 in favor of a bill that forces fast food meals that come with free toys to not contain any more than 600 calories. Another sector of the bill states that each individual item in the meal cannot contain more than 200 calories, and that it must include fruits and vegetables, along with a beverage with limited amounts of sugar. If this bill is approved, it will take effect in December 2011, much to the chagrin of several fast food executives.

Fast food executives such as McDonald's franchise owner Scott Rodrick have made it public knowledge that they are not happy with the decision of the Board of Supervisors, claiming that it will "take the happy out of Happy Meals". Even the National Restaurant Association publicly opposed the legislation. On the other hand, supporters of the bill want to stress that the bill is important in "improving the nutritional value of kid's meals and addressing childhood obesity".

In my opinion, although this bill is aimed at helping fight obesity and health risks, it should not be made into a law. It is unfair to subject fast food restaurants to changing their menus and legacies to fit new laws on health. Happy Meals in particular have been around for many years, and changing that now is unfair to the corporations. Although I believe it is crucial to fight childhood obesity, I think that there are other ways to go about doing this, such as changing the meals served in schools and the vending machines available to students, rather than changing the entire fast food system.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/11/03/san-francisco-cracks-down-on-happy-meals-and-their-ilk/?KEYWORDS=restaurants

hotel connoisseur -- a hot job appears in this industry

Hotel connoisseur is a nice job that can make a good money. The job is enjoyable. People paid for sleeping in a hotel then report the feeling. Usually, they will stay in the hotel for one night then make judges about the conditions, service and comfort level. The report will be really simple, like: i love the bed, so comfortable for sleeping or the mirror in the bathroom is not clean enough. The hotel connoisseur become a hot job in China recently. Because it is "easy", nice-paid job. It creates for digging more comfotable, special hotels. In China, there are a lot of hotels that build in China culture. Not like Hyatt, they are not big, globalized hotel. The hotel connoisseurs' tasks are finding these kind of hotels, then spend one day to try how they feel during the day. At last, they will write the report for vistors.

The same kind jobs have been created before. In 2006, the Britain budget hotel Travelodge had recruited the Director of Sleep. The director of sleep is just like the hotel connoisseur to testing how comfot is the hotels in their company. This kind of job seems so easy. But it is a tired job. The hotel connoisseur may need to stay in 10 different hotel that localed in different cities in a mouth. They must be really scrupulous. They need to judge the hotel without personal aspect. They must be considerated. They need to see every small things about the hotel, digging out all the good and bad about the hotel. So it is not a easy job. You need to pay before you get paid like always.

Differences among companies in the industry

In the lodging industry, hotels are classified from 2 to 5 stars. There exist a big difference of service among them; the more stars contained by a hotel, the more luxurious it is, the better service it offers, and the more expensive it is. However, inside each category, there are a number of competitors whose service’s differentiation is really trivial. Therefore, since competing for the exact same clientele, those hotel companies put together excellent advertising campaigns and sign alliance contracts with airline companies to gain certain customers.

The Restaurant industry resembles the hotel’s “star system”. Restaurants are characterized as quick-service restaurants, casual dining establishments, or fine dining restaurants. Similarly to hotels, those three categories differ in food quality, customer service, and comfort and environment. It’s also hard to find a difference between competing restaurants. When taking McDonald’s for example, when they introduced their chicken McNuggets, it didn’t take Burger King too long to introduce their BK Chicken Tenders.

In the hospitality industry, every competing restaurant or hotel provide approximately the same services; it is all about marketing strategies that have for goal to successfully manipulate the people and develop numerous and loyal clients.

The segmentation of the Hospitality industry

The Hotel, Restaurant, and Leisure industry often segment their targets either geographically or demographically.

During the past decades, the hospitality industry has enormously grew and expanded mostly thanks to globalization. The new integrated world has been offering extreme revenue growth in the hospitality business. Millions of people travel away from home daily meaning that millions of people are in need of temporary places to stay, eat, and enjoy every single day. Therefore, this is why the geographic segmentation is really important in this industry. For example, hotel owners would most likely invest in a hotel in New York City rather than Up-state New York. New York city has a greater population and a much higher rate in tourism that promises much greater revenue.

Hotel, Restaurant, and Leisure companies must also identify their targets based on their incomes. There exist 2-5 star hotels, as well as quick-service restaurants, casual dining establishments, and fine dining restaurants. When opening a restaurant or a hotel, one must take into consideration whether his company will be attracting consumers with high income looking for complete luxury or averaged income consumers looking for affordable services.

Similarly to the other industries, segmentation is a necessary process in the hotel, restaurant, and leisure industry. A company failing to approach this step will fail to identify their targets, which will result into unsatisfying revenues.