Why VEM Global Works

This video explains Vertical Engine Marketing and how it works for your property to sell your availability. ...more

Hyatt Regency Boston’s Energy Savings Are Electrifying - By Glenn Hasek

Spend some time chatting with Brian Gorski, director of engineering at the 498-room Hyatt Regency Boston and you will quickly understand how the all-electric hotel has been able to slice its annual power consumption by a whopping 42 percent - from 12.3 million kilowatt hours of usage per year to 7.1 million. ...more

Top 10 Ways to Overcome Rez Staff Pitfalls

Over the years we at VEM Global have analyzed hours of call data from hotels and resorts across North America and have gathered this list of Top 10 Ways to Overcome Rez Staff Pitfalls. This list calls attention to every resort or hotel property so they can realize what their reservation staff may actually be saying to potential guests. Every phone call counts and may equal potential revenue for a hotel, resort, lodge, inn, or rental management company. It is imperative for anyone who owns or runs a property to become conscious of these situations, which may be happening at their own property. ...more

Is the Current Use the Highest and Best Use? - By Elliott B. Pollack, Esq.

The first step a real estate appraiser must take before valuing a property is to identify its highest and best use (HBU). Indeed, it is a truism that everything in an appraisal flows from this determination. ...more

CoMMingle Offers Free Social Media Marketing Audit

CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive, an award winning leading interactive and social media marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, today announced it is offering a free social media marketing audit service to hotels. ...more

Facebook Versus Google Travel, the Upcoming Travel Wars - Everything PR

With Expedia, Orbitz, and other online travel stocks hovering just above the basement, news of Facebook and Google dancing around the travel niche cannot be thrilling. Online travel, in case you’ve been trapped in a dungeon somewhere, is about to take off like a rocket. For some that is. ...more

Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic Selects FastBooking Solutions for Channel Management and Online Booking

Along with the complete renovation of its four-star, Belle Epoque property, this Great Hotels of the World member is improving its online distribution and reservation management. ...more

Businesses Struggling to Market and Sell Themselves Have a New Full Service Internet Marketing Solution

Announcing the launch of VEM Global™ – an emerging leader and educator in internet marketing that helps develop and connect your brand experience to consumers looking for your business solution. ...more

Facebook Acquires Social Travel Recommendation Site Nextstop - TechCrunch

acebook is acquiring social travel recommendation site Nextstop, according a blog post on the startup’s site. The startup, which launched in early 2009, mixes social recommendations with search and adds a reputation system and elements of gameplay. It was founded by a couple of ex-Googlers, Carl Sjogreen and Adrian Graham, who helped launch Google Calendar (Sjogreen) and Google Groups, and Picasa. The site grew out of their frustration with finding interesting things to do in unfamiliar places. ...more

The Online Travel Industry Worries About Google - Forbes

Google's $700 million acquisition of ITA Software, announced on July 1, has left many wondering how ITA's clients are going to survive. ITA, based in Boston, provides software that handles information about airline flights and fares and times, and it's used by airlines, travel agencies and websites like Orbitz, Kayak and Bing. Will Google blow them all out of the sky? ...more

The Buzz at HITEC: Orion by VingCard Elsafe

When VingCard Elsafe, the global leader in hospitality security and part of the ASSA ABLOY Group, announced it was introducing a new product at HITEC 2010 in Orlando, it captured the attention of the industry, with audiences around the world demanding more information. ...more

Economic Update - June 2010 - The Firecracker Edition

Economic growth has slowed a bit. Various special factors are weighing on a few sectors. The 'government-aided' recovery likely needs to transition to a 'jobs-aided' pickup ...more

Ash Cloud Aftermath

The lingering memory for travellers caught up in the airport closures earlier this spring because of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, will be of days wasted at airports or meetings and holidays cancelled. For hoteliers in London and the city’s two major airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, the closures had no significant effect on the long-term trend toward growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR), according to data from STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the global hotel industry. ...more

STR Reports US Hotel Performance for the Week Ending July 3 - 2010

In year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy increased 10.0 percent to 63.4 percent. Average daily rate rose 1.3 percent to US$96.65. Revenue per available room jumped 11.5 percent to US$61.32. ...more

Canadian Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR - Week Ending July 3rd, 2010

Published in conjunction with STR (Smith Travel Research) and endorsed by the Hotel Association of Canada. This publication summarizes weekly occupancy and average room rates from major cities in Canada. ...more

STR Reports Canada Performance for Week Ending 3 July 2010

In year-over-year measurements, the Canadian hotel industry’s occupancy increased 11.7 percent to 65.9 percent. Average daily rate was up 5.2 percent to CAD$131.51. Revenue per available room for the week rose 17.3 percent to CAD$86.62. ...more