“Would you like to take your coffee table home with you today?” the front desk agent asks at check-out. Thanks, but I’ll pass. “The bedside lamps are 30% off?” she persists. I politely decline, pay a hefty hotel bill and go along my way. I’m not saying that’s exactly how it will play out, but that’s basically the idea behind West Elm’s latest move into hotels with the first one opening in Detroit in 2018. West Elm’s move into the hotel industry can be viewed as a creative way

In this fourth chapter, Starwood’s ex-Director of Revenue Strategy provides a framework to understand competitive forces for hotel suites. In the previous three chapters of this series, I’ve detailed why we should sell more suites, how to measure our efficiency in selling them, and how to spot suite demand. The next logical chapter in this series then is about competition – it’s important to understand how we stack up against our competitors. But, who are our competitors for

Two seemingly conflicting articles made their debut in two respected publications this week. First, Harriet Edleson of The New York Times detailed on September 5 how hotels are enjoying record occupancies and are steering business away from OTAs. Hotels are fuller than ever and don’t need the business from OTAs – which comes attached with high commissions – to fill their hotels. She argued that hotels are turning their backs on OTAs that helped them get through crises and fin

In this third chapter of a nine-part series, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ former Director of Revenue Strategy for North America, explains where, and how, hotels should look for suite demand. No, this article is not about the Zika virus. It’s actually about how to spot suite demand. Revenue and sales teams at hotels spend a lot of time chasing demand – and then trying to capture it. More of it, and faster than their competitive set. Transient room demand changes with seasonal an