The recession forced Brinker International, parent of Chili's Grill & Bar, to go on a diet. The company has sold off divisions and paid down debt.
Step two: Stabilize revenue and boost operating margins by four percentage points by cutting costs and becoming more efficient.
Read More:
Saturday, October 16, 2010
MGM's half of Borgata could sell at a loss
ATLANTIC CITY — MGM Resorts International’s proposed sale of its half-ownership in Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa shows that even Atlantic City’s dominant gaming hall is not immune to the real estate meltdown.
The Las Vegas gaming giant announced Tuesday it has received a $250 million offer for its share in Borgata, but it did not disclose the name of the would-be buyer.
Read More:
The Las Vegas gaming giant announced Tuesday it has received a $250 million offer for its share in Borgata, but it did not disclose the name of the would-be buyer.
Read More:
Hilton Chicago Hotel workers start 3-day strike
"They got all this money from the federal government, and yet they won't give us a contract," said Gloria King, among about four dozen workers banging on pots and carrying signs that read "Taxpayers on Strike" outside the hotel at 720 S. Michigan Avenue.
Read more:
Read more:
Curacao and St. Maarten become autonomous countries: what it means for travelers
Get ready for two new passport stamps: the former Netherlands Antilles has dissolved, and Curaçao and St. Maarten are now autonomous countries. Smaller islands such as Bonaire will now become Dutch municipalities. Aruba, the biggest of the ABC islands, has been a similarly autonomous state since 1986. It's not a major status change for residents, as Curaçao has been self-governing for more than 50 years, but it will mean greater independence from the Dutch monarchy and more control over their own finances and local courts.
Read More:
Read More:
Keep Track of Bad Guests
(Hospitality Business News - Oct 16 2010) Recently we posted a story about a UK web site that tracks "unwanted" guests. ( http://www.hospitalitybusinessnews.com/2010/09/guestscan-allows-hotel-owners-to-share.html ) The purpose is to help Hotel Operators determine whether or not they should accept a reservation from certain people or, simply pass. To say that this a new concept would not be true. What's new is the trend to organize and distribute this data among hotels and, perhaps in the future, restaurants. Many hotels now refuse guests based on their perceived or real behaviour. For example many hotels in Florida and the Caribbean will not accept reservations for "Spring Break" groups. In Europe hotels shy away from groups of British Soccer fans.
In the United States a similar web sites exists called Guest Checker . This site currently charges an annual fee of $40. According to the site they are "tracking" 1326 guests and have 687 members. GuestChecker is a member managed database of short term renters. To apply for membership, the following criteria must be verified by their staff
1) You are an accommodations provider to renters such as a hotel, motel, vacation rental, apartment, etc.
2) You agree to notify renters via email or postal mail when you post their information on this website and allow them the chance to offer rebuttal if they choose.
3) The rental policies and/or privacy policies on your website must state the following: "At any time during, before, or after your stay with us, your information may be shared with www.guestchecker.com" (this website address must be a live link back to our site)
4) You must agree to our terms and conditions
Most Hotel people seem to like this concept. Others complain about "privacy" laws. The question seems to be is there a difference between hotels putting together a list such as this and hotel guests writing TripAdvisor reports? Some TripAdvisor reports mention staff by position or name. Wouldn't privacy rules apply here too, if you believe that there is a privacy issue.
From comments that we have seen it appears that the big concern is the degree of the offence. At what point do you submit a guests name? This is a difficult question to answer. I had a guest in a hotel that I worked at once who left the hotel and submitted a chargeback to his credit card company. He stated in his letter to the company that he had paid cash at checkout and he enclosed a copy of his folio showing what purported to be a cash payment. I looked to see if a cash payment had been received and there were none that day that matched the payment that his folio showed. I checked everything and there were no postings in our system. I checked the copy of the folio that was sent to us by the Credit Card company and it lined up and matched the folio on our system , other than the cash payment. Ours showed that he paid by credit card. Finally I looked at a cash paid folio and saw that our cash folios show "Cash Payment" and not simply "Cash" like the folio we received stated. So I got the chargeback reversed. I should have had the "guest"charged with attempted fraud. I do not think that any hotel would want to accommodate this guy. But let's say that a guest simply complains a lot. Is this a valid reason? You may think that your hotel is great and the guest does not agree.
There is a lot to consider here. This could turn out to be a valuable service, if it is used properly.
Comments from Guest Checker
The idea of a guest tracking system is not new. However, we have added a few key features that some of the other sites seem to lack. The first is a "guest dispute" procedure. A guest is notified when their information is added to the database. They are also given the chance to offer their side of the story. Someone who accidentally knocks over a lamp and offers to pay for it should not be placed in the same category as someone who purposefully trashes a hotel room. The guest should have the right to address their accuser.
Secondly, we only allow one person within the company to report a guest for an offense. That 'reporting agent' must be in a senior management position. This stops any malicious reporting by the night watchman, for example.
Privacy advocates and consumers alike are concerned about their personal information. I would like to take a moment to share with the general public how their information will be handled.
1)Guests are made aware, in advance, that they will be staying at a facility who uses GuestChecker.
2)Our members have the opportunity to add guests compliments, as well as concerns. Some of these compliments include: "Excellent repeat customer", "very courteous and polite", etc.
3)Only a guest's name, address, and phone number are tracked. The same information is already publicly available in any phone book.
4)These personal details are kept in a database with bank-level security and is not available to the public.
5)Our members cannot scroll through a list of names and offenses. They can only search for a specific person and receive a "Match" or "NoMatch" result.
6)At no time are details such as credit card information, date of birth, race, religion, etc. stored or used in our database.
7) At no time is anyone ever "blacklisted". Our members do not have the ability to advise other accommodation providers to refuse service for a guest. Rather, we allow them to report on the facts of a guests' stay so that the next hotel can make an informed decision on how to best prepare for that guests arrival.
 |
| from http://www.hotelchatter.com/ |
(Hospitality Business News - Oct 16 2010) Recently we posted a story about a UK web site that tracks "unwanted" guests. ( http://www.hospitalitybusinessnews.com/2010/09/guestscan-allows-hotel-owners-to-share.html ) The purpose is to help Hotel Operators determine whether or not they should accept a reservation from certain people or, simply pass. To say that this a new concept would not be true. What's new is the trend to organize and distribute this data among hotels and, perhaps in the future, restaurants. Many hotels now refuse guests based on their perceived or real behaviour. For example many hotels in Florida and the Caribbean will not accept reservations for "Spring Break" groups. In Europe hotels shy away from groups of British Soccer fans.
In the United States a similar web sites exists called Guest Checker . This site currently charges an annual fee of $40. According to the site they are "tracking" 1326 guests and have 687 members. GuestChecker is a member managed database of short term renters. To apply for membership, the following criteria must be verified by their staff
1) You are an accommodations provider to renters such as a hotel, motel, vacation rental, apartment, etc.
2) You agree to notify renters via email or postal mail when you post their information on this website and allow them the chance to offer rebuttal if they choose.
3) The rental policies and/or privacy policies on your website must state the following: "At any time during, before, or after your stay with us, your information may be shared with www.guestchecker.com" (this website address must be a live link back to our site)
4) You must agree to our terms and conditions
Most Hotel people seem to like this concept. Others complain about "privacy" laws. The question seems to be is there a difference between hotels putting together a list such as this and hotel guests writing TripAdvisor reports? Some TripAdvisor reports mention staff by position or name. Wouldn't privacy rules apply here too, if you believe that there is a privacy issue.
From comments that we have seen it appears that the big concern is the degree of the offence. At what point do you submit a guests name? This is a difficult question to answer. I had a guest in a hotel that I worked at once who left the hotel and submitted a chargeback to his credit card company. He stated in his letter to the company that he had paid cash at checkout and he enclosed a copy of his folio showing what purported to be a cash payment. I looked to see if a cash payment had been received and there were none that day that matched the payment that his folio showed. I checked everything and there were no postings in our system. I checked the copy of the folio that was sent to us by the Credit Card company and it lined up and matched the folio on our system , other than the cash payment. Ours showed that he paid by credit card. Finally I looked at a cash paid folio and saw that our cash folios show "Cash Payment" and not simply "Cash" like the folio we received stated. So I got the chargeback reversed. I should have had the "guest"charged with attempted fraud. I do not think that any hotel would want to accommodate this guy. But let's say that a guest simply complains a lot. Is this a valid reason? You may think that your hotel is great and the guest does not agree.
There is a lot to consider here. This could turn out to be a valuable service, if it is used properly.
Comments from Guest Checker
The idea of a guest tracking system is not new. However, we have added a few key features that some of the other sites seem to lack. The first is a "guest dispute" procedure. A guest is notified when their information is added to the database. They are also given the chance to offer their side of the story. Someone who accidentally knocks over a lamp and offers to pay for it should not be placed in the same category as someone who purposefully trashes a hotel room. The guest should have the right to address their accuser.
Secondly, we only allow one person within the company to report a guest for an offense. That 'reporting agent' must be in a senior management position. This stops any malicious reporting by the night watchman, for example.
Privacy advocates and consumers alike are concerned about their personal information. I would like to take a moment to share with the general public how their information will be handled.
1)Guests are made aware, in advance, that they will be staying at a facility who uses GuestChecker.
2)Our members have the opportunity to add guests compliments, as well as concerns. Some of these compliments include: "Excellent repeat customer", "very courteous and polite", etc.
3)Only a guest's name, address, and phone number are tracked. The same information is already publicly available in any phone book.
4)These personal details are kept in a database with bank-level security and is not available to the public.
5)Our members cannot scroll through a list of names and offenses. They can only search for a specific person and receive a "Match" or "NoMatch" result.
6)At no time are details such as credit card information, date of birth, race, religion, etc. stored or used in our database.
7) At no time is anyone ever "blacklisted". Our members do not have the ability to advise other accommodation providers to refuse service for a guest. Rather, we allow them to report on the facts of a guests' stay so that the next hotel can make an informed decision on how to best prepare for that guests arrival.
Hospitality & Hyper Visibility
Out there on the branding battlefields its simply do or die as brand images are either hyper visible or mortally lost in oblivion. Commanding success for any idea on the global scene demands universal access on e-commerce that is only deliverable by a cyber name identity, as it's the only key to open the site. Without it, accessibility to any cyber empire is simply doomed, dragging expansion dreams into cyber oblivion. Millions of million-dollar websites have slipped into the abyss, and the proof is sitting right on Google.
Super-success in cyber-branding lies in the sophisticated deployment of a cyber naming strategy to ensure the 100 per cent exclusive ownership of a powerful domain name identity to work as a magical key, so it may open an undiscovered universe of billions of unknown customers around the world. Global cyber presence has now become an ultra-sophisticated process, and remains one of the most valuable components of building digital assets. This global presence is no longer a creative issue to be handled by logo-centric-slogan-happy branding, rather it is founded on visibility, access and undisputed ownership that you simply either have, or don't.
During the dotcom boom, a million domain names were registered a day. The billions of dollars wasted created a chapter in corporate branding while the proof stands still at the cemetery of dead names. But today, now fully matured in its concepts and strategies, there are some very powerful, universally-recognized domain names that skate around in the e-commerce arena, open complex gates and passages and carve powerful, highly-lucrative positions.
For the next boardroom meeting, here are some key questions.
Evaluation: where is the cyber name identity on e-commerce now? Is it a magical key or a rusty screwdriver? The duplication factor, combined with weak and confusingly similar names alone will bury best campaigns. Unless there is a very deep understanding of this highly specialized subject, one is simply headed towards oblivion. Corporations can show off their brand identities, but most often, they cannot prove with great confidence their direct ownership of that specific name identity. But identities like Sony, Panasonic, Rolex, and Microsoft do. Both in cyber-space and in print, their unique power of identity is clearly obvious; there is no question about their exclusive ownership claim to their identity among the global populace, while millions of other look-alike and sound-alike names are simply owned by millions of other Toms, Dicks and Harrys. It only takes a second on Google to prove the ownership of any identity and begs the question; why share an identity with thousands of others?
Superiority: how is the identity positioned, and what message and personality does it communicate through its linguistics and alpha-structure? Each emits its own unique signals, while demanding typing. General branding exercises cannot be mistaken for these complex naming analyses, and the strictest application of The Five Star Standard of Naming available on Internet is a must. Without character and personality, to the global customer, it is simply lost in the crowd, while without linguistics; it ends up at the bottom of search engine results.
Complexity: What about domainization, as multiple domain names create multiple problems in multiple markets? How does the master naming architecture apply to a business? Cyber branding is an extremely global phenomenon; market positioning is much more critical than profit maximization, while mind-share is more important than market-share. Where is the centrality of the selling proposition and how is it being projected? Conclusion: The current turbo-charged, hyper-accelerated global image repositioning is causing shifts and creating new chasms among countries.This is a void to be filled with new players, new ideas and new global icons.
ICANN: what about new gTLD, as this new revolutionary USD $ 187,000.00 per domain name program offers some amazing solutions, as the fastest and most economical way to acquire an exclusive global name identity for the worldwide ecommerce.
But this game is very intricate demanding sophistication in corporate nomenclature with image leadership skills. In 2011 ICANN plans to process 1000 ‘proposed name’ applications, this will make gTLD expertise the hottest topic for new billings for advertising and strategic consulting agencies, provided they were to embrace the corporate nomenclature rules and equally able to articulate these issues to their top clients with specific naming solutions surrounding with global complexity and stringiest application rules of ICANN. To cope with timelines and this gTLD space smart agencies are starting to form strategic alliances to capture this high profile cyber branding business.
Currently with 99% of the cyber name identities stuck in traffic jams, a frank and very candid CEO-level discussion is required while denials and refusal to face up to reality will simple keep e-commerce presence in oblivion, guaranteed.
Marketing is global, burn all the books that say otherwise, as a billion brand new websites are heading this way like a tsunami from the emerging world, the challenge for executives is to embrace the future head-on, and acquire a deeper understanding of this visibility subject today and start studying deeply the new gTLD platform from ICANN . Now, all that's needed is that hyper visibility.
KERZNER NOT FOR SALE
(Hospitality Business News) The investment firm BMB Group said Thursday it has offered to buy resort developer Kerzner International Holdings for $3.4 billion in cash. Kerzner is a private Bahamas-based company owned by hotel magnate Sol Kerzner and others. It struggled in the past few years as the weak global economy hobbled the hotel and resort industry worldwide. It laid off hundreds of employees at its Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and is undergoing debt restructuring.
Kerzner spokeswoman Jennifer Glaisek confirmed in an e-mail that the company received the unsolicited letter from BMB. "But Kerzner is not for sale," she said.
BMB believes the company's resort properties have "significant potential," especially in Asia and it supports Kerzner's Atlantis resort in Dubai. BMB said it's unlikely it will keep Kerzner's casino assets for the long term. BMB is an investment and advisory firm with high net-worth clients, including ruling families and sovereign investors from the Middle East and Asia.
Kerzner spokeswoman Jennifer Glaisek confirmed in an e-mail that the company received the unsolicited letter from BMB. "But Kerzner is not for sale," she said.
BMB believes the company's resort properties have "significant potential," especially in Asia and it supports Kerzner's Atlantis resort in Dubai. BMB said it's unlikely it will keep Kerzner's casino assets for the long term. BMB is an investment and advisory firm with high net-worth clients, including ruling families and sovereign investors from the Middle East and Asia.
LUBY'S: A LOT ON ITS PLATE
The future of Luby's may be less about baked whitefish and green beans and more about build-your-own burgers and seasoned wedge fries.
Luby's Chief Executive Officer Chris Pappas still believes in the cafeteria chain he has headed since 2001. But these days he is turning much of his attention to Fuddruckers, the fast-casual burger chain the company acquired this summer.
Fuddruckers has 187 restaurants, almost twice the number of Luby's cafeterias. It's also a well-known national brand, unlike the regional Luby's operation, which has struggled in recent years.
Read More:
Taco Del Mar sold in bankruptcy auction
Taco del Mar was auctioned in a bankrupcty sale Thursday, and the winning bid of $3.25 million came from a Connecticut company called Franchise Brands.
A bankruptcy court judge still must approve the sale, said Les Winograd, a spokesman for Franchise Brands. He said it's premature to comment on the firm's plans for the brand.
Seattle-based Taco del Mar, which runs and franchises a chain of Mexican fast-food shops, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. It owns roughly 22 stores in the U.S., Canada and Guam and sells franchise rights to others. Individual Taco del Mar franchisees are not in bankruptcy.
Read More:
A bankruptcy court judge still must approve the sale, said Les Winograd, a spokesman for Franchise Brands. He said it's premature to comment on the firm's plans for the brand.
Seattle-based Taco del Mar, which runs and franchises a chain of Mexican fast-food shops, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. It owns roughly 22 stores in the U.S., Canada and Guam and sells franchise rights to others. Individual Taco del Mar franchisees are not in bankruptcy.
Read More:
