Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008 - (Page 6)

Checking In PERSPECTIVE H&MM October 6, 2008 | HotelMotel.com EDITORIAL 600 Superior Ave. East, Suite 1100, Cleveland, OH 44114 When free isn’t really so free anymore IN THE details No more free tickets We’re linked with the airlines Fuel surcharges rampant Travelers are angry By Paul J. Heney Editorial Director ike it or not, much of our industry is tied to the airlines. Given the state of the airline industry— which continues to experience some major hurt due to fuel prices—that’s a pretty scary thing. In some markets, the cutbacks being phased in by airlines can have an especially negative effect. Take Hawaii for example. Earlier this year, NBC reported that airline seats to Hawaii would decrease by about 25 percent over the next year. That type of cut means about 1.5 million fewer bodies coming into that market. Tell me that won’t mean anything to the hotels and resorts on Oahu and the other islands. We’ve all seen how the airlines have been L experimenting with á la carte charging for things that used to be free. Some carriers charge a fee for snacks or drinks. The latest craze is to charge for checked luggage. Lowcost carriers in Europe and the now-defunct Skybus took the penny-pinching further, asking customers to cough up extra bucks (or euros) for getting an assigned seat, sitting in an aisle seat, boarding earlier or even speaking with a reservations agent. Now, however, I wonder if they’re going too far. U.S.based carriers have begun to impose fees on free tickets earned through frequent ﬂier programs. That’s right, in the often-illogical mindset of the airlines, free no longer means free. In August, Delta quietly announced it was adding “fuel surcharges” to redeemed frequent ﬂier tickets. Passengers now are being charged $25 for roundtrips in the U.S. and Canada and $50 for other international routes. Then last month, Northwest joined in on the game, with fees of $25 for ﬂights within North America, $50 for trans-Atlantic routes, $75 for ﬂights within Asia and $100 for trans-Paciﬁc routes. Other airlines aren’t even necessarily trying to pass this off as a fuel-related thing. Continental more than tripled the charge to change a reward ticket or redeposit miles to $150. US Airways adds a processing fee as high as $250 for travelers reissuing an international reward ﬂight. Not that all the fees are skyhigh. American Airlines even manages to nickel-and-dime some of its best customers by charging them a $5 “award processing fee” for every reward ticket booked through its own website. Doing it over the phone will cost even more, $20 per ticket. Browsing through some of the many frequent traveler boards online, travelers don’t seem very pleased. But I read more than one post where the traveler decried the state of frequent ﬂier programs— and vowed to change all of their afﬁnity credit cards from airline-based ones to hoteloriented cards. Maybe we can, in this one small way, take some schadenfreude from the position the airlines have gotten themselves—and ourselves—into. pheney@questex.com Paul J. Heney, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR . . . . . . pheney@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3728 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Stephanie Ricca, EDITOR IN CHIEF. . . . . . . . . . sricca@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3791 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Victoria Burt, MANAGING EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . vburt@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3743 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Jason Q. Freed, SENIOR EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . jfreed@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3727 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Jennifer Kovacs, SENIOR EDITOR. . . . . . . . . . jkovacs@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3782 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Heather Gunter, ASSOCIATE EDITOR . . . . . . . hgunter@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3792 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Emily Hanna, ASSOCIATE EDITOR . . . . . . . . . ehanna@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3784 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Chris Crowell, ASSOCIATE EDITOR . . . . . . . .ccrowell@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3783 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Patricia Sheehan, EDITOR IN CHIEF, Hotel Design Ph: (216) 706-3753. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .psheehan@questex.com Amy B. Witek, ART DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . awitek@questex.com Rob Ghosh, ART DIRECTOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .rghosh@questex.com ADVERTISING/SALES/CIRCULATION 600 Superior Ave. East, Suite 1100, Cleveland, OH 44114 Matt Waddell, PUBLISHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mwaddell@questex.com 2835 N. Shefﬁeld Ave, Suite 236, Chicago, IL 60657 Ph: (773) 880-2240 | Fax: (773) 880-2241 Mary Malloy, NORTHEAST, INT’L. . . . . . . . . .mmalloy@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3790 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Brian Levine, SOUTHEAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . blevine@questex.com 757 Third Ave., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10017 Ph: (212) 895-8285 | Fax: (212) 895-8215 Jason Wallace, WEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jwallace@questex.com 1461 S. 375 E., Kaysville, UT 84037 Ph: (801) 499-9999 | Fax: (801) 315-4137 Doug Kereszturi, CLASSIFIEDS, RECRUITMENT, DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dkereszturi@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3794 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 Heidi Spangler, DIR., AUDIENCE DEV. . . . . . . . hspangler@questex.com Ph: (216) 706-3705 | Fax: (216) 706-3714 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Stacy Silver, BUSINESS DEV. DIRECTOR. . . . . ssilver@questex.com Ph: (954) 306-0747 | Fax: (954) 697-6265 J. Richard Casson, ASSOCIATE BUSINESS DEV. DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rcasson@questex.com Ph: (212) 895-8426 | Fax: (212) 895-8210 Forgot to pack your favorite issue of Hotel & Motel Management? Visit www.HotelMotel.com and go to www.HotelMotel.com/ digitalarchive to download, browse through and search the text of each issue, click on links in the articles and advertisements and quickly navigate to any page. PRODUCTION 306 W. Michigan St., Suite 200, Duluth, MN 55802 Jamie Kleist, ASST. PRODUCTION DIR. . . . . . . jkleist@questex.com Ph: (218) 279-8855 | Fax: (218) 279-8812 Janelle Heller, SR. PRODUCTION MANAGER . . jheller@questex.com Ph: (218) 279-8834 | Fax: (218) 279-8815 MARKETING/MAGAZINE SERVICES Correction On the Checking Out page [Hotel history: What’s in a name?] in the August issue of Hotel & Motel Management a picture for the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., was misidentiﬁed as the Truman Hotel & Conference Center in Jefferson, Mo. MARKETING/MAGAZINE SERVICES Ilene Schwartz, Kroll Direct, LISTS . . . . . . . . .ilene@krolldirect.com Ph: (216) 371-1667 | Fax: (216) 371-1669 PERMISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . .questexpermissions@reprintbuyer.com Ph: (800) 494-9051 Ext. 100 REPRINTS . . . . . . . . . . .HotelandMotelManagement@reprintbuyer.com Ph: (800) 290-5460 Ext. 100 SUBSCRIPTIONS, CUSTOMER SERVICE. .hspangler@questex.com Ph: (847) 763-9594 | Fax: (847) 763-9694 BACK ISSUES, SINGLE CURRENT COPIES Ph: (847) 763-9594 | Fax: (847) 763-9694 How to contact the H&MM editorial staff 600 Superior Ave. East, Suite 1100; Cleveland, OH 44114 Tel: (216) 706-3700 | Fax: (216) 706-3711 | www.HotelMotel.com Paul J. Heney Editorial Director pheney@questex.com Stephanie Ricca Editor In Chief sricca@questex.com Victoria Burt Managing Editor vburt@questex.com Jason Q. Freed Senior Editor jfreed@questex.com PRESIDENT & CEO—Kerry C. Gumas EXECUTIVE V.P. & CFO—Tom Caridi EXECUTIVE V.P.—Tony D’Avino EXECUTIVE V.P.—Robert S. Ingraham EXECUTIVE V.P.—Jon Leibowitz EXECUTIVE V.P., CORP. DEV.—Claudia Flowers V.P., DIGITAL MEDIA—Seth Nichols V.P., HUMAN RESOURCES—Diane M. Evans Copyright 2008 Questex Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopy, recording or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of speciﬁc clients, is granted by Questex Media Group, Inc. for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923; phone: (978) 750-8400; fax (978) 7504470; call for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. For those not registered with the CCC, send permission request to questexpermissions@reprintbuyer.com; phone: (800) 494-9051 Ext. 100. Hotel & Motel Management does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. Hotel & Motel Management welcomes unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations and other materials but cannot be held responsible for their safekeeping or return. Questex Media Group, Inc. provides certain customer contact data (such as customers’ names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) to third parties who wish to promote relevant products, services and other opportunities which may be of interest to you. If you do not want Questex Media Group to make your contact information available to third parties for marketing purposes, simply call toll-free (866) 344-1315 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. CT and a customer service representative will assist you in removing your name from Questex Media Group’s lists. Outside the U.S., please phone (847) 763-9594. (216) 706-3728 (216) 706-3791 (216) 706-3743 (216) 706-3727 Jennifer Kovacs Senior Editor jkovacs@questex.com Heather Gunter Associate Editor hgunter@questex.com Emily Hanna Associate Editor ehanna@questex.com Chris Crowell Associate Editor ccrowell@questex.com (216) 706-3782 (216) 706-3792 (216) 706-3784 (216) 706-3783 .EDITORIAL MISSION STATEMENT. . HOTEL & MOTEL MANAGEMENT supplies the credible news analysis and operating resources the lodging industry needs to prosper amid constant change. Comprehensive reporting and research offer top-of-mind and quick-hitting insights while introducing the people driving the future of the hotel community. Strategies about marketing, ﬁnance, techno http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digitalarchive http://www.HotelMotel.com/digitalarchive http://www.HotelMotel.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008

Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008 Contents NYLO Brands Mix Up Lifestyle Segment La Quinta Eyes Mexico, Canada for Growth Perspective Legally Speaking Marketing Matters Satisfaction Trends Maintenance Doctor HotelWorld Update Trends & Stats Independent Hotels Top Hotel Multiunit Owners and Developers Survey Cleaning & Maintenance Music Wallcoverings Supplier News Transactions Softgoods: Bedding & Linens People Events Ad/Editorial Index Marketplace Classifieds Checking Out

Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008

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