The Bright Innovations Award celebrates and honors one AAHOA member each year who embraces innovation and technology in the hospitality space. This member’s accomplishments should highlight an improved guest experience, increased guest acquisition, higher guest satisfaction or other advances to their business. All current AAHOA members are eligible to receive the Bright Innovations Award. Members do not need to be RLHC owners to be nominated.

AAHOA announced the "No Vacancy with Glenn Haussman" podcast, created by hotel industry expert Glenn Haussman, has been named the Official Podcast of the 2017 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show.

AAHOA partnered with Make-a-Wish® Oregon to grant the wishes of three local children with life-threatening medical conditions. Four-year-old Amy visited Disneyland Resort; 13-year-old Devann took a trip to Walt Disney World Resort; and 11-year-old Bobby went to Legoland. AAHOA is honored to have played a role in brightening a day in these young lives. 

AAHOA congratulates member Sawan (Swan) Patel, who has been appointed to serve a two-year term to the Harris County Republican Party Young Leadership Development Committee. It’s always great to see AAHOA members stepping up into positions of political leadership! Good luck, Sawan!

May 17–18, AAHOA is partnering with the American Hotel & Lodging Association to host the largest advocacy conference to ever hit the hospitality industry. We aren’t kidding; this event is going to be huge. You don’t want to miss this unique opportunity to meet Members of Congress, network and celebrate the strength of our industry in vibrant Washington, D.C.!

On Tuesday, AAHOA members convened in Tallahassee, Florida, to discuss pressing issues facing the state’s hospitality and travel industries. Importantly, attendees stormed the state capitol and urged lawmakers to support full travel and tourism funding for VISIT FLORIDA®, the initiative that encouraged over 100 million people to visit the state last year. Did you miss event but still want to make your voice heard? Click here to send our "Action Alert" urging Florida politicians to support travel and tourism funding!

Extreme wage hikes have detrimental consequences for small businesses across the country. For evidence of this reality, look no further than Flagstaff, Arizona, where a $15 minimum wage initiative passed in November. Click here to read Rick Berman’s compelling piece, "Minimum Wage Resistance," and learn how you can get involved. 

The 29th annual Hunter Hotel Conference is happening March 22–24 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Billed as "the national hotel real estate and finance conference designed for hotel owners and investors," the conference covers all aspects of hotel-industry financing, buying, selling and asset management.

March 16: Mid Atlantic Town Hall, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Meet with AAHOA and La Quinta leaders this month in Las Vegas! AAHOA’s brand alliance meetings (BAM) are an excellent opportunity to interact with other brand owners, get important brand updates, and learn more about the resources available to you as both a franchisee and an AAHOA member.

Boston police are partnering with city hotels to keep them on the lookout for warning signs of opioid-driven sex trafficking in their rooms, even as a Hub city councilor chimed in with his own concerns about lax check-ins that allow the sex trade to flourish under everybody’s noses.

More than half of all travelers – specifically 60 percent of leisure travelers and 55 percent of business travelers – begin their journey to booking a trip on a search engine, according to the experts at Google. That means the search giant is sitting on a treasure trove of data that helps provide a glimpse into the thought process of travelers around the world from the beginning of the booking journey.

Hospitality companies throughout the U.S. employ more than 8 million and generate some $355 billion in total labor income, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and in addition to being a major employer, the industry is also known for, well, being hospitable to the millions of guests who enter their properties every day.

Four years ago, in an interview with USA Today, then-Carlson COO Thorsten Kirschke made an offhand prediction on hotel loyalty. "[O]ver the next five years," he said, "[the industry will see] a whole evolution of loyalty programs, picking up good ideas from, believe it or not, banks and different industries altogether."

To support the industry in addressing digital distribution evolution, Kalibri Labs has continued to track industry undercurrents to help reveal what hotel brands, owners and operators can do to embrace the changes and position their businesses for competitive success.

President Barack Obama’s departure from the White House has garnered a collective sigh of relief from the business owners who shouldered a staggering regulatory burden for the eight years of his administration. And while it’s still too early to speculate on the Trump Administration’s long-term plans for economic growth, the executive order issued in January to eliminate two regulations for every new one adopted certainly bodes well for an entrepreneurial community long beset by costly and time-consuming red tape.