It is critical that we continue to advocate on your behalf, communicate brand initiatives and aggregate data that reflects AAHOA members’ impact on the hospitality industry at large. To do this effectively we need property data! Participate in this quick survey by 5 p.m. EST Friday, July 14, for the chance to win a free VISA gift card! If you win, you will be eligible to receive $50 for every property you enter (E.g., 2 properties = $100, 10 properties = $500). Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity.

Join us next week for the 2017 Young Professionals Conference, to be held in Toronto, June 29–30, in conjunction with HITEC, for two days of interactive activities, keynote speakers and professional development. Programming is designed for up-and-coming hoteliers interested in developing strategies for success through business leadership. AAHOA members who register for the Young Professionals Conference by June 22 will also receive complimentary access to the HITEC trade show.

On June 23, AAHOA Young Professionals will join Hyatt executives at the Hyatt Center in Chicago, Illinois, for a day of professional development. Attendees will hear from Hyatt execs on the history of Hyatt, development, architecture design and construction, brand management and the future of the company. While the event has been sold out for months, six last-minute spaces have become available.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 1393) yesterday, which will simplify state income tax laws for employees who work outside their home state. This bipartisan legislation would only require employees to pay another state’s income tax if they work there for more than 30 days in a calendar year. 

Leaders in the U.S. Senate plan to have a vote on their new healthcare bill by sometime next week. If enacted, this bill would repeal Obamacare and offer new healthcare policies to govern the country. The details of this bill are yet to be released, so stay tuned for more information!

Mississippi AAHOA member Jayantilal "Babu" Patel was recognized last week for his contributions to Nora’s Home, a Houston, Texas, nonprofit that provides organ transplant patients and their families a place to live before, during and after transplant procedures. Through Babu’s efforts to solicit donations of furniture, fixtures and equipment, Nora’s Home doubled its capacity to include 16 additional guest rooms amounting to 10,800 additional annual lodging nights for families and patients in need. More than 20 hotel owners, vendors and brands helped the expansion, including Choice Hotels International and Wyndham Hotel Group. Babu was given a Service Recognition Award for his dedication and selfless service to Nora’s Home.

As the world’s largest hospitality technology show, HITEC offers a unique combination of top-notch education and the hottest technologies to bring together the brightest minds from across the globe. This year, AAHOA members receive free access to the HITEC trade show if they register by June 22 for the Young Professionals Conference, to be held the following day in Toronto. 

Competition is tougher than ever before, but not all hotels operate with a property level sales person. Understand how to foster a sales-focused culture that creates an "everybody sells" mindset and hear best practices to capitalize on incoming inquiries.

There are a large number of wage and hour laws applicable to business owners, and with the Department of Labor increasing its investigation and enforcement efforts, staying in compliance is critical to avoiding liability, including financial penalties and possible litigation. Gain a better understanding of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s role and authority, and what business owners can do to stay in compliance and out of trouble.

Learn key tactics and opportunities for hotels to execute in their local market to build a profitable base of customers. Explore ways to build a solid prospecting list that can grow base business for your hotel, and how to develop an opening statement to grab a prospect’s attention in the first 10 seconds.

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 ● Watch the video on the Chase and AAHOA partnership

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Who says hotel companies can’t dabble in cruising, too? In a hospitality industry crossover, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is launching a luxury cruising yacht line scheduled to hit the water in the fourth quarter of 2019, the company announced Thursday. Ritz-Carlton will enter a crowded field of luxury cruise lines. In doing so, it follows a path similar to Disney when it founded Disney Cruise Line in 1996.

If you’re a major hotel company, chances are you’re planning to launch — or have just launched — a new midscale brand. The most recent case in point: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which just announced its 13th brand Wednesday, but doesn’t yet have a name for it. During the annual NYU Hospitality Industry Investment Conference earlier this month, other hotel companies also announced their plans to launch (or in some cases, relaunch) midscale brands.

Considering the prices for plane or train tickets and hotel rooms, as well as the hours spent packing (and unpacking) and idly sitting at gates or terminals, it's understandable when people opt for a staycation. But what if you could forget almost all of the hassle that makes traveling a burden? Better yet, what if you could travel in your hotel room from city to city at incredibly fast speeds? That's precisely the idea that took home top honors at this year's Radical Innovation Award, an annual competition for imaginative, futuristic hotel designs.

Nowadays, hoteliers are so inundated with technology that the tasks of prioritization and selection have become far more than just daunting; research and procurement are practically a job title unto themselves! Unless you have specific objectives with a firm plan and budget in mind, you’ll easily be intimidated by the sheer myriad of options for consideration.

The digital age has been transforming to the hospitality industry, as it impacts guest interaction at almost every step, and has given rise to the central role the IT department plays in guest-facing and back-of-the-house operations. Today, an effective CIO does not solely act as an engineer, but also needs to establish inter-departmental partnerships to ensure the success of technology projects that touch every corner of the hospitality environment. 

With more than 19 years of hospitality industry experience, John Edwards has led multi-functional and cross-departmental projects, beginning with forming an information systems group tasked with fully supporting the relationship between the technology group and each operating department leader. He joined RLHC in October 2015 as senior vice president and chief information officer.