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Luncheon Program
Date: February 17, 2009 Topic: Revenue Management Location: TBA Luncheon Program Date: March 17, 2009 Topic: TBA Location:TBA 
Tuesday, January 20, 2008 2009 SoCal Lodging Forecast 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM 
Success in business is no accident. It is planned and the best planning pre-requisite is knowing your market and your competitor’s business models.
Steve Choe
Intercontinental Hotel Los Angeles Elizabeth Boman Hotel Queen Mary Bette Bloom Elan Hotel Carolyn Harber Portofino Redondo Beach  Ricardo Ganuza How did you hear about HSMAI? Why did you join HSMAI? Job duties:
Other organization I'm involved in: Hobbies and/or Special Interests Tell us about your immediate family: 
FEATURED ARTICLE  Looking back at 2008! | What to expect for 2009 | By Bob GilbertIt was no surprise to see that the highest read articles this year were those relating to the economy and the constantly changing forecasts for hospitality and travel. In 2009 you can depend on HSMAI to continue to push to you relevant information on trends about your customer market segments and our industry. And we encourage you to leverage your membership by engaging in our chapters, special interest groups, online communities, webinars, trade shows, events and strategy conferences. Your investment in membership in HSMAI can pay huge dividends to you and your company by making sure you have the information you need to make the right decisions on how to retain and grow your business levels. As we all wind down the year we certainly hope that you finally have an approved budget for 2009 and are ready to face what will likely be a challenging time in the hospitality and travel. Sales and marketing people by nature tend to be optimists and opportunistic. You need to seize this opportunity to be innovative and creative in all your strategies and tactics to grow your business and be a leader in your business, your team, and in your community. The case studies we'll write in 2010 are likely going to include those individuals who made "lemonade out of lemons" in 2009. I challenge you to be one of those. As you prepare your team for success in 2009, ask them why a sales and marketing person is like a teabag. It's because you never know how strong they are until you drop them in hot water. HSMAI will be there throughout 2009 to support you and your team with trends, ideas, case studies, best practices, and strategies - all for you to contemplate while you're "brewing". From the entire HSMAI board of directors and headquarters staff, we wish you and your family all the best for a wonderful holiday season and happy new year! Bob Gilbert HSMAI President and CEO bgilbert@hsmai.org View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend   MOST READ ECONNECT INDUSTRY TRENDS UPDATE ARTICLES OF 2008 Back-to-Basics Marketing Tips For Today’s Challenging Economic Conditions | By Dorothy Dowling23 November 2008 | It seems hardly a day goes by without some grim economic statistic making headlines, and sending tremors throughout the business community, including the hospitality sector. Their confidence clearly shaken by a number of events – from declining home values to skyrocketing food and gas prices – consumers are cutting back across the board and hospitality is feeling the effects. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Best Practices on Monitoring Hotel Review Sites | By Max Starkov and Mariana Mechoso18 August 2008 | Hoteliers often ask HeBS how they can monitor the Internet chatter surrounding their hotels and whether or not they should pay for services that offer this type of monitoring. What hotel review websites should you monitor? How often should you check for reviews about your hotel on these websites? Should you provide a rebuttal for reviews? These are just a few of the questions hoteliers ponder on this subject. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Business Goes On...Hotel Sales Tips for an Uncertain Market | By Leora Lanz17 October 2008 | In a tough market, every room night counts. While this downturn may seem more painful than in the past, business goes on and you need to be out there. Here are several ideas to keep your sales efforts strong. In a tough market, every room night counts. These days, as we struggle with how to best market our hotels, do we continue to create promotions and spend money on advertising when customers simply aren't traveling? View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Lessons from the Field | Updating marketing and sales strategies mid year NOW is essential | By Dr. John Hogan, CHA MHS CHE27 June 2008 | I have learned in my career to consider the marketplace, the competition and the overall trends and cycles if I expect to be successful. In the past, this has usually meant creating an annual marketing plan and working that plan. Weekly and monthly action plans would lead to quarterly reviews and updates. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend [MULTIMEDIA] Room for Improvement | Interview with Jonathan Tisch, Bill Marriott and Barry Sternlicht | msnbc.com10 June 2008 | A check on hospitality, with Jonathan Tisch, Loews Hotels CEO; Bill Marriott, Marriott International CEO and Barry Sternlicht, Starwood Capital CEO. Interview taped at 30th Anniversary NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference. View Article | Send to a Friend Hospitality Industry Mourns Loss of Celebrated Leader, Mike Dimond25 June 2008 | MCLEAN, VA (June 24, 2008) – Yesterday, the hospitality industry suffered a loss with the death of Michael J. “Shiny” Dimond, 67, who passed away after suffering a heart attack. Widely recognized as one of the top hotel marketing executives in the nation, Dimond’s career spanned more than four decades. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Hotel CEOs Lament Softening Demand, Foresee Some Discounting | BTNonline6 June 2008 | Chief executives of three multibrand hotel companies today acknowledged tougher times ahead for the next year and a half and an upcoming corporate hotel program negotiating season that will be, from their perspective, more difficult in which to achieve rate increases. View Article | Send to a Friend Principles for success as a hotel manager | 6 Observations on Finding and Employing Problem Solvers | By Dr. John Hogan 11 September 2008 | We all face challenges. For some hotels, it is the labor force, be it finding interested people, the expense or the need to improve the professionalism of the staff with increased training. For other hotels, it may a slipping occupancy or REVPAR. Cash flow or a changing market affects others. Yes, we are all trying to solve the dilemma of Finding and Employing Problem Solvers; this of course means using improved people skills. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend HSMAI Foundation Publishes Special Report “Demystifying Distribution 2.0” 30 June 2008 | The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Foundation is releasing today “Demystifying Distribution 2.0,” a TIG Global special report, discussing the importance and impact of aligning proper distribution channels to appropriately match brand messaging. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Field Of Revenue Management Continues To Evolve In Hospitality Industry 26 June 2008 | Revenue management professionals from across the hospitality industry convened at the fifth annual HSMAI Revenue Management Strategy Conference in Austin, TX, for a day of in-depth discussions about the evolving field. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend HSMAI Names 2008 Sales & Marketing Top 2519 November 2008 | The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing” for 2008. The sixth annual list recognizes the “best of the best” minds in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries. The recipients will be honored at HSMAI’s annual Adrian Awards Gala on Jan. 26, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Cornell Hotel Analysis Shows How Renovations Reverse Depreciation, in a New Report30 July 2008 | No summary available. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Hotels Upgrade Their ‘No-Stay’ Lists | MSNBC.com20 June 2008 | Most travelers know about the Transportation Security Administration’s “no-fly” list. It’s a collection of seemingly random names of passengers who either can’t fly or must endure extra security measures for unknown reasons. But did you know that many hotels keep a similar list of guests that they block from making reservations and setting foot on their properties? View Article | Send to a Friend Heartbreak Hotels By Joe Brancatelli | washingtonpost.com13 August 2008 | Beijing's Olympian oversupply is making headlines, but the same basic tale is being spun in many places around the globe. Especially in the United States and the Caribbean, there suddenly aren't enough travelers to fill existing properties. More hotels are opening as they emerge from the three- to five-year property-development pipeline. View Article | Send to a Friend 2008 AH&LA Lodging Survey Statistics Support New Hotel Trends17 June 2008 | The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) releases its 2008 Lodging Survey, one of the most comprehensive industry-wide surveys of its kind, revealing notable trends in all segments of U.S. hotels. Funded by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation (AH&LEF) and conducted by Smith Travel Research, the research analyzes feedback from more than 10,000 U.S. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Travelocity Data Shows Cost for US Summer Travel Lower Than Many Thought 19 August 2008 | With all the media hype surrounding the high cost of everything travel related – from gas to airfare – Travelocity decided to take a closer look at how much more travelers actually paid for their summer vacations. Using airfare and hotel data of trips actually consumed by customers in July 2008 compared to July 2007, Travelocity was able to identify 14 major U.S. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend U.S. Hotels to Bottom Out in 2009 | PKF Forecasts Two Years Of Declining Lodging Demand24 September 2008 | A new study released today by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) reveals that demand for U.S. hotel rooms will contract for the next two years. Compounding the negative impact of declining demand is a projected concurrent increase in supply. PKF-HR is forecasting a combined net increase in 2008 and 2009 of nearly 275,000 new hotel rooms compared to year-end 2007. This represents a 6.2 percent jump in accommodations over this two-year period. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Budgeting for Hotel Internet Marketing…No Surveys, Just Plain Talk | By Neil Salerno 4 March 2008 | I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked how much hotels should spend to develop a successful presence on the Internet. I guess this is one of those questions that would get many different answers from many different people, but I will attempt to present a common-sense approach to the Internet budgeting conundrum. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend  10 Trends Shaping The Future Of Hospitality | By Marvin J. CetronFor some 20 years, Forecasting International has tracked a list of major trends that are reshaping our world. The list changes as trends run their course or new trends are recognized and added to the collection. From time to time, we go over the entire list, analyzing each trend and bring our evidence up to date. We have just completed our most recent upgrade. For this edition of our periodic report on the trends, we have selected ten of the most important for the hospitality and travel industry. We offer them here, with a summary of each trend and the implications for five important industry segments: airlines, cruises, hotels, restaurants, and travel.
 Deloitte Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Industry Executive Report | Summer Autumn 2008After a period of record growth, the tourism, hospitality and leisure industry is now entering more uncertain times. Our latest report focuses on strategies companies can draw on in response to more challenging market conditions and also looks at those emerging global markets which continue to offer fresh growth opportunities. Contents include: Why China is hoping hotel figures add up – the anticipated impact of the Olympic & Paralympic Games | Tough times ahead – are you ready to respond? A clear strategy should help hotel businesses face current market uncertainties | Solving the Russian riddle – the Russian tourism market | The changing landscape of US business travel | Caravan holidays are back in vogue.
 Fighting for Attention | Digital Tactics Add Powerful Tools to Your Communications ArsenalDoes your communications strategy increase owner satisfaction and utilization, lower default rates, and save money? That’s the promise of the digital world. And done right, it seems to deliver big-time. While only a handful of companies in the vacation ownership industry have tapped into the vast potential of digital communications, even those just dipping their toes in the water are reaping bene ts in terms of increased owner satisfaction. About 25 percent of members at some ResortCom Internationalmanaged resorts use the Web for all their transactions, reports Chairman John Small. “Owners can book exchanges and rentals online in real time, including their airline tickets and a six-pack of Corona for their unit. They also can pay their loans and maintenance fees, read minutes from HOA meetings, and get answers to questions 24/7 through our CRM Smart technology.”
2009 PREDICTIONS & TRENDS PKF Forecasts 7.8 Percent RevPAR Decline for the U.S. in 2009 | No Relief Until Second Quarter of 2010 9 December 2008 | U.S. hotels have entered the initial stages of one of the deepest and longest recessions in the history of the domestic lodging industry. The 7.8 percent drop in RevPAR that PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) is now forecasting for 2009 will be the fifth largest annual decline in this important measure since 1930. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Will 2009 be the year of transparency? | By Ian Yeoman 16 December 2008 | President elect Barack Obama talks about transparency in government as the bedrock of his administration and as tourists increasingly share information about experiences and holidays online, they will expect the same kind of openness from tourism organisations and businesses. In 2009, it will be hard to hide anything, keep things out of sight and the tourist will at the very least know you are hiding something. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Economic Trends Affecting Hospitality Sellers | HSMAI13 December 2008 | The National Bureau of Economic Research recently declared the U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007, news that did not come as a surprise to many in the hospitality industry. View Article | Send to a Friend UNWTO: 'Tourism will Experience Downturn over the Next Six Months'2 December 2008 | In the face of the global economic downturn, international tourism will experience less and probably negative growth over the next six to nine months, alongside all major economic sectors. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Survey Reveals More Affluent Travelers Less Affected By Economic Concerns | Ypartnership Reports1 December 2008 | Most travel service suppliers - both domestic and international - will have to work harder in the months ahead to capture a meaningful share of travel demand, according to the results of the most recent "travelhorizons(TM)" survey of U.S. adults conducted the week of October 13, 2008. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend [MULTIMEDIA] Too Many Rooms at the Inn: How Hospitality Companies Can Thrive in Hard Times | Deloitte Podcast24 November 2008 | The combination of a housing crisis, credit crunch and high commodity prices are leaving fewer discretionary dollars for travel. Businesses are slashing their travel budgets, and more cash-starved Americans are reluctantly settling for “staycations” — foregoing excursions to Paris and Mount Rushmore in favor of backyard barbeques. View Article | Send to a Friend Hotels: managing in a downturn | PricewaterhouseCoopers21 November 2008 | No hotel business is likely to be immune to the effects of an economic recession and although this time it may be different in terms of the unprecedented circumstances that are driving the slowdown, businesses still need to ensure they address key fundamental priorities such as a hands on approach to cash management, taking stakeholders with them and managing the cost base. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend US Lodging Industry Overview | By Mark V. Lomanno | STR President 13 November 2008 | Presented at the fifth annual Hospitality Leadership Forum, held in conjunction with the 2008 International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show® in New York on November 8, 2008. The forum brought together visionaries from the hospitality industry and beyond, giving attendees the opportunity to hear firsthand about the forces that will shape the future of the industry. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend New Survey Reveals Demand For Leisure Travel Services Likely To Remain Stable Despite Turbulent Economy6 November 2008 | The recent fluctuations of the U.S. stock market are beginning to affect the leisure travel plans and habits of Americans, according to the most recent travelhorizons(TM) survey, co-authored by Ypartnership, a worldwide marketing services firm that specializes in the travel industry, and the Travel Industry Association (TIA) in Washington, D.C. The nationally-projectable survey of approximately 2,300 U.S. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend U.S. hotel industry to remain stagnant for 6 to 8 months | By Mark V. Lomanno31 October 2008 | The U.S. hotel industry is virtually frozen by the uncertain state of the global economy. As the credit crisis continues to dominate headlines and water-cooler conversations, reality has set in within the hotel industry in the form of an unknown and impossible to predict short term future. While there’s not a lot of optimism for the immediate future, there are some indicators that make the long-term picture a bit brighter. View Article | Send to a Friend PKF Revises Forecast to Reflect Acceleration of US Economic Downturn 29 October 2008 | The downward gravitational pull on the national economy resulting from extraordinary financial events currently playing out on Wall Street and in Washington has prompted PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) to revise downward its hotel industry forecast for 2009 issued September 2008. The company is now expecting RevPAR and profit declines of 4.3 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, for U.S. hoteliers in 2009, according to its updated forecast. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Las Vegas Tops List as Most Popular U.S. Destination as Orbitz Looks Back at Travel Trends in 20088 December 2008 | As 2008 draws to a close, Orbitz (http://www.orbitz.com), a leading online travel site, takes a retrospective look back with its latest Insider Index to offer insight into when and where Americans spent their travel dollars this year. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend  World Travel Market | Global Trends Report 2008According to the IMF, the current financial downturn affecting the globe is set to continue through 2009, with world economic growth to slow to 3.9% in 2008 and 3.0% in 2009. The economic and financial crisis has dramatically altered the shape of the global landscape for travel and tourism, as liquidity dries up, commodity prices rise, inflation increases and consumer demand falls. Uncertainty hangs over the industry, especially as the full scale of the downturn and government intervention in major banking markets is yet unknown. Recession is expected in the world’s advanced markets and even emerging economies are not immune to the slowdown. However, governments have shown their commitment to restoring economic confidence and the IMF predicts a recovery in 2010. So what should the industry brace itself for in the short term?
 Who Is Today's Corporate Traveler? | BTNFacing escalating airfares and substantial reductions in domestic airline capacity, frequent travelers who work for companies that manage travel today are taking fewer trips and spending fewer nights on the road than in the past, but they are following their companies' travel policies more than ever. Despite all the tools in the toolkit that allow buyers to communicate the company's will, a divide remains between travelers' knowledge of policy and the expectations of corporate travel managers. A company can have the best policies on paper, but their utility is only as strong as travelers' awareness of them. This study is sponsored in part by American Express Business Travel.
ECONNECT RSS FEEDS  Stay on top of what's happening in your city and the industry. As an HSMAI member, you can now customize your eConnect news and information to include daily
news from your choice of more than 40 city Business Journals. The HSMAI Foundation's eConnect research
and resource site now gives you the choice of adding news feeds (via Real Simple Syndication, or RSS)
that are updated throughout the day from Business Journals as well as the top hospitality industry and
consumer publications. Just click here, log in to eConnect if you aren't already, and choose from the
list of available feeds. Click here to learn more...HSMAI UPDATE  HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala26 January 2009 In its 52nd year, the Adrian Awards continues to capture and showcase industry achievers and ROI-producing materials from hotels, airlines, attractions, car rental companies, casinos, convention centers, cruise lines, destinations, restaurants, and spas, as well as time share and extended stay properties and industry suppliers. New York, NY  HSMAI Hotel Sales Strategy ConferenceMaximizing Revenue and Resources in a Changing Economy 31 March 2009 Save the dated for the 3rd HSMAI Hotel Sales Strategy conference,. The conference, organized by HSMAI's Hotel Director of Sales & Marketing Special Interest Group, is designed to add even greater value for hotel sales staff attending HSMAI's Affordable Meetings Mid-America, which follows on April 1-2, 2009. Chicago, IL  HSMAI's Affordable Meetings Mid-America 2009 1 - 2 April 2009 HSMAI's Affordable Meetings® is a unique trade show and learning opportunity for meeting and event planners which takes place annually in three locations across the country.Chicago, IL  9th Annual Resort Conference 3 - 5 May 2009 Save the date for the 2009 Resort Conference: the only conference planned by resort executives for resort executives. The 2009 conference, which is sponsored by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and The University of Denver's School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management, will be held May 3-5, at PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.Palm Beach Garden, FL HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® West 200910 - 11 June 2009 HSMAI's Affordable Meetings® West is the ideal forum where planners, properties and suppliers come together to do business – attracting motivated planners from all sectors of the industry who attend looking for quality resources to enhance their meetings and events. San Jose, CA  HSMAI Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference25 June 2009 Save the date for the Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, which will be co-located with the annual HITEC show. Presented by HSMAI's Revenue Management and Travel Internet Marketing Advisory Boards, the conference will feature the latest trends in two of the most importance disciplines in sales and marketing today. Anaheim, CA HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® National 2009 9 - 10 September 2009 HSMAI's Affordable Meetings® National is the ideal forum where planners, properties and suppliers come together to do business – attracting motivated planners from all sectors of the industry who attend looking for quality resources to enhance their meetings and events. Washington, DC  2nd Annual Event Technology Expo 9 - 10 September 2009 Event Technology Expo @ Affordable Meetings is a national exposition and conference addressing all aspects of technology as it relates to tradeshows, conventions, meetings, and special events.Washington, DC All HSMAI EventsAll Upcoming Industry EventsFEATURED HSMAI UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS 
Visit www.hsmaiuniversity.org for the current
lineup of HSMAI University Webinars and events, and to access Webinar Archives.HSMAI University Webinars are recorded and archived. To learn more and purchase archive copies, please click here.
Every sales letter should begin with an eye-catching headline. But how should they end? Usually sales letters are structured so that you say the most important things first. But there is one all-important thing you must always include at the end of you letter--the guarantee! Most people are leery of purchasing anything without a solid guarantee. But the money-back guarantee is the one that usually makes the sale. And the more outrageous it is, the better. So extend the time, make the circumstances all encompassing, let them keep the bonuses even if they return the product. The more you promise to give, the more you’ll get. And the beauty of it is that most people will never take advantage of your generous offer. You can promise to reimburse them the price they paid plus and extra $50, and few people would ever take you up on your offer. The full year money-back guarantee has been said to get the best results and the lowest returns, because the customer is impressed by the generosity of your guarantee, but even if they are not pleased with the product, they will probably have forgotten in a year. So go ahead and make your guarantees as crazy and outrageous as you want. The perfect note to end your sales letter on is always the one that promises security.
After you have used Gmail for some time and learned to love it, you may want to handle all your mail — not just that arriving at your Gmail address — with it. Some email accounts let you forward all incoming mail to your Gmail address, but many do not offer such convenience. Almost all are accessible by POP, however, and that's all Gmail needs. Gmail can periodically retrieve mail from up to five POP accounts. You can even send mail from Gmail using these accounts' addresses in the From: line. Gmail can periodically retrieve mail from up to five POP accounts. You can even send mail from Gmail using these accounts' addresses in the From: line. Collect Mail from Other POP Accounts in Gmail Pick your email service from the list or follow the generic instructions below: To have Gmail retrieve mail from an existing POP email account:
Now, send mail from these accounts' addresses using Gmail, too. Check Mail Manually Depending on how frequently you receive new messages at your email address, Gmail will check for new mail in intervals ranging from every two minutes to once per hour. You can always initiate mail fetching by going to Settings | Accounts and clicking Check mail now under the desired account. |
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