News | 5 Things to Know: 1 December 2011

Travel into and out of Great Britain was disrupted Wednesday as up to 18,000 border staff striked over public-sector pension reform.

Delta Air Lines earlier this week canceled some flights to and from the U.K., following some other international carriers ahead of the strike that was expected to lead to severe delays at London’s main airports because it included border security staff.

The United Arab Emirates’ two national airlines cancelled five flights into and out of London on Wednesday in anticipation of “extensive delays” and U.K. authorities warned of 12-hour waiting times, according to a report in HotelierMiddleEast.com.

British Airways and Qatar Airways have not cancelled flights but have urged passengers to switch their flights and offered opportunities to rebook free of charge, the report says.

Weekly numbers are in for both the U.S. and Canada regions from STR, the parent company of HotelNewsNow.com.

U.S.: The U.S. hotel industry experienced increases in all three key performance metrics during the week of 20-26 November, although the Thanksgiving holiday caused a dip in absolute demand. In year-over-year comparisons, occupancy rose 3.4% to 45%, average daily rate increased 3.7% to US$90.51 and revenue per available room finished the week with an increase of 7.2% to US$40.74.

Among the top 25 markets, Detroit reported the largest increase in occupancy (+17.3% to 52.9%); San Francisco/San Mateo, California, reported the largest increase in ADR (+12.3% to US$123.81); and Oahu Island, Hawaii, reported the largest increase in RevPAR (+24.3% to US$135.26).

Canada: The Canadian hotel industry also reported positive results in the three key performance metrics for the week of 20-26 November. Canadian hotel occupancy increased 1.6% to 58.6%; ADR rose 2.2% to CAD$123.05 (US$121.22); and RevPAR increased 3.9% to CAD$72.13 (US$71.05).

Among the provinces, Nova Scotia reported the largest occupancy increase (11.1% to 59.1%); British Columbia reported the largest ADR increase (+12.9% to CAD$131.49 or US$129.53); and British Columbia reported the largest RevPAR increase (+20.7% to CAD$69.85 or US$68.81).

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As STR’s forecast of significantly lower RevPAR growth in the hotel industry during 2012 is realized, extended-stay hotels likely are to follow a similar trend, writes HotelNewsNow.com columnist Mark Skinner, a principal with Highland Group.

However, extended-stay hotels’ relatively large share of business travelers and of revenues from the top 25 U.S. markets should cushion the anticipated slowdown in the rate of RevPAR increases, Skinner said. As tends to happen during expansionary periods, extended-stay hotel ADR started increasing faster than overall hotel ADR in the second quarter of 2011; this trend is projected to continue during 2012.

Extended-stay hotels are a price buy, Skinner said, and slower overall hotel ADR growth will have an impact on the segment.

Read “Extended-stay 2012 RevPAR to outpace industry”

Meetings demand globally in 2012 appears to be on the rise, according to a recent survey and in-depth interviews conducted by American Express Meetings & Events. Of the meeting planners surveyed, 42% of North American, 50% of Latin American, 51% of European and 57% of Asian respondents saw signs of increased activity from their clients, according to the study.

Additionally, 60% of meeting suppliers also expected the number of meetings planned to increase. Higher travel and meeting costs were anticipated, driving the need for companies to focus on striking the right balance of cost effectiveness and experience impact when selecting venues, according to the inaugural American Express Meetings & Events 2012 Meetings Forecast released this week.

American Express also released some global meeting trends for 2012:
• The number of attendees per meeting will likely decrease as will the number of days, according to 40% and 33% of hotel suppliers, respectively.

• Suppliers indicated planners want meetings closer to their businesses, with 53% of their clients requesting more local meetings.

• Noting their clients’ focus on meeting content is more critical than ever, hotel suppliers expect to see more incentive programs infused with business-focused content, with 47% of customers planning to combine meetings and incentives.

• Hotel suppliers noted 47% of meeting clients have green request/requirements for their events.

• The Meetings Forecast reveals a shift away from bookings in luxury or resort properties, with the exception of meetings within Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

Knotice, a digital marketing communications platform, released this week a report that details email opens and click activity on mobile devices across 11 industry segments, including hospitality.

Some key hospitality insights:

• Mobile email open rates for the hospitality industry increased to 20.1% during the first and second quarter of 2011. This new rate is up from an open rate of 15.74% during the fourth quarter of 2010.
• The iPhone leads the way in the hospitality industry with 13.33% of emails being opened on an iPhone. Following closely behind is the iPad with 3.93%.
• People are not saving emails to view later on a different device. Despite the rise in mobile email open activity, only 3.1% of the sample emails were opened on both mobile device and desktop.
• “Best time of the day” can differ for opening email versus taking action.
• Mobile email open rates is on the rise, while mobile click-through activity is lagging behind. Even if a person opens the email, the real measure is what they do once it’s open.

Compiled by Jason Q. Freed.