This could be generational, but in the same way that it’s no longer optional for hotels to exercise green practices, it’s no longer optional for hotels to embrace email as a preferred method of communication.  I understand the hesitation – there’s a fear that a true personal connection is lost when communicating exclusively by email. ...

Westins have mastered it.  I can smell a Westin a mile away.  And the Wynn Las Vegas?  I liked the scent in their lobby so much, that I would routinely invent things to inquire with their concierge just to spend extra time there.  I so much as purchased their scent (Asian Rain incidentally) in an...

Outside of the Washington, DC area, I’ve found it a common mistake that hotels make – sticking the government market to their newest, greenest sales manager.  I know full well this strategy as I was the beneficiary of such a decision back in 2001 when new and green were my middle names.  The decision here...

First, a little background on how federal per diem rates are derived each year, in simple terms.  Contrary to popular belief, there is no dart board at GSA – there is actually a refined science to the creation of per diem rates each year, and hotels have a lot more control over the rates than...