10 Best Private Clubs of 2024
The private club scene has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years, shifting its traditional exclusivity to embrace a younger, more diverse membership base.
Are business centers a thing of the past?
Many of us strive to work while we vacation in a pursuit of work life balance. Can popular lobby workspaces have adverse affects on business and leisure travelers alike, and is there an argument for some hotels to keep 'business centers?'
Sustainable restaurant practices: Äss Bar: We sell day old bread
The amount of food waste created by the Hospitality industry is shocking. Over the past decade, Craft House has challenged industry leaders to adopt methods to reduce food waste. This Zurich Bakery takes a common practice at home (eating day old bread) and uses it to help reduce food waste and change consumer behavior.
Millennial travel: Old school luxury for new school kids
Is millennial travel all About boutique hotels and coliving, or is there a new breed of travelers - young, professional, reaching their peak of income earning, and dying to experience old school luxury?
The death of farm to table (the term, not the concept)
Read our blog: www.HOTELSMag.com, 5/25/16, by Yvette Jong, Craft House Consulting "Greenwashing” continues, and the latest culprit is the unverifiable and overuse of “farm to table” concepts. That’s right - wooden counter tops, rustic furniture, baskets of irregular veg, craft paper placemats, and use of the term in your concept brief don’t define the philosophy, and aren’t serving it any justice.
Free Wifi or Wifi Free?
An American Express survey a couple of years ago found that 83% of holidaymakers expect to stay digitally connected during their break, and 64% of those expect to check their work email daily while on vacation. Surely our parents and grandparents would be horrified – as should we be.
Hoteliers DO (secretly) Love Airbnb
For those of you who read the HOTELsMag blog by Craft House Founder and Director, Yvette Jong, you may have read her piece titled, "I heart Airbnb." After both backlash and support from industry colleagues criticizing or supporting her point of view, Craft House distributed a survey to understand what the industry really thinks about Airbnb. The results are here!
I heart Airbnb
Airbnb and other vacation rental sites are disrupting the hospitality industry, but that doesn't make it a threat. The variety it offers in terms of product and price point are attractive to travelers. At the same time it has the ability to grow lodging capacity in destinations in a sustainable way. So what's the problem?
A poorly Executed 24-hour hotel room
If you could get 24 hours in your hotel room regardless of what time you checked in, you'd be a happy guest. But with each request comes the challenge to fulfill it without disrupting hotel operations. Do 24-hour room rentals make sense and how do we ensure we deliver what we promise?
Marketing: Eat here or we'll both starve
Here are just a few things I've read recently that made me smile and will likely stick to my mind for years to come.
Building private clubs for profit
Gone are the days when private clubs were adorned with dusty old portraits of a huntsman and his hound. Gone are the days where sherry is being served at all hours of the day in the library, and steak and kidney pie is the top seller on the menu.
Bike Trends: Trading car keys for bike locks
Bicycles, vintage bikes and vintage Vespas are in. Not only that — people are spending loads to experience these "modern" luxuries.
New brands … for the sake of it?
As markets get saturated with all the brands under the sun, hotel management companies are developing new brands to cater to developers’ demands. Take an already cluttered brand architecture with existing brands that might have confused identities and positioning, and throw a few new ones in the pot. You get the idea.
Hotel development for dummies
After a blog about common mistakes made by aspiring hotel owners on HOTELSmag.com, I decided to collate some of the recommendations made by international hoteliers and professionals alike.