EDITORIAL LETTER

Being part of this industry, we all see ourselves daily in the position of users of lodging services and restaurants. And most likely many of us have assumed a much more demanding position because we have knowledge about the service standards in different markets and about the rights that we all have as users of these services.

A couple of years ago a group of consumer rights activists in the U.S. advocated for the need for hotels to charge for guest hours of stay and not for the night. They also raised the need to end the legendary check-in and check-out hours. As expected, the recommendation met with opposition from the sector and died in the attempt.

At this point, when hotels are being forced into new ways of marketing, selling and loyalty, it would be worth asking themselves: are hotels meeting the expectations of users? Or are they simply being part of a business that for profit prevents them from getting out of a scheme? Out there they say that if you win the game, do not change the team but the danger is to win the game.

On a recent trip to Spain I was able to verify, once again, that the hotel sector in general is stuck in an old and protocol scheme. Very surely the hotel where I stayed, tourist class, I had no idea that I had 14 hours of uninterrupted travel and that when I left the airport and arrived at the hotel what I most longed for was a room and a bed to rest. Thanks to its schematic registration model I sat for three hours on a sofa and while falling into a slight sleep I thought about how absurd it seems that despite the constant evolution of the sector, many features such as services, categorization and ammenities remain in the last century.

A recent chapter in the city of Bogotá, Colombia, where two young people were captured after committing a crime at one of the city's public transport service stations is an example of this. Thanks to the quality of the image, the good approach to the faces and a strategic location of the cameras, the criminals were apprehended and the whole country was able to recognize them.

This situation is only to illustrate the importance of image and video in the current era, in all spheres. And the hotel sector is no exception. An approach to the CCTV or closed circuit television industry for the hotel sector opens the doors not only to better control the so-called back of the house but to guarantee even the tranquility of guests inside and in the perimeter area of the hotel.

The next step for the hotel sector will be the provision of evidence for the authorities. Let's not forget that hotels have traditionally been one of the favorite places for criminals to take refuge or even to hold meetings with a view to their criminal activity. If the video age is harnessed for hotel security and beyond, for citizen safety, hotels will take on a more responsible role with their community.

At the time of the transaction, Hilton Hotels held the 296th position on the Fortune 500 list with $8.2 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio of around 2,900 hotels worldwide.

But when the news of the transaction was known, there was also another chapter in the history of the hotel industry. A sector that increasingly witnesses a massive arrival of new investors, new classes of business and new forms of services. And for the sample is the case of investment firms that arrive constantly attracted by the juicy statements of hotels and by the good prospects of the  business. The case of Blackstone Group is just one of them.

In the midst of this panorama, it seems increasingly difficult for hoteliers to keep their business pure and chaste. In its new dimension, hotels function as a collection center for several businesses that converge in one, therefore, the lesson of this new process will be for the hotel manager more than knowing how to manage will be to know how to delegate.

A button for the sample is the case of spas as a  growing business but at the same time with its own identity, a business that seems to be the new profitability arm of the hotel business. In this edition, we take a look at the process of investment and development of spas in the region in order to open the way for this business in Latin America to be as serious and professional as it is in other latitudes.

Managing to compensate for shortcomings with creativity is an achievement that not everyone can count on. In a region where land and resources are scarce, what better lesson than to successfully recover what apparently no longer serves due to disuse or abuse. Having the possibility to rebuild from the ruins is a challenge not only for creativity but for the finances of any hotel project. La Purificadora, the new hotel of the Habita Group in Puebla, was able to do so. Thanks to the old structures, made for uses that did not contemplate neither air conditioning nor heating, the architects were able to take advantage of natural light, air and water in a smarter way. The result is an air of nature in an avant-garde hotel.

The news continues when we look at the big hotel chains and how they have turned good practices for the protection of the planet into a management with positive economic results. The case of Marriott Hotels Latin America is part of that reality and although there are many hotel chains that walk the same path, the corporate policy implemented by Marriott hotels is an example worthy of admiration, not only for having been a pioneer many years ago, when there was still no talk of global warming, but by the concrete results in financial statements.

Back at the grassroots seems to be the watchword of the positive news of hospitality in the region. Taking care of natural resources but above all taking advantage of them for the benefit not only of a clean operation but of healthier financial statements, are still easy precepts to find. Latin America shows this.

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Although at first some trends can generate resistance such as the one that drives for example the sale of portable oxygen as a consumer product, the reality indicates that there is an important and growing group of consumers who are willing to pay more for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

LOHAS stands for Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability and is a market segment focused on health and wellness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living and social justice. Aspects such as the use of environmentally friendly products and the importance of social responsibility are decisive for this group of consumers.

According to data published by the portal www.lohas.com the sectors of the construction of green buildings and that of food and beverages top the list of determining factors in the purchase of products within this segment, with which the hospitality industry is called to star in the conquest of the new group of consumers.

Between 2003 and 2005, growth in the LOHAS segment of aspects such as the consumption of products that contain soy, or that are organically grown or that do not use artificial colors or carry the Energy Star grew about 70%. While the preference for the non-use of synthetic products in buildings grew by 15% and those of natural products grew by 10%.

Faced with the question, then, about whether the green question is fashion or marketing perhaps the answer is that it is actually both. Social responsibility is something that matters to new consumers and an effective way to sell to this group is by communicating it and displaying it as a label. At the end of the day, what is fashion does not bother.

Lyda Durango
Editor
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