OUR ANNUAL TOP 50 REPORT THE MAGAZINE FOR HOTEL EXECUTIVES // JULY/AUGUST 2012 $20 PEAK 0 7 4 3 6 0 0 4 PERFORMERS # Canada’s top three hotel chains lead a parade of achievers T N E M E E R G A S E L A S T C U + D O R P L I HOTEL RESTOS • SAFETY & SECURITY • WIRELESS A M N O I T A C I L B U P N A I D A N A C hoteliermagazine.com P O F C N Eff. Res (PPI) P S 2 P 6.0.6 R P O A C Volume 24, Number 5 // July/August 2012 Cont ents Features 12 STANDING PROUD After a sloW start, the industrY’s Top 50 enjoYed a solid 2011 By Laura Pratt Scan to view our website 30 THE NEW NORMAL It’s out With the dull hotel restaurants and in With chef-driVen dining destinations By Adrian Bell 38 CHIC MAGNET Hotelier magaZine surVeYed hotels and suppliers to learn about the bedding, linen and draperY trends driVing guestroom design By Jackie Sloat-Spencer 45 SAFE HAVENS High securitY means loW anXietY for Canadian hoteliers By Denise Deveau 48 WI-FI OR DIE Hoteliers charging guests for Internet access could Departments be dead in the Water By Larry Mogelonsky 2 EDITOR’S PAGE 3 CHECKING IN 52 HOTELIER: AndreW Torriani, ON THE COVER: The RitZ-Carlton, Montreal Westmont HospitalitY’s KennY Gibson ( left) , Four Season’s Katie TaYlor (centre) and Fairmont Hotel’s Michael Glennie ( right) Illustrated bY Adrian Lubbers hoteliermagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2012 HOTELIER 1 EDITOR’S PAGE ALL ABOUT RATES peak to anY hotelier and the issue that consistentlY surfaces is the challenge of SmoVing rates to the leVel theY need to be. Whether We’re speaking about a limited- MITCH KOSTUCH | PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER serVice hotel or a luXurY propertY, hoteliers [email protected] around the World are finding it VirtuallY im - ROSANNA CAIRA | EDITOR & PUBLISHER possible to raise hotel rates. GiVen the industrY rcaira@ kostuchmedia.com is recoVering from one of its most challenging DAVID HEATH | ART DIRECTOR recessions, the issue has become eVen more dheath@ kostuchmedia.com precarious. HoW can You justifY raising rates BRIANNE BINELLI | ASSOCIATE EDITOR When occupancY leVels are mediocre at best, bbinelli@ kostuchmedia.com ADRIAN BELL | ASSOCIATE EDITOR and When consumers eXpect frugalitY at abell@ kostuchmedia.com eVerY turn? JACKIE SLOAT-SPENCER | ASSISTANT EDITOR jsloat-spencer@ kostuchmedia.com NoW, a recent studY bY l’Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (SWitZerland) and MAYA TCHERNINA | WEB COMMUNICATIONS RateTiger substantiates that realitY, stating rate paritY is the keY factor af - SPECIALIST fecting hotels’ distribution and reVenue strategies todaY. The studY suggests mtchernina@ kostuchmedia.com hotels are neglecting the fundamentals of reVenue management With an eYe DEREK RAE | PRODUCTION to alternatiVe distribution techniques. MANAGER drae@ kostuchmedia.com The studY found reVenue managers are using channel-management tools BRENDA JAMES | SENIOR and price-shopping reports, up to 11 times a daY, on aVerage, to driVe reVenue ACCOUNT MANAGER on their main channels. “HoWeVer, as theY struggle to maintain price consis - bjames@ kostuchmedia.com tencY,” reads the report, “theY are seeking neW WaYs to improVe eXposure, JIM KOSTUCH | DIRECTOR reach neW markets and increase direct bookings.” jkostuch@ kostuchmedia.com According to Horatiu Tudori, senior lecturer, ReVenue Management, Ecole ELSIE REDEKOPP | ACCOUNTING Hôtelière de Lausanne, “Retail sites are continuouslY monitoring rate paritY, eredekopp@ kostuchmedia.com placing a lot of pressure on hotels to update rates on their channels.” This, in TINA DIMITROPOULOS | EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT turn, is forcing hoteliers to spend more time managing rate paritY and ensuring tinadim@ kostuchmedia.com rate integritY, and consequentlY taking them aWaY from defining more sophisti - ADVISORY BOARD: cated strategies to reduce the cost of distribution and increase ReVPAR. David McMillan , Tracy Sherren , PACRIM Fuelling these changes is the fact that OTAs are getting bigger and in - HOSPITALITY SERVICES, Charles Suddaby , CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD LTD., Bill Stone , creasinglY influential. “We cannot fight against them, so We are trYing to find CBRE, Joe Collura , HOTELEVISION CANADA some other WaYs of communicating our offerings and being eXposed on the LTD., W. Lyle Hall, HALL HOSPITALITY Web,” reads the studY. ADVISORS, INC. , David Larone , PKF, Henry Wu , Rate paritY and the burgeoning poWer of OTAs is forcing hoteliers to source METROPOLITAN HOTELS, Stephen Renard , RENARD INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY, neW reVenue and booking streams. According to the studY, hoteliers are noW Stephen Foster , STARWOOD HOTELS, focusing on direct sales bY deVeloping neW corporate contracts, better promot - Michael Haywood, Anne Larcade , SEQUEL ing their oWn Web sales and maintaining faster aVailabilitY and rates on non- HOTELS & RESORTS conVentional distribution channels to staY ahead of the game. HOTELIER is published eight times a Year bY Kostuch ClearlY it’s a pressing issue, and one that needs to be addressed quicklY. As Media Ltd., 23 Lesmill Rd., Suite 101, Toronto, Ont ., John O’Neill, president and CEO of VancouVer-based O’Neill Hotels and M3B 3P6, (416) 447-0888, FaX (416) 447-5333. All rights Resorts, saYs in this month’s Top 50 oVerVieW ( see story on p. 12 ). “Rate reserVed. Subscription rates: Canada: $25 per Year, single issue $4, U.S.A.: $30 one Year; all other countries $40 per Year. groWth has not kept up With the increase in eXpenses, and it’s in the industrY’ s Canadian Publication Mail Product Sales Agreement best interest to charge an appropriate amount for the serVices We proVide. #40063470. Member of: Canadian Circulations Audit That Will alloW hotel oWners a chance to re-inVest in their product and keep Board, the American Business Media and the Canadian it in top condition. In that case, eVerYone Wins ... including the guest.” Business Press. We acknoWledge the financial support of the GoVernment of Canada, through the Canadian ROSANNA CAIRA Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing actiVities. Printed in Canada on recYcled stock. Editor and Publisher [email protected] FOLLOW US: For daily news and announcements: @hoteliermag on Twitter and Hotelier magazine on Facebook . 2 JULY/AUGUST 2012 HOTELIER hoteliermagazine.com CheckingTHE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS FOR HOTEL EXECUTIVES FROM CANADA AND AR InOUND THE WORLD WELCOMING THE WORLD Hospitality associations hold AGMs in Toronto BY ROSANNA CAIRA The Ripley Aquarium t Was a daY to bid fareWell to outgoing chairs, Welcom e DWight Duncan, finance minister, folloWed Mundell’s incoming ones and chart a future course for three of address, stressing the Vital role tourism plaYs in t he Ontario IOntario’s keY associations. Last month, ORHMA, the economY. The minister also broached the controVersial sub - Greater Toronto Hotel Association (GTHA) and Tourism ject of casinos. “Gaming is here, and it’s here to staY,” he Toronto hosted their respectiVe AGMs at the Metro said. “The question is hoW do We enhance eXpansion and Toronto ConVention Centre. consolidation of gaming? We Want to put casinos Where cus - First up to bat Was the GTHA, Which bid fareWell to tomers are,” he told a room full of hoteliers. “[But] We Won’t outgoing chair AndY Loges, GM, Hilton Airport, and Wel - impose anYthing on a communitY that doesn’t Want it.” comed neW chair Robert HousseZ of the Delta MeadoWVale. At ORHMA’s AGM neXt door, the association Wel - It’s been a busY Year for the association as it dealt With leg - comed incoming chair Darren Sim, of A&W Foodser - islatiVe changes to special occasion permits and Worked Vices of Canada. Sim replaced DaVid Blades of DaYs Inn. through moderniZation of beVerage rules as Well as the in - Later that afternoon, Tourism Toronto’s AGM attracted troduction of accessibilitY legislation. But, most of the talk 800 industrY stakeholders. Citing statistics that shoW at the AGMs Was about tourism. In recent months the as - tourism in Toronto is rebounding, DaVid Whittaker, presi - sociations haVe been Working to put a mechanism in place dent and CEO, said 2011 Was a banner Year for tourism . For to continue the Work of the Destination Marketing Fund the first time, hotels surpassed nine-million room nights sold (DMF), Which Was Wiped out bY the introduction of 13 per and Visitor spending Was a record $4.6 billion. The citY’s oc - cent HST on guestrooms. “We need to establish a DMF to cupancY rate continues to rank in the top 10 in North sustain the long-term funding of our sales and marketing America, With record occupancY leVels this past FebruarY. efforts,” said HousseZ in his opening address. After Years of inactiVitY on the infrastructure f ront, TerrY Mundell, president and CEO of the GTHA, de - todaY there is a Wealth of actiVitY in the citY. “The opening liVered an impassioned plea for continued DMF. “We of four neW hotels is unprecedented in North America, haVe $7.5 million to market Toronto, Mississauga and With the eXception of NeW York,” said Whittaker. Other Brampton. But do We think We can surViVe on $7.5 mil - highlights include the completion of renoVations to Union lion these daYs, in this market, Where competition is so Station; the reVitaliZation of Ontario Place, set for 2017; fierce? SeVen and a half million doesn’t make us competi - and the opening of the RipleY’s Aquarium ( above ) at the tiVe, it makes us irreleVant,” said Mundell, pointing to foot of the CN ToWer, slated to open in 2013. And, With eVents such as 9/11 and SARS, Which impacted the citY’s the citY set to host the Pan Am Games in 2015, there’s a abilitY to attract guests to the GTA. feeling of reneWed optimism. “Toronto is continuing to InterestinglY, Toronto’s DMF Was born in 2004 in an ef - emerge as a major destination to meet in; it’s not the time fort to deal With the impact of those tWo casualties.