The home-sharing specialist was valued at $25 billion in a recent funding round. Is it really worth that much?
Home-sharing juggernaut Airbnb reached a jaw-dropping valuation of $25 billion in its most recent funding round. That figure left some observers scratching their heads as the company is projected to bring in just $900 million in revenue this year and is still operating at a loss.
Read MoreHere's an interesting question... What if travellers identify themselves less and less in terms of where they were born, and increasingly liken themselves to other groups – or, tribes?
Read MoreWe loved this video. Find out their employee turnover dropped to 1/3 of the national average, and their customer loyalty skyrocketed, simply by measuring the intangible by asking the right type of questions.
Read MoreNew Zealand guest nights rose in May at their fastest pace in two years, fuelled by a rebound in both domestic and international travellers and a lift in South Island and hotel park stays.
Seasonally adjusted guest nights advanced 2.6 per cent in May from April, the fastest pace since May 2013's 8.4 per cent gain and snapping the previous month's 0.6 per cent decline, according to Statistics New Zealand.
Stays in holiday parks jumped 5.2 per cent, while backpacker nights climbed 3.4 per cent, motels advanced 2.2 per cent and hotel stays rose 1.3 per cent.
Read MoreBranding touches in clever places can make a big difference to the overall feeling your guests have when they visit your establishment, and what they remember when they leave.
Read MoreInteresting research recently released by Triptease following survey and usability testing with consumers into their browsing behaviour on hotel (and travel) websites. Hotel and travel websites have notoriously low conversion rates, so TripTease’s motivation in part is to find out what can be done to add just a percentage or two to that ratio.
Read MoreWe are delighted to welcome East Pier Hotel in Napier to the Clarity family of users.
In choosing a Property Management System to support their business, they needed a cloud hosted system able to interface to their POS and their OTA provider. Clarity Hotel Manager ticked all the boxes and East Pier went live on our cloud hosted SaaS in April.
Read MoreA total of 172 billion euros was spent on international luxury travel last year. This means that for foreign travel every eighth euro was spent on luxury products. More than 1,000 euros per night was spent by luxury travellers from the United Arab Emirates, India, Kuwait, Brazil, Australia, Canada and China (in descending order). Turnover did not increase due to higher spending per person but rather from a rising number of travellers. Growth drivers were above all new customers in emerging markets, who moved up into the luxury travel segment, or those who returned to the luxury market after the crisis, such as travellers from the USA.
Read MoreThis interesting article by Bruce was published in the June 2015 Hospitality magazine and in my opinion deserves repeating.
Bruce writes that the economic outlook is positive and transaction data suggests there is continued growth in spending across accommodation and food and beverage. A period of economic growth is an opportune time to review prices and margins. Over the past few years hospitality operators have been reluctant to increase prices despite facing increased input costs. Costs are still increasing in a number of areas, particularly supplier costs, rates, wage increases and skilled staff shortages.
Read MoreNearly every hospitality business can relate to this one; that grumpy customer who leaves quietly and then vents their frustrations through online channels such as social media or review websites such as TripAdvisor or booking portals such as Trivago.
As a manager or owner of a hospitality establishment, it's hard not to become emotionally invested in your business and in your premises, leaving you open to a less then favourable reaction to a bad review. The best thing to do? Cool down, then publicly respond.
Read MoreThe tourism industry is heading towards an annual arrivals figure of three million, with data in late May showing yet another month of growth in visitor arrivals.
Visitor arrivals for the year ending April 2015 have been boosted significantly by visitors from Asia, and are sitting now at 2.96 million says Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler.
The Statistics New Zealand data sees total arrivals for the year up 6.7 per cent, and holiday arrivals up 9.7 per cent.
Read MoreThe NZ Chefs Taranaki/Wanganui Hospitality Competitions, held at New Plymouth's Western Institute of Technology (Witt), brought out around 100 aspiring cooks, front of house staff, baristas, mocktail artists and more for a full-day of action.
Witt Faculty Leader of Trades Angela Ferguson said it was the fourth year the competitions had been held at the institute and students were constantly bringing new skills to the table.
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