Accor North America, one of the nation’s largest hotel owner/operators and the parent company of Studio 6 Extended Stay, today announced its plans for the first new Studio 6 prototype in eight years. Studio 6 is revamping the budget extended stay experience by introducing a modern, simple and functional design while continuing to provide the same special amenities and affordable weekly rates to accommodate travelers staying five nights or more.

Hilton Hotels Corporation today acknowledged receipt of a federal grand jury subpoena from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York requesting documents relating to Hilton's employment of former employees of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and materials which Hilton returned to Starwood in February of 2009.

The bursting of the economic bubble altered why and when people travel and has intensified the way they choose where to stay. But, fortunately, a few things haven't changed. Travel has slowed, but it hasn't stopped. Location and perceived value are still the most important criteria in the hotel selection process and reducing rates is still a terrible idea and does not create new business.. None-the-less, hotels will need to make some adjustments to keep-up with consumer travel changes.

Real Resorts based in Cancun, Mexico, has chosen HBSi, an IBS Group company, to deliver connectivity to select travel distribution partners via the iDemand GatewayTM platform.

Softscribe Inc., a technology Internet public relations firm that drives sales for companies targeting the green tourism and hospitality, green government and related markets, today announced it has formed a joint venture with LEAP Integrated Marketing Solutions, with a presence in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, to provide reciprocal public relations and marketing services that support the international growth of both firms’ clients.

SoftBrands, Inc (Amex: SBN), a global supplier of enterprise application software, has appointed Erik Munoz as vice president of sales, SoftBrands Hospitality, Asia Pacific. Munoz will be responsible for all SoftBrands Hospitality product sales in the Asia Pacific region.

Arabia continues to remain a favourite among investors and operators in the tourism and hospitality sector, in particular those in the budget segment, according to Jonathan Worsley, co-organiser of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference. Worsley, co-organiser the event, now in its fifth year, said that industry figures show that the region is still considered a hot-spot, although 10 and 20 per cent of the 500-plus planned hotel projects in GCC have been put on hold.

Cambean Hospitality, a Miami Beach-based hospitality group that owns and manages four boutique hotel properties in the historic South Beach area, today announced that they will soon be the most Earth-friendly, carbon neutral hospitality company in the world. Cambean plans to achieve this designation by installing solar panels and a wind turbine on the roof of the Clifton South Beach Hotel, and by purchasing carbon offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) from Boulder, Colo.-based Renewable Choice Energy to offset Cambean’s fuel and electricity consumption.

In the 2008 edition of PKF Consulting’s Hospitality Investment Survey (HIS), the lack of liquidity in the market was the driving force in declining investor expectations. As industry participants now contemplate the worsening economic recession and its impact on lodging revenues and expenses, the 2009 edition of HIS reveals that investors anticipate a significant decline in operating incomes and resultant loss in property values unlike anything we have seen in past recessions. However investors have also indicated that with the “dawning” of an expected lodging rebound in 2011, today’s distressed and “dark” environment will provide exceptional investment opportunities to those investors with the ability to take advantage. As has been said many times – “It is always darkest before the dawn.”

Dubai-based Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts is planning to expand into Saudi Arabia, said the executive chairman, Gerald Lawless. The luxury hotel management company, which is part of Dubai Holding, has “a number of leads and negotiations going on right now in Saudi”, Mr Lawless said. “Saudi Arabia is very important for us. I certainly believe very strongly in Saudi Arabia as having great potential for corporate travel and for leisure travel, and of course you have religious tourism, which is a major factor as well.” Analysts have highlighted Saudi Arabia as an important market for hoteliers and hotel investors. “The Saudi market is one of the less hit by the crisis because of the financing model and Sharia-compliant way of doing finance and business,” said Amine Hamdani, vice president of CBRE Hotels Middle East. “There is still tremendous liquidity; the economy is still doing very well.

McGraw-Hill senior manager of global travel administration Mona Jageman, Shell Oil U.S. travel services manager Debra Reid and Paul Schnizler, senior manager of business and employee services at not-for-profit government contractor Mitre, spoke with Business Travel News editors during this month's Association of Corporate Travel Executives Global Education Conference in Washington, D.C., about the challenges they face in managing their corporate travel programs in the economic downturn.

Traveler compliance with preferred hotel programs, though improving, still trails other policy aspects, and buyers are reporting emerging challenges in recent months as competing hotel deals that beat negotiated rates tempt travelers to book outside the program. "Compliance with preferred hotel programs is still not what it needs to be," American Express Global Advisory Services vice president Frank Schnur said. "Travel managers need to be even more vigilant in communicating the value of their programs." Preliminary research for Business Travel News' 2009 Corporate Travel 100 benchmarking report shows that hotel program compliance is on the rise to an average of 67 percent, up from 59 percent two years prior. Similarly, preliminary data for an upcoming study of large-market travel buyers indicates that most are in the 50 percent to 69 percent range in terms of hotel compliance, with few showing levels above that range.

Solare Hotels & Resorts (Head Office: Minato Ward, Tokyo; President: A. G. Virili; www.solarehotels.com) will open the eagerly anticipated Loisir Hotel & Spa Tower Naha as a luxury spa resort on July 17th, 2009. The existing 419 rooms Loisir Hotel Naha will be rebranded, and integrated with a new annex building, the Loisir Spa Tower Naha, on an adjoining site.

Morgans Hotel Group Co. (NASDAQ: MHGC) continues to turn up the heat on innovation and impresses at every corner of its boutique hotels. Today, the company announced that Mondrian in South Beach just snagged the cover of Conde Nast Traveler’s May issue. Featuring a shot of their outdoor red carpet lounges and foliage-curtained private cabanas, Mondrian tops the famed “Hot List” issue, the definitive guide to the hottest new hotels in the world. Inside the magazine, the interiors of Mondrian also prevail as the opener of the “Hot List” section, with an image of the oversized gold bell chandeliers hanging over Sunset Lounge, the celebrity and chic-set nightlife destination that was also selected in the issue’s “Hot Nights” section.

The dramatic decline in U.S. lodging industry performance, which began in late summer 2008, has affected almost all industry segments and markets. Five major markets—Phoenix, Arizona; New York; Detroit, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Miami, Florida—have experienced particularly sharp revenue-per-available-room declines based on Smith Travel Research’s latest three-month numbers ending February 2009. Phoenix has endured the most pain, with occupancy declining 16.8 percent, and average rate sliding 14.2 percent. This combination pushed RevPAR down almost 29 percent. The market’s woes are exacerbated by significant supply growth—up 4.9 percent in the latest 12 months—and a large number of rooms in the construction pipeline.

Although changes in U.S. labor law dominated the discussion in the HR Executive Roundtable, held in Orlando in March 2009, participants also examined the need to reposition their firms for future growth opportunities. Organized by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, the roundtable was cosponsored by Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the HR in Hospitality™ Conference, the nation's foremost human resources conference promoter.

2008 may have ended on a dour note, and challenges still lie ahead, but the travel-and-tourism industry will rebound by 2010 with steady growth that will continue throughout the decade, according to Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council. “We are not in the car industry … travel and tourism is resilient,” he said during a general session at the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference. The industry, which represents 10 percent of the world gross domestic product, experienced 1.8-percent growth in 2008, according to data compiled by the WTTC. The council projected contraction of 3.6 percent in 2009, followed by an average growth of 4 percent to round out the next 10 years.

The H-2B visa program was never a cure-all for the hospitality industry’s staffing woes, but recent changes have made it practically unusable for a large section of the industry. Additional modifications some members of Congress are pushing for could increase the program’s cost and complexity even more. To make the employment issue even more dire, there is expected to be a shortage of workers for the foreseeable future, even with the high rate of unemployment in the United States. “The program is constantly changing and constantly becoming more onerous and hard to follow,” said Paul Monte, general manager and CEO of Gurney’s Inn Resort, Spa and Conference Center in Montauk, New York. “I’m sure the intent is to legislate the program out of existence.

Magnuson Hotels, the world’s largest independent hotel group, announced today the launch of a national low-cost sign financing and rebranding partnership with CSC Sign Corporation. Most hotel franchisors add hotel chain price markups to brand signage, with the costs then passed along to franchisees. Hotel owners rebranding to Magnuson Hotels’ 3 franchise-alternative brands will benefit from an industry-first: reduced cost sign manufacture/installation without standard hotel chain markup.

Minority business leaders and workers across America have joined forces to defeat proposed legislation officially known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The Employee Free Choice Act – or “card check” bill will effectively eliminate secret ballots for workers in union organizing elections and bind employers to contracts that inhibit their ability to create much-needed new jobs.