Blog Assignment 1

Bradley Schimidt, What to Expect in 2008, Hospitality Technology.
www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.

This article allowed me to understand the issues and trends that will affect society in the year to come. Touching upon only a hand full of topics this article deceided to discuss four major points as to how (we) are going to handle all these changes. Going Green, Millennials(born between 1796-2000), Healthy traveller, and the Economy.
Many hospitality operators are seeking to do their part to protect the environment through building and operating green facilities. A major barrier to building green, however, is the fact that development cycles prevent the most efficient technologies from being built into hotels. developers aren't yet getting more greenbacks for their green buildings. Until they do, motivation to build them is low. developers aren't yet getting more greenbacks for their green buildings. Until they do, motivation to build them is low.

Millennials use the Internet to spend money, and a major goal of the hospitality industry in the Internet age has been to discern the best way to leverage the Internet to take advantage of that reality. And so as the Internet has become an extension of the lives of Millennials, the Internet has become an extension of the hotel and restaurant brand in response.Millennials are even affecting the architectural concepts of hotels themselves.Starwood's aloft were designed with these specific elements in mind. They feature 24 hour dining and fitness center amenities, and open floor plans designed to draw guests to social common areas where they can eat, drink, check email and above all, relax, together.

Large portions of the American public, witnessing a rising incidence of obesity, have become increasingly health conscious. For the hospitality industry, this has mostly manifested itself in the very public battle over trans fats.With several trans fat bans already on the books and legislation pending for 2008 in 18 states, as of press time, numerous restaurants and hotels - including KFC, Starbucks, Papa Murphy's, Marriott and Loews - saw the writing on the wall and announced their own plans to ban trans fats.


This directly affects both restaurant and hotel operations and though costs are not always passed to consumers, it can happen. Starbucks did just that twice in a nine month period - October 2006 and July 2007 - citing rising energy and dairy costs as the reason for raising the cost of its beverages.In times of economic prosperity, the average consumer would be able to absorb such a price increase. However, consumers themselves are experiencing the increased commodity costs at the grocery store and at the pump. Combined with sub-prime mortgage woes and recession fears consumers may think twice about where they're going to spend and discretionay dollars.

I found this article to be very interesting because for the last week we have been disucssing trends that (we) the class would believe to be taking place and then I found this article about certain trends that will effect all of the industry slowly. Each topic the author spoke about had a good and a bad part about the trend. for example I think going Green is a great Idea but how can one jus afford to close their restauant for some time in order to do a complete renovation. That is very colsty the benifits are great t the end but what happens to the mom and pop restaurants who can not afford to change to a larger company. I feel that all these trends will happen but it will take time for many hoteliers, shop owners, or anyone else to be able to support there finances ona hold.