15

Feb 12

US Tourism to Save the Day

The state of the economy is turning and President Obama is making sure that the hospitality industry is part of the change.  The President announced in January 2012 that he had issued an Executive Order designed to boost travel and tourism within the United States.   With all of the other political noise, the significance of this landmark Order to our industry may be overlooked.

Nancy Johnson, chair and executive vice president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association states, “…tourism is a low-cost/high-reward prospect and one of the few industries showing positive growth”.  Showcasing this point highlights how we can take advantage of one of the country’s top industries to help boost our economic future.

One of the main points of this order will be to reduce the wait times for visas in rapid-growth countries such as China and Brazil.  Opting to expedite the process for obtaining travel visa’s will encourage larger groups of people to explore and participate in US tourism, thus creating more opportunities domestically.   It is speculated that with this Order the United States can potentially create 1.3 million new jobs, producing $859 billion in cumulative additional economic output by the year 2020. [1]

 AH&LA will continue to work closely with Congress, the Administration, and other governmental agencies to work on this Order for the benefit of our economy, workers, and those who are a part of this great industry. 

Congratulations to AHLA for their efforts and to President Obama for doing the right thing!

Posted in News | No Comments

1

Nov 11

America’s Best Franchising Opens Third Hotel In China

America’s Best Franchising continues its expansion in China with a new contract effective November 1st for management of a four-star hotel in Wuyi, a city of 210,000 people located about 250 miles southwest of Shanghai in a prominent tea-producing region and a developing tourist area.

It becomes the third hotel and the first management contract in China for America’s Best Hotels China Limited, a partnership which has operated two hotels since January of 2010 in Yiwu, a city of two million people located about 190 miles southwest of Shanghai – a 107-room Budgetel Inn and a 103-room America’s Best Hotel.

The new property in Wuyi, which features 169 deluxe rooms and suites, has been rated by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) as the top hotel in the city and is being rebranded as the America’s Best Koshine Hotel.

Amenities include a gym, a sauna, an in-house laundry, multiple game rooms, eight meeting rooms for groups ranging from 12 to 60 people, and a ballroom for weddings, large meetings, and special events. There is also a lobby lounge, an executive lounge, and a 200-seat restaurant that serves three meals a day featuring both Chinese and Western cuisine.

The America’s Best Hotels China Limited partnership is scheduled to open four additional hotels within the next six months, the first being a 168-room America’s Best Inn in January of 2012 in Wuxi, which has six million people and is often dubbed “Little Shanghai” because of its close proximity to that city.

The three other new hotels will all be within 200 miles of Shanghai – a 103-room Budgetel and a 250-room 3 Palms in Jinhua, plus an 88-room America’ Best Boutique in Yiwu.

In July of this year, America’s Best Franchising signed another master licensee in China – Golden Wisdom Management Consulting Ltd. of Bejing – which has an aggressive schedule for opening as many as 15 properties a year under various of the company’s brands.

“As travel for business and leisure increases in China both by domestic residents and by international guests, there is a big need for hotels that are dependable and reasonably priced,” said Doug Collins, Chairman and CEO of America’s Best Franchising. “Our licensees are providing those accommodations to the traveling public by building on our system of proven brands and support services.”

Atlanta-based America’s Best Franchising operates 303 hotels with about 20,000 rooms in almost 20 countries around the world under its five upper economy brands – America’s Best, Budgetel, Country Hearth, Parkside, and Vagabond – plus its upscale 3 Palms brands for independent hotels.

Guest room at America’s Best Koshine Hotel in Wuyi, China

Lobby of America’s Best Koshine Hotel in Wuyi, China

Posted in Business, News | No Comments
Tags: , ,

25

Oct 11

AMERICA’S BEST FRANCHISING ADDED 17 NEW PROPERTIES DURING 3RD QUARTER

The third quarter of 2011 continued 15 quarters of uninterrupted growth for America’s Best Franchising, Inc., as it sold 17 new franchises and opened 10 new hotel properties.  That brings to 32 the number of new franchises sold by the Company in 2011 and 20 new hotel properties opened.

Atlanta-based America’s Best Franchising, Inc. now operates 302 hotels around the world with almost 20,000 rooms under its five upper economy brands – America’s Best Inns & Suites, Budgetel Inns & Suites, Country Hearth Inns & Suites, Parkside Inns, and Vagabond Inns & Suites – plus its upscale 3 Palms Hotels & Resorts brands for independent hotels.

“We are on target to achieve our goal of selling and opening 50 new hotels during 2011,” said Doug Collins, Chairman and CEO of America’s Best Franchising, Inc.  “Expansion is accelerating both domestically and internationally, as we concentrate on building a network of hotels that are profitable for franchisees and affordable for travelers – qualities which are especially important in the current economy.”

The 17 new properties added during the third quarter are:

America’s Best Inns & Suites

  • Altamonte Springs, Florida, north of Orlando – 107 rooms
  • Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth – 46 rooms
  • Sylacauga, Alabama, southeast of Birmingham – 46 rooms
  • South Lake Tahoe, California – 34 rooms
  • Alexandria, Minnesota, between Minneapolis and Fargo, North Dakota – 18 rooms
  • Big Lake, Minnesota, northwest of Minneapolis – 34 rooms

Vagabond Inns & Suites

  • South San Francisco, California – 117 rooms
  • Santa Rosa, California, north of San Francisco – 107 rooms
  • Modesto, California – 100 rooms
  • Bakersfield, California – 57 rooms
  • Klamath Falls, Oregon, east of Medford – 52 rooms

Country Hearth Inns & Suites

  • Madison, Alabama, west of Huntsville – 153 rooms
  • Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – 79 rooms
  • Ripley, Tennessee, northeast of Memphis – 40 rooms

Budgetel Inns & Suites

  • Memphis, Tennessee – 65 rooms
  • South Lake Tahoe, California – 28 rooms

3 Palms Resorts

  • Bay City, Michigan, north of Saginaw – 97 rooms

Posted in Business, News | No Comments

21

Oct 11

VAGABOND BRAND ADDS 6 PROPERTIES, INCREASES ROOM REVENUES

The Vagabond brand continues its solid growth in both properties and financial performance, with the addition of six new hotels in the past 90 days and with a 9% increase in room night sales revenue year-to-date over the comparable period of 2010.

There are 40 Vagabond properties currently in operation featuring 3,238 rooms, with another four hotels scheduled to open by the end of 2011.

“In an uncertain economy, Vagabond remains a bright spot,” said Doug Collins, Chairman and CEO of America’s Best Franchising, Inc., which assumed licensing and management responsibilities for the brand in August of 2009. “Room night sales revenues in September were up 14% over the comparable month in 2010, which certainly represents a healthy achievement and we hope is an indicator of things to come.”
Locations for the six newest properties are:

  • Williamsburg, Virginia – 128 rooms and 20 suites, opened in July
  • Bakersfield, California – 53 rooms and 4 suites, opened in September
  • Klamath Falls, Oregon – 47 rooms and 5 suites, to open in November
  • Modesto, California – 100 rooms, to open on November 1st
  • Santa Rosa, California – 100 rooms, to open by year-end
  • South San Francisco, California – 117 rooms, to open by year-end

“In today’s competitive hotel marketplace, established brand names are more important than ever,” explained Gary S. Williams, President of Maryland-based Coakley & Williams Hotel Management Company, which manages more than 30 properties including the new Vagabond properties in Santa Rosa and South San Francisco.

“Vagabond may not be the largest hotel brand in our portfolio, but we look forward to the benefits of its solid reputation, extraordinary customer service, proven franchise support services, and impressive reservations delivery.”

Similar sentiments are expressed by Franchisee Jag Patel, whose new hotel in Bakersfield is his fourth property featuring the Vagabond brand.

“We have built a long-term relationship with Vagabond and America’s Best Franchising, Inc. because we can depend on the brands and the people,” he said. “Together, we are creating a desirable, comfortable, quality hotel experience – for our guests, as well as for us as Owners.”

Atlanta-based America’s Best Franchising, Inc. operates more than 300 properties around the world under its upscale 3 Palms Hotels & Resorts brand for independent hotels and its five upper economy brands – America’s Best Inns, Budgetel Inns, Country Hearth Inns, Parkside Resorts and Vagabond Inns.

Posted in Business, News | 1 Comment
Tags:

25

Jul 11

AMERICA’S BEST FRANCHISING ROAD TO SUCCESS

The July issue of AAHOA Lodging Business features a story about America’s Best Franchising. The catalyst for the story is our recent owners and managers meeting … the focus is the company’s growth, expansion, and innovation.

Read more…

Posted in Business, News | No Comments

21

Jul 11

China What a Place! What an Opportunity!

“In China everything is possible (and impossible).”  Thomas Tiang – America’s Best Franchising China Master Franchisee

During my recent visit to China last week I learned much more than my two prior trips. In just 5 days I visited Shanghai, Yiwu, Hangzhou, Wuxi and Beijing. I traveled by plane ,car, high speed and normal speed train, and foot.

Wherever I visited I tried to walk as much as possible. My hosts were fabulous! Thanks to the very resourceful Thomas Tiang every arrangement was made, driver waiting,train ticket purchased, hotel booked, meal beyond expectations, and meeting set.

Our America’s Best Inn in Wuxi will open later this year. This 5 star property will be the flagship of our China’s America’s Best Inn Chain. It is a 176 unit new construction property is attached to an office tower also under construction. This is a great location in this city of 3.5 million people. I enjoyed meeting Mr. Liu, the owner, George Sun the general manager and seeing our good friend Tracy Wang who will be the resident manager.

Our China operations started in Yiwu, and while I was there I visited our America’s Best Inn and Budgetel. I was particularly overwhelmed by the reception at the Budgetel. Thank you Chairman Wang Jian Hua and your wonderful staff. Business is great in Yiwu!

My trip was capped off by a visit to Beijing. Beijing was different than the other cities visited. Rather than store after store on the ground floor of busy streets. Beijing has wide streets with large impressive buildings contacted by overpasses and under passes. The Forbidden City and Tian’an Men Square are remarkable. If it is the Forbidden City why are there so many people?

While in Beijing we entered into a significant transaction with Golded Wisdom Management and Training, Ltd. to license our 3 Palms, Parkside, and Budgetel brands. The agreement also calls for the introduction of 5 Palms to China.

Golden Wisdom was represented by our new business partners, President Liu Xiaodong and Depenty President Jenny Jiang who were wonderful hosts. See more about this exciting news on our websites.

Posted in News, Travels | 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

28

Jun 11

America’s Best Franchising Partners With Google To Launch Opt-In Ad-Word Campaign

America’s Best Franchising has launched a system-wide ad-word campaign in partnership with Google.

Under the program, participating hotels create an ad and choose the key words related to their property. When consumers search that particular word, the ad will show up in the “sponsored links” section next to the search results. A hotel can also choose to be displayed in the Google Network, where they can choose exact placement, or can let placement occur based on contextual targeting using keywords.

Such a program is usually $15,000 to $20,000 per month with Google, however ABFI is now including it as an optional portion of the franchise agreement. If franchisees choose to opt in, it costs $10 – $20 per day, per property. ABFI estimates, based on trial runs, that hotels will generate $8 – $9 of revenue for every dollar spent with Google.

Posted in Business, News | No Comments

24

Jun 11

New Video From America’s Best Franchising!

Posted in News | No Comments
Tags:

15

Jun 11

Visa Reform- Pathway to Jobs and Exports

chinese-passport

Although no one seems to agree on anything in Washington, everyone wants more jobs and exports. Visa reform can create 500,000 jobs and 60 billion in exports according to the Travel and Tourism Advisory board just by getting back our share of foreign travel lost in the last few years. President Obama’s jobs council recently highlighted visa reform. US policy is the single greatest obstacle to visiting the United States according to the US Travel Association.

For example, in China it takes 120 days to get an interview to get a visa to visit the US. We only have 5 visa offices in China -the UK has 12. The average Chinese traveller spends $4000.  Europe had 3 million Chinese visitors last year we had 500,000. Do you think we are leaving money on their table? Yes we are. The visa offices more than pay for themselves.

Other countries have similar circumstances. India is another huge market where we can greatly increase market share!

Discover America Coalition which includes The American Hotel and Lodging Association and the US Chamber of Commerce has the following recommendations:

  1. Make Visa Offices Responsive to Demand
  2. Reduce Interview Time
  3. Provide info to potential Travelers – ( the US is a GREAT place to visit!)
  4. Expand visa waiver time

I am not talking about compromising national security, we are advocating better execution of the laws currently in place and expansion of the visa waiver program for qualified countries. For example Israel, a security conscious country, grants visa waiver status to China.

This is a no brainer! It creates lots of jobs, improves exports, helps foreign relations, and has no cost.

These are only the highlights, more information is available from the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Spread the word of this tremendous opportunity!!

Posted in Business, News | 1 Comment

6

Jun 11

2011 Managers & Owners Conference – Opening Remarks

Part One

Part Two

Posted in News | No Comments

Older Entries
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn