3 things to know about the US leisure traveler

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September 28, 2017

Measuring and Incentivizing Front Desk and Reservations Upselling

By Doug Kennedy

Chances are that like most hoteliers this time of year you are busy formulating your financial game plan for 2018. If so, I’m pretty sure your owners or asset managers are looking for more revenue, as all owners seem to do every year. With occupancies performing well in most markets, unless you are planning to build more hotel rooms the only way to squeeze out more revenue is to increase ADR.

Implementing a front desk and reservations upselling program, or improving the one already in place, can help your hotel achieve its revenue goals.

Of course, one component of a successful upselling program is training your frontline front desk and reservations colleagues on guest engagement tactics, which I have addressed in previous training articles.

As important, however, is implementing the best practices for measuring results and incentivizing success.

Click here for the full article.

Court Approves Policy to Restrict the Accrual of Vacation In First Year on the Job

In a recent California Court of Appeal decision ( Minnick v. Automotive Creations, Inc. , 2017 WL 3203265 (2017)) an employee who had been employed for less than was not eligible for vacation pay at the time of termination if the company stated a legally correct policy that employees do not begin to accrue vacation until after year one of their employment.

3 things to know about the US leisure traveler

Research presented on a recent Phocuswright webinar shows that the average U.S. leisure traveler is young, affluent and a super-consumer. Here’s what you need to know about U.S. leisure travelers.

(Photo illustration: Annamarie Hudson)

By Danielle Hess

dhess@hotelnewsnow.com @HNN_Danielle

REPORT FROM THE U.S.—The average leisure traveler from the United States is a super-consumer between the ages of 18 and 34 who takes about three trips a year and spends $3,019, according to research from Phocuswright.

On a recent webinar titled, “The U.S. leisure traveler: Understanding consumer lifestyle behavior,” Phocuswright Research Analyst Mark Blutstein offered insights on the average U.S. leisure traveler and heavy leisure travelers.

Here are three takeaways from the presentation.

1. Leisure travelers are young and affluent

The U.S. leisure traveler segment is made up of people, age 18 to 34, who earn $75,000 a year.

The younger side of this age group—travelers who are 18 to 24 years old—are most likely to take a leisure trip, according to research from 2016.

“In our research, we do not track the education levels of those non-travelers, but social research and other research shows a strong correlation between income and education,” Blutstein said. “As far as travelers, 54% of (U.S.) travelers report either a bachelor’s degree or higher.”

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