Excerpt from Apple Insider
A new video shows off the process of using a digital room key stored in Apple Wallet, but don't expect to be able to open your hotel room door with your phone just yet.
The 56-second clip, posted to YouTube on Tuesday by tech reporter Rich DeMuro, details the process of adding a Hyatt room key to Wallet on an iPhone. It depicts using a digital key to get into a hotel room.
Express Mode, which is on by default, allows users to unlocked their hotel room by placing their phone near a smart lock, even if they don't have a smart lock.
The first room key support was provided by Apple. Hyatt began supporting the feature at six hotel locations in Illinois, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, and California in December 2021.
Hyatt is the first hotel chain to support Apple wallet.
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In this edition of the U.S. Lodging Market Overview, we partner with AllTheRooms, which provides insights into the Short-Term Rental Market.
There was a decline in weekly room nights sold in November. The demand for November was 81% higher than in October. The impact could be explained by the seasonality of the market. TheEconomy, Midscale, and Upper Midscale segments were all up in Rooms Sold over the course of the year.
The booking revenues were up significantly over pre-covid numbers due to increases in the number of bookings and the associatedADR. There were more demand increases observed in high-priced markets.
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Adobe Acrobat PDF file) to download the complete report.
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Why Managing the Budget in Your Hotel is Like Playing Baseball 
If you are involved in the budget in your hotel and you have played baseball, then you are probably saying to yourself that I am off my rocker.
The budget is a mean and unruly guest that comes every year and sometimes does not leave completed for weeks, even months. A good game of baseball can be fun and engaging.
There is more than one way to look at the budget. Let's dig a little deeper and see what I'm talking about. Managing the budget in your hotel is no different than fighting life's battles.
We need to unwrap the stiff that just arrived and realize the budget for what it is, a business plan with numbers. It is our job to beat it at its own game.
Here is a plan to help you meet your budget.
You will never win all the games you play, but with some creative strategies you will be better equipped to win more often.
Getting comfortable with the basic rules of baseball and hotel budget making is the first thing to do.
The number one rule is that there are at least nine in a baseball game. The same can be said for the hotel's financial/budget making world, except you have 12 hours to play.
If you fall behind in the earlier rounds, you have the chance to catch up, even if you lose some. You need a system to follow to bring this strategy to life.
In order to play this way, we need to have a financial strategy in our hotel.
- One, do monthly financial statements using the accrual basis.
- Two, incorporate a current, detailed year-end monthly rolling forecast.
- Three and most important, include all department managers in the monthly forecast and reforecast process. Without their involvement and commitment, you are sunk.
Click on the image to enlarge.
You have a couple of months where you can hit it out of the park and not only catch up but pull into the lead if you fail to deliver on any month, so don't get bent out of shape when you fail to deliver.
The strategy of using the hotel budget comes into play with the rolling forecast. It looks like this on the top-level statement.
We have the actual for the first three months of the year. You can reel in the year-end performance by working a re-forecast in any month up to the end of the year, because things did not go according to the budget.
The process begins with the current month, then a detailed forecast of 30, 60, 90 and a year-end target. You need to make sure you are doing everything you can to make sure the team is focused on the end of the year. It's important that you have a team that knows where the bodies are buried and how you can find the savings in payroll and expenses to drive the profit back into positive territory.
You play that game. It is not a game, but you can really benefit from knowing the game is not over just because you are behind.
Your revenue management strategy is critical. The schematic shows that you are behind in the budget compared to the RevPAR. To get back to the target, move heaven and earth. You have a fighting chance to turn the ship around even if you fell down in the first quarter.
I can't tell you how many years I had to fight back from the early days. Spending more than planned and falling behind on revenues. Don't give up, don't throw in the towel.
Why? Just like baseball, you can have a greatinning or three or six and you are back in business. The bad luck and dead market that delivered you such a hammering can turn on a dime.
Managing your hotel budget is similar to paying baseball. You never give up and you have a lot of time to play and win.
If you keep score every month, your next grand slam is possible as long as you keep working.
I help hotel leaders and teams with financial leadership coaching. Learning and applying financial leadership skills can lead to greater career success and increased personal prosperity. I improve individual and team results with a proven return on investment.
You can arrange for a complimentary discussion on how you can create a financially engaged leadership team in your hotel by calling or writing today.
David can be reached at (415) 696-9593. David@hotelfinancialcoach.com is the email address.
The names, logos and products mentioned are owned by their owners.
