Brigitte Nicolas

According to Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends 2016, 80% of executives report that they are either currently restructuring their organization or have recently completed the process. The report states that the need for innovation and the growing Millennial workforce among other factors is driving a trend for businesses to be organised into ever-changing “networks of teams”. [...]

According to STR’s July 2016 Pipeline Report, Greater London has the most ‘rooms in construction’ in Europe, with 5,400 rooms in 32 hotels. PwC reports that the UK accounted for about 60% of European M&A volumes in 2015. The UK continues to be a strong market, although it is [...]

The latest data from Cisco suggests that by 2019, more than four-fifths (86%) of workloads will be processed by cloud data centres and only 14% will be processed by traditional data centres. Cloud has been a game changer in all businesses, but in hospitality there has also been widespread upgrading of PMS and the introduction [...]

A survey published in the Harvard Business Review has revealed that the top two leadership qualities, as rated by global leaders, are having ‘high ethical and moral standards’ and ‘providing goals and objectives with loose guidelines/direction’. In hospitality, leaders at hotel management level and brand executive level [...]

In June, Ryanair announced its intention to enter into the world of accommodation. “Ryanair Rooms” is just the latest addition to the changing sphere of hospitality distribution. The company has 116m customers and this move from air travel to accommodation booking, again highlights the potential for any established brand to disrupt the industry. There is still much [...]

According to statistics from STR, in Q2 2016, Europe’s hotel industry reported nearly flat occupancy growth (+0.6% to 73.9%) and Central/South America region reported a decrease in occupancy. This year there has been a lot of reasons for concern around where we are in the economic cycle and whether geopolitical issues could disrupt the market. With [...]

How to create effective social spaces is a question posed by many designers of parks, universities, and more recently offices. ABX, a leading building industry event in America is even holding a competition this year to create an innovative design for a social space. A hotel is a [...]

Research from Forrester found that 73% of people consider “valuing their time” as the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. Being able to anticipate and react to needs in a friendly accommodating way is vital in hospitality. People skills are essential to a successful career and this focus [...]

This year, Hyatt launched a new ‘soft brand’ The Unbound Collection, a portfolio of individual properties with a ‘distinct character’. The popularity and character of independent hotels is being harnessed by soft brands. For the individual hotel owner being part of a collection offers them better exposure and other benefits in exchange for a fee. [...]

According to the L2 Digital IQ Index, Marriott has the highest digital IQ of all luxury hotel brands, at 162. This is a considerable margin above the second ranked hotel group, which has been given a Digital IQ of 137. An understanding of how to engage online is vital to the success of a hospitality [...]