PHILADELPHIA — As the 26th annual AAHOACON wound down here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center earlier this month, with 5,300 attendees and nearly 500 exhibitors, AAHOA President and CEO Laura Lee Blake looked back both on the event and the industry’s changes over the past few years.
Education
The conference included 10 education sessions both before the show opened and, for the first time, on the trade show floor. Before the opening general session even began, AAHOA and Kalibri hosted the Certified Hotel Profit Analyst course, a new program to provide owners with tools and best practices to drive profitability. The course was open to 100 hoteliers. “They sold that out,” Blake recalled, adding that the organizers had to shut down registrations due to ongoing demand. “People sat there for five hours and did not leave, and I even heard responses that it was the best program they've ever had in the history of working as a hotel owner and attending all these industry conferences. So I think word will spread on that, and we're offering additional classes online, and we'll be offering this at future events.”
Calling education “clearly critical,” Blake noted the association’s efforts over the years to inform members with initiatives like the 12 Points of Fair Franchising. “This is an educational tool, because then, as they're reading through it, they can identify what's important to them,” she said.
Advocacy
Blake also noted AAHOA’s advocacy initiatives at both the federal and local level to support owners’ interests. During the opening general session, then-Chairman Kamalesh (KP) Patel said that the association had spent $1.2 million on advocacy efforts for members over the past year and a half—more than in any other year. “We have more lobbyists than we've ever had in the time this association has been around,” he said.
The association has been focused on fighting minimum wage increases at the city level. “We are seeing more and more issues with unions being able to get ordinances passed in some of the major cities to really increase the minimum wage,” Blake said. The association had “great success” securing an exemption to San Diego’s new Hospitality Minimum Wage Ordinance for smaller hotels. The ordinance, which applies to hotels with more than 150 guestrooms, phases in minimum wage increases for hotel employees, starting at $19 per hour on July 1 this year and reaching $25 per hour by 2030.
“I spoke with the San Diego City Council,” Blake recalled. “We hired a lobbyist in the area, and we were able to get a carve-out for any hotels with 150 rooms or less. They are not required to pay those very high minimum wages.” The association also convinced the City Council that the increases should be phased in gradually so that hoteliers could plan and budget accordingly. “We have an incredibly strong government affairs team,” Blake said. “I'm very proud of all that they're doing.”
The association also is meeting with brands to discuss ancillary revenues, such as charging for parking fees, early check-in and late check-out. “That's a win-win for both sides,” she said.
Similarly, as insurance premiums rise “tremendously,” Blake said the association is working with top brokers to create a special program for AAHOA members, securing data from member hoteliers to help determine what this plan could look like.
Profits and Profitability
Ultimately, Blake said, AAHOA’s focus for its members is profitability—a common concern among attendees. Many of the industry’s challenges come down to the fact that expenses are rising while revenues are largely flat—if not declining “a bit,” she said.
To that end, the Association is leveraging partnerships with technology companies to help reduce costs for owners. In January, AAHOA selected MEWS as its official property-management system (which Blake noted former chair KP Patel called the “profitability-management system”), providing access to dedicated member pricing and guidance to do more with fewer workers.
And just before the convention, AAHOA appointed Folio the tech platform for the AAHOA Marketplace. “They're an amazing platform that will be able to allow members to really get on their phones with some of the shopping experiences,” Blake said, describing it as working similarly to Amazon.
With owners looking to reduce expenses, Blake noted that some owners are looking to end their partnerships with the brands and become independent hoteliers as a way of saving money on franchise fees. This, of course, presents a different kind of challenge as the hoteliers lose the built-in marketing and reservations system that comes with a brand affiliation.
“Our AAHOA members are true business owners, and they will continue to evolve, continue to expand,” Blake predicted.