Hospitality looks to renovation to offset slow return of growth in other areas

The hospitality industry was among some of the hardest hit throughout the recession, and the climb out has been both a long and arduous process. Along the way though, many of hospitality’s largest players have looked for ways to more efficiently allocate resources and fund budgets to ensure that their hotels’ standards remained intact – or in many cases, kept on the up and up.

With efficient renovations, hotels are able to both save money and look to increase profits – each of which can make the climb easier.

In the July issue of Lodging Magazine, Jan Freitag notes that slow renewal of growth is prominent in the hotel spa industry. While room demand was considerably higher in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same time period one year prior, many of the amenities associated with luxury hotel spas still aren’t seeing growth. Treatments which were discounted toward the end of 2008 and into 2009 still hadn’t improved their rates in 2010, with costs being roughly $2 per minute for an hour long treatment, down roughly nine percent.

With heavy discounts and people expecting more for less, any turnaround is seen as good news – and with salon sales, it appears we may have that. Freita states that the average revenue per salon service for the first quarter of 2010 was around $61. This actually is 4 percent higher than it was in the first quarter of 2009” which shows that instead of pricing remaining stagnant, it is gaining integrity.

With growth continuing in the industry albeit slowly, smart decisions with other factors of the business are paramount to making sure it stays strong.