The developer hired to create a successful business plan for Atwood Lake Resort and Conference Center says he had secured nine tenants for the property, identified 58 potential local investors and cultivated the interest of three banks to fund the project.

Instead, the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District board of directors voted June 30 to demolish the financially struggling facility.

During a 9 a.m. meeting today in Dellroy, the board may take additional steps to execute its demolition plan.

John Meeske, chief executive officer of Resorts and Clubs Inc. and The Resort Experience Co. — Atwood, was invited by the MWCD about 17 months ago to come to the area in an effort to create a viable business model for the Atwood lodge.

The lodge, which lost nearly $1 million in 2010, closed Oct. 3, putting 40 full- and part-time employees out of work. Atwood Lodge had lost an average of $159,000 a year since opening in 1965.

Yet Meeske remains convinced that it could be a vibrant part of the Carroll County business landscape.

“The main purpose of our organization is to redesign the broken business models of resorts and clubs,” Meeske explained. “Our team members have worked successfully on some of the most complex ‘broken’ resorts in the world.”

Meeske assumed a consulting role on the Atwood project.

“As part of our role, we were to identify investors, negotiate with sources of debt capital and develop a comprehensive master plan to fix the problems that have prevented Atwood from being successful,” he said.

“We proposed putting together a business model that would take Atwood’s existing assets and repositioning them so that they could be used as collateral to create a viable enterprise and to secure the necessary funds to solve the Atwood problem,” he said.

“Unfortunately the MWCD kept moving the ‘cheese’ and changing the deal.”

Meeske said his company was in the process of developing a land-use plan to construct additional cabins, homes and villas on the surrounding property. The plan included:

• A high-tech corporate conference center.

• State of the art fitness center and spa.

• Culinary school.

• Restaurant and sports bar with both a show kitchen in the dining room and a catering kitchen for groups.

• A world-class, short-game golf training facility to complement the Atwood Golf Experience.

• A well-known Ohio-based wellness program license.

However, MWCD board member Richard J. Pryce of North Canton, retired president of Aultman Hospital, said he wasn’t convinced that Meeske’s plan would be successful.

Pryce was joined by directors William P. Boyle Jr. of Richland County and Steve Kokovich of Muskingum County in voting in favor of razing the main lodge building and the golf pro shop.

The board heard Meeske’s proposal three or four times.

“I was never impressed by it,” Pryce said.

Harry C. Horstman of Harrison County and David L. Parham of Carroll County voted against demolition.

Horstman said he had hoped to see the lodge continue to operate in a scaled-down version.

Officials at Kent State University Tuscarawas have been in discussion for several years with the MWCD to be part of the solution to help save the facility.

The university was considering a business-innovation center in the county and housing it at the lodge and expanding its academic programs to include ones that would be a good fit for that environment.

They might include hospitality, culinary, golf-course management and horticulture, as well as programs related to the resort industry.
Copyright 2011 The Times-Reporter. Some rights reserved

Apparently, many Americans are not satisfied with the memberships they have in many loyalty programs.  This was the finding in a recent study conducted by Hotels.com.  According to this survey, 93% feel that improvements need to be made to their memberships.

A large percentage (59%) seek to use their benefits with less restrictions, while 37% don’t believe the added bonuses are really as great as the companies make them sound.  Nearly half of the respondents did not use their program in the last year for hotel stays, flights and car rentals.

When it comes to the travel sector, loyalty programs have long had problems.  These programs were nearly impossible for anyone to attain other than those who travel frequently, because of heavy restrictions, confusing terms and large redemption requirements.  Hotels.com created a simple program to change this problem with welcomerewards.  Now, the program member can receive one free night’s stay after every 10 that are booked.

The key benefits of welcomerewards are:

A large variety of choices.  Worldwide, there are more than 53,000 property choices.  Members can redeem a night up to $400 in value as long as they have spent a minimum of $40 each night for the 10 nights that are booked.

A wide array of resort types.  Members are allowed to stay at boutique properties, condos, chain hotels and B&B’s to build up their free night.

The program is simple.  No need to collect points, and there are no blackout dates.  Simply book 10 nights at any location and get a free night.

Respondents of the survey named off a variety of things they would give up in order to stay free for one night at a hotel.  Some of these sacrifices included giving up chocolate, dropping their cell phone and clothes shopping.  Hotels.com makes this easy for them - without the harsh sacrifices!

Earlier this summer, The Jenks House Bed & Breakfast owners installed a rainwater capture system, so now they don’t have to look to the city’s water supply when the ground gets dry.

The B&B, a two-guestroom accommodation, is owned by Tom and Ila Rae Merten.  The system guides water from the garage apartment roof into four 275 gallon storage tanks.  193 gallons of captured water result when they receive one inch of rainfall, and with Jacksonville averaging 52 inches per year, they expect that the system will collect 10,000 gallons or more of rainwater per year, which will be used for the B&B’s lawn and organic garden.

The owners installed the rainwater capture system themselves, which reportedly cost about $650.  Although it will likely take about three or more years to recoup the investment they made, Tom says that if they had hired someone to install it the payback time would have been longer.  He estimates that this project will effectively save them about 2,000 gallons of water per month.

The Mertens have taken several other steps to make the B&B more environmentally friendly, including changing most of the interior lighting to compact fluorescents, and drying linens on a clothesline instead of using a clothes dryer.  They use environmentally safe cleaners, and purchase goods in bulk when possible.  They also grow their own vegetables and fruits, and compost all scraps.

The Jenks House Bed & Breakfast is only the second B&B in the state to receive the honor of being designated as a Florida Green Lodging property.

To engage the traveling public and its members, the American Hotel & Lodging Association recently began several initiatives to get people involved in the efforts to make the hospitality industry more environmentally friendly.  These initiatives include the Green Partner Program, Green Tips for Travelers and GreenQuest tracking system.

Green Partners sponsor American Hotel and Lodging Association events by donating $1 per attendee.  In turn, that number of trees are planted.  When the programs launched last month more than 800 trees were planted in Chicago following the AH&LA Summer Summit.

GreenQuest is an energy and water usage tracking system that helps hotel owners and management lower utility expenses. This is a free web-based service that can assist properties in improving their rating and also help them track progress throughout the Green Guidelines Challenge.  This challenge is open for submissions until October 1, 2009.

Green Tips for Travelers is designed to help hospitality properties encourage their guests to make their stay eco-friendly by implementing 8 tips that can be found at the AH&LA site at www.ahla.com/green.aspx.  The entire project is designed to make both the hospitality industry property owners and travelers become more environmentally aware, and to make improvements toward that end.

According to a recent survey conducted by PhoCusWright, environmental issues continue to be a driving force with consumers in the U.S.  A full 44% of these surveyed consider environmental impact an important factor when traveling.  However, there does seem to be some skepticism mixed in.

A small handful, only 8% of the respondents felt that is  easy to locate green travel options.  A large majority are skeptical about what they are being told by travel-related companies about green practices.  It is an indicator that communication is going to need to be more transparent to erase some of the doubts that consumers have.

The economic climate has caused most consumers to become very frugal with their spending.  They want to know that their travel choices are implementing practices like renewable energy, zero waste and carbon management practices.  It is becoming increasingly evident that green practices are becoming a normal part of consumer and corporate culture, and that American travelers have come to expect eco-friendly practices when planning for travel.

Wiser World Travel, a travel company started in 2007 by Peggy Lichter, received an offer from a company that promoted “green travel”.  They offered to promote her company on their website for $100.  The catch?  They did not ask Lichter to provide any evidence that her business did in fact implement eco-friendly practices.  This certainly caught her attention!

Wiser World Travel is a company that matches people who desire to travel in an eco-friendly way to hotels that truly are what they claim to be.  She researches the green practices of these businesses in order to decide if they are upfront about their claims.

Lichter learns some very interesting facts in this business.  While attending an industry-related conference sponsored by a hotel that promoted itself as environmentally conscious, she found that the air conditioning was set at such a cold temperature, people had to wear sweaters inside to stay warm.

The term “greenwashing” means marketing or promoting a product or business as being environmentally friendly when it is not.  It is simply a ploy to sell a product, not an attempt to save the Earth.

Green American helps people differentiate between those businesses that are genuinely green, and those that put on a front in order to sell products and services.  They are a non-profit organization that requires its members to pass a screening process in order to qualify for a Green Business Seal of Approval.  They provide information both good and bad pertaining to eco-friendly practices of hundreds of businesses on their website, www.greenamerica.org.

The average Caribbean hotel experienced a drop in bottom-line profits of 16% in 2008, according to a PKF Hospitality Research publication.  Global economic recession is the primary reason, and profits are expected to continue to decline in 2009.

Numerous Caribbean hotels are putting various marketing strategies into place to combat these effects, including incentive packages and targeted advertising.  The report tracked the changes in expenses and operating revenues for these hotels during the years 2007 and 2008, and found that visits to the Caribbean dropped by 4% in 2008 due to the recession.  Expenses were cut by hotel managers, but this was not enough to offset the decline in total revenue.

Caribbean hotel managers do not have much control over utility and insurance costs, which are a major concern.  Also due to the economic recession, planned hotels have been delayed and the ones already in progress have stopped construction.

In an effort to cut costs, hotel managers have cut staff and reduced wages since labor is the biggest expense.  Wages are commonly lower in the Caribbean than in the United States, and a combination of this factor plus the large number of available workers in certain areas have helped lighten up the labor expense ratio.

The report compares the performance of Caribbean resorts in relation to United States properties that are similar.  Ultimately, Caribbean hotel profits were lower than those of comparable US resorts by 18%.  Going green is becoming a trend in the Caribbean, and although utility costs are currently high, implementing sustainable technologies is expected to reduce energy costs in the future.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is expanding it’s environmentally friendly program “Make a Green Choice” nationwide across its Sheraton and Westin brands, according to Sheraton Seattle.  The program, formerly called “You Tidy, We Treat” was a huge success at the pilot hotel, Sheraton Seattle.

According to General Manager Matthieu Van Der Peet, many guests stay at the Sheraton Seattle because of the green efforts that are in place, and many guests are concerned about the environment.  Expanding the practices to other Starwood locations will enable guests the choice to continue their green practices while lodging.

Guests of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts have choices when it comes to services.  With the “Make a Green Choice” program, they are allowed to opt out of having linens and towels replaced every day, and can also choose not to have daily housekeeping done.  For guests that participate, they are rewarded with a US $5 gift card to any of the hotel’s restaurants or 500 Starpoints.  This is awarded to guests who choose to opt out of housekeeping and linen replacement from one night to three nights during their stay.

A USA Travel Association survey done recently showed that 54 million adults look for companies that are concerned with protecting the local environment, and are more likely to book travel arrangements with these companies.  Over 3000 guests participated in the “Make a Green Choice” pilot during the first two months of the program, saving approximately 126,000 gallons of water.  Sheraton Seattle has reduced their energy consumption by more than 20% during the past year, partly due to the new program, and other eco-friendly initiatives put in place.

Soon, North America will see the “Make a Green Choice” program available at all Sheraton and Westin’s locations.

The U.S. hotel industry is experiencing an increasing number of hotel foreclosures and loan defaults as things seem to continue to go downhill.  In just the last 60 days, the number of hotels in default or foreclosure has increased by 125 percent in California, and other states seem to be following suit.

During the time period of mid-May through mid-June, 175 hotels are now in default with 31 being foreclosed on in California alone.  The county leading in these unfortunate events is San Bernandino, with 19.6% of the results.  Riverside County follows with 16.1%.

As the economy continues to decline, it seems that all hotels are being affected, not just the smaller ones.  A large percentage (87%) of foreclosures are accounted for by nonfranchised hotels, but franchised hotels seem to make up the largest portion of default properties at 59%.

According to Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality, every hotel is struggling in the current economic situation unless they are debt-free.  Independent hotels as well as branded properties in primary locations are experiencing problems.  It appears that full-service hotels are getting hit exceptionally hard.

States that appear to be feeling the brunt of the economic downturn are Arizona, Florida, Nevada, the Caribbean and Texas.  In the Midwest where there was not a substantial increase in rates, it appears that hotels may not get hit as hard as the rest of the U.S.

Recently, Starwood Hotels & Resorts reported revenue per available room drops of almost 30 percent for the second quarter of 2009.  Annual average rate drops were reported at nearly 20 percent.

Starwood reported that overall, system-wide RevPAR dropped 27.7 percent for the quarter.  This is a slightly higher percentage than the drop the Marriott experienced according to BTNonline on July 16th.  International RevPAR dropped 30.6 percent, taking the biggest brunt of the decline.  North America RevPAR dropped 25.4 percent.

The largest declines were seen in luxury brands and upper upscale brands, with St. Regis and the Luxury Collection down 24%.  Worldwide, average daily rates for the quarter decreased by 18.4 percent.  During the quarter, according to Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen, swine flu worries cost Starwood approximately $10 million in revenue.

Worldwide, occupancy for the second quarter was down 8.1 percent, and most brands drops in occupancy were within that range.  W was the exception, with a drop in occupancy of only 4.4 percent.