The Road To Progress
The Process Behind The Report
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Those words, spoken more than 100 years ago by President Theodore Roosevelt, are especially appropriate today as the country emerges from the greatest recession since the Great Depression. AAHOA’s nearly 11,000 members are indeed doing what they can with what they have as they continue providing excellent service to the traveling public – and they are not alone. AAHOA, as THE voice of owners in the hospitality industry, is working actively and passionately with its members as well as with their franchisors to pursue a level of fairness in lodging franchise systems that will benefit everyone in the industry.
This is the fourth Progress Report issued by AAHOA since 2008. Last year, we invited each of the leading hotel franchisors and membership organizations to identify the most important programs they had implemented during the previous year to support their licensees and members. In addition, we asked for responses to specific franchising issues that AAHOA members had raised throughout the year. This focused approach provided members with valuable answers and insight about their most pressing questions.
Encouraged by the success of last year’s focused Progress Report, we again asked franchisors to address certain specific issues that are of special interest to our members. In April of 2011, AAHOA sent letters (see sample that follows) to leading hotel franchisors and membership organizations requesting about:
• Guest rewards programs
• Fees charged to franchisees for bookings gained through the
internet and the Global Distribution System (GDS)
• Plans and programs that are planned for 2011, or that have
already been implemented this year, to support licensees or to promote
fair franchising for the benefit of their overall hotel system
We received 10 responses and they are published here in their
entirety. To ensure that all members can review this information
carefully and conveniently, we have made the complete report available
online at www.aahoa.com. We will
also feature all of the responses, at the rate of one per issue, in
upcoming editions of our monthly magazine, AAHOA Lodging Business,
starting with the July issue.
Some of the leading hotel franchisors that were invited to participate
are notable by their lack of response – companies such as Hilton
Hotels, Marriott International, and Starwood Hotels. Of those
franchisors and membership organizations that did graciously respond,
some provided more thorough responses than others. We invite you to
review the full texts and we trust you will find them informative.
In the meantime, we at AAHOA continue to encourage corporate transparency, especially on the issue of fair franchising, and we will always foster opportunities for improved communication between hotel franchisors and their franchisees, as well as between membership organizations and their members.
Thank you for supporting AAHOA – and for joining us as we lead a fair franchising movement that will benefit hospitality as well as other franchise-based industries.
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