NYU Offers An Opportunity For Obama To Show Industry Support

During the recent HOTEL BUSINESS® Management Company Executive Roundtable as well as the Association of Starwood Franchisees & Owners-North America meeting I got to witness first-hand the outrage and sense of betrayal many hotel owners, managers and brand professionals are feeling about the President and his administration’s recent comments concerning our industry. Many spoke candidly about how these comments regarding excessive meeting junkets had personally affected them as well as their businesses (see story “Meetings business fights negative pub,” in March 21 issue of HOTEL BUSINESS®). Some were looking for a public apology from the White House and Capitol Hill, while others expressed regret in the blind faith they had shown for President Obama before fully understanding his strategies for resuscitating the ailing economy. What I also saw up close was the determination in the eyes of these executives that they would overcome the obstacles set before them. Although many made it clear that they hoped the President would publicly rescind his comments, they also were not going to wait for someone else to do the heavy lifting. I am also very encouraged by the aggressive position the American Hotel & Lodging Association has taken on the matter. Aside from full-page ads in Roll Call, Politico and USA Today, earlier this month AH&LA sent President Obama a letter expressing the industry’s concerns about his recent statements. The letter, signed by 17,932 members of the association, advised the President that his comments and others expressed recently by administration officials and members of Congress were having serious repercussions across the lodging and travel industry both in terms of job cut-backs and negative impressions. Other consequences include companies delaying or canceling training programs and meetings, convention attendance being reduced and those companies still planning events are now doing so with greatly reduced budgets. In light of all these factors, the association asked President Obama “to stand up for the American travel industry” and to support legitimate business travel and meetings for all American corporations. It was also explained that hotels were gathering places for businesspeople to improve and grow their companies. They are often the sites of seminars, where sales techniques are discussed, or immense trade shows, where thousands of companies come together to exhibit their goods. Hotels are also the place for ordinary business committee events that are often held in airport hotel conference rooms. Each of these occasions serves a vital purpose in American business and each likely takes place at one of the nation’s 48,062 lodging properties. The letter went on to say that the $139 billion lodging industry stood with the President and was ready, willing and, most importantly, able to do its part in helping to create solutions to help America in its time of need. Let me end by saying that I am confident that the hotel industry will bounce back with or without public support of our elected officials. There’s little doubt about that. However, it would be a little easier with support. It might even be an appropriate gesture if President Obama made time in his schedule to serve as the keynote speaker at the upcoming New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. It will even give him the opportunity to try the hotel’s famed Presidential Suite on for size.