Articles

Seaway Review •

2024 Great Lakes Cruise Season Comes to a Close – Seaway Review

Port Milwaukee, a Great Lakes turnaround destination located on the western shore of Lake Michigan in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, serves as a regional transportation and distribution center for nine states and three western Canadian provinces, though it primarily serves southeastern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and northern Illinois. It is also surrounded by accessible transportation options. The port owns 13.5 miles of rail connecting to two Class I railroads, both of which provide di...
Hotel Management •

Hospitality How-To: Plan your asset exit strategy

Whether you buy a hotel for a long- or short-term investment, your business plan should always include a built-in exit strategy. Here are six questions hoteliers should consider when developing such a strategy to ensure a smooth transition and maximize value. The valuation of your asset is a complex process, and different potential buyers will favor different types of assets. “Besides the most common factors for any real estate product type underwriting such as age, loca...
Hotel Management •

Hospitality How-To: Choose the right management company

Management companies oversee a hotel’s day-to-day operations, from staffing and HR, providing technological solutions and marketing to risk management and more. A growing number of hotels work with third-party management companies, particularly in the franchise space, but more owner-operators in the independent and economy spaces are seeing the value of this kind of partnership—and a partnership is what it should be, ideally. Virtually every management company and owner will agree that the relat...
Transport Topics •

Driving Simulators Help Trucking Companies Recruit New Talent | Transport Topics

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] For CDL trainers and some fleets, truck driving simulators are among the most innovative and realistic ways to teach new drivers. Although they don’t fully replicate true life behind the wheel, the use of simulators throughout the industry is gradually increasing. They serve as an ideal way to reach a younger generation of drivers. Simulators are equipped with high-definition graphics and wraparou...
Hotel Management •

Hospitality How-To: Adhere to brand standards

Your brand is your corporate identity as well as your public persona. Familiarity with your hotel brand promotes certain guest expectations, so it’s critical to develop and maintain brand guidelines, communicate those to staff and be consistent in applying them so a guest’s experience is always consistent and satisfying.“Happy guests are not only a mark of success, but also vital for generating revenue and building brand loyalty. By upholding these standards, owners can boost hotel performance a...
Built | The Bluebeam Blog •

The Group Advocating for Greater LGBTQ+ Representation in Construction | Built

The construction industry continues to change for the better. While women and other traditionally underrepresented groups have evolved to make up a greater share of the overall construction workforce, so have the ranks of those who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community. In an effort to promote construction’s continued inclusion, a group of individuals in 2017 formed Build Out Alliance, a volunteer advocacy and awareness organization for members of the LGBTQ+ community working in the ind...
Hotel Management •

The changing nature of HR in hospitality

Traditionally, the job description of a human resource professional was fairly straightforward: recruit, interview and train new hires, manage benefits and compensation, and basically oversee the employment process. Today, however, a hospitality HR professional works more closely with operations management, functions as a liaison with hotel partners and often hotel owners, and is expected to have a more well-rounded skillset. Deborah Punke, chief HR officer with Concord Hospitality, describes t
Transport Topics •

Warehouses Look at Ways to Improve Recruitment, Retention

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] There’s no place to hide from the ongoing labor shortage in trucking, especially across the supply chain industry, which affects employment at warehousing, fulfillment and distribution centers. With the pandemic era’s spike in e-commerce coupled with the “great resignation,” greater efforts have been placed into recruitment and retention. Now, the use of automation in warehouses to streamline efficiencies, already part of the conve
Marina Dock Age •

Sustainable Fuel for the Marine Industry

Editor’s Note: To learn more about the differences between biobutanol and ethanol, go to https://www.abetterbiofuel.com/copy-of-publications-and-approval. Not all fuel is created equal. What’s good for a car may not be as good for a boat…or for the environment. That’s why there is an industry-wide focus on creating sustainable fuels for the marine industry. This initiative is one of several that the National Marine Manufacturers Association is promoting, with the primary purpose of reducing
Hotel Management •

Mobile technology is a game-changer in hotels

Mobile technology is on the rise in hospitality and directly correlates with increased efficiency in all departments. The hospitality industry is gradually starting to turn toward mobile technology for such tasks as guest engagement, housekeeping, maintenance, direct bookings, revenue management and other essential functions. This growing trend aligns with mobile phones becoming more central to daily life and gives rise to guests’ expectation that hotels will operate in kind. One primary reason
Hotel Management •

Increasing profitability with creative outdoor spaces

Outdoor living spaces are becoming a more popular segment of home design, so why shouldn’t hotels follow suit? Many hotels are transforming some of their spaces into unique areas that guests can utilize and experience, with the bonus of increased profitability. Up on the Roof On the fourth-floor outdoor terrace of The Sheraton Dallas’s center tower is the ‘punfully’ named Herb ‘N Jungle—a green oasis in the midst of sprawling urban environment. The Herb ‘N Jungle was a result of a major hotel
Transport Topics •

Mentorship Programs Help Truck Drivers Adjust to Daily Life

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] The accomplishment of earning a commercial driver license and the thrill of diving into the trucking lifestyle often give professional drivers the momentum they need to start their new career path. However, there are plenty of bumps and detours along the way. Learning to drive a truck and being a truck driver are two sides of the same coin, but they are not equivalent. That is why many trucking companies offer mentorship programs
Hotel Management •

In the Marketplace: Q&A Hospitality Services’ Emille Aboona

Two guys, two laptops and a coffee shop marked the humble beginnings of Q&A Hospitality, a hotel construction and design company headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Both Emille Aboona and his partner, Ken Qualtier, were seasoned veterans with extensive hospitality backgrounds, having worked in operations, purchasing, project management, sales and interior design; together the two had accumulated almost 80 years of industry experience. In 2014, they decided to go into business for themselve
Lawn & Garden Retailer •

From seed to store: How an agribusiness became a shopping destination

When Banny Oakes started a produce stand in South Florida in the 1930s, he likely could not have foreseen that his no-frills business would grow into the largest independently owned agribusiness in the region. Under the management of his son Frank and grandson Alfie, Oakes Farms grew exponentially. Today, Oakes Farms has approximately 3,000 acres of farmland under production, with central operations in Collier County in Southwest Florida, growing 70 types of fruits and vegetables; it also main
Lawn & Garden Retailer •

From seed to store: How an agribusiness became a shopping destination - Lawn & Garden Retailer

When Banny Oakes started a produce stand in South Florida in the 1930s, he likely could not have foreseen that his no-frills business would grow into the largest independently owned agribusiness in the region. Under the management of his son Frank and grandson Alfie, Oakes Farms grew exponentially. Today, Oakes Farms has approximately 3,000 acres of farmland under production, with central operations in Collier County in Southwest Florida, growing 70 types of fruits and vegetables; it also mainta...
Hotel Management •

Raising the bar: Some hotel gyms go the extra mile

No one expects to see an almost 164-foot-tall climbing wall hugging the outside of a 16-story hotel in Nevada, but the wall, which has a Guinness World record designation as the world’s tallest artificial climbing wall, attracts year-round visitors to the independently owned Whitney Peak Hotel in Reno. The hotel also offers BaseCamp, a 7,000-square-foot indoor bouldering gym that guests—and locals—use to challenge their climbing skills. “We’re a non-gaming, non-smoking hotel. People thought th
Transport Topics •

Industry Takes Fresh Look at Reverse Logistics

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] Reverse logistics — the management and movement of returned goods — is one of the most significant systems in the economy, as it affects people and businesses in myriad ways, for example, post-holiday season when a high volume of gift returns are common. However, the returns journey, from purchase to receipt, is a complicated process. Tony Sciarrotta, Reverse Logistics Association executive director, said the transportation aspect
Built | The Bluebeam Blog •

Construction-Themed Amusement Park Aims to Inspire Kids to Join the Industry | Built

Making construction appealing to the next generation is critical to helping the industry overcome a significant worker shortage. It’s also the central idea behind Diggerland, USA, the nation’s first full-fledged construction-themed amusement park and waterpark in West Berlin, New Jersey. Diggerland features real-life construction equipment that has been made safe for children and adults to operate and explore. The rides are designed specifically for the park, with safety features that make it a
Transport Topics •

Winterization Process Requires Preparation, Training

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] ’Tis the season to be careful out there. From treacherous road conditions to freezing temperatures, even the most conscientious of drivers need to exert caution on the roads during the winter. There are plenty of steps that both fleets and drivers should take in order to maximize safety. Perhaps the most important is to not wait until winter is already here but to start thinking about winter at least a month or two before the wea
Transport Topics •

Fleets Turn to Military Veterans to Fill Technician Roles

[Find the latest in equipment & maintenance: Explore this quarter's issue of Calibrate] Investing in veterans to fulfill the much-needed job duties of commercial technicians has been a concentrated goal for some fleets. Like the driver shortage, which continues to plague the trucking industry, a lack of qualified diesel technicians is another unfortunate reality in part due to the retiring generation of baby boomers and a decline in trade school attendance. According to the latest Census data,
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