Debbie Stock

As a professional photographer, I have been hired by dozens of corporations and organizations to travel, stay at hotels & luxury resorts, and take photos for their conferences, conventions and events. I've seen lavish, no-expense-spared productions, budget affairs and everything in between in terms of hotel accommodations, food & beverage service and entertainment served at these special events. What I have observed in recent years is a trend in saving more money than before. The good old days of shooting off fireworks at private concerts by name musicians in Maui are harder to come by from the groups I have worked with. Sometimes they have simply axed the programs that awarded their top vendors on in-house sales performers with these special thanks.

And now, hotels throughout the U.S. are switching gears as this trend has forced them to likewise try to make the dollars stretch. According to a recent report US hotels are seeing slower growth in their sales of banquets, beverages and food, spas and other amenities, all while occupancy rates have improved for higher room rates and less inventory. Hotels are looking to the future toward limited service hotel properties for increased profits. Of course, some of the higher end resorts report that they are holding their own and their profits are slightly different from the averages.

Debbie Stock is a professional travel writer, journalist, photographer and web publisher.