All;
Our US Senator Tom Carper is now getting ready to jump to the other side of the fence and be a sponsor of S-560. This is US Senate Bill to allow public card checks (Employee Free Choice Act). This is a bill that he has consistently making public comment that he is opposed to. By Senator Carper sponsoring this bill, it will allow a fast-track vote on the Senate floor and avoid a filibuster. This is very bad news for the Delaware Hotel & Lodging Industry.

There will be a 5pm briefing and discussion that takes place prior to the STARS dinner at the Christiana Hilton on Friday, 3/20. If you would like to learn more about this and what you can do to prevent this legislation from being passed, please attend.
Thanks,
Brad

To all:
I hope all is well and everyone is prepared for the holidays! There are a few updates in the last several weeks I would like to pass on.

I had a meeting with Chris Coons (New Castle County Executive) and Sarah Willoughby. I asked Chris about his intentions to further explore increasing revenue for the County by trying to get an increase in the occupancy tax passed. He was very honest and said that his team is still considering going after this in the upcoming legislative session. I shared the most recent STAR statistics with him and made it clear that many people in the lodging industry were already losing their jobs. I also shared with him 2009 forecast information that does not look good. I let him know that the DHLA is strongly opposed to any increase in the occupancy tax. Stay tuned.

The State of Delaware House of Representatives just made the decision to disband the House Tourism Committee. This is very bad news. It indicates the lodging industry is going to have to work very hard in 2009 to educate the legislators about the importance of the lodging industry to the economy. Many of you have new legislators. This is the time to get to know them. Invite them to your hotels. Show them the back of the house. Make them shake the hands of your staff and let them know they are constituents. This is very important.

The DHLA met with the State Police and the F.B.I. last week to get up to speed on the terrorism events that took place in India several weeks ago. Valuable information was shared and I have attached two checklists I strongly suggest you review with your leadership teams. There may be a follow up to this at a future educational session which Bill Sullivan is working on. Details to follow shortly.

Please remember that the DHLA Stars of the Industry event is coming up fast. It is taking place at the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana on Friday, January 30th. This is the perfect opportunity to reward and recognize your best team members. Consider how special your employee of the year will feel if they are invited to attend this great event! Nominations for the awards are due no later than January 19th. No late entries will be accepted.

I met with the marketing arm of the Brandywine 10 this week. They are the group that represents the cultural attractions in the Brandywine Valley. Many of the attractions are experiencing similar financial difficulties to those in the lodging industry. It is the perfect opportunity to reach out and develop partnerships with the attractions. The Brandywine 10 indicates there is not much of an outreach they are seeing from our industry. On a similar note, the GWCVB reports that the response to leads being sent out by the bureau is very poor. For those of you who belong to the GWCVB, please do not overlook this opportunity to keep the groups in Delaware. It helps us all.

Lastly, when you have project work that needs to be done, please give our Allied members first opportunity to bid on the work. Allied members are very important to our Association and have taken an active role on our Board of Directors. They are helping us raise money and gain new members.

May you and your families enjoy the spirit of the holidays and have a peaceful, prosperous new year.
Thanks,
Brad

Brad A. Wenger
General Manager
Hilton Wilmington/Christiana

Chairman of the Board, Delaware Hotel & Lodging Association

Hilton Wilmington/Christiana
100 Continental Drive
Newark, Delaware 19713

Monday, November 24, 2008

Dear Delaware Hotel & Lodging Association Members;

Happy Thanksgiving! It is a great first message for me to be able to send in the Chairman seat of the Delaware Hotel and Lodging Association. And what a hot seat it is!

Following the extraordinary effort of Bill Sullivan will be no easy task. He has done a fantastic job striking a balanced approach to leading this association to another level. Some of his remarkable accomplishments include increasing the scholarship levels awarded on an annual basis, making significant improvements to the educational sessions offered, being the first Chairman in recent memory that was successful in fighting off an increase to the New Castle County Occupancy tax, instituting a Green Lodging certification program that is embraced by the Secretary of Natural Resources, and putting the Association in a much more stable position from a fiscal perspective. If you have not yet done so, please reach out to Bill and offer your thanks. He sincerely deserves it.

Taking the reigns of the Lodging Association during these uncertain times will be a tremendous challenge but I don’t think any of us have stayed in this business because we make easy money! I have often been asked the question “what is it like to work in the hotel business?” My answer is “Don’t do it unless you thrive on chaos”. That said we should be very well trained to endure the economic rollercoaster that lies in front of us.

So back to “Happy Thanksgiving”… This year, more than ever, we should all take time to reflect on the tremendous gifts and advantages we have. Here are some of the things I am very thankful for…

We help people and get paid for it. This includes our team members, our guests, and our community. There is “instant gratification” in this business that many jobs do not have.

We work in a melting pot. The diversity of age, race, educational, disabilities, religion, and ethnicity is something I am thankful for. I am much more open to different ideas, opinions, and perspectives than I would be if I worked in a routine job every day. I am a better father to my children as a result.

A certain level of job security. That may seem strange given the economic problems we are experiencing as an industry right now. You might not get rich but you can always find a job in the hotel business!

I live in Delaware. Living in a small community allows us to accomplish great things. We can make a difference in anything we do if we apply ourselves. I have seen this time and time again.

We celebrate our people. This might be construed as a cheap plug to get attendance at the January 30^th STARS of the Industry dinner taking place at the Hilton but I am willing to take the chance. It is rare for an association to have its members be so passionate about rewarding and recognizing its peers. I truly am thankful to see the faces and emotions year after year when they are nominated or win an award. It is a great way to get energized and put wind in the sails of our team members in the trenches getting it done every day.

In closing, I am thankful for being given the honor to be the Chairman of the Delaware Hotel & Lodging Association. I will work hard to continue the efforts of Bill Sullivan, our current Board of Directors, and the past leaders of the organization. I hope to be of service to you over the next two years. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly. I can be reached at (302)781-7048.

Sincerely,

Brad A. Wenger

Chairman of the Board

Thanks to all who participated in the DH&LA Educational Sesssion, “Marketing in the Changing Media Landscape”, in conjunction with the University of Delaware Hotel Restaurant Institutional Management Program (HRIM), held Friday September 12, 2008 at the Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware in the Marriott Center for Hospitality and Tourism. We had 75 people participate in the event, that also included 9 of our Allied and Associate members having display tables to share their products and services with members. Thanks to the News Journal for sponsorship of the event breakfast!

Dr. Sri Beldona was the session moderator, with speakers Kimberly Ehrlich of Milestone Internet Marketing, Mike Mika of Delawareonline.com, Meryl Levitz (assisted by Lily Cope and Morgan Obidowski) of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, and at lunch by Brad Garner of Smith Travel Research. UD HRIM Students Morgan Frankena, Claire O’Byrne, Zach Werde, and Margaret Quigley were conference facilitators for the day and assisted in registration and services to the speakers.

Dr. Fred DeMicco and Dr. Bob Nelson (UD HRIM) were part of the committee to help design the program, and UD HRIM IT graduate, William Moreland, provided technical assistance to the speakers. Thanks to all three for their efforts and dedication.

Just before our lunch speaker, we were honored to have Mayor Vance Funk of Newark welcome the education session attendees, thanks to the Mayor for his continuing support of tourism in Delaware.

The topics were so timely, as all of us are looking for ways to improve our business, and the speakers all gave us technical, tactical and strategic suggestions on how the use technology to drive business.

This session of part of the mission of the Delaware Hotel and Lodging Association to keep education of members in the forefront to help keep us at the leading edge.

Please see photographs of the event in the photo album section of the www.delawarelodging.org site, with photographs taken by Kathleen Sullivan, UD graduate class of 2008.

We were blessed with a great day at Maple Dale County Club on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 for our Annual Golf Outing to raise funds for our scholarship programs. We had 61 golfers and a great event, we will post the financial results as soon as we get all the bills in. Congratulations to teams from Landmark, Boardwalk Plaza and W.L. Gore for leading the event and I know all who came had fun. Our Silent Auction had 72 items and all but three were sold. Please check out the Photographs taken by Kathy Atkinson Studio on the Photo Gallery section of our www.delawarelodging.org site.

Thanks to Steve Farrell and this great team and Maple Dale Country Club for a great event!

If you missed it, we posted the news article about the recent 1.5% increase in the hotel lodging tax in Philadelphia that was enacted to help market and fund the expansion of the Convention Center. That brings the hotel tax to 15.5% in Philadelphia, with the state being 7%, city surcharge of 6% and county of 1%, plus the additional tax of 1.5%.  While they do use about half the tax for marketing, this is a great example of how taxes just continue to go up, forcing our industry to be less and less competitive. DHLA will oppose all increases in the hotel lodging tax in Delaware, since history has shown that lawmakers will not allocate the tax to help market the State, and will put the funds to general use, or earmark it to things that our industry would not support.

As we all take time to celebrate the 4th of July, let’s remember how great it is to be in the United States. We all face the challenges of the current global economy, and with gas prices in the $4 range travel may suffer, but hopefully that will be a temporary situation. Many areas are seeing increases in local tourism, so lets not forget our Delaware and Delaware Valley residents as they are perfect potential guests for our hotels!

Great event for “Visit Delaware” hosted by the governments of New Castle County, Newark, and Wilmington as well as the New Castle County Board of Realtors, and supported by DH&LA. This event hosted over 600 people from New Jersey who are being impacted by the Base Relation and Closure Act (BRAC) moving about 30,000 people to Aberdeen Proving Grounds over the next 3 years. A welcome trade show, including a booth for the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau and one for American Furniture Rental (both DH&LA Allied members!) was part of the event that also included bus tours of requested real estate in the area. By all account this was a very positive experience for all and hopefully many will consider relocation to Delaware. Special thanks to the hotels that offered special BRAC rates for the weekend to help encourage people to stay and tour the area!

Thanks to all for the assistance in the development and implementation of the “Delaware Green Lodging” program. This partnership of DH&LA and DNREC was announced to the public on Thursday, June 19, 2008 on the lawn near Legislative Hall in Dover. Special thanks to Crystal Nagyiski of DNREC and Cindy Small of Kent County Tourism for bringing the program to the DH&LA Board of Directors and moving it rapidly to implementation.

Secretary of DNREC, John Hughes and Rep. Debbie Hudson also made most gracious comments about the program.  Over 20 tourism industry staff took the time to come to the press conference, and we thank them for their support. Board Members, Brad Wenger, Dr. Fred DeMicco and Perry Patel also attended the event.

I urge all hotels to move rapidly to gain certification, and for all the information on the program and some of the excellent press coverage, please see the “Green Hotels” page of our www.delawarelodging.org site. Not only is this the right thing for the environment, it is great for business!

On Thursday, June 19, 2008 DHLA and State of Delaware DNREC will hold a press conference to announce the Delaware Green Lodging program. This voluntary and self-inspection program is ready for your hotel to qualify. Please see the Green Hotels page on www.delawarelodging.org for all the relevant documents, including the check-list that you need to submit to DNREC for certification

If you are in the Dover area, Thursday, June 19 at 10am, we will be in a tent just behind Legislative Hall on the Capital Mall