The New hotelsmag.com

By Jeff Weinstein, Editor In Chief -- Hotels, 5/1/2008

In late March we flipped the switch on our revitalized Web site, www.hotelsmag.com. While print journalism remains my passion, I do love the Internet, I am a bit of a breaking news junkie and I enjoy updating our site as industry news happens. Marriott announces its groundbreaking “green” initiative to help protect the Brazilian rainforest, Nakheel Hotels buys the Fontainebleau, M&C hires Hartman and invests in India—we had those stories on our site immediately. We update our site several times a day and will get any breaking news online as soon as possible. Fellow editors Derek Gale and Adam Kirby are much younger than me and are just as enthusiastic about the Web and its immediacy.

Derek and Adam also love to blog and at the moment update their blogs more often than I do. I promise to find more time to blog myself, but for now watch their blogs for regular insights, commentary and a bit of comedy. The new Web site has several other newbloggers who update their spaces weekly, and I plan to recruit even a few more. Right now you can find a food and beverage blog from restaurateur Bob Puccini; one from Lyndall De Marco, the industry’s conscience on all matters “green;” an e-marketing blog from our e-muse Scott van Hartesvelt; a part-time blog from thought-leader Laurence Geller, CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts; and more to come. There is also a “talkback” option for all the blog posts and articles and we encourage you to start a dialogue with the bloggers and among fellow readers. Making the site interactive is a big goal and now is your opportunity to have your voice and opinions heard around the world.

In addition to feature stories and the day’s breaking news from around the world, the site has six topical channels—again, updated daily. We cover food and beverage, design, sales and marketing, technology, finance and investment, and green hotelkeeping. Here, you can read the latest releases and ideas being brought forward by hoteliers from around the globe.

We will also continue to produce regular podcasts with top executives. Among the latest to be interviewed were Miki Naftali, CEO of Elad Properties, who just reopened The Plaza in New York City and aspires to grow the brand globally, as well as Bjorn Gullaksen, who has moved internally at Carlson Hotels Worldwide to take over leadership of The Regent Luxury Group.

Other features of note include “Hot Openings,” a pictorial review of some of the hottest hotel openings in the world, and “Hoteliers On The Move,” another daily update on the whereabouts of your industry contemporaries.

We will continue to fiddle with the site to make it even more user friendly, timely and informative. I encourage you to bookmark hotelsmag.com, sign up for our various newsletters and provide us with feedback so we can continue to make it your leading and daily source for industry news and analysis.