American Hotel and Lodging Association

The American Hotel and Lodging Association (formerly American Hotel and Motel Association, and before that American Hotel Association) is an industry trade group with thousands of members including hotel brands, owners, management companies, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), independent hotels, bed and breakfasts, state hotel associations and industry partners and suppliers. Its role at various times has included the publication of hotel directories, market research, support of standardization efforts, public or political advocacy for the interests of hotel owners and the establishment or promotion of training programs and facilities for hotel personnel.

American Hotel and Lodging Association
Serving the hospitality industry for more than a century
AbbreviationAHLA
Predecessor
  • American Hotel Protective Association, 1910
  • American Hotel Association, 1917
  • American Hotel and Motel Association, 1962
FormationJanuary 1, 1953 (1953-01-01)
TypeNGO
Legal statusTrade association
PurposeHospitality industry resource
HeadquartersWashington, D.C., U.S.
Location
  • 1201 Northwest New York Avenue, 20005
Coordinates38.901023°N 77.028464°W / 38.901023; -77.028464 (American Hotel and Lodging Association)
Official language
English
WebsiteAH&LA

History

The American Hotel Protective Association, founded in 1910 as a regional trade association in Chicago,[1] became the American Hotel Association in 1917. The AHA's first president, Frank Dudley, identified rapid expansion of the US hotel industry as vulnerable to a shortage of trained personnel which could not be filled by the then-common practice of recruiting European hotel workers. With the backing of Ellsworth Milton Statler and of the Federal Board of Vocational Training, the group promoted college-level training in hotel management and the creation of the Cornell Hotel School at Cornell University under dean Howard Meek.[2]

Hôteliers thrived during the Roaring Twenties; in 1928, the AHA Red Book listed 25,900 hotels with 1,525,000 rooms distributed widely across the US, with fewer hotels in the ex-Confederate South because racial segregation excluded many travellers, including African Americans. (These segregated travellers used the Negro Motorist Green Book to find accommodations.)[3] Properties were forced to adapt to the newfound popularity of the motorcar, adding parking and establishing locations on main highways; the number of rooms in each newly constructed hotel was increasing. Prohibition hurt the hotel trade by cutting into revenue from food and beverage operations,[4] but the Great Depression would prove disastrous for business. Overexpansion during the 1920s left excess inventory in the Depression era. The 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act, which sought to employ nationwide trade organisations to regulate wages and prices to halt a deflationary spiral, drew strong opposition from hotel owners (who saw it as a prelude to unionisation) and from the association.[3] Fewer people were travelling overall and hotels were losing market share to less expensive "tourist courts", a new pattern of small clusters of hastily constructed cabins which were the predecessors of the early roadside motels. Two out of three US hotels went into receivership.[5]

Initial attempts to include "tourist courts" in AHA's scope were doomed as the interests of the motel owners were in direct conflict with the existing hotels whose rates were being undercut by the new entrants.[3] Various motel-specific groups, such as the American Motor Hotel Association, filled this gap.

The motels were ultimately included in 1962 with AHA becoming AHMA, the American Hotel and Motel Association.[5]

The American Hotel and Lodging Association now is significantly involved in lobbying on behalf of the hotel industry's goals.[6]

Agenda

In 1952, the AHA approached Mississippi State University to operate an extension training curriculum, the American Hotel Institute.

The association also proposed that members standardise various tasks within each hotel operation, from accounting[4] to training and customer service,[3] as a means to improve operational efficiency. As early as 1928, it worked with supplier groups to advocate standardisation for tableware and porcelain china throughout the hotel.[7]

The group's stance on tipping in hotels has varied from careful neutrality in the pre-WW1 era (when unions were protesting that owners should pay their staff a fair wage instead of shifting the burden to the client)[8] to advocating clients provide generous gratuities to a long list of personnel in its 2013 Gratuity Guide.[2]

In response to complaints of overcharging for calls from in-room telephones, the association has supported the FCC's protection of a travellers' right to select which carrier provides operator services.[9]

The group does not make any recommendation for standard procedure to deal with bed bugs.[10]

AHA has supported market research to gauge user demand for specific amenities, such as fitness centres, in tourist hotels.[11]

The organisation hosts various committees, conventions and workshops. The American Hotel Association Directory Corporation, a subsidiary, published Lodging magazine and the Directory of Hotel and Motel Companies.[1]

The American Hotel and Lodging Association has been one of the leading advocates of resort fees.[12] Resort fees are extra mandatory fees that are not included in the advertised hotel price.[13] A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report from January 2017 said that resort fees are likely to harm consumers.[14]

In addition to advocating for resort fees, the AHLA has entered the advocacy work against short term home sharing.[15][16]

The AHLA has been doubled their political action committee (PAC) budget over two years (from 2014 to 2016).[17] Many of the politicians who have received significant contributions from the American Hotel and Lodging Association PAC advocate for resort fees[18] and against home sharing.[6][19]

gollark: Not even cultural dependence, years are more irritating and complex.
gollark: It's an elegant, general and flexible representation.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Our timestamps are just a list of everything which happened before the time they represent.
gollark: Of course not. You clearly explained why.

References
  1. Jafari, Jafar (2002-09-11). Encyclopedia of Tourism. Routledge. ISBN 9781134735327.
  2. CMHS, Stanley Turkel (2014-09-19). Hotel Mavens. Author House. ISBN 9781496933355.
  3. Jakle, John A.; Sculle, Keith A. (2009). America's Main Street Hotels: Transiency and Community in the Early Auto Age. Univ. of Tennessee Press. ISBN 9781572336551.
  4. Turkel, Stanley (2009). Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781449007522.
  5. Jakle, John A.; Sculle, Keith A.; Rogers, Jefferson S. (April 2002). The Motel in America. JHU Press. ISBN 9780801869181.
  6. Weaver, Dustin (2016-10-16). "Airbnb foes mobilize in Washington". TheHill. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  7. Standards, United States National Bureau of (1928). Standards Yearbook. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  8. Segrave, Kerry (2009-03-26). Tipping: An American Social History of Gratuities. McFarland. ISBN 9780786442461.
  9. Report on the Activity of the Committee on Energy and Commerce for the 107th Congress. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 9781428917927.
  10. Eisenberg, Jeff (2011-04-04). The Bed Bug Survival Guide: The Only Book You Need to Eliminate or Avoid This Pest Now. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781455503575.
  11. Glover, Bob; Shepherd, Jack; Glover, Shelly-lynn Florence (1996-06-01). The Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Classic Fitness G for begng Intermediate Runners 2nd rev Edition. Penguin. ISBN 9781101199909.
  12. "Setting the Record Straight on Mandatory Resort Fees". Hospitality Net. Hospitality Net. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  13. Trejos, Nancy. "Sen. McCaskill introduces bill against hidden resort fees" (February 25, 2016). USA Today. USA Today. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  14. Wood, Donald. "'Hidden' hotel resort fees come under fire in FTC report" (January 6, 2017). Fox. Fox News. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  15. "AHLA". American Hotel and Lodging Association. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  16. Edwards, Jim. "Why Hotel Industry Lobbyists Want A Global Crackdown On Airbnb" (May 27, 2013). Business Insider. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  17. "Open Secrets American Hotel and Lodging Association PAC". Open Secrets. Open Secrets. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  18. Heller, Dean. "ICYMI: Heller to FTC Commish on Resort Fees, "You've received 8 or 10 complaints…and now you want to enact new regulations."". Dean Heller U.S. Senator for Nevada. U.S. Senate. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  19. Carson, Biz (November 2, 2016). "If the hotel industry has its way, here's how hard it would be to rent out your house". Business Insider. Business Insider. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
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