By Rayna Katz: Sending a message that it is recovering and then some, the hotel sector’s strength is now at Herculean levels. The top tiers are slightly less fertile for investment than the lower-priced chains but overall, the industry is having a golden moment.

By Janet Meiners: Facebook contests are becoming good marketing strategies for businesses of any size. You’ve probably heard Facebook success stories from big brands with large budgets. They often have elaborate landing pages, TV commercials, paid blog posts and celebrity endorsements. What about the small business that doesn’t have thousands to spend? This list is for you.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and NRG Energy, Inc. on Friday announced a new global alliance to expand the use of renewable energy systems at Starwood properties.

By  Robert Upe: The low-cost Tune hotel chain is on schedule to open its first Australian property in November and is likely to start online selling in July in a pre-opening sale with some of the lowest room-rates in years.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain was fined £8,000 after a woman who told staff three times she was allergic to gluten was served wheat pasta.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts hit a new record in 2012, reaching an estimated US$ 1075 billion (euro 837 billion) worldwide, up 4% in real terms, from US$ 1042 billion (euro 749 billion) in 2011.

By Brian Moran: John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” His quote, along with tens of thousands of other great quotes on leadership, inspired me to find out more about what defines great leaders and to answer the age-old question of whether they are born or made. I have come to believe that the only innate elements of great leadership are passion and energy. Everything else can be taught.

By  Elaine Glusac: While sleek minimalism set the tone for urban boutique hotels in the 1990s, rustic elements are warming up the newest crop of small hotels. These trendsetters emphasize their sense of place through local themes, building materials, restaurant fare, entertainment or a combination of them all.

By feature writer Noelle E. Ifshin: Restaurant owners are often frustrated by not achieving their goals in relation to quality, customer satisfaction and financial benchmarks, yet many times they have not given themselves the appropriate tools to do so. Tools for your restaurant such as the newest, most integrated POS system, the most expensive kitchen and bar equipment, and even the best operating systems and procedures do not mean anything without a well-trained staff. People run your business and your business is only as good as your people.  An effective training program is an owner’s key tool to ensure consistency in product and customer service, which is a basic tenant of running a restaurant. Here are four key elements of such a program

By Andrea Mann: User-generated content can be advantageous for gathering information about a hotel's amenities and services or learning about a travel experience from a previous guest's point-of-view, but it can also be controversial because this information is provided by the public and is often uncensored. Does that mean that user-generated content is not credible?