How well does your company meet the demands of the connected traveller? Thirty-five percent of travelers who have an unsatisfactory mobile experience with a hotel, airlines or booking site won't book again. With the mobile travel booking pie projected to be $25 billion, can you afford to alienate travellers?

By Kenneth Rapoza: Emptying out the Louis Vuitton store of Neverfulls in Paris is so 2010. Affluent Chinese don't just want to shop til they drop, though they will still continue to do just that. What they want are VIP tickets to a Lakers game and to meet Prince Albert II of Monaco at a dinner party on the sidelines of a yacht sales event. For the uber-rich of China, traditional luxury has now gone post-luxury.

By Sule Aygoren: The profit outlook for full-service, resort and convention hotels is bright. However, the forecast for limited-service hotels is decidedly less sunny. The hotel industry overall is expected to see 6.5% compound annual growth in room revenue through 2016, resulting in a CAGR of 6.1% percent in total hotel revenue during the same period.

Forbes Travel Guide has today announced its expansion into Europe, bringing its globally recognised Star Rating programme to central London's top hotels and spas. Six hotels and two hotel spas have been awarded the coveted Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating.

By Kitty Yancey: Those who travelled to Las Vegas last year were less likely to gamble, but more likely to spend money on shopping and lodging. That's according to the recently released 2012 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study. The study, done for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, was based on interviews with about 3,600 out-of-towners aged 21 and older at sites around the city.

By Hugo Martin: Despite all the money and effort hotels put into selecting comfortable beds and soft pillows, a new study suggests that hotel guests are more likely to choose a hotel based on the water pressure in the shower.

By Barbara DeLollis: If you've never arrived at a hotel and found the swimming pool empty, or a fitness centre or restaurant closed because of renovations in progress, consider yourself lucky.

By John Hendrie: Many Hospitality businesses get it.  They have defined their story and tried to market their differentiation.  We know we are all not like Harley, or Krispy Kreme or Lexus or even the Kimptons.  But, if we have done our work, we should be ready to “enculturate” our staff – those folks who have the guest/customer/client contact and represent our esteemed values.

By Adam Popescu: You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed. A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been subject to increasing attention in the past few years, although not as extensively in relation to the hotel industry. According to the researchers, firms that emphasise CSR activities are concerned with maintaining profitability, operating their businesses within the framework of the law, following codes of conduct that are considered ethically correct, and improving society through philanthropic activities such as work-family programmes and donations. As there is usually a positive relationship between CSR activities and firm performance, many firms, including those in the hotel industry, increasingly recognise the importance of being socially responsible.