“There’s a lack of liquidity in the market right no
w,” Zelering continued. “However, it has set the stage for more activity... So, I think that the opportunities are coming. We have a robust pipeline, and we remain very pragmatic. But I don’t think somebody is going to flip the switch and you’re going to see all this activity. I think it’s going to be slow moving, and the advantage will be with groups that have the scale and the scope to respond to the market dynamics.”
Bigger picture, Zelering thinks the worst of economic uncertainty is behind owners. “Inflation is tamed. Liquidity is coming back. Capital markets are open for business,” he said.
He praised owners and operators for maintaining their fiscal discipline and suggested hotel valuation are reasonable compared to other asset classes.
“CMBS default rates are not flagging hotels,” he said. “We’ve had a tough period, and we are past that.”
Zelering added that sitting and waiting is not a hotel investment strategy. “We have to get in the game. Some people will not like the outcome but if you keep on dwelling on the past, you’re going to miss the future opportunities... We need to get back to the liquidity phase. We need to transact and you’re seeing some very smart money already doing so.”
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/seeing-ceo-blind-spots
From overconfidence early in a tenure to a lack of strategic clarity later on, blind spots can emerge throughout a CEO’s journey. Here’s what to watch out for.
Like the seasons of the year, the
CEO journey progresses through four stages. Each stage brings a unique set of opportunities and challenges, just as spring, summer, fall, and winter do:
Spring: Stepping up to the role. In the two to three years before the board decides on the next CEO, you should be gaining the experience, developing the skills, and demonstrating the qualities of an exceptional leader. Doing so will position you as a natural choice when the time comes and will prepare you to take the reins should you get the job.
Summer: Stepping into the role. During your first two years in the CEO role, you should get the organization to work at full potential productivity in the direction you’ve chosen. During this time, you should take bold actions that set the tone for your entire tenure.
Fall: Staying ahead while in the role. After starting strong, your next challenge will be to shape the company’s long-term journey and combat complacency—both your own and that of your employees. This means creating successive “S-curves” (periods of intense activity and radical improvement) that will boost performance at every level: you as a leader, your team, and the organization as a whole.
Winter: Sending it forward to the next CEO. In this final stage, you’re preparing to hand over the reins to your successor. That process involves recognizing when to leave, navigating the transition gracefully, and discovering your next journey.
When Carolyn Dewar, Vikram Malhotra, and I wrote the New York Times bestselling book
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022), our goal was to create a comprehensive reference book for CEOs who want to master aspects of the job that loom large in every season. Since then, our research and counseling have gone deep into what advice senior leaders will most benefit from in each separate season, much like the
Farmers’ Almanac provides seasonal suggestions for its readers to optimize their annual cycles.
Understanding the value at stake
We wanted first to understand the value of excellence in each season. Our extensive research looked at many factors of CEO performance, including their company’s
excess TSR delivered (the total financial return to shareholders in excess of the return of industry peers), the CEO’s ethical conduct, employee sentiment, the organization’s environmental and societal impact, the strength of succession planning, and, in the cases of those who had retired, whether the business continued to outperform financially in the years after they stepped down.
Based on these factors, we developed a list of 200 CEOs who can be credibly considered the best in the world in recent history. By definition, these CEOs delivered above-market and above-industry returns to their shareholders during their tenure. So much so, in fact, that we estimate the economic value created by this group of 200 leaders to be a stunning $5 trillion more than that of their peers. That’s more than the annual GDP of Germany, the world’s third-largest economy.
What we were most interested in, however, was how they fared during each season. Did they start strong and simply ride the momentum from there? Or perhaps they hit a “sophomore slump,” which they found a way to reverse during the rest of their middle years? Or did they move slowly and steadily until the foundation was in place to achieve “hockey stick”–style impact toward the end of their tenure?
Do these results mean that these leaders didn’t make mistakes along the way? They’ll be the first to admit that they most definitely did. What’s remarkable, though, is that like a coach whose team might have lost a game to a lesser opponent early in the season but still qualified for the playoffs and won the championship, these CEOs were able to sense, learn, and act quickly so that they never endured a losing season.
As with many high achievers in other fields, those in the business world who achieve the most tend to be those who are the best at getting better.
Sam Hazen, CEO of
HCA Healthcare, describes how he keeps improving his performance: “I’m in my seventh year as CEO, and despite our success, I still feel like I’m behind. That creates an internal motor for me to do more to make a difference for society, to benchmark our performance against the best inside and outside of our industry, to structure my team better, and to continue my own development. It keeps the organization moving, and it keeps me moving.”
Illuminating the blind spots
To uncover what it takes to win in each season, we needed to understand where CEOs typically have blind spots. These are the areas where chief executives, on average, tend to be “unconsciously unskilled”—that is, unaware of what they don’t know.
We looked far and wide for insights on CEO blind spots and, not finding anything useful, concluded it was up to us to do the research. We fielded a large-scale survey with a respondent pool that excluded the executives from our top 200 list. We surveyed three groups: CEOs, their direct reports, and board members. Each group rated the CEO on
how well he or she was delivering on best practices related to each of the six responsibilities of the CEO’s role that we identified in CEO Excellence: setting direction, aligning the organization, mobilizing through leaders, engaging the board, connecting with stakeholders, and managing personal effectiveness.
Our goal was to compare how the CEOs saw themselves versus how others perceived them. In analyzing the results, we recognized that perception (the way things are interpreted or understood) is not necessarily reality (the way things are). However, we felt it was reasonable to assume that any areas where both the board and direct reports had a meaningfully different view from the CEO were highly likely to be genuine blind spots.
What we found reminded us of radio host Garrison Keillor’s description of the fictional Minnesotan small-town Lake Wobegon, a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” This human tendency to overestimate our own abilities, achievements, and performance has become known as the “
Lake Wobegon effect.”
CEOs, on average, seem to be inhabitants of Lake Wobegon. Regardless of tenure, they score themselves higher than direct reports score them 100 percent of the time, and higher than boards score them 80 percent of the time. That 20 percent of time when the board is more bullish than the CEO tends to be in the leader’s early tenure—which makes sense given that the board is undoubtedly optimistic about its CEO choice; meanwhile, the CEO is still learning the role and therefore not yet feeling totally confident.
In addition to the finding that most CEOs feel illusory superiority across all seasons, our research pointed to a short list of blind spots unique to each season in the role.
Summer: What gets in the way of starting strong?
We found that in the early years, new CEOs tend to be most overconfident about their ability to shift the culture. They typically come into the role with a clear point of view on where the organization needs to go, yet they underestimate the difficulty of aligning and mobilizing the employees to get there. This reinforces one of our findings from CEO Excellence, which is that the soft stuff—influencing behavior change at scale—is the hard stuff, especially when getting started.
New CEOs also feel overconfident in terms of how well they’re managing their personal effectiveness. It often takes more time than they anticipate to balance being who they want to be with who the organization needs them to be in the role. Their time and energy also become fragmented in ways that take away from successfully and sustainably doing what only they can do as the CEO.
Adena Friedman, CEO of
Nasdaq, a leading global technology company serving the financial system, confesses: “At the end of that first year, I looked at everything I’d done—how many speaking engagements, how many client meetings, how many trips, et cetera—and I realized I was sprinting a marathon.” Fortunately, by recognizing this early, she was able to adjust accordingly.
Fall: What gets in the way of staying ahead?
In the middle years, a blind spot often emerges related to having a clear and compelling vision for the company. Once a leader’s initial set of bold moves has largely played out positively (if the moves haven’t, the CEO is likely on their way out—involuntarily), their intense focus on a clear North Star dissipates. Without the inspiration, boldness, and mandate for change that CEOs feel early in their tenure, they find it hard to press “reset.” Over time, observes
IBM’s
Arvind Krishna, “people get hung up on the success of old strategies, and then they refuse to acknowledge that times have changed, and new strategies are needed.” Similarly, at this stage, maintaining perspective and remaining open to new ideas can become an issue. As the author of the organization’s journey to this point, the CEO tends to feel like they have all the answers.
Winter: What gets in the way of sending it forward?
During the latter years of a CEO’s tenure,
strategic clarity becomes an issue. For some, this can be the result of a desire to protect one’s legacy by preventing any potential late-in-the-game ball drops, especially as it relates to hitting near-term earnings targets. Others may make overly risky moves to avoid a growth slowdown or to relieve boredom. Teamwork can also suffer, often because the CEO has undermanaged the dynamics of the succession process, allowing potential candidates to jockey for position and signaling to lower performers that they won’t likely survive the transition.
Moving forward with clarity
Having a more nuanced understanding of the pitfalls the CEOs are likely to stumble into as they navigate each stage of their journey doesn’t mean they will be able to avoid them. We therefore also wanted to uncover tools, techniques, and tactics by which the very best evade such traps and find a clear path to success. To do so, we interviewed over 80 of the 200 CEOs we identified as having excelled in every season.
Every CEO’s story was full of human drama, high-stakes decision-making, battles won and lost, lessons learned, and wisdom gained. Across the interviews, a number of shared patterns emerged. We relished the opportunity to look not only back but also forward as we discussed how the role of the CEO will evolve over the next 20 years. Will the “four seasons” analogy apply differently … or at all? Will a different set of blind spots emerge? Will the value of today’s best practice tools and approaches persist? These insights come together in A CEO for All Seasons, which we hope will help leaders succeed at every stage and in all future scenarios.
European Countries Propose New Taxes Targeting Tourists
Freedom_wanted/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/news/news/european-cities-fight-overtourism-with-unusual-taxes
From dog taxes in Italy to entry fees in the Netherlands and transit charges in Switzerland, European cities are adopting creative new taxes to combat overtourism and protect local life.
European cities and towns have launched a fight against overtourism. Their weapon of choice is taxes — some more unconventional than the standard city tourist tax. In what is being criticized as madness, an Italian town wants to charge visiting dogs €1.50 per night. Switzerland has proposed a tax on passing motorists who don’t stay in the country. Meanwhile, a Dutch village overrun by tourists wants to impose an entry fee.
Motorist Tax
Lawmakers in Switzerland have proposed
a new tax on motorists passing through the country to reach other destinations. The transit tax on foreign nationals would be a new penalty on tourists who don’t spend significant time in Switzerland. It is intended as a way to clear out congested roads and would apply to all foreign cars, camper vans and motorcycles. The amount would depend on the time of day and traffic density, with higher taxes imposed during peak times.
However, it still faces some roadblocks, one of which is the definition of “essential stop,” which would make a tourist exempt from the tax. It remains a proposal that requires cabinet approval, and if it receives the necessary support, it will be introduced as a referendum for the public to vote on.
Doggie Charge
A gateway to the Dolomites, Bolzano sees its fair share of tourists and their furry friends, and it has now proposed a charge of
€1.50 per night for visiting canines. Local owners also need to pay €200 ($235) per dog as an annual tax.
Authorities plan to use the funds collected from the puppy tax for street cleaning and new dog parks. The proposal, which has not yet been approved, was introduced by
Councillor Luis Walcher, who said it was a fair measure concerning dog owners; otherwise, the whole community would have to pay for cleaning up dog waste.
The tax is part of a wider initiative targeting dog owners. Amid much criticism, authorities last year introduced a policy requiring local pet owners to
register the DNA of their dogs so culprits who leave behind waste could be identified and fined up to €600. Few owners participated.
Carla Rocchi of animal protection body ENPA
said in a statement that the tax is turning animals into an ATM. “After the resounding and expensive failure of the absurd dog DNA project, instead of focusing on civic education, targeted controls and citizen awareness, the easiest way is once again chosen: taxing animals and their owners.”
Village Entry Fee
About half an hour from Amsterdam, the historic village of
Zaanse Schans offers free access to its charming windmills and vibrant wooden houses. More than 2.6 million people visit the open-air museum every year, and the numbers are overwhelming the tiny village of 100 residents. Starting in 2026,
it will ask visitors to pay €17.50 ($20) to enter.
This tourist charge will also grant visitors access to the museum and the windmills, which currently require separate entry fees. The council plans to use the funds to maintain the windmills and develop new infrastructure such as restrooms.
On the flip side, business owners are concerned that the entry fee will discourage tourists from spending at shops.
During busy weeks, Venice imposes an access fee on visitors who do not stay overnight. Tourists pay €5 per day if they register their visit four days in advance or €10 daily if they book at the last minute. On the other side of the world, Bhutan charges tourists a high daily tax of $100 per night, called the
Sustainable Development Fee, to maintain infrastructure and promote environmental, social and cultural development.
Crowded House: The forces demanding hotel brand differentiation
https://hotelsmag.com/news/crowded-house-the-forces-and-needs-behind-hotel-brand-differentiation
The hotel industry operates in an extraordinarily crowded marketplace where over 450 brands represent 17.5 million rooms under major hotel groups, alongside 14.3 million independent hotel rooms, globally. This proliferation has reached an inflection point, worries over commoditization, which transforms brand differentiation from advantageous to essential for survival.
Current market data from STR, Lodging Econometrics and UNWTO show global and regional hotel groups
account for 55% of worldwide accommodation capacity across 750,000 properties, fundamentally altering competitive dynamics and converting traditional differentiators into basic market entry requirements.
Industry Evolution and Structural Forces
The hotel industry transformed between 1980-2000 from locally-owned, asset-heavy operations to globally-scaled, franchise-driven business models. This shift enabled rapid expansion without capital constraints while creating mathematical limitations that artificially drive continued brand proliferation. Historic pioneers like Hilton and InterContinental initially grew through direct ownership, but the strategic pivot toward asset-light models allowed companies to become distribution powerhouses managing thousands of investor-owned properties.
Major consolidations reflected strategic necessity rather than consumer demand. Marriott International’s 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts created the world’s largest hotel group with 30 brands, while Accor expanded through acquisitions including Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel. Franchise territorial protection agreements prevent competing properties from the same brand within defined geographical boundaries, creating artificial demand for new brands once market saturation occurs. This structural limitation forces continued brand multiplication despite limited consumer appetite for additional choice.
Consumer Decision-Making Evolution
Traditional competitive factors—price, location, brand recognition, amenities—no longer differentiate hotel choices but simply determine market-entry qualifications. Digital transformation provides consumers with easy access to massive choice, enabling rapid preference comparison that fundamentally alters competitive dynamics. In virtually any location and price point, travelers now face at least 10 viable options meeting basic criteria, representing a complete reversal from when superior location or competitive pricing could directly drive bookings.
Contemporary hotel selection depends on value perception beyond price, encompassing the relationship between cost and total experience delivered, alongside trustworthiness through transparent pricing and service consistency. Sustainability and purpose increasingly influence booking decisions, particularly as younger demographics gain spending power and become more discerning about environmental responsibility. Experience quality focuses on how stays make guests feel rather than traditional amenity checklists, while booking simplicity emphasizes ease of finding and purchasing exactly what guests want.
Competitive Dynamics Framework
Brand success depends more fundamentally on financial attractiveness to property owners than guest preference alone, as most properties operate under franchise models where owners evaluate brands through economic frameworks comparing brand premiums against total affiliation costs. Property owners assess whether additional revenue generated by brand affiliation justifies conversion costs, ongoing fees, marketing contributions and operational requirements. This calculation determines brand growth potential more decisively than consumer appeal.
Modern hotel competition occurs across multiple dimensions beyond direct property rivalry. The “big five” hotel groups (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor and Hyatt) leverage enormous scale including brand awareness, distribution reach and loyalty ecosystems. However, regional champions demonstrate that penetration creates sustainable competitive advantage without requiring global scale. Outside the U.S., UK’s
Premier Inn and
Travelodge achieve market leadership through focused penetration, similar to Grecohotels across Greece or Rotana in the UAE.
Distribution power dynamics favor platform intermediaries, with Google, Meta, Booking.com and Expedia controlling first customer contact while hotel industry advertising spending represents only 20% of individual online travel agency budgets. These platforms systematically commoditize hotel brands by emphasising basic attributes rather than unique value
propositions. Alternative lodging providers, particularly Airbnb, permanently altered consumer expectations around space, uniqueness and value, while luxury segments face increasing competition from curated short-term rental collections.
Strategic Differentiation Approaches
Experience and Lifestyle Leadership
Moving beyond transactional accommodation toward experience-led value propositions represents the most significant differentiation opportunity. This approach creates emotional connections that support pricing premiums and guest loyalty while moving beyond commoditized amenity comparisons. Successful implementation requires authentic brand identity resonating with specific target segments, consistent delivery across touchpoints and operational capabilities supporting experience promises without unsustainable cost increases.
Owner Value Proposition Enhancement
Optimizing franchise economics requires balancing conversion costs, operational requirements and brand standards with achievable revenue premiums that create attractive unit-level returns. Growth strategies should prioritize deep market penetration before expanding to new regions, leveraging local market power and creating synergies between destination and source markets for demand generation.
Personalized Loyalty Evolution
Traditional points-based loyalty programs require transformation toward experience-led, personalized engagement that create genuine emotional connection rather than transactional relationships. Advanced guest data utilization enables tailored offers, recognition and flexible rewards across brands and stay occasions, while seamless integration across direct-booking
channels creates comprehensive engagement ecosystems that reduce dependence on commission-based third-party distribution.
Digital Distribution Excellence
Winning digital competition requires significant investment in direct booking incentives, loyalty benefits and mobile-first experiences that compete effectively with online travel agency convenience. Strategic partnerships and technology investments must focus on controlling customer relationships and reducing commission-based bookings while maintaining competitive visibility. Success requires understanding that intermediaries exploit brand confusion to generate revenue through placement fees.
Sustainability as Core Differentiation
Environmental and social responsibility increasingly influence booking decisions, with younger demographics becoming more discerning about sustainability expectations as they gain spending power. Modern guests are fundamentally values-conscious, seeking brands that align with personal beliefs through shared principles rather than superficial marketing. Authentic sustainability programs integrating environmental stewardship, community engagement,and transparent impact reporting create differentiation opportunities while supporting cost reduction through operational efficiency.
Regional Localization Strategy
Adapting propositions to local cultural expectations while maintaining global brand standards creates competitive advantage through balanced approaches that ensure both international travelers and local guests find compelling value. The key lies in recognizing not just where properties operate but understanding geographic demand sources and adapting accordingly
while maintaining operational standards that support brand integrity.
Implementation Success Factors
Effective brand differentiation demands alignment between strategic vision, operational capability and market positioning that most hospitality companies find challenging to achieve. Market-driven brand positioning through comprehensive research ensures differentiation strategies address genuine market needs rather than internal assumptions. Owner economics optimization requires balancing investment requirements with achievable returns, ensuring property owners generate attractive profits while maintaining brand standards.
Cross-functional organizational coordination between traditionally independent teams becomes essential for supporting brand promises through consistent delivery. Modern technology infrastructure supporting personalized experiences and data-driven decision-making represents fundamental requirements for competitive differentiation. Sophisticated measurement frameworks tracking both financial performance and brand equity development enable continuous optimization based on actual market response.
Conclusion
Brand proliferation represents both unprecedented challenges and significant opportunities for companies developing sophisticated differentiation strategies. Success requires understanding that differentiation operates simultaneously across guest experience, owner economics, operational excellence and technological capability while maintaining authentic positioning that resonates with specific target markets. The battle shifts from “who has the most rooms” to “who owns the customer and creates differentiated value at scale.”
Companies that control distribution, deliver unique experiences and create loyalty through personalization and sustainability while proving demonstrable value to property owners will define the industry’s competitive landscape. As demonstrated in our
previous analysis, “Why Customer Experience Is the Growth Engine Hotels Can’t Ignore,” experience excellence drives revenue, pricing power and operational efficiency. The integration of brand differentiation with experience transformation represents the most powerful pathway to sustainable competitive advantage in today’s challenging market environment.
Story contributed by
Tim Davis, managing director of
PACE Dimensions, a travel and hospitality consultancy based in the U.K.
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