American Hotel and Lodging Association
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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 Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Mar ...
, 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.


History

The American Hotel Protective Association, founded in 1910 as a regional trade association in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, 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 Ellsworth Milton (E. M.) Statler (October 26, 1863 – April 16, 1928) was an American hotel businessman, founder of the Statler Hotels chain, born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Biography Statler built his first permanent hotel in 1907, in ...
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 Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
under dean Howard Meek. Hôteliers thrived during the
Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the ...
; 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 Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
South because
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
excluded many travellers, including African Americans. (These segregated travellers used the Negro Motorist Green Book to find accommodations.) Properties were forced to adapt to the newfound popularity of the
motorcar A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
, adding parking and establishing locations on main highways; the number of rooms in each newly constructed hotel was increasing.
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
hurt the hotel trade by cutting into revenue from food and beverage operations, 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 The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) was a US labor law and consumer law passed by the 73rd US Congress to authorize the president to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery. It also ...
, which sought to employ nationwide trade organisations to regulate wages and prices to halt a
deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). Inflation reduces the value of currency over time, but sudden deflatio ...
ary spiral, drew strong opposition from hotel owners (who saw it as a prelude to unionisation) and from the association. 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
motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionarie ...
s. Two out of three US hotels went into receivership. 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. 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. The American Hotel and Lodging Association now is significantly involved in lobbying on behalf of the hotel industry's goals.


Agenda

In 1952, the AHA approached Mississippi State University to operate an extension training curriculum, the . The association also proposed that members standardise various tasks within each hotel operation, from accounting to training and customer service, 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. 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) to advocating clients provide generous gratuities to a long list of personnel in its 2013 ''Gratuity Guide''. In response to complaints of overcharging for calls from in-room telephones, the association has supported the
FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
's protection of a travellers' right to select which carrier provides operator services. AHLA provides
best practices A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...
and information about
bed bug Bed bugs are insects from the genus ''Cimex'' that feed on blood, usually at night. Their bites can result in a number of health impacts including skin rashes, psychological effects, and allergic symptoms. Bed bug bites may lead to skin changes ...
s. AHA has supported market research to gauge user demand for specific amenities, such as fitness centres, in tourist hotels. 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''. The American Hotel and Lodging Association has been one of the leading advocates of resort fees. Resort fees are extra mandatory fees that are not included in the advertised hotel price. A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report from January 2017 said that resort fees are likely to harm consumers. In addition to advocating for resort fees, the AHLA has entered the advocacy work against short term home sharing. The AHLA has been doubled their political action committee (PAC) budget over two years (from 2014 to 2016). Many of the politicians who have received significant contributions from the American Hotel and Lodging Association PAC advocate for resort fees and against home sharing.


American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute

The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) is a nonprofit member benefit of the AHLA. Established in 1953, it provides hospitality education, training and professional certification that serves the needs of
hospitality school Hospitality Management and Tourism is the study of the hospitality industry. A degree in the subject may be awarded either by a university college dedicated to the studies of hospitality management or a business school with a relevant departme ...
s and industries worldwide. The AHLEI provides materials for all levels of hospitality personnel via:
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,
distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
courses, videos, seminars, textbooks, and study guides. It certifies the competencies in conjunction with academia and industry experts for more than 20 positions in the
hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars. Sect ...
, with designations ranging from the specialty to executive levels. The AHELI has more than 90 licensed affiliates in 54 countries. It has offices in Lansing, Michigan, Orlando, Florida and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and holds exclusive Hospitality Education Program (HEP) license agreements in 45 countries throughout
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
,
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, and
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. Most certifications, especially Certified Hotel Administrators (CHAs), can earn undergraduate or graduate credit for their certification when they enroll in certain American Public University programs of study. The American Council on Education (ACE) determined the CHA certification is worth six semester credits at an upper-division baccalaureate degree level and three semester credits at a graduate degree level.


See also

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References


External links

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American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute
{{Authority control Trade associations based in the United States Organizations established in 1910 1910 establishments in Illinois Hospitality industry organizations Hospitality schools in the United States Organizations established in 1953 1953 establishments in the United States