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Maggie Painter English 106-670 Aria Halliday Academic Discourse 4/10/14

Rauch, Robert, Top Ten Hospitality Trends in 2014, Hospitality Net. 2013. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. <http://www.hospitalitynet.org>.

This article includes the top ten trends in hospitality for this year. It is important to know what group of people you need to target and what types of media to keep up with in order to get the best business possible, which is exactly what this article does. It is adequate information due to the fact that the author is a respected man in his field. Robert Rauch, also referred to as the Hotel Guru, has been successful in the business for thirty-five years. He started the website HotelGuru.com and is president and CEO of R. A. Rauch & Associates. As an expert, his peers look to him for advice on running a successful hospitality business. Although Robert Rauch is a respected man in his field, he is not popular on the academic scene. It seems as if academically acclaimed journalists are not interested in the information he has to share with the world.

Robert Rauch is referred to as the Hotel Guru due to his thirty-five years of success in his hotel management career. He currently serves on numerous Boards of directors, owns and manages R.A. Rauch & Associates, currently operates seventeen hotels throughout North America, writes an electronic newsletter called Hospitality Innsights, and founded the website

HotelGuru.com. Since he is so important to the industry, he releases a list of trends in the hospitality business every year. These trends are usually similar, but are altered every year. Despite his feats and endless efforts to build his

reputation, he is not known well among academic discourse communities. Hospitality is becoming a more popular career field, but apparently it is not yet

2 valued among scholars. Aside from their disregard of his importance to his own industry, he continues to release an article with the top ten trends of the year. The purpose of releasing the list is to help guide those who are employed in the hospitality field, as well as to continue to build his reputation as an expert in hospitality management. The audience of his articles are those in the field that see him as an advisor, or those outside of the field that appreciate his feats and follow his career. The design is really simple since he just lists the trend and then includes a brief description and an explanation as to why it is on the list. This helps those included in the discourse, as well as those who arent to easily follow along. His tone throughout the piece is welcoming, but also very forward and informational. Rauchs stance is that being on top of trends in the hospitality industry is very important if you want to receive a lot of visitors and if you want those who visit to return. The first one on the 2014 list are millennials. He explains that these GenY travelers- meaning the millennial generation- value experiences gained from traveling. That leads to number two, which is speed and precision. These two ways of action are a priority because these millennials expect top-notch service and expect it right now. The hotel industry has experienced the backlash of customer feedback on social media. This feeds into number three on the list, WOW customer service. In order to keep these GenY travelers coming back, they have to rise above basic and even outstanding service. Their goal is to really wow their customers, which is why it is referred to as WOW customer service. Along with amazing customer service, another key priority according to Rauch is leadership. He portrays leadership as constantly

3 working on improving yourself and really connecting with the customers. This leadership will really come into play for number five, expectation of more international visitors, which is fueled by the Discover America campaign. The sixth trend applies to all customers involved, since it has to do with social media. Specifically, it is social media and mobile will be inseparable. As a result of this advertising, content marketing will replace traditional advertising, which Rauch lists as number seven due to the customers advertising for the hotels on social media. Similar to number seven is number eight on the list: renewed focus on property websites. Since customers will be using the internet to advertise for hotel industries, hotel websites are crucial. This sets the scene for number nine: review site tactics. This includes responding to reviews and monitoring websites they are listed on. Last but not least on the list is reputation management. As I stated earlier, Rauch is aware of the impact social media can make on businesses and can either set the bar high, or set it low for possible future customers. Therefore, he insists that every article and every post about the industry is important and should be closely managed. The design of this paper is different, due to the fact it is a list and not an essay. The reason it is designed this way is to make it easier and more efficient for others in the field to go through and gather the information. Using Swales model to analyze the article, it shows there are a common set of goals. These goals include meeting all ten trends and using them to be a more successful business. There is also intercommunication among those in the field, this article being one way of an expert teaching a novice. This connects with another aspect, which is

4 providing information to the group as a whole. The expectation of the business is to be successful, so this list helps to further the aims of smaller companies in the field. Throughout the article, there is jargon limited to those in the hospitality business, meaning they have their own lexis. This analysis guided by Swales model proves that this is a functioning discourse community. Rauch uses integral citations to help build rapport for his stance on the hospitality industry and the trends that keep it thriving. He quotes Arne Sorensen, President and CEO of Marriott Hotels & Resorts, in the description of expectation of more international visitors. By adding a quote from a president and CEO of another Rauchs claims are adequately supported since Sorenson is also a respected employee in the hotel industry. Another integral citation used is used under number nine, review website tactics. He uses The Wall Street Journal in order to verify the number of users on Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Google Places. This is important information to have in order to spend your money in marketing wisely, and make sure it isnt being spent on a source of media that isnt utilized. By drawing in a popular newspaper and a fellow CEO of a hotel to his conversation, Rauch is gaining respect and sidestepping unsure readers.

Your project is very descriptive, very straightforward, and interesting. I did not find any grammar or spelling errors nor run-ons. You followed the rubric, and overall this is a great paper. -Alex Gonzalez