Back in Denver to meet with our ace IT guys. I was feeling very smug having found a really cheap flight...then had the smile wiped from my face when forced to pay $200/night for a Super 8. Apparently a nice young man called Mr Obama was also in town with a few friends and hotel rooms were at a premium. The only super thing about the Super 8 was its location about 300 yards from our office. Oh, and free internet (the Americans are way ahead of the rest of the world in providing this essential amenity at no cost).

It is always a pleasure to spend time with the Nexus Developers. Having described what I believe customers are looking for from our system there's usually about 60 seconds of 'you must be crazy' looks and raised eyebrows. This is followed by another 60 seconds of cautious 'well, maybe if we tried it this way...', then a full 30 minutes of heated debate and furious scribbling on the whiteboard - most of which goes way over my head. Then - Voila! - problem solved. After 20 years in this industry I still struggle with how techies can estimate that one project will take 3 weeks while another apparently similar task is despatched over the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. It's all about power I reckon. Either way, it all adds up to more great things in the pipeline for Nexus clients.

Barack will have to wait a little longer to find out if his Denver meeting has been as successful as mine...

Under starter's orders...and...we're off! Rate season 2009 is very definitely under way with the first of the big corporate bids - IBM - already closed. For Nexus, this is the 'silly season'. While most of the world (certainly most of Europe) heads for the beach, this is our busiest time of the year. Finalising Consortia programs in the system, sending test files, implementing and training new clients, re-training existing clients...This year is especially demanding with the 'go live' for clients of our new HotelworX sales force system. Fortunately we have IT guys that have been eating, breathing and living Nexus for the past 10 years. We're in safe hands, so take a bow Mark, Paul and Luis...then take a break. But not just yet!

Just returned from the HITEC show in Austin, Texas. First time for me in Austin. Seems like a decent enough place and the locals I met only had good things to say about living there. Mind you, any city with a campus of 90,000 or so students should have plenty going on. My usually quiet jog before breakfast was anything but...I've never seen so many other people out running at 7am before. To continue the sporting theme, Tuesday night was armadillo racing night. The biggest challenge with armadillo racing is getting the creatures to stay put at the start line. The trick is to grab them by the tail with one hand and then push down on the back of the neck with the other so their feet can't move. We employed similar tactics next day at the show with hoteliers passing by the booth. Worked a treat. It's only when you survey the massed ranks of supplier exhibits at HITEC that you really appreciate the overwhelming number of technology products & services available to hotels today. It's a pity that so many hotel groups only choose to send their IT and Finance directors to the show because smart, creative technology solutions are frankly wasted on techies and bean counters. Operations, Revenue, Sales, Marketing and Distribution folks would walk away with their heads buzzing with innovative new ideas for improving performance and guest experience. And besides that, who wants to watch an accountant wrestling with an armadillo? Then again....

In Lisbon for HEDNA a couple of weeks ago at my old Corinthia hotel. I'm told the property, and Lisbon generally, are having a good year. The mood at the meeting among the industry was pretty good overall too, but you can't help but feel that the party won't last much longer - maybe Asia being an exception. The rule of thumb for the hotel industry is that we move in 6-7 year cycles. I remember helping to open a hotel in Budapest in the dead winter of early 2002 and wondering how on earth we were going to fill 400 rooms (we didn't). Since that point we've all been making hay while the sun shines, but too many economic indicators are swinging down and travel is always one of the first casualties of a tight corporate budget. Of course, as ever, the supply of new rooms will continue way beyond the peak of demand so we can expect heavy pressure on room rates in the coming months. It may not hit us hard in 2008 for 2009 rates, but I'm sure 12 months from now the 2010 negotiations will be a different story. And what prospect then for hotels to impose dynamic pricing?

Three weeks ago I was due to fly out of Heathrow to Denver via Chicago on BA. It was to be the day after Terminal 5 opened for business and I was slightly worried about how smoothly everything would go. Then I found out that the long haul flights were not moving to T5 until June...a lucky escape as it turned out! There was something ironic about being in Denver when I heard about the Heathrow T5 chaos with the lost bags. Those with long memories will remember that in the mid 1990s when Stapleton was being replaced by DIA, the opening of the new airport was delayed for over a year because of a malfunctioning high speed baggage system. It turned 'rogue', chewing up suitcases and spewing them - at high speed - in all directions. After 10 years of problems, the system was finally scrapped in 2005. So how happy I was on arriving in Chicago, en route back to London, to find that one of my bags was still in Denver. It had not been loaded on time and was following on the next flight. Airports. You never win do you?

I know we're still in Q1, but preparations are already under way for the 2009 rate season. It seems to start earlier every year (I blame global warming). The NBTA annual adjustments have been made and one of the most significant additions to the process this year is a set of questions about dynamic pricing - do hotels offer it and if so, how it will operate (level of discount? from which rate? is there a max/cap/ceiling? or a min/floor?) Your view on dynamic pricing will depend on which side of the negotiating table you're sitting. If you're a hotel you want your managed clients to be as yieldable as possible so you can avoid displacing high rate business in busy periods. This is a difficult challenge if rates are fixed within the traditional 3 or 4 season periods covered by an annual contract. If you're a Corporate (or its travel management company), you just want the absolute best rate you can get for your employees. If dynamic means your absolute best rate gets absolutely even better when a hotel is in a low demand period, all well and good. Just as long as the rate absolutely doesn't go any higher when the hotel is making hay. And perhaps more to the point, just as long as the cap/ceiling rate is no higher than it would have been in a non-dynamic environment. This is of course hard to prove during a negotiation. It makes T&E expenditure planning more problematic too. Which is why at the moment it seems that most Corporates are not quite ready for this brave new world. Like a small child, a rate that doesn't move is much easier to deal with. You can keep your eye on it and make sure it doesn't go where it's not supposed to. We have our Nexus Community Forums coming up in the next few weeks and I'll be very interested to see how our hotel clients are going to approach this year's rate season. Should be a dynamic discussion...

It's that time of year again when thoughts turn to Berlin and that annual bunfight we call ITB - the show we all love to hate. Every hotel group goes through the same ritual every year. At budget time, the extraordinary cost of participating in an international trade show sets off flashing red lights on the P&L and we blow the dust off the old debate: Can we afford to go? Can we afford not to go? There follows a short but meaningful period of angst, then the decision is made, March comes around and the hospitality herd descends. We greet old friends, avoid old bosses and preen in front of competitors. I always hate the thought of going, then love it when I'm there. Where else (in Europe anyway) can you find your entire career under one roof? This year, we're launching a new Nexus product - HotelworX - so there's a big incentive to cover every inch of Hall 9 and the surrounding territory. See you there...