Summary: Our main topic for the day is on concierge services and whether or not Hawaii hotels have any backbone left… Sound interesting? This is a controversial discussion about the increasing rise of third party concierge services renting out desk space in many hotels and how it negatively affects local companies, the guests and the hotels themselves. Sparked by a Wall Street Journal article and an interview I recently did, this is an important topic that is beginning to irk many travel industry people, including Hawaii Aloha Travel. Hear more about this topic and Hawaii's top traveler news on today's podcast! Hawaii saw a little bit of rain this week, which seems like the first sign that winter is approaching. That and the swell that pushed through the north shores of Hawaii are good indicators of what we have to look forward to in the near future. But the sun is still pretty intense during the day- thankfully the trades are up- so summer weather should last longer this year. The west coast is getting an Indian summer and while Hawaii doesn't see seasons like the mainland, we still can have drier or wetter summers and winters. On this podcast we have a handful of news topics and a pretty interesting main discussion topic. We start off with the TSA plans for quicker airport screening for PreCheck program members traveling inter island. Next we'll detail the top 10 hotels on Kauai based on Pacific Business News, and number one might not come as a surprise to those vacationers familiar with Kauai. There is a new hotel opening on Maui, Hyatt's first Andaz brand hotel. This will add to their 10 existing hotels across the world, but tune in to the podcast to hear more about the location and details. Travel Weekly has a visitor spending report for us that shows visitors in July leaving Hawaii quicker than previous months and we'll also talk about Aqua Hospitality and the new hotel they've just acquired on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki.
