Four Trends for Beyond Revenge Travel 2.0
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Although Pre-Pandemic Profitability Will Remain Elusive, the Industry Will Make Strides Toward Recovery in 2022
Fran Worrall | January 5, 2022
Coronavirus
STR: U.S. Hotel Performance for March 2020
STR | April 21, 2020
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—In its first month with a visible impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. hotel industry reported double-digit declines in the three key performance metrics during March 2020, according to data from STR. In a year-over-year comparison with March 2019, the industry posted the following: Occupancy: -42.3% to 39.4% Average daily rate (ADR): -16.5% to US$110.66 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -51.9% to US$43.54 Among the Top 25 Markets, San Francisco/San Mateo, California, experienced the steepest drop in occupancy (-62.2% to 30.2%), which resulted in the largest decrease in RevPAR (-72.3% to ...
Marriott Launches Global Cleanliness Council to Promote Higher Standards of Cleanliness in the Age of COVID-19
Marriott International, Inc. | April 21, 2020
Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR), which for 92 years has been recognized as a hospitality leader for its commitment to quality, exacting standards, and rigorous training, announced today that it will be rolling out a multi-pronged platform to elevate its cleanliness standards and hospitality norms and behaviors to meet the new health and safety challenges presented by the current pandemic environment. “We are living in a new age, with COVID-19 front and center for our guests and our associates,” said Arne Sorenson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International. “We are grateful for the trust our guests have shown ...
Kennedy Training Network Announces Two New Hotel Sales Team Programs, Delivered Live Via Webcam, to Prepare for a New Sales Habitat
Kennedy Training Network | April 20, 2020
Hotel sales has truly been a seller’s market for a very long time; 10-year veterans have never experienced selling in a recession, while veterans are out of practice at prospecting. Until recently, at most hotels the biggest challenges have been keeping up with the flood of inbound RFP’s, as third-party meeting and event planning websites made it too easy to request a proposal. Smart sales leaders will wisely use the current lull in sales activity to upskill their teams for what is sure to be a buyer’s market for the near future. This week, KTN is introducing two hotel sales training programs, personally delivered live on webcam by K...
Latest Analysis: Coronavirus Impact on Travel 9x Worse than 9/11
The U.S. Travel Association | April 20, 2020
WASHINGTON (April 20, 2020)—The travel industry has lost a full third of all the jobs lost in the U.S. and is experiencing a total impact from coronavirus that is nine times greater than the 9/11 attacks, according to new data released by the U.S. Travel Association and the analytics firm Tourism Economics. By the end of April, declines in travel will cause eight million jobs to be lost out of approximately 24 million for the entire U.S. economy, according to the report. Travel spending losses are on track to top half a trillion dollars by the end of 2020. "The CARES Act was a good start, but the data shows there is still extreme and ...
How Hospitality and Retail Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Shutdown
René-Ojas Woltering | April 20, 2020
By René-Ojas Woltering Policy makers around the world have enforced an unprecedented shutdown of public life to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. As a consequence, entire sectors of the economy have seen their revenues collapse to zero. At the time of this publication, it appears that the shutdown will be a matter of months rather than just a few weeks. Yet, to date, no coherent political-economic strategy exists on how businesses may potentially survive a prolonged period without any revenues. Many hospitality and retail businesses are about to be sacrificed in the name of public health. A wave of insolvencies would cause irrev...
Impact of COVID-19 on Los Angeles & Southern California Hotel Markets
Luigi Major | April 20, 2020
By Luigi Major Since December 2019, outbreaks of coronavirus (COVID-19) have led to global economic disruptions as cities and countries attempt to slow the spread of the disease by implementing lockdowns and social distancing measures. At the time of publishing this article, the number of cases in the United States and California exceeded 680,000 and 28,000, respectively. The federal government, along with state and local governments, has implemented restrictions to slow the spread of the disease, including stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders. Major events have been canceled, and travel has been curtailed to “essential business” on...
Credit Card Processing Best Practices During COVID-19 and Other Challenging Times
POST Integrations | April 20, 2020
By Juli Barter As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel industry continues to feel its effects. As a trusted hospitality payments provider, POST Integrations is providing the following credit card acceptance best practices to help guide you and your properties through these uncertain times. Below are the key areas to understand and be aware of during this time. CANCELLATIONS/PREPAID RESERVATION AND ADVANCE DEPOSIT CREDITS If your property requires an advance deposit or offers prepaid reservations for guest stays, no doubt your team is dealing with an increased request for cancellations during this time...
Riegel Linen Pivoting From Hospitality to Healthcare Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic
Lion Equity Partners | April 20, 2020
Hospitality’s leading textile provider is now manufacturing masks for existing customers as well as new ones; Riegel Linen donates masks to University of South Carolina Aiken International Students and the UofSC Aiken Police Department AIKEN, S.C.— APRIL 20, 2020 — To do its part amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Riegel Linen is now manufacturing masks in addition to surgical towels, sheeting and mattress pads for existing and new customers. Known nationwide for its quality sheeting, terry, and table linen products for hotels and restaurants, the hospitality textile manufacturer is also helping the local community. As part of its n...
Beekeeper Continues COVID-19 Webinar Series: ‘Communicating With Furloughed Employees —Getting It Right’ on Thursday, April 23
Beekeeper | April 20, 2020
Led by the Director of the Cornell Institute for Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations, participants from Marriott International, Jones Day, and Beekeeper will discuss how to best communicate with a remote workforce and prepare them for success when things start to turn around. San Francisco, April 20, 2020 — How do furloughed employees stay in the know with what is going on at the hotel? How are hoteliers communicating unemployment insurance benefits? What will happen when things start to turn around and properties need to begin planning for reopening? On Thursday, Beekeeper, a mobile-first communication platform for ...
HVS Hotel Transaction Activity: The Factors Influencing a Return to Normalcy in a Post-COVID-19 Time
Drew Noecker | April 17, 2020
By Drew Noecker As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the HVS Team has received many questions about when U.S. hotel transaction volume will return to reasonable, pre-pandemic levels. While we do not have a definite answer, as this circumstances are evolving daily, we have tried to use past events to provide some insight on the factors that would affect a possible rebound. April 14, 2020 – Updated Transaction Data Source: Real Capital Analytics, 4/14/2020 | www.rcanalytics.com In line with the table above, we see the anticipated volume declining because of COVID-19. The year-over-year individual property transaction volume ...
COVID-19 Response: 96% of Global Destinations Impose Travel Restrictions, UNWTO Reports
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) | April 17, 2020
The scale of disruption caused by COVID-19 to global tourism is shown in a comprehensive new report on travel restrictions from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The landmark report, published at a time of unprecedented disruption for the sector, shows that almost all global destinations have imposed restrictions on travel since January 2020, including complete bans on all travel as they work to contain the pandemic. Over recent years, as the United Nations specialized agency for tourism, UNWTO has been regularly monitoring travel facilitation and observing a continuous trend towards more openness. COVID-19 has dramatically interrupt...
Easy to Use Key Points for Independent Hotels During the Current Pandemic
Paloma Guerra | April 17, 2020
By Paloma Guerra & Alex Sogno In Europe, we have seen that the large hotel operating companies have been as supportive as possible to their hotel teams, providing profit protection plans, business continuity plans and other useful guidance. This article is for independent hotels, which represent a large segment of our industry in Europe. Whether your hotel is closed or remains open, please see the strategies and tools below on how to deal with the current crisis. “Barbam propinqui radere, heus, cum videris, prabe lavandos barbula prudens pilos”, (roughly translated as “If you want to make peace, prepare for war”). This Latin ...
IHG Launches Global Effort to Feed Local Communities in Response to Covid-19 Pandemic
IHG | April 17, 2020
With hotels in thousands of communities around the world, together with our colleagues, owners and partners, we are working to be part of the relief effort. Today, we are extending our programme for communities and charitable giving, True Hospitality for Good, by committing funding and support to be there for our local communities where they are most vulnerable. Helping to protect and enhance food bank infrastructure and services in more than 70 countries, IHG’s partners include ‘No Kid Hungry’ in the US, ‘Trussell Trust’ in the UK, the ‘Global Foodbanking Network’ (GFN) and the ‘European Food Banks Federation’ (FEBA). To...
HVS COVID-19 Impact on Lodging Tax Revenues
Thomas Hazinski | April 17, 2020
By Thomas A. Hazinski & Joseph Hansel HVS modeled the anticipated RevPAR declines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on patterns of recovery following the two most recent recessions, we projected the lodging tax revenues of 24 urban markets in the United States. Comparing these projections to a baseline scenario without the pandemic, HVS estimates combined losses of 24 major U.S. markets could range from $4.0 to $5.5 billion of lodging tax revenues. Lodging tax losses of this magnitude will force bondholders, destination marketing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider steps such as debt refinancing or seeking alternati...
80-Plus House Members Urge Relief for Destination Marketing Organizations
U.S. Travel Association | April 17, 2020
WASHINGTON (April 17, 2020)—More than 80 U.S. House members from both sides of the political aisle have signed onto a letter urging congressional leaders to provide relief for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) whose funding has been crippled by the coronavirus crisis. Despite their pivotal contributions to local and regional travel economies, many DMOs were unintentionally left ineligible for coronavirus relief funding under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) because of their non-profit or quasi-governmental status. The U.S. Travel Association has been working with Congress to correct the problem, since DMOs will be vital ...
Duetto Launches Free Market Demand Report for Hoteliers
Duetto | April 17, 2020
New Pulse Report will help industry anticipate and plan for recovery San Francisco, April 17, 2020 — Duetto, hospitality's innovative software as a service provider of revenue strategy solutions has launched the Duetto Pulse Report, a free, data-driven analysis of key metrics including bookings, cancellations and website traffic in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Built by Duetto’s team of revenue experts and analysts, the Duetto Pulse Report provides a bi-weekly analysis of market demand from hotels using the Duetto platform. It is available as a free tool for all hoteliers around the world. “Duetto is committed to providing ...
Operating Performance at Low Occupancy Levels
Robert Mandelbaum | April 17, 2020
By Robert Mandelbaum Since January 2020, CBRE Hotels Research has been analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 virus to understand how the societal and economic impacts of COVID-19 will influence the performance of U.S. hotels. Initial guidance came in the form of updated Hotel Horizons® forecasts of occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR for the nation’s chain-scales, location categories, and 60 major markets. Concurrently, we relied on the historical relationship between declines in RevPAR to estimate the potential decreases in profits. For example, a 20 percent decline in RevPAR for a full-service hotel during 2009 resulted, on average, in a...
STR: Canada Hotel Results for Week Ending 11 April
STR | April 16, 2020
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—Showing further COVID-19 impact, the Canadian hotel industry recorded steep year-over-year declines in the three key performance metrics during the week of 5-11 April 2020, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of 7-13 April 2019, the industry reported the following: Occupancy: -81.2% to 12.0% Average daily rate (ADR): -33.8% to CAD101.34 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -87.6% to CAD12.17 Among the provinces and territories, Quebec experienced the largest drop in occupancy (-90.5% to 6.2%), which resulted in the steepest decrease in RevPAR (-93.8% to CAD6.38). Ontario repo...
5 Questions a Good Manager Should Ask Him/Herself While Managing a Team Remotely
Lucile Muller | April 16, 2020
By Lucile Muller As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, companies and universities around the world have suddenly been forced to adopt home office measures for their employees wherever possible. It is true that over the last decades, the digitalization of our economies has made virtual work environment possible but realistically-speaking, only a few companies have been actively promoting it among their employees. Indeed, for most companies the road toward digitalization was perceived as a long and difficult journey demanding time and preparation. Only the most pessimistic ones would have imagined such a brutal transition. Today, even the...
Hotel Operations in the COVID Era
Ajay Mehtani | April 16, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani and Dipti Mohan Social distancing has become a norm in today’s COVID-19 world and hotels need to re-evaluate and update their SOPs to adapt to this change. HVS has prepared this document to help hoteliers in the planning process regarding the formulation of SOPs on how to operate their hotels once the lockdown has been lifted. We strongly recommend that hotels always follow the guidelines provided by the Health Department and the state and central Government, including guidelines on maintaining records etc. based on local authority requirements, to formulate their SOPs. The first step is to make a Guest Booklet or C...
#FirstRespondersFirst and IHG® Hotels & Resorts Partner to House Frontline COVID-19 Teams Nationwide
IHG | April 16, 2020
#FirstRespondersFirst today announced IHG Hotels & Resorts as a nationwide hospitality partner, providing free accommodation at hotels across the United States for frontline COVID-19 first responders. While most of the nation’s residents are encouraged to shelter in place, first responders, ranging from physicians and nurses to home-care workers, social workers, and beyond, are in the field providing critical care during this global emergency, putting the needs of others above themselves and often their families. #FirstRespondersFirst helps provide essential protective equipment, accommodations, child care, food, mental health suppor...
sbe Starts Hiring of 1,000 New Team Members for C3 Amid COVID-19
C3 | April 16, 2020
Sam Nazarian to Commence Recruitment Immediately to Staff 138 Ghost Kitchens Opening by End of 2020 Nazarian will Prioritize Employees Furloughed at Other Restaurants and Properties Due to COVID-19 MIAMI, April 16, 2020 -- Sam Nazarian, Founder and CEO of sbe, the leading lifestyle hospitality company that develops, manages and operates award-winning global brands, today announced that recruitment has begun for 1,000 newly-created positions across the country for sbe's C3 (Creating Culinary Communities) subsidiary. As part of the opening of [food halls] and 138 ghost kitchens before the end of the year, C3 is hiring across the entire organi...
IDeaS Provides Ongoing Client Support and Hotel Industry Guidance During COVID-19 Crisis With New Podcast and Webinar Series
IDeaS | April 16, 2020
IDeaS produces new podcast season and webinar series in effort to provide insights and unite the global hospitality community during these challenging times Tweet This: @IDeaS_RevOpt launches a podcast that takes an intimate look at how hotels are managing and coping with the COVID-19 outbreak as well as a webinar series helping clients manage their IDeaS solutions in response to business impacts. www.ideas.com/news #rev MINNEAPOLIS—April 16, 2020—IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the world’s leading provider of revenue management software and services, launched today a special Unconstrained Conversations podcast season taking an intimate ...
Thermal Imaging and Its Potential Effect on The Travel and Hospitality Sector
Alan E. Young | April 16, 2020
By Alan Young These days, you can’t help but notice that virtually every COVID-19 news clip has repeatedly depicted a person being screened for fever using some device that looks like it is from Star Trek. The use of the non-contact handheld infra-red thermometer has become, somewhat disturbingly, commonplace. So does this mean our ‘new normal’ will include the frequent practice of our temperatures being monitored via these portable infrared devices wherever we go? Or scarier yet - will it become necessary to scan entire crowds through the use of thermal imaging? Right now, of course, this is only speculation, but signs are pointi...
