Using the Labor Data from Hotel Effectiveness to Minimize Costs and Turnover
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky | January 11th, 2023
Four Creatively Destructive Forces for the Hotel Industry
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | July 13th, 2022
U.S. Travel & Tourism Saw Labor Shortfall of Almost 700,000 in 2021
WTTC | December 16, 2021
A report from WTTC, which represents the global private Travel & Tourism sector, projects up to one in 13 jobs will likely remain unfilled in 2022 WTTC provides recommendations that governments and businesses can use to address labor shortage London (December 16, 2021): A new analysis of staff shortages by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the global private Travel & Tourism sector, reveals the sector realized a U.S. labor shortfall of almost 700,000 workers during 2021. According to the report, the outlook for 2022 is only slightly more positive, with approximately 480,000 direct* U.S. Travel &...
How to Get Revenue Management Right for 2022
Ahmed Mahmoud | December 16, 2021
By Ahmed Mahmoud As vaccination programs continue to find success against Covid-19, lockdown policies are easing, and hotels are reopening. Tentative steps are being made toward the resumption of international travel – there is now significant domestic leisure travel taking place in a number of countries. With consumers starting to make travel plans, hoteliers should begin preparing their strategy for reopening and a wider recovery. Like most hotel departments, revenue management changed dramatically in light of the last two years’ unprecedented challenges. Established processes were flipped upside down as demand dried up and histor...
STR: U.S. Hotel Results for Week Ending 11 December
STR | December 16, 2021
HENDERSONVILLE, TN — December 16, 2021 — U.S. hotel performance increased from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through 11 December. 5-11 December 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*): Occupancy: 57.4% (-4.8%) Average daily rate (ADR): US$128.35 (+2.3%) Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$73.73 (-2.7%) Among the Top 25 Markets, Norfolk/Virginia Beach saw the only occupancy increase over 2019 (+4.2% to 55.2%). Of note, New York City reported the highest weekly occupancy level (81.5%) of any STR-defined U.S. market. NYC’s occupancy level was...
AHLA, HAMA Announce New Strategic Partnership
AHLA | December 15, 2021
Organizations Join Forces to Elevate Voice of Asset Owners, Advance Policy Agenda WASHINGTON (December 15, 2021) – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA) today announced a new strategic relationship, effective January 1, 2022, with the shared goal of further elevating the voice and visibility of asset owners in the advocacy efforts of the U.S. hotel industry. The announcement build’s on AHLA’s strong growth trajectory over the past year at a critical time for the hotel industry. Earlier this year, AHLA integrated with Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG), an...
CBRE Expects Lodging Revenue Per Available Room Recovery by Mid-2023
CBRE Group, Inc. | December 15, 2021
Dallas, TX – December 15, 2021 – Average daily rate (ADR) gains and a 35.1% year-over-year increase in hotel occupancy in Q3 showed demand for U.S. hotel stays endured in the face of the Delta variant. Continued improvement in domestic travel and the rollback of many international travel restrictions have led CBRE to revise its forecast significantly upward in the near- and medium-term. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is now forecast to reach 2019 nominal levels by the second half of 2023, rather than in 2024, as previously forecasted. Still, the identification of the Omicron variant and ongoing concerns about the pandemic continue ...
STR: Melbourne Hotel Rates Reached Pandemic-Era Highs in November
STR | December 14, 2021
LONDON — December 14, 2021 — Reflecting the end of lockdown and eased travel restrictions, Melbourne’s hotel industry reported its highest room rates of the pandemic-era, according to preliminary November 2021 data from STR. Occupancy: 33.9% Average daily rate (ADR): AUD169.06 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): AUD57.30 The market’s absolute ADR level was the highest since March 2020, while occupancy and RevPAR were the highest since May 2021. Looking ahead at the upcoming holiday season, STR’s latest Forward STAR data shows Melbourne’s highest occupancy on the books on 31 December (49.9%). All of STR’s COV...
STR: U.S. Hotel Results for Week Ending 4 December
STR | December 10, 2021
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee — December 10, 2021 — U.S. hotel occupancy increased from the previous week, but performance comparisons with 2019 were lower, according to STR‘s latest data through 4 December. 28 November through 4 December 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*): Occupancy: 54.8% (-8.8%) Average daily rate (ADR): US$127.92 (-0.5%) Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$70.08 (-9.2%) While none of the Top 25 Markets recorded an occupancy increase over 2019, Los Angeles matched its 2019 comparable (70.0%). San Francisco/San Mateo experienced the steepest occupancy ...
A Class Tale: Luxury Hotels Around the World
STR | December 9, 2021
As uncertainty and new cases of the Omicron variant increase across the globe, some countries have reimplemented restrictions around travel. New restrictions obviously mean potential challenges for the hotel industry, and as we have seen throughout the pandemic, every class of hotel can be affected differently. In this latest piece, we look at how Luxury class hotels have performed around the globe, especially in more recent months. ADR recovery In 2020, luxury hotels saw global occupancy lower than all other classes combined. China luxury hotels, for example, recovered 66.9% of their 2019 levels, which was 4.9% percentage...
A Tale of Two Travel Sentiments: Business Remains Negative While Leisure Still Upbeat
STR | December 7, 2021
With employees continuing to return to offices, ongoing vaccination progress, and the reopening of many international borders, the time would seem to be ripe for the return of business travel. Yet, even before the news of Omicron in recent days, there continued to be negative sentiment about the return of this segment whereas pandemic-era leisure travel sentiment remains buoyant. In November 2021, STR undertook an online survey of its Traveler Panel—an engaged audience of travel consumers—to examine the fortunes of the industry at this uncertain time. The research gathered the views of nearly 600 global business travelers. The lates...
Tourism Tidbits: Returning a Sense of Fascination to Travel and Tourism
Peter Tarlow | December 6, 2021
By Dr. Peter Tarlow These last two years have not been easy. Tourism professionals have seen tourism industries that just a few years ago were highly successful now needing to fight for their survival. Certainly, world pandemics play a major role in this decline. It would be, however, a mistake to blame all of the industry’s problems solely on the pandemic. Careful observers of the travel and tourism scene were already noting potential problems, from poor customer service to over-tourism just a mere 24 months ago. Often a reason cited for this decline is the high price of airline tickets and the fact that businesses had begun to...
Omicron Threatens Hotel Performance Recovery
HotStats | December 2, 2021
By David Eisen It’s all Greek to me. The COVID-19 pandemic has so thoroughly dominated everyday life that we have all got an education in the Greek alphabet. From Alpha and Beta to Gamma and Delta, each new strain is a grim reminder of the coronavirus’ intractability. Now, Omicron—the newest variant that has already spooked markets and caused travel bans from some southern Africa countries. Though nascent, there is the reality and worry that the new strain could derail the hotel industry’s fledgling recovery, in particular if plans move forward to tighten testing policies, like in the U.S. Indications are that ...
Where Are Young People Looking to Travel in 2022?
CONTIKI | December 2, 2021
December 2, 2021 – As the pioneering force in youth travel since 1962, Contiki has been bringing 18–35-year-old travelers together and sending them away to discover the world. In 2020, Contiki became a travel company – that couldn’t travel. What they discovered last year was the power of community: Avid travelers keeping the connection alive with their desire for shared experiences, storytelling and wanderlusting over when they can travel again. Now that international travel is slowly getting back on track, with more and more countries opening their borders to vaccinated travelers, how does 2022 look like for gen Z and millennia...
Increasing COVID-19 Cases Dent Consumer Travel Sentiment
STR | December 1, 2021
As COVID-19 cases rise in many parts of the world, especially Europe, the travel industry may be set for another period of disruption as winter encroaches and traveler sentiment worsens. Uncertainty in recent days has mounted further as the new Omicron variant has spread quickly, leading to many countries reimposing COVID restrictions. The situation is particularly ambiguous as recent months had produced stronger levels of hotel performance with vaccination progress leading to buoyed demand, reduced restrictions and the reopening of many international borders. In November 2021, STR undertook a new online survey using its Traveler Panel...
Rebranding Distressed Hotels Takes More Than Swapping Out Signage
Lauren Cicero | December 1, 2021
By Lauren Cicero PLAINFIELD, IL — December 1, 2021 — Stay-in-place orders, travel restrictions, and cancellations intended to control the spread of COVID-19 caused a severe drop in hotel occupancy and revenue. Even the best marketing has not prevented the most enticing hotels from becoming victims of the pandemic. Famed names like the Renaissance Grand & Suites Hotel in St. Louis, the iconic Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Washington, D.C.’s century-old Marriott Wardman Park, and The Blakely New York have all fallen into bankruptcy. More hotel bankruptcies may be on the horizon as lenders lose patience with defaulting prope...
Why Hotels Are Focused on All-Inclusive Resorts
JLL | November 30, 2021
As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread, many people are still wary of travel. But their comfort levels appear to increase when they choose to stay in one location they don’t need to leave — because it has everything they could dream of. An increase in local demand contributed to there being 14.9 million overnight hotel stays in Spain in July 2021, compared to 14.8 million in the same month of 2019. “A lack of cruises and pent-up holiday demand from 2020 have increased the average length of stay on an already compressed supply, further contributed to a higher performance in Mediterranean resorts,” says...
African Travel & Tourism Sector to Recover by Nearly a Third, WTTC Says
WTTC | November 23, 2021
London, UK – November 23, 2021 – Latest research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reveals the African Travel & Tourism sector is set to experience a year or year growth of just 27.7% this year, below the global average. WTTC says travel restrictions imposed by key source markets such as the UK, which saw countries such as South Africa, Tunisia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Egypt and Kenya on its damaging ‘red list’ for travel, have prevented people from travelling, hindering the sector’s recovery across Africa. Research by WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, shows that in 2019...
More States Close in on 2019 RevPAR, Stalled States Holding Back U.S. Average 22 November 2021
STR | November 22, 2021
STR’s latest 51-chart map shows a variety of recent national/regional trends as well as the general pace of the industry’s continued recovery. For the four weeks ending with 13 November 2021, more states closed the gap or exceeded their 2019 levels in revenue per available room (RevPAR) on a total-room-inventory (TRI) basis. Keystone markets, however, remain persistent holdouts toward further national recovery. Higher-than-expected average daily rate (ADR) along with strong weekend demand continue to underpin recovery. A total of 24 states recently outperformed their 2019 comparable period RevPAR, up from 18 states last month. The n...
Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism Sector Set to Recover by Nearly 40%, Reveals WTTC Report
WTTC | November 19, 2021
London, UK – November 19, 2021 – New research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reveals the recovery of the Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism sector has soared ahead of many regions in the world with a year on year growth of more than 36%. Before the pandemic struck, Asia Pacific’s Travel & Tourism sector’s contribution to GDP represented more than US$ 3 trillion (9.9% of the region’s economy). After the pandemic brought international travel to an almost complete standstill, in 2020, Asia Pacific saw a hit of almost 54%, halving the contribution of the Travel & Tourism sector to the region’s economy....
Light at the End of the Tunnel
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | November 19, 2021
Tourism around the world is reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hong Kong’s once vibrant industry is no exception. The path to recovery is unclear. In such extreme circumstances, is it even possible for tourism businesses to plan for the future? The answer is yes, say Ms Hanyuan Zhang and Professor Haiyan Song of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – but only if we can predict the unpredictable. In a study offering new hope for an industry on its knees, they and two researchers developed a pioneering method of forecasting tourism demand in times of crisis. Crisis br...
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. Lead the Middle East Hotel Construction Pipeline at Q3‘21
Lodging Econometrics (LE) | November 18, 2021
PORTSMOUTH, NH – November 18, 2021 – According to the Q3 2021 Middle East Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the end of the quarter, the hotel construction pipeline in the region stands at 545 projects/168,042 rooms. While the number of total pipeline projects has increased over the previous quarter, project counts are down 6% and room counts are down 19% year-over-year (YOY). Projects presently under construction stand at 350 projects/108,244 rooms, down slightly by 3% by projects and 8% by rooms YOY. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are down 8% by projects and 10% by ro...
From Setback to Surge: Business Travel Expected to Fully Recover by 2024
GBTA | November 17, 2021
Business travel recovery in 2021 proceeded at a slower, more cautionary pace than expected from a year ago. However, global business travel spending is expected to surge in 2022 with full recovery expected in 2024–ending the year on pace with the 2019 pre-pandemic spend of $1.4 trillion, and a year sooner than previously forecast. This is according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s largest business travel association, which today released the results of its latest business travel index–the BTI™ Outlook. The report provides a detailed analysis of business travel in 2021 with projections for 2022 and b...
Supply Chain, Inflation Frustrate Hotel Recovery
HotStats | November 17, 2021
The supply chain crunch and inflation are compounding what’s already a nettlesome recovery for hotel owners and operators. Though hotels offer nightly leases, allowing for the repricing of rooms on a dynamic basis, other revenue-generating outlets are more intransigent—a problem when inflation is soaring. “While we can push the envelope with room pricing, there are static parts of our business—such as parking, resort fees and retail—that you can’t reprice,” said Chris Cylke, COO of asset manager RevPAR International. Concurrent supply chain issues impacting OS&E and FF&E and hourly wages rising are taking a t...
New Forecast Signals Uneven Recovery in Business, International Travel Segments
U.S. Travel Association | November 16, 2021
WASHINGTON — November 16, 2021 — Days after the U.S. reopened its land and air borders to vaccinated international visitors, U.S. Travel Association released its biannual forecast which shows an uneven recovery for the international inbound and business travel segments, while domestic leisure travel has returned to near pre-pandemic levels. The forecast, based on analysis from Tourism Economics, projects that domestic leisure travel will continue to drive the U.S. travel industry’s recovery in the near term. This segment is projected to surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and beyond. Domestic business tra...
The Asia Pacific Hotel Construction Pipeline, Excluding China, Down Slightly Year-Over-Year
Lodging Econometrics | November 16, 2021
PORTSMOUTH, NH – November 16, 2021 – According to the recent Construction Pipeline Trend Report for the Asia Pacific region from analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE), Asia Pacific’s total construction pipeline, excluding China, at end the third quarter of 2021 stands at 1,758 projects/382,434 rooms. Projects are down slightly year-over-year (YOY) by 3% while rooms are down 1% YOY. At the end of the third quarter, projects currently under construction stand at 858 projects/195,518 rooms, down 9% by projects and 8% by rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 396 projects, up 1% YOY, and account fo...
