INDUSTRY NEWS

Hotel News Now

By: Sean McCracken

Top U.S. officials had openly professed hopes the upcoming Fourth of July weekend would mark a return to normal for the country, with a target of at least 70% of adults having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by that point.

Lodging News

After more than a year in lockdown, 76 percent of consumers in North America plan to travel within the next six months. According to a new Oracle Hospitality survey, 24 percent of respondents in the United States and Canada plan to travel immediately, 31 percent in the next one to three months, and 21 percent by the end of the year.

Lodging

WASHINGTON—Lingering COVID restrictions and a patchwork approach to reopening will prevent the business travel segment from recovering until at least 2024, according to a Tourism Economics analysis by the U.S. Travel Association.

Hotel News Now

By: Danielle Hess

As the hotel industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuilds its workforce, leaders are stressing the importance of diversity in hiring and prioritizing the advancement of Black employees.

Lodging

By: Fouad Malouf, Senior Vice President of Franchise Operations, Red Roof

Hospitality—the people business—is short on people. Finding, training, and retaining skilled workers has challenged operators for years, and now with the economy beginning to pull out of the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, hotels are finally able to increase their staff sizes—only to encounter competition from every other business in the process of reopening.

Hotel News Now

By: Sean McCracken

While events and group business streams have largely laid dormant through the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, hotel brands and operators say conversations and future bookings with meetings planners show dramatic changes in what they're looking for in some events.

SHRM

By: Allen Smith, J.D.

On June 21, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new test for identifying which nontipped side duties, when performed for a limited time, can be part of a "dual-job" employee's tipped occupation. A dual-job employee might, for example, wait tables but also fold napkins. The comment period closes Aug. 23.  

Chicago Business Journal

By Jim Dallke  –  Senior Editor, Chicago Business Journal

The Palmer House is officially open for business again after being closed for a year during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hotel News Now

By: Sean McCracken

With the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxing mask recommendations and various states and municipalities rolling back their own restrictions as more Americans get vaccinated, a varied landscape with differing levels of regulation has created a situation where it's often left hoteliers to determine themselves whether mask and social-distancing requirements are still needed on property.

STR

By Isaac Collazo

U.S. hotel supply ramped up as temporarily closed hotels reopened to meet the summer travel demand, and having more rooms to fill dampened occupancy gains following the Memorial Day weekend surge.