Editor's Note: Some linked articles may be behind subscription paywalls.
1. Extended Stay America Acquisition Completed
Blackstone and Starwood Capital Group completed their acquisition of Extended Stay America and its paired-share real estate investment trust ESH Hospitality on Wednesday, ESA announced in a news release. The deal is valued at approximately $6 billion.
Extended Stay America's board of directors first approved the acquisition offer in mid-March, and on June 11 the deal passed a vote by ESA shareholders.
2. Fed Steps Up Rate Hike Expectations
Following a policy meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve released a report that predicts inflation will climb to 3.4% this year and that there could be two rate hikes in 2023, The Washington Post reports.
Previously, Fed officials had predicted inflation at 2.4% for 2021, and no initial interest rate hike until 2024.
"The predictions ... depict a delicate but mostly upbeat narrative of where central bankers think the economy is headed, as well as a serious revamp of predictions from just three months earlier," The Post reports.
3. Whitbread Execs Encouraged by Pace of Hotel Bookings
Executives at Whitbread PLC, parent company of the Premier Inn brand, pointed to strong summer bookings for its United-Kingdom-centric hotel portfolio as a sign that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel are easing.
In its latest earnings report, the company still reported steep declines in rooms revenue (-60.9%) and food and beverage revenue (-86%) compared to 2019 levels.
4. Weekly US Hotel Occupancy Highest Since November 2019
U.S. hotel occupancy for the week ending June 12 reached 66%, which was down 10.3% from the comparable week in 2019 but the highest weekly level since early November 2019, according to STR, CoStar's hospitality analytics firm.
Occupancy over that weekend also beat 2019 levels, and hotel average daily rate and revenue per available room were at their highest levels since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
5. US Jobless Claims Worse Than Expected
The latest U.S. unemployment numbers released Thursday show jobless claims increased by 37,000 to 412,000 in the week ending June 12 — the highest level in a month, MarketWatch reports.
One factor, MarketWatch points out, is that "the supplemental unemployment insurance checks and federal pandemic programs were cut off in the first four states beginning this week."