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1. Wyndham Appoints New Chief Development Officer as Ohlsson Steps Down
Chip Ohlsson, chief development officer of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, is stepping down from his role this June. Filling his role will be Amit Sripathi, Wyndham’s head of mergers and acquisitions and strategic development, according to a news release.
Sripathi has previously held roles with Deutsche Bank and RLJ Lodging Trust. Since joining Wyndham in 2021, he has been instrumental in divesting its owned and managed segments and leading Wyndham to a pure-play franchise business.
Ohlsson began his career with Wyndham in sales in 1993. During his tenure, Ohlsson has helped expand the company’s portfolio from 14 to 25 brands and was a key part of forming programs such as Women Own the Room and BOLD by Wyndham.
"From launching his sales career with us in 1993, to returning nearly 10 years ago to lead our North America franchise sales teams, Chip has shown unwavering commitment to Wyndham and our franchisees. We are extremely grateful for his proven leadership and ability to attract, promote and develop a best-in-class sales team that consistently delivers, and we wish him all the best,” President and CEO Geoff Ballotti said in the release.
2. Weekly Jobless Claims Fall to 222,000
The latest numbers from the U.S. Labor Department show initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended May 11, Reuters reports. Claims had reached an eight-month high in the prior week. Unadjusted claims fell 13,325 to 19,725.
"The economy is losing momentum in the face of restrictive monetary policy," Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, told the news outlet. "But the jury remains out on how quickly inflation will subside to provide some rate relief."
Earlier in May, the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged at the range of 5.25% to 5.50%. Economists say the road back to 2% inflation "is likely to be bumpy," the news outlet reports.
3. Hotel Brand Execs Outline Pipeline Growth Expectations
During first-quarter earnings calls, hotel brand executives expressed optimism in their net unit growth and pipelines in the quarter and beyond, reports Hotel News Now's Trevor Simpson.
As of the first quarter, Marriott International is leading in total rooms in the pipeline with 547,000, followed by Hilton with 472,300 and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts with 243,000.
“Over the next few years, we think we’ll be at 6% to 7% in [net unit growth]. The reality is we had strong expectations carrying over momentum from the end of the year, but it was better in terms of signings and starts and openings. … The way to think about our guidance of 6% to 7% [net unit growth] over the next few years is there’ll be a one-time [addition] for Graduate Hotels, but it’s otherwise organic in the way it’s always been," Chris Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton, said during his company's first-quarter earnings call.
4. Flights Grounded Amid Deadly Houston Storms
Flights were grounded at Houston's two major airports on Thursday as heavy winds reaching up to 100 mph blew through Southeast Texas for the second time this month, the Associated Press reports.
As of press time, at least four people had been killed and more than 900,000 homes and businesses are left without power in the Houston area.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the powerful wind gusts are reminiscent of Hurricane Ike that hit Texas in 2008. The National Weather Service said Gulf Coast states could see scattered, severe thunderstorms along with tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.
5. Iberostar Group's Marine Biologist Scales Sustainability
Megan Morikawa, a Stanford-educated marine biologist, is applying her studies at Spanish tourism company Iberostar Group to help it achieve its goals of scaling solutions for critical ecosystems such as coral reefs, taking its hotels off fossil fuels and more, the New York Times reports.
In the first year of Morikawa joining the privately owned hotel group, the team built its first coral lab at a property in the Dominican Republic. Iberostar now has a total of three coral labs and seven underwater nurseries across three countries.
"The coral lab is three things in one. It’s an outreach center, where guests and others can pop in and stumble upon seeing — for many of them — coral for the first time. But it’s also a genetic bank: Corals in the Caribbean are experiencing a lot of challenges, like widespread disease and bleaching events. Having a genetic bank is an important asset saving for genetic diversity. Our third objective is to recreate coral bleaching: The lab has a sophisticated system that recreates heating waves with small tanks so that we can stress individual corals, and predict winners and losers, just like I did for my Ph.D.," she told the news outlet.
Editor’s note: Chris Nassetta serves on the board of directors for Hotel News Now’s parent company, CoStar Group.