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1. UK hoteliers predict rate hikes following October budget
A survey from BWH Hotel Group Great Britain of 200 hotels — including Best Western brands across Great Britain — shows that 91% of hoteliers anticipate they will have to raise nightly rates to compensate for the policies laid out in the United Kingdom's government's October budget. About 60% of survey respondents said their rates would likely increase by more than 20%.
A third of respondents said they expected “their costs to rise by more than £100,000 ($126,286). … For some, the impact is potentially crippling, with independently operated hotels facing cost increases as high as £750,000," the survey reads.
Tim Rumney, CEO of BWH Hotels Great Britain, said “the recent budget has sent shockwaves through an industry that was just getting back on its feet after COVID. Hospitality staff are some of the hardest working people in Great Britain, and they’re having to cope with yet another barrage of financial pressures.”
2. UK economy shrinks for second consecutive month
According to the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics, the U.K. economy fell for a second consecutive month, despite economists previously suggesting gross domestic product would start to rebound as Christmas neared. In year-over-year terms, the economy shrunk by 0.1% in October, the same percentage it shrunk in September. It also said GDP had grown by 0.1% in the three months through the end of October compared with the three months to the end of July, the previous full quarter.
The Guardian reports business groups have reacted negatively to the Oct. 30 budget in which taxes and National Insurance contributions were increased. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said “while the figures this month are disappointing, we have put in place policies to deliver long-term economic growth.”
3. Saudi sovereign wealth fund launches hotel management company
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has launched its own hotel management firm, Adeera. According to a news release, Adeera aims “to be a national champion in the hotel sector by developing and operating new homegrown brands embodying authentic Saudi culture and hospitality.”
The fund added the launch continued its strategy of creating “best in class” hotel and hospitality divisions, including hospitality company Boutique Group, which specializes in developing historic and cultural palaces into luxury boutique hotels, and tourism-investment company Asfar. As part of its Vision 2030 campaign, Saudi Arabia seeks to attract 150 million visitors by 2030, which will contribute 10% of the nation’s GDP.
4. 'Blue links' in Google's hotel search scrutinized in Europe
Google’s testing of new hotel-search algorithms in Europe have been met with a resounding “thumbs down,” according to technology commentators in the continent. Google’s “blue links,” which produce 10 blue-shaded results on the first page of search engine displays, have proved unpopular with Europeans, according to MSpoweruser and, also, Google itself. MSpoweruser said Google has seen “that user satisfaction was low, leading to a drop in traffic to hotel sites” since it started testing the blue links following the introduction of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act law in March.
The DMA is a law designed to curb the market power and share of the largest digital marketing companies, and Google has been testing out compliance measures such as blue links in Belgium, Estonia and Germany. MSpoweruser said the blue links resemble technology Google used in its early days.
In a Dec. 12 Google blog, Oliver Bethell, Google’s head of competition, regulatory engagement and advisory, said “people were measurably less satisfied with their search results, and it took them longer to find hotels. … More people also gave up and did not find what they were looking for.”
Bethell added that “based on the negative impacts we’ve already seen, we’ve stopped the test. To comply with the DMA, we have already made significant changes that have already diverted traffic from hotels to intermediaries, effectively raising prices for consumers. Hotels and industry groups like the German Hotel Association have shared their concerns about further steps that would remove hotel features from Google Search.”
5. Hearty fare features on US hotels' holiday menus
For the end-of-year holiday season, hoteliers are setting sumptuous menus to drive guest demand and dinner reservations, according to Hotel News Now’s Rachel Daub and Bryan Wroten.
The hotel menus feature hearty, warm fare, including wild boar tagliatelle with porcini mushroom ragù at the Palato restaurant inside the Hall Park Hotel Autograph Collection in Frisco, Texas, and braised short rib served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and port wine demi-glace at the Rally Kitchen + Bar in the Noun Hotel in Norman, Oklahoma.