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1. Mohari, Omnam close €300 million Bauer Hotel purchase
Mohari Hospitality and Omnam Investment Group have finalized their €300 million deal to purchase the Bauer Hotel in Venice, HNN's Terence Baker reports. The 191-room property is currently under renovation and will reopen as the Rosewood Hotel Bauer in 2025.
The property was previously owned by the embattled Austrian real estate investment firm Signa and was at one point under contract to sell as part of a portfolio deal to Germany-based Schöller Group. But that deal ultimately fell through in March, according to CoStar's German real estate news organization Thomas Daily.
2. Strikes could expand in San Francisco
After nearly two months on the picket line in the city, hotel strikes in San Francisco could soon expand to nine more hotels, The San Francisco Examiner reports. Currently affected properties include the Grand Hyatt San Francisco Union Square, Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Westin St. Francis, the San Francisco Marriott Union Square and the Palace Hotel.
The news outlet said it's the most noteworthy labor strike in San Francisco hotels in two decades.
"The conflict is shaping up as one of the most severe in the local hotel industry since 2004 when about 4,000 workers were ultimately locked out by management for eight weeks following a two-week strike," the Examiner reports. "It was followed by a two-year boycott of city hotels that severely affected San Francisco’s tourism industry and ended when hotel workers and management ratified a new contract."
3. Valor grows across the globe
Even amid an environment where growth has stagnated for hotel management companies, executives with Valor Hospitality Partners say they're seeing opportunities across the globe, including an expansion into Saudi Arabia. HNN's Bryan Wroten reports the company is seeing the fruits of two years of relationship-building.
“We’ve gone on a marketing spree over the last few years, bringing new partners to us to help find deals for them and for them to bring deals to us, along with developing the relationship from the development side of the brands,” said Craig Strickler, president of the Americas at Valor.
4. LA City Council delays hotel wages vote
A planned Los Angeles City Council vote on increasing minimum wages for hotel and airport workers that was slated for Wednesday has been delayed to Dec. 11 with many saying the pay increase would be damaging for the tourism industry.
The proposal would increase the minimum hourly wage at large hotels and the Los Angeles International Airport from $20.32 to $25 with incremental increases up to $30 an hour by the start of the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“People are going to lose their job if we do this as currently proposed,” Council member Traci Park said.
5. The newest hotel amenity: flight simulators
The newly opened Hotel Polaris at the U.S. Air Force Academy is promising guests a new type of guest experience, billing itself as the country's only hotel with flight simulators, Fox News reports. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, property is managed by CoralTree Hospitality.
"Two of the simulators will represent the Air Force's F-16 Fighting Falcons, having a full cockpit mock-up with working controls and switches, according to Extreme Flight Simulation, the Illinois-based company that's working with the hotel," the news outlet reports.