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1. Business Travelers Face Rising Costs and Fewer Perks
As business travelers get back on the road and back on planes, they’re finding that their flight options aren’t as good as before, they cost more and they may require booking with another carrier at the expense of their loyalty status at another airline, NBC News reports. Hotels aren’t that much better with fewer services and amenities available.
Ryan Chitwood, a forest products wholesaler, told the news outlet he recently sent a sales team to an annual trade show where they held back-to-back meetings in a hotel restaurant.
“Our tight schedule was derailed, because what should have been brief breakfasts and lunches ran way over because of staffing shortages,” he said. “Also, when you arrive late and want to check in and grab a burger at the bar or via room service and it’s not available, you either need to leave the property — or just go hungry.”
2. Biden Eases Previous Administration’s Restrictions on Travel to Cuba
President Biden’s administration announced plans to undo some of the restrictions placed by the Trump administration on travel to Cuba, the Washington Post reports. Though the timing is unclear, the changes should allow travelers to choose flights to destinations beyond Havana and make group-based educational trips.
The announcement came as welcome news to organizations that promote travel to Cuba even though travel to the island country was still allowed previously under certain circumstances.
“Some of the changes that the Trump administration made definitely made people think they could not come to Cuba,” said David Lee, founder of Cultural Cuba. “If this announcement has people believing, ‘Oh, it’s open again’ — even though it was always open ... and at least leads people to put Cuba back on their list as a destination, awesome.”
3. Marriott Exec Says All-Inclusive Resort Appeal No Longer Narrow
The all-inclusive resort experience is no longer what it used to be, said Laurent de Kousemaeker, chief development officer in the Caribbean and Latin America for Marriott International. Speaking with HNN’s Bryan Wroten at the Hotel Opportunities Latin America conference, de Kousemaeker said now all-inclusive resort guests have many options available to them.
“That [all-inclusive resorts are] restricted by a certain price point or a certain experience no longer is true,” he said. “You can have a lifestyle experience. You can have a very upscale experience, and you can have a luxury experience. You can have a lower-end experience.”
4. US Hotel Results for Week Ending May 28
U.S. hotels reported a slip in performance for the week ending May 28 compared to the previous week, according to data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.
When measured against the comparable week in 2019, U.S. hotels saw occupancy increase by 3.2% to 66.5% while average daily rate jumped 22.2% to $151.73, resulting in revenue per available room growing 26.2% to $100.97.
Among the top 25 markets, Phoenix reported the highest performance increases compared to 2019. Occupancy grew 19.6% to 69.9%, ADR grew 50.8% to $149.06 and RevPAR increased by 80.4% to $104.14.
5. US Economy Added 390,000 Jobs in May
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that employers added 390,000 jobs in May, the slowest pace of growth since April 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. In that time period, the job gains averaged 552,000 per month.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% in May, a slight increase compared to the pre-pandemic rate in February 2020, the article states. Wages grew by 5.2% on the year, down from 5.5% in April.
The labor department also reported that initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 200,000 last week from the previous week’s seasonally adjusted 211,000, according to the Wall Street Journal. The latest numbers mark the fourth month of historically low jobless claims.