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1. Wyndham Debuts Mobile Tipping Option
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced a new, portfolio-wide mobile tipping solution for its hotels in the U.S. and Canada, according to a news release. It allows guests to tip hotel team members digitally through their mobile devices.
“The pandemic dramatically accelerated guest demand for digital payment solutions and that trend will only continue in the coming years,” said Scott Strickland, chief information officer at Wyndham. “Having previously empowered our franchisees to accept digital, contactless payment for stays at their hotels, the next logical step was to find a solution that allows guests to recognize housekeepers, wait staff and other frontline team members in a similar fashion. This platform does exactly that and at virtually no cost to franchisees.”
2. Potential Freight Rail Strike Looms
A dispute between railway carriers and two unions representing 57,000 conductors and engineers is leading to a potential strike starting Friday after a federally mandated cooling-off period ends, the Washington Post reports. The White House and federal agencies are working on contingency plans to protect the supply chain should a strike or lockout occur.
“We’re not that far apart in negotiations,” said Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
Association of American Railroads spokesperson Jessica Kahanek told the newspaper the carriers “are not planning a lockout on Friday if ongoing negotiations remain unsolved.”
3. How Wyndham Plans To Grow Vienna House Brand
Wyndham has immediate plans to further grow its footprint, reports HNN’s Robert McCune. The company will expand Vienna House’s presence through its signature Vienna House by Wyndham, select-service Vienna House Easy and extended-stay Vienna House Townhouse brands.
Dimitris Manikis, president for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Wyndham, said his goal is to add five to 10 new hotels to the portfolio within the first year. In fact, there are already two in the development pipeline: one in Mannheim, Germany, and another in Katowice, Poland.
"Why not? ... I have a very hungry development team that wants to do it. So for me, the more we do the better, but always keeping in mind three things: not cannibalizing, not compromising and keeping the brand DNA intact," he said.
4. Demand Falls for US Extended-Stay Hotels
The July data from The Highland Group shows that economy, midscale and upscale extended-stay hotels reported monthly demand declines compared to the previous year. The segments reported demand declines from 0.8% to 2.5% as their rates increased faster than their corresponding non-extended-stay hotels. STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm, reports a 1.6% increase in overall hotel demand.
“The long-term trend of generally similar monthly changes in RevPAR between extended-stay hotels and the overall hotel industry has resumed for the first time since the pandemic began,” said Mark Skinner, partner at The Highland Group.
5. US Consumer Prices Grew 8.3% in August
The latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that consumer prices grew 8.3% year over year in August, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though a significant increase from 2021, it does represent a slight slowing of inflation compared to July’s 8.5% year-over-year growth and the 9.1% in June.
“These data are hot and are a reflection of feed-through of higher energy prices from earlier this year. Inflation is a stubborn thing,” Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, said in a statement.