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1. New York City hotels reach rate highs ahead of Thanksgiving
In September, hotels in New York City saw an average daily rate of $417, the highest monthly average ever recorded by CoStar, according to a report in The New York Times. The newspaper quoted one visitor who said, “I don’t understand how normal people can go there.”
The New York Times reported hotels in the Times Square area of Manhattan charged an average of $537, while hotels in the borough of Queens, near La Guardia Airport, charged an average of $351.
“Many travelers are experiencing sticker shock over the high cost of a night at a hotel, especially as the peak holiday tourism season begins,” the New York Times reported.
Richard Born, owner of hotel-development firm BD Hotels, which has a portfolio of 24 hotels and approximately 4,000 rooms in the city, said rate increases have kept pace with inflation.
“New York City is not much more expensive than the other three or four premier markets in the United States and it’s still materially cheaper than Europe. Were it not for the $400 rate in October, you could not survive,” he told the newspaper.
2. Hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen dies
Harris Rosen, founder, president and chief operating officer of Orlando-based Rosen Hotels & Resorts and a former Disney World executive, died Monday at 85, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Throughout his early hospitality career, Rosen worked at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and later with Hilton in various management positions at Hilton hotels in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Dallas and others. After a stint with the Post Company of Dallas developing the company's resort in Acapulco, Mexico, Harris joined the Disney Company in 1968 as director of hotel planning for Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.
Rosen founded Rosen Hotels & Resorts in 1974 when he purchased the Quality Inn on International Drive in Orlando. Today, Rosen Hotels & Resorts' portfolio includes seven hotels and 6,336 rooms in Central Florida, which the company says equals 6% of the region's hotel room inventory.
In response to Rosen's death, the American Hotel & Lodging Association issued a statement praising not just his hotel career but also his philanthropic efforts. The Orlando Sentinel mentions Rosen's investments in education to provide scholarships to children in underserved neighborhoods throughout Orlando.
“Harris Rosen was an inspirational figure and a shining example of the passion and drive that hoteliers need to succeed. His love for the industry made him the largest independent hotelier in Florida, but he showed us the true meaning of hospitality through his philanthropic work,” said AHLA President & CEO Rosanna Maietta. “His generous donation to the University of Central Florida built the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, which was just ranked best in the nation for the fifth consecutive year for its hospitality management and tourism program. Harris left an indelible mark on this industry and its people that will be felt for generations. We will miss him.”
3. European travel organizations warn against new Spain travel data requirements
The European Travel Agents’ & Tour Operators’ Associations and other travel organizations have warned the Spanish government over “serious implications” if a proposed law that would require “travel agencies, tourist accommodations and car rental companies … to provide the ministry of the interior with more than 40 pieces of information for accommodation bookings and over 60 for car rental bookings, many of which are sensitive personal data,” according to a news release.
ECTAA and its partner organizations said the proposal already has been rejected by the Spain’s Parliament and Senate but could still be made law on Dec. 2.
“The Spanish government is ignoring the majority approval in Parliament and continues to provide no response to the requests for suspension and review of the regulation,” which the travel organizations added would require tourism and hospitality businesses to submit “sensitive personal information of travelers visiting Spain to the Spanish security forces, such as their phone number, contact email, family relationship details and even information about payment methods used during the trip.”
The release added that it believed the “regulation is unprecedented in any other European Union country.”
4. Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital sells Bay Area hotel at 76% discount
Hong Kong-based owner Gaw Capital Partners sold the 162-room Courtyard Oakland Downtown, California, for approximately a quarter of what it bought it for in 2016, according to SiliconValley.com, citing documents filed with the county. The news outlet said that Atlanta-based investment firm Core Property Capital paid $10.6 million for the hotel, which Gaw acquired for $43.8 million eight years ago. That works out to a 75.8% discount. According to CoStar, the hotel opened in 2002.
Gaw Capital did not provide comment on the transaction.
San Francisco and the Bay Area have struggled to reach pre-COVID levels of occupancy and ADR. On Oct. 31, CoStar News’ Mark Heschmeyer reported other examples of “sunken” hotel and tourism value in Oakland. For example, he reported that “valued at $50 million in 2018, a new appraisal for the 289-room Radisson Hotel Oakland Airport … has come in at $15 million. That figure is well below the current outstanding loan balance of $28.25 million.”
5. Not many alternatives to UK tax increases, chancellor says
Rachel Reeves, the United Kingdom’s chancellor of the exchequer, said at a speech at the Confederation of British Industry she has heard plenty of feedback concerning her Oct. 30 budget. The budget increased taxes to offset a £22 billion financial hole in the government's books, but Reeves added she “had not heard many alternatives.” She added in her speech that “there would be no more big tax rises on businesses.”
“I faced a problem, and I faced into it ... we’ve put our public finances back on a firm footing, and we’ve now set the budgets for public services for the duration of this parliament,” Reeves said, according to the BBC.
Rupert Soames, chairman of CBI, said the “budget had made employing young, part-time and low-paid staff much more expensive.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. government will overhaul job centers and the country’s apprenticeship scheme and make mental health facilities and programs more available to the young but also cut benefits for young people who it regards as refusing to work.