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1. OYO Hotels Revives Plans for IPO
India-based OYO Hotels filed new financial documents showing a target of early 2023 for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reports. The company had filed preliminary IPO documents in 2021 but shelved those plans this year due to loss of momentum and job cuts due to the pandemic.
The IPO filing addendum also showed narrower losses and a rebound in sales numbers for this year through the first six months of the year, according to the article.
“Nobody expected the turnaround after a series of COVID-related challenges to be so quick and so robust,” said Manav Thadani, co-founder and chairman of hospitality industry consultancy Hotelivate. “It’s good to see they’ve given up expansion in China and the U.S. and are now targeting niche markets. They are focusing on performance.”
2. Hurricane Fiona Hits Dominican Republic
After hitting Puerto Rico and knocking out all of its power over the weekend, Hurricane Fiona has made landfall in the Dominican Republic, CNN reports. The Category 1 storm has maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.
The storm is expected to continue pouring down Puerto Rico and the eastern part of the Dominican Republic on Monday, increasing the risk of mudslides and landslides in higher areas, according to the article. The forecast said it could build strength after passing over the Dominican Republic before moving toward Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas over the next couple of days.
3. Hoteliers Adapt to Segmentation Shifts
As travel demand continues to recover, hoteliers are watching with keen interest the blurring of traditional guest segmentation, reports HNN’s Trevor Simpson from a roundtable hosted by Hotel News Now at the Hotel Data Conference. While that will affect average daily rate, that doesn’t mean a decrease is for certain.
“It’s not that ADR is going to go backwards; it’s just that the growth rate is going to slow,” said Isaac Collazo, vice president of analytics for STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.
4. Taiwan Starts Recovery From Earthquake
The island of Taiwan has started recovery efforts after being hit by a 6.8 earthquake Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press reports. Aftershocks continued Sunday night into today.
Along with killing a cement factory worker, the earthquake left 400 tourists stranded on a mountainside, trapped four people inside a toppled three-story building, knocked a train from its tracks and damaged a bridge. The stranded tourists were rescued overnight with the last 90 making their way down by the morning. The train tracks that buckled during the quake are expected to take up to a month to repair.
5. Return-to-Office Rate Hits Pandemic High
The return-to-office rate has reached its highest point since the start of the pandemic as companies continue to push for having offices full again, the Wall Street Journal reports. Data from security swipes to enter buildings shows office use is 47.5% of early 2020 levels, the highest percentage since late March 2020.
Many employers are pushing harder for workers to return to the office with the number of COVID-19 infections decreasing and potential economic challenges, the newspaper reports. While many companies have a hybrid workplace model, some are now changing their models to require more in-office days.