By now you may have noticed some of the changes we're making here at Hotel News Now, the first being just that — our name.
In the coming months, you'll see fewer mentions of "Hotel News Now" and more of "CoStar News-Hotels" as we complete our rebranding and full integration into the commercial real estate news empire of CoStar News. We've already rebranded our newsletters and you'll start to see that happen on social media and in other places soon.
This is just a step in the behind-the-scenes integration we've been doing over the last five years since CoStar Group acquired STR in late 2019. In case you're not aware, CoStar News has a team of market-focused reporters all over the U.S., and also in the U.K., Canada, France and Germany, reporting on commercial real estate trends, transactions and people. They didn't cover hotels very much though at the time, so what a boon when we joined the family five years ago! The Hotel News Now team slotted itself in quite nicely with the larger group and we brought our global hotel-industry coverage to the table.
And that's not going to change at all: Stephanie, Terry, Sean, Bryan, Dan, Trevor, Natalie and Rachel are here every day, doing what we do best. We're talking to you, finding trends, covering events, asking questions, recording podcasts and video interviews, debating recessions and tariff effects, arguing about proper headline construction and so much more, to bring you news and trends about hotel deals, operations and the people behind all of it.
I wasn't here when STR launched Hotel News Now in 2008, but our founding editor Jeff Higley had such a clear vision for this news organization that transcends any sort of cosmetic name change. These tenets are all still in practice today: Showing the people is just as important as showing the places when it comes to covering the hotel industry. Taking a devil's advocate stance when debating anything is always valuable, whether it seems that way in the moment or not. And the most famous Higley quote of all is this: "We don't engage in coverage based on rumor, innuendo and anonymous sources." Take that, New York Times and Wall Street Journal!
Reputations are built, not launched or branded. We bring that reputation to our new name.
There's a lot of news brewing affecting the global hotel industry right now, a lot of it worrisome and frankly, not great. Whenever news cycles change for better or worse, I see our industry rely a lot on the human element that is the backbone of hospitality. You talk about the power of good leadership, you might move jobs and companies to align with those that better match your values. You mourn when layoffs happen because nobody likes that. You rely on each other as humans to grow during good times and help find solutions during not-so-good times.
So as my team and I approach our new era and name, we're relying on that human element, too. We're all here, doing what we do. As I've been telling my team, you all can call us CoStar News, HNN, Hotel News Now, STR, Star, whatever you want, as long as you call us and keep talking to us.
And get ready for so much more. Since we joined CoStar, we have learned so much about broader commercial real estate and residential data. We learn from our CoStar News colleagues firsthand about the trends linking CRE to travel, including return-to-office practices and more. We have a lot to share with you all, with that sweet, sweet STR and CoStar data behind it all.
What do you want to see from us in the future? Email me or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.