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1. US Avoids Government Shutdown
A U.S. government shutdown was anticipated to take place Monday, but instead a last-minute agreement was passed by both the House and Senate, “with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, sending a bill to keep government [funded] through Nov. 17 to the president's desk,” NBC News reports.
“The House passed four appropriations bills [three of them just this week, with a fourth failing]. All include deep spending cuts that Senate Democrats and Biden will never accept. The Senate had a bipartisan blueprint, which they're saying led to [Saturday night’s] result ... but it's hard to see the Republican-controlled House agreeing to 12 bipartisan funding bills in the next two months,” the news outlet reports.
Congress now has until Nov. 17 to make decisions that would avoid another possible shutdown.
2. Booking.com Costs Hotel Operators Thousands of Dollars
Hotel operators and other partners across the globe, including in Thailand, Indonesia and Europe, have been shorted thousands of dollars for several months by travel website Booking.com as it fails to make payments, the Guardian reports.
“Booking.com’s partners have reported issues receiving payments since July, and in some cases months earlier. While Booking.com has continued taking payments from customers, the company has not always passed on the amount owed to hotel operators and others whom the Guardian has spoken to,” the news outlet reports.
A hostels operator in Koh Phangan, Thailand, told the news outlet that Booking.com ceased passing on payments for one of his hostels in mid-April.
3. Russian Hotels Still Lack Demand, Revenue
An absence of inbound Western travelers to Russia has led to a marked impact on the Russian hotel industry, and the lack of demand continues to be just as devastating now as it was during the pandemic, reports Hotel News Now contributor Vladislav Vorotnikov.
The European Union placed restrictions on Russians traveling to Europe after the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic imposed bans on citizens traveling to Russia.
"Olga Kiseleva, director of the Admiralteyskaya hotel in St. Petersburg, said that typically, international guests accounted for 30% to 50% of revenue for Russian hotels, but this number has declined significantly, not just from European guests, but also those from the Commonwealth of Independent States. In addition to Russia, the CIS includes Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and others," Vorotnikov writes.
4. US Latino Spending Power Up
A new study by the Latino Donor Collaborative in partnership with Wells Fargo shows the U.S. Latino economy reached $3.2 trillion in 2021, which is up from $2.8 billion in 2020, CNBC reports.
Industry strength for Latinos is steady in accommodation and food services as well as construction, administrative support, waste management and transportation.
Over the past decade, the U.S. Latino economy has grown two and a half times faster than the non-Latino equivalent, surpassing the gross domestic product of the United Kingdom, India, France and Italy, according to the report released Wednesday by LDC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group focused on reshaping perceptions of U.S. Latinos through data and economic research.
5. California Workers on Strike Denied Unemployment
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill over the weekend that would have given unemployment checks to workers on strike, including hotel workers, AP News reports. Newsom said the fund that California uses to pay unemployment benefits will reach nearly $20 billion in debt by year end.
The bill would have given workers who were on strike for at least 14 days as much as $450 per week from the state. Labor unions argued that the amount of workers who meet that criteria is small enough to not have a “significant impact on the state’s unemployment trust fund,” the news outlet reports.