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In exchange for lowering nightly rates, MCR Hotels is testing charging guests for the services and amenities they use at about a dozen of its independent hotels, including its TWA Hotel, the Wall Street Journal reports. That includes fees for early check-ins, late check-outs, use of the pool at certain times, use of the gym and breakfast.

“Not every guest wants every product, and they don’t want to pay for something they were never going to use anyway,” MCR Hotels Chairman and CEO Tyler Morse said. “Other owners are fully behind me, but there’s always a fear of change.”

This experiment comes at a time when many hotel owners and operators are working out how high they can push rates while figuring out which services and amenities to restore after pulling back because of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent labor shortage.

The 2021 Mid-Year Extended-Stay Lodging Market report from the Highland Group shows economy, mid-price and upscale extended-stay hotels reported record-high demand during the second quarter. Demand for the extended-stay segment overall was 11% higher during the second quarter of this year compared to the previous record held in the second quarter of 2019.

“Record high demand, rapidly increasing [average daily rate] and a large decline in the supply pipeline indicate continued acceleration of the extended-stay hotel recovery in the near term,” said Mark Skinner, partner at the Highland Group, in the news release.

During the “’Wine’ Down With the Bosses” panel last week at the Hotel Data Conference in Nashville, hotel executives said that the Delta variant is a source of worry, especially given its potential effect on business travel’s return, but the labor shortage is the biggest issue facing the industry.

Hoteliers need to find ways to attract young people to the industry and give them opportunities to grow, said Patrick Short, president of Peachtree Hospitality Management. One of the current problems, however, is the industry’s approach to the shortage.

"We’re literally going after each other. We’re not finding new employees. We’re not bringing people into our industry. We’re just stealing from each other," he said.

Hotels in the Atlanta area are housing 464 students attending Clark Atlanta University after it fell behind in renovating two campus dorms, the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reports. The university will also pay for the affected students’ parking and shuttle service between their hotels and the campus.

The university has run into student housing issues in the past and has used hotels to temporarily house students before, the article states. About 4,000 students attended the university last year, but students were not allowed on campus during the fall semester because of the pandemic.

New Zealand will enter a nationwide lockdown after the confirmation of its first locally transmitted COVID-19 case since February, CNN reports. Though New Zealand authorities are assuming this involves the more contagious Delta variant, the genome sequencing is not complete yet.

The country will enter its strictest lockdown level for three days, meaning everyone must stay at home and only essential businesses, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, will remain open. The last time New Zealand had such a lockdown was a year ago.