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China experienced a boost in tourism during the Labour Day holiday period, but many travelers opted for more budget-conscious and lesser-known lodging accommodations to avoid escalating prices among some hotel operators, the South China Morning Post reports.

"Hotel chains continued to face downward pressure. Data tallied by Caitong Securities, a brokerage firm, shows that the nationwide revenue per available room dropped 5.1% on a weekly basis to 129.3 yuan in the last week of April, while the average occupancy rate also declined 4.3 percentage points to 58.8%," the news outlet reports.

Overall, domestic travelers spent about 166.9 billion yuan ($231 billion) during the holiday period, which began May 1 and lasted about five days, marking a 12.7% increase year over year.

Luxury travelers today are "more aggressive in how they want to experience something," according to the New York Times, and now companies are forced to roll out next-level activities, more personalized services and exclusive offerings.

"Activities and experiences have long been part of luxury hotel offerings. But many current offerings come with extra cachet. We are constantly trying to find cool things for our guests to do,” Olivier Lordonnois, managing director of Aman who oversees the luxury resort company’s properties in the Americas, told the news outlet. "That could mean an invitation to an artist’s private studio to learn about their process ($7,500) or mastering fish butchery and handcrafted sushi ($750)."

Hotel executives are relying less on supply-demand dynamics and more on "political considerations" when looking at a potential market for investment, reports Hotel News Now's Sean McCracken.

"The political considerations for any city that we look at have become more and more salient to the overall discussion. Not to get in trouble with the City Council of [Los Angeles], but you look at the City of LA and the ability to transact here and the sort of changing winds and changing tides, and you're almost at the mercy of City Council on how it's constructed in any given year," Ten Five Hospitality Managing Partner Dan Daley said during the "Executive Suite Strategies" session at the 2024 Meet the Money conference.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts formed a new alliance with Decameron All Inclusive Hotels & Resorts, which will add nine new resorts across Mexico, Panama and Jamaica to Wyndham's all-inclusive portfolio. According to a news release, this deal brings Wyndham's all-inclusive offerings to more than 50 resorts globally.

Five of Decameron's properties will join Wyndham's Trademark Collection and the other four will join its Ramada by Wyndham brand. Decameron owns and operates a broad network of properties.

The properties include: Grand Decameron Complex Bucerías, A Trademark All-Inclusive; Grand Decameron Panama, A Trademark All-Inclusive Resort; Grand Decameron Los Cabos, A Trademark All-Inclusive Resort; Grand Decameron Montego Beach, A Trademark All-Inclusive; Grand Decameron Cornwall Beach, A Trademark All-Inclusive; Decameron Los Cocos Guayabitos, Ramada All-Inclusive Resort; Decameron La Marina Guayabitos, Ramada All-Inclusive Resort; Decameron Isla Coral Guayabitos, Ramada All-Inclusive Resort; and Decameron Club Caribbean Runaway Bay, Ramada All-Inclusive.

More than 700 workers with Las Vegas' Culinary Union Local 226 concluded a two-day strike on Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in which workers were calling on the 1,500-room casino to agree to a new five-year contract on wages and benefits, the Associated Press reports.

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the union, said employees wanted this strike to spur a new agreement. The previous agreement between the union and Virgin Hotels expired 11 months ago.

At the beginning of the year, union members at other hotels in Las Vegas reached deals that gave workers a 32% salary increase over five years, including 10% in the first year.

Read more news on Hotel News Now.