a&o Hostels' Repurpose Strategy Gives New Life to Old Buildings

Thousands of Airbnbs and short-term rentals are about to be wiped off the map in New York City.

Last month I went on a weekend-long, women-only summer camp with 200 strangers in their 20s and 30s in rural Pennsylvania. I was hoping to meet a few cool people and get out of New York City, but I ended up re-experiencing some of the joys of childhood and realizing that you are never too old to make new friends. 

Airbnb and New York City have often had a tough relationship, one marked by lawsuits and other disputes. Airbnb has argued that New York City’s regulations have hurt its ability to do business, which the company believes will become more challenging when the city starts enforcing its host registration law regarding short-term rentals on September 5.

At an age when most schoolkids are still learning to tie their shoelaces, Nathaniel Prebalick — AKA Gold Plate Nate — was teaching budding treasure hunters how to pan for gold. As a third-generation prospector, he was raised amid the sparkling streams of California’s Gold Country, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, getting to know its watery veins as well as the life lines of his own hands. 

When my daughter turned 9, I started to do the math. If she left our home at 18, her dad and I were then halfway through the summers we were guaranteed with her. Our summers with her were always jam-packed with Chicago events, summer camps, and wherever we decided to take her on vacation.

Lunchtime on a warm spring Saturday on the Cours Saleya – Nice’s famous flower market, tucked away just one row of elegant fin de siècle buildings from the sea – and it’s hard to see how any business can be open in town, apart from restaurants and cafés. Everyone, it seems, is here; every table taken beneath the canopies and parasols, queues forming outside the most popular eateries, every bench taken with families tucking into paper-wrapped socca – a salty chickpea pancake – or gelati. It feels like high summer; the sky is a vivid blue, the palazzos and mansions beneath blazing butter yellow and warm, burnished terracotta.

Hotelier Rigzin Namgyal fondly remembers a time when only the truly curious and adventurous made their way to Ladakh. When this region in north India opened to tourists in the mid-1970s, just a few backpackers each year undertook the long and arduous journey by road, over dangerous mountain passes from Manali in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh.

Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.

Marriott International said on Friday that its chief financial officer, Leeny Oberg, will now also lead the company’s global development organization, responsible for the strategic growth at the world’s largest hotel operator.

Destinations and attractions are investing in virtual and augmented reality technologies to drive interest and foot traffic to historical attractions. During the ITB Berlin conference last week, some attractions, tech providers and destinations discussed how such technologies will heighten the visitor experience.

Remember the Skift 2023 megatrend forecasting that luxury hospitality will go a step further?

There are few sectors in the travel industry subject to more of the rat-a-tat-tat pounding of deals, product launches, tactical competitive moves, and business developments than the global short-term rental industry, and that’s why Skift has decided to expand our commitment to the editorial coverage of the sector.