Accor's Top Digital Exec Reveals Data on Its Hotel Tech Game

New York City’s short-term rental regulations could slash up to 70% of Airbnb’s 23,000 active listings in the city after September 5. Experts are divided on how the move might affect hotels, and their forecasts are foggy. Yet the analyses reveal interesting details about this critical lodging market regardless.

Travelers United’s choice to sue Hyatt over its “junk fee” practices fits into a broader storyline about travel junk fees being in the limelight ever since President Joe Biden referred to travel fees in his 2023 State of the Union address.

Hyatt just lapped the one-year anniversary of acquiring the all-inclusive resort company Apple Leisure Group in a $2.7 billion deal. The Chicago, Illinois-based hotel group is now looking to expand its hotel presence in European cities that could help feed its all-inclusives, according to comments executives made as they reported its earnings.

Hyatt Hotel Corp. said on Tuesday it would acquire Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle hotel brands, including Dream Hotels, The Chatwal Hotels, and Unscripted Hotels.

“I’m really excited about the quality of the brand portfolio,” IHG CEO Keith Barr said at Skift Global Forum. Barr goes on to describe the current realities of the hotel business: it’s a real estate business at the end of the day, after all. But IHG has been hyper-focused on its brands and its franchise partners. “It’s been great because there’re such clearly defined brands that enable us to work with a number of opportunities,” he told Skift’s Sean O’Neill.

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.

Hotel company Sonesta said on Tuesday it would launch a new brand, Sonesta Essential, and offer a just-added brand, The James, to developers.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson and Virgin Group announced a reorganization of their hotel brands on Thursday. Virgin Group, which owns a half-dozen luxury Virgin Hotels, will take control of Branson’s private collection of hotels, retreats, and islands (including Branson’s own much-hyped Necker Island), marketed as Virgin Limited Edition.

Ace Group International, the operator of a buzzy brand of 11 open Ace lifestyle hotels, will be acquired by Sortis Holdings, a Portland, Oregon-based hospitality firm, the companies said on Tuesday.

Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, will reveal on Thursday a new global “soft” brand, Handwritten Collection, featuring so-called lifestyle hotels. These mid-priced properties have funky furniture and buzzy restaurants and bars but don’t offer the full services of a premium boutique.

On January 17, I reported that Sortis Holdings would acquire Ace Group International, owner of Ace Hotels, for $85 million in cash. Executives for Sortis Holdings, a Portland, Oregon-based hospitality firm, weren’t available to speak when I wrote that article. But I’ve since interviewed them. Here’s some more color on their plans.

Hyatt Hotels Corp., which enjoyed a blockbuster financial performance in 2022, forecasted Thursday continued success this year, especially in the first half. The company expects to benefit from growing consumer interest in its lifestyle, luxury, and resort properties, returning group reservations for its banquet halls, and an expanding room count.