Hotel Growth Pace: Marriott and Hyatt Lead

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, September 5, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

When Anthony Capuano graduated from Cornell’s prestigious hotel school in 1987, he received seven job offers — and one rejection letter. It was from Marriott International.  

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, September 4, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Thousands of hotel workers went on strike across major U.S. cities between Sunday and Tuesday. The 21 strikes, organized by the Unite Here union, targeted properties branded by the major hotel groups Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Accor.

Local Dubai hotel group FIVE reported financial results Monday that show the company has continued to benefit from the emirate’s robust tourism sector, but also that it will need to look elsewhere for growth.

It is hard to believe, but fall—and the best points and miles deals for September—is here already, which means it’s time to begin planning trips for the holidays and get a head start on using those hotel points, airline miles, and credit card benefits for your next trip. To do that, however, you need a healthy stash of loyalty currencies to get you there. These are the latest promotions and credit card benefits to know for September.

Thousands of hotel workers are on strike across the country, demanding better wages and workloads and a reversal of COVID-19-era cuts.

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

Hawaiian Airlines and Hyatt hotels are bringing paradise closer by giving away a 9-night vacation at a trio of hotels on three different islands.

At first glance, it might seem like just another music video. But Seoul’s latest promotional clip released on Thursday, featuring K-pop superstar Jin from the popular band BTS is part of a series designed to showcase the Korean capital’s tourism potential.

Travelers to several major cities in the U.S., including Honolulu, Boston and San Francisco, should be prepared for possible disruptions to hotel stays as thousands of hotel workers prepare for potential strikes.

Alva Vanderbilt's 39th birthday present from her husband was a 140,000-square-foot summer "cottage" on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island.