When we planned our latest trip to Scotland, my partner and I decided to spend one of our nights somewhere special.
15.10.2024 - 00:31 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Gwen Mills
About 5,060 hotel workers are now on strike across the U.S., with walkouts in Boston and Seattle in the past two days escalating labor disputes in the travel sector.
The strikes are disrupting operations at major hotel chains such as Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni, affecting some travelers while putting pressure on owners and operators.
This weekend, more than 600 workers in Boston, including staff at the city’s largest hotel — Omni Boston Seaport, with over 1,000 rooms — joined strikes. On Monday, about 300 workers in Seattle walked off their hotel jobs.
Strikes at hotels in Honolulu and San Francisco have been ongoing since September.
Unite Here, the hospitality workers’ union, said that about 40,000 hotel workers in 22 North American markets have authorized potential walkouts before the end of the year. Workers call for a mix of greater pay, workload reductions, and staffing increases.
Union organizers have often used small-scale strikes this year as an intermediate step to raise pressure during negotiations.
Exhibit A: Since April, workers at the Omni Parker House and the Omni Boston Seaport hotels have been negotiating over new contracts. In mid-September, workers walked off the job for three days. They went on strike on Monday, planning not to return to work until they reached a deal.
In contrast, strikes by 374 workers at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport and Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center are planned to last only until October 19.
Some guests at affected locations have noted on social media that they’ve experienced service disruptions, such as unavailable daily housekeeping and closed swimming pools and other amenities.
New union leader Gwen Mills is preparing for tough negotiations as contracts between hotel groups and about 40,000 hotel workers are set to expire.
What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
When we planned our latest trip to Scotland, my partner and I decided to spend one of our nights somewhere special.
Hyatt Hotels is selective in where and how it adds hotels to meet the expectations of its loyalty program members, who largely have high incomes.
As the temperatures fall, so are airfare prices. Frontier Airlines is running its «Full Size Sale», which provides fares as low as $19 to destinations around the United States. Best of all, the flights can be booked five days of the week, whereas previous promotions from Frontier have been more limited in date availability. The sale ends on October 31, 2024 at 11:59pm EST, however tickets can be purchased for travel through February 26, 2025. This makes the sale a great option for travelers and families looking to take a winter getaway, or fly to a destination with warmer temperatures. Travel + Leisure spotted a variety of one-way flight deals including:
A getaway to warmer weather just got easier and cheaper.Avelo Airlines recently announced four new routes from the Orlando, FL area, and is celebrating with $46 fares. With the expansion of new routes, Avelo will be opening a new crew base at Lakeland International Airport, which is one hour and 15 minutes south of Orlando Airport, and one hour east of Tampa Airport, making it an alternative option for passengers visiting each of the two major Florida cities. From Lakeland, Avelo will launch service to Rochester, NY, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Concord, NC (which is near Charlotte, NC) and Manchester, NH (which is near Boston, MA). The low-cost carrier operates its flights from regional airports that are adjacent to major cities, which explains the Manchester and Concord airport options. Each new route will operate twice weekly, and Avelo states they are the only airline to operate direct service between each of the markets.
Frontier Airlines is giving a salute to service. The budget airline has a special Veterans Day promotion, with a 50 percent discount on base fares for active and retired Military, and military families. Eligible service members can use the promotional codeVETS for the airfare discounts on Frontier’s booking site. The fare sale runs through Sunday, October 27, and is valid on travel through December 18. Travel + Leisure spotted a variety of discounted flights including:
As airlines compete to attract high-paying passengers, mini hotel-like suites are all the rage in business- and first-class cabins of commercial aircraft. But the reverse scenario—a commercial aircraft in a hotel suite—is a much rarer amenity.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, October 23, 2024, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
If you're active on Instagram, you've likely seen surreal-looking photos capturing the swirling electric blues of the Maldives and its famous overwater villas. You might know someone who's ventured there on their honeymoon. But what may not be as crystal clear as those Maldivian waters is exactly where the Maldives are located.
It's been more than a month of labor strikes at hotels in some of the top destinations in the U.S., and a resolution doesn't appear to be in sight.
“As far back as I can remember, I knew I was different,” says Alexander Smalls. Growing up in a Gullah Geechee household in Spartanburg, North Carolina, the chef says he recognized the implication of those differences—in appearance, history, and cuisine. “I discovered early that my friends did not eat any of the foods that I ate. My foods were more akin to West Africa, you know, and very much pronounced in that way,” he says. It wan't until he moved to New York as an adult, that he assimilated the value of that diasporic connective tissue. “Food was a big part of cultural expression and identity of the African diaspora,” he says.
Global Hotel Alliance, which runs a shared loyalty program for about 40 independent hotel brands, reported robust growth in the third quarter, with double-digit gains in performance across key measures.
I pulled my suitcase through the elegant front doors of The Inn at St. John, weary from hours of travel from Connecticut to Portland, Maine.