Sonder's Data Breach Exposes Guest Records

The day has finally arrived.

If you follow the short-term rental industry, you would have read or heard Sonder touting itself as “a leading next-generation hospitality company that is redefining the guest experience through technology and design” countless times.

Property manager Sonder is positioning itself long-term to take advantage of higher-spending business travelers, and added 200 corporate travel accounts — and a former CWT CEO to its board — during the third quarter.

Airbnb thinks it’s unfair that the European Commission is proposing increased data-sharing requirements on short-term rental providers across the zone, but Google seemingly is escaping the clampdown.

Registering a record performance for the first six months of the financial year, Dubai state carrier Emirates Airline on Thursday reported a net profit of $1.08 billion for the first half of the financial year, compared to a loss of $1.6 billion for the same period last year.

Some tourism agencies are using geolocation mobile data to identify visitors who stay with friends and relatives to hone their marketing efforts.

Property manager Sonder did something that Airbnb can’t and most management companies have been loathe to do — the company eliminated cleaning fees for guests.

Hotel development in the Middle East is ramping up as investors begin to see opportunity in the region again, according to Lodging Econometrics’ Middle East Construction Pipeline Trend Report. The report said new project announcements in the region continued to trend upward throughout 2022 closing the fourth quarter of 2022 with 67 new projects housing 19,837 rooms, an increase of 56 percent year-on-year. The fourth quarter also witnessed 33 new hotels accounting for 6,452 rooms open in the region. Overall, 2022 saw a record number of hotels openings with 81 hotels accounting for 17,736 rooms. Lodging Econometrics’ forecast for new hotel openings in 2023 is 123 new hotels with 30,113 rooms while 116 new hotels and 29,085 rooms are forecast to open in 2024. Countries in the Middle East with the greatest number of projects in the construction pipeline at the close of fourth quarter were Saudi Arabia with 243 projects and 67,618 rooms, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 104 projects and 29,210 rooms. Egypt came third with record high project and room counts of 87 projects and 21,672 rooms.

Property manager Sonder, which continued to tout itself as “a leading next-generation hospitality company that is redefining the guest experience through technology and design,” laid off 14 percent of its corporate workforce.

OTA Insight, a London-based startup that helps hotels track competitors’ rates, will now include short-term rentals.

Sonder, the property management company that went public through a blank check merger, or SPAC, found someone to replace its outgoing chief financial officer with the help of 2.7 million stock options as an incentive.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, March 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.