Skift Take
So, how about that travel ban?
When Skift last spoke to hotel executives about their views on corporate travel business in 2017 in late January, pre-Trump travel ban, a large majority seemed fairly optimistic that this could be the year that corporate travel bounces back.
A month later, however, it seems that some executives may be changing their more optimistic outlooks from the beginning of the year to ones that are a bit more cautious and muted, especially since a newly revised travel ban is expected to be issued next week.
Here's what hotel CEOs said during their recent earnings calls about corporate travel business.
Hilton: "We Feel Pretty Good About It"
Early in the year, Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta seemed especially bullish about the prospect of a more "optimistic" corporate "psyche" that would, hopefully, translate to and uptick in corporate transient travel business at his hotels.
And even with the travel ban, his viewpoint, for the most part, has not seemed to change, particularly because the fourth quarter did see a "post-election boost" in business travel.
"I think we're seeing very broad based – more positive sentiment across a broad range of industries," Nassetta said. "As we now have a little bit of the year behind us, we have a few green shoots that are essentially that the corporate business, the business transient business has, as I said, picked up a bit post-election. It's continued into the first part of this year. We feel like we've got a decent group base on the books."
He did, however, say later, "Having said all that, it's early in the year. There is a lot going on. If you watch cable news and read the newspapers and some of the things that have created the positive sentiment, I think, in the business community relate to
