Deanna Ting

Whether or not this is in response to the growing popularity of home share rental platforms like Airbnb and the like, this growing trend is a reflection of how today's travelers want to spend their vacations, and where they want to be.

Selling off two of its most prized and iconic properties will help Starwood in its asset-light pursuit as it prepares to merge with Marriott by mid-year.

Your move, Expedia and Priceline.

Although most of the rankings fall in line with what you'd normally expect, there were a few surprises. It's also clear hotels have some work to do when it comes to their food quality, amenities, and loyalty programs.

It will probably take much more than redesigned headboards to get people to think a bit differently about Super 8, but this is a start, and we like the brand's tongue-in-cheek approach to recycling old artwork, during Frieze New York Art Week, no less.

For profitable hotel companies like Hyatt, it's both a buyer's and seller's market right now.

Now that Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and InterContinental have all joined the fray, it'll be interesting to see how the online travel agencies respond.

Should publishers of traditional travel guidebooks be concerned? Possibly, if this trend continues to evolve. Especially so, if Instagram becomes a more visually appealing replacement for sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor.

Just when we thought this would be a done deal ... Even so, it's business as usual, and as long as the Vistana spinoff closes before the Marriott one does, there shouldn't be any problems for Starwood.

Roots run deep between Host Hotels and Marriott, obviously. But the fact that Host also owns properties that fly under Starwood and Marriott's brands, among others, gives its perspectives on ownership and operations some serious weight when talking about the future of the big merger and the direct booking wars.