Travel's Reopening and Coronavirus Recovery

Sonesta is now a major hotel company with hundreds of franchised properties and an eye toward further growth. But the big hurdle is expanding its loyalty program. Marriott's takeover of Starwood showed the complexities of engineering loyalty across brands at a huge scale.

Hotel labor groups have justifiably been concerned over the industry push in the last year to offer contactless features like mobile check-in that reduce staffing needs. The Standard’s chat function replacing calls to the front desk may be the rare tech innovation that actually helps the worker.

Profit margins may have increased at some hotels during the pandemic, but what about the human cost? The pandemic wiped out 10 years of hotel job growth, and new operational models are unlikely to bring everyone back.

The U.S. hotel industry has a tough sell convincing Congress it needs targeted aid when industry analysts expect business to pick up this summer and into the second half of 2021 across all hospitality sectors. May just fall under the category of futile at this point.

Best Western’s expansion from economy, roadside hotels to boutique brands in recent years faces stiff competition coming out of the pandemic. The company can be a success if, and only if, more of its long-time operators upgrade to the boutique model.

Vaccine success is already boosting the economy and consumer confidence in Chile. But another Covid surge shows that a cautious approach in tourism recovery efforts is imperative alongside the vaccination race.

After a year that stripped bare the inadequacy of tourism’s success metrics, how will the industry measure “building back better”? Before it answers that question, there needs to be an industrywide reckoning of tourism's root problem.

A July 4 full reopening to international visitors is what U.S. tourism and aviation groups pushed President Biden on today, plus no mandatory Covid entry test for vaccinated travelers. But reopening sooner than later could be risky amid Covid spikes in other countries.

What distress? The $6 billion price tag on Extended Stay America is a result of its real estate and durable customer base. Period. That is why it is significantly outpacing the rest of the hotel industry during the pandemic.

Travel is relative to people's needs and right now leisure is king — especially for cooped-up college kids. If airlines want to cash in on pent-up demands, servicing underserved locations offering a combination of nature outings and social distancing is key to increasing revenue output during the pandemic.