Seibu Prince Hotels is acquiring Ace Hotels for $90M, adding nine properties and fresh lifestyle cred to the brand.
Brand USA’s Shrinking Stage
Brand USA slashes 15% of staff after funding drops from $100M to $20M. With inbound tourism at 80% of 2019 levels, politics, not branding, is the issue.
Recession-Proof, or Just Enshittified?
Luxury hotels are thriving while the mid-market weakens. Hawaiʻi luxury RevPAR is up 9% YTD, raising questions about inequality in travel demand.
ADA Demand Letters: Pay Up or Lawyer Up
ADA demand letters are big business, but as Zarco Hotels showed, compliant hotels don’t have to pay up, fight back and you can even recover legal fees.
DirectBooker: “Direct” Bookings… Via Someone Else
DirectBooker wants to “fix” OTA dependence by becoming yet another middleman, feeding hotel data into ChatGPT and Gemini, just as Airbnb ramps up its own hotel push.
Market Update: Recovery Stalls, Promos Rise, Luxury Holds, Midscale Struggles
Q2 results show the hotel upswing has ended: flat U.S. RevPAR, softer demand, and cautious forecasts from Expedia, Marriott, Airbnb, and STR point to a tougher lodging cycle ahead.
Travel’s New Welcome Mat: Fees, Bonds, and Paperwork
New U.S. travel rules add layers of fees and paperwork: a $250 “Integrity Fee” for many visa applicants, higher ESTA costs, mandatory 30-day registrations, visa bonds for some countries, and targeted bans.
Not Quite Hilton (But Also Kind of Hilton)
Hilton Grand Vacations, Marriott Vacations, and Wyndham Destinations may carry the hotel brand names, but all three are independent, publicly traded companies, spun off from their parent brands and operating their own development, sales, and operations despite the shared logos.
Hospitality Geek Week
A packed week at HITEC, HSMAI, and industry side meetings highlighted three themes: AI everywhere, commercial teams needing real alignment, and hotels still struggling with outdated, disconnected tech.
Marketing the Unwanted?
As Congress slashes Brand USA funding by 80%, international visitors continue to flee the U.S., leaving destinations like Hawaiʻi exposed just when global marketing matters most.
