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1. Mandarin Oriental Miami set to be demolished
The 326-room Mandarin Oriental Miami will be demolished on Sunday, closing the chapter on the quarter-century-old luxury hotel. But a new chapter will simultaneously begin in its aftermath: Construction on a new Mandarin Oriental Miami, and The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Miami, will begin later this year, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
The new iteration of the downtown Miami hotel will have 121 guest rooms and suites while the residential portion will have 228 condos in a neighboring tower.
Henry Bott, former president of Swire Properties, the owner of the hotel, said in 2025 that having fewer hotel rooms will lead to better profits.
"Those rates are not trending upwards the past two years," he said. "We're missing out on maximizing the full potential."
2. Minneapolis hospitality industry in dire straits
A new survey from Hospitality Minnesota shows that only a third of restaurants, hotels and other tourism businesses expect a better spring than last year, down significantly from responses just five years ago, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
Some of the main reasons behind this pessimism are rising wholesale prices from federal tariffs; state and local regulations adding more costs; and general economic uncertainty leading to consumers spending less.
“Operators cannot continue to absorb regulatory costs on one side while consumer demand erodes on the other,” the report said. “The margin in between — where businesses survive, where workers keep their jobs, where communities keep their restaurants and hotels — is disappearing.”
3. Travel experts say AI will continue to improve
Artificial intelligence will help aid the booking journey for travelers at some point, but experts said the industry isn't quite ready to adopt some of these tools, CoStar News Hotels' Sean McCracken reports.
Jesse Stein, global head of real estate for Airbnb, said his company is still doing testing when it comes to adopting AI. Their main focus is on figuring out what the guest wants.
Improving AI integration "is not something that's going to happen overnight, but today is the worst ... AI will ever be," he said. "It's only going to get better from today, and what the world looks like in five years, if anyone tells you they know, they're lying."
4. Ashford sells six hotels
Ashford Hospitality Trust closed on the sale of four hotels and entered into definitive agreements to sell an additional two hotels, the company said in a news release. The majority of the proceeds will go toward paying down the real estate investment trust's mortgage debt.
The sold hotels include: the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront; La Posada de Santa Fe; Hilton Alexandria Old Town; and Embassy Suites by Hilton Palm Beach Gardens PGA Boulevard for $252.5 million in gross proceeds. The two pending transactions are the Lakeway Resort & Spa for $37.8 million and the Embassy Suites by Hilton Dallas Near the Galleria for $17 million.
5. US inflation spikes in March
The Consumer Price Index report for March shows inflation increased 3.3% year over year, nearly a full percentage point more than February's annual pace, the New York Times reports. Overall prices were up 0.9% in the month, the highest increase since June 2022.
"The data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday captured the period of rapidly rising commodity prices that preceded this week’s temporary ceasefire. The truce has provided some reprieve, but prices remain far higher than before the war began given its tenuous nature," the newspaper reports.
U.S. gross domestic product grew at an 0.5% annual pace from October to December in 2025, a downgrade from the Commerce Department's previous estimate of 0.7%, the Associated Press reports.