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Alternative investment management company Blackstone expects India and Japan to be its most active markets in Asia in terms of capital allocation in 2024, Bloomberg reports.

Joe Baratta, Blackstone’s global head of private equity, told the news outlet that Blackstone is open to deals in Japan ranging from $300 million to more than $2 billion.

“India has the highest growth; it also has the most ebullient stock market,” he said in an interview in Tokyo. “Japan will also be very interesting as a market. The economy seems to be decoupled from what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

Employees of the BEI Hotel San Francisco, who are part of hospitality workers' union Unite Here Local 2, are taking a strike vote Tuesday. The union cites four workers have suffered symptoms of food poisoning since the hotel unilaterally laid off its cooks and outsourced cafeteria meals, according to a news release. The hotel is owned by Chinese state-owned enterprise Beijing Tourism group.

A yes vote would authorize the union to hold a strike at any time. Members of the union — including housekeepers, banquet servers and bartenders, cooks and dishwashers — say they have attempted to address the outsourcing of cafeteria food in numerous ways before deciding to take a strike vote.

“San Francisco’s tourism industry can’t recover without housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks and servers who do difficult and painful jobs, but the BEI Hotel can’t even be bothered to give them cafeteria food that’s safe to eat,” Anand Singh, president of Unite Here Local 2, said in the release. “The BEI Hotel’s unfair elimination of in-house cooks hurts all BEI Hotel workers — those who were laid off and those who have gotten sick from outsourced cafeteria food.”

The demand for electric charging stations at hotels is rising, which presents opportunities for hotel operators to charge more for the service, but with that come operational challenges, HNN's Bryan Wroten reports.

Rod Hurt, regional director of operations for Twenty Four Seven Hotels, which manages several hotels with EV charging stations, said guests are willing now to pay a few bucks per charge of their EVs, but he's not sure how long that will last.

“I think we’re still there where we could charge, but I think that window is closing because I think it’s going to be a stand-alone amenity that customers expect,” he said.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 event has drawn criticism for the "extreme pricing of tickets and events," PlanetF1 reports. Now, local hotels are slashing rates as tickets for the event, from Nov. 16-19, have yet to sell out.

"Research by Oversteer48’s Alex Gassman generated a full price analysis of the 22 biggest hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, directly comparing the prices for each hotel over the Grand Prix weekend compared to a year ago when Formula 1 confirmed the Las Vegas GP.

"Only one hotel analyzed has not changed their rates, though the other 21 demonstrate extreme reductions, the peak being the Circus Circus Hotel, which has dropped prices by 83%. The average decrease across the 22 hotels analyzed is 58%," the article states.

Employers have struggled to hire and retain employees, but the Wall Street Journal reports that turnover has declined and fewer people are voluntarily leaving their jobs.

As a result, some large companies are over budget on staffing, causing them to reconsider completing projects or to cut additional staff at the end of the year.

“The attrition level is going down, that’s for sure,” Denis Machuel, chief executive of global staffing firm Adecco Group — which works with large employers — told the news outlet. “People feel it’s probably a bit cold outside with the macroeconomics not being so good. And with this last-in, first-out typical scheme, they’re more likely to stay in their current role.”

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