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Third-party hotel management company Aimbridge Hospitality is making significant changes to its executive leadership, HNN reports. Global President Mark Tamis is departing the company May 17, and Chief Global Growth Officer Allison Reid has already left. Marriott International's Eric Jacobs is stepping into the chief development role.

Aimbridge President of Owner Relations Aly El-Bassuni will have an expanded role as part of the transition. El-Bassuni will also lead Aimbridge’s commercial teams, which includes revenue management, digital marketing, e-commerce and sales. Allison Handy is now the senior vice president of sales, North America, and she will oversee Aimbridge's full-service, select-service and the national sales team.

These changes fit into Aimbridge CEO Craig Smith's strategy for the company to focus more on individual hotels and general managers by removing layers of bureaucracy.

"The less layers that we have between the owners and the leaders of the company, the faster decisions are made, the more we can empower teams and the quicker and more nimble we are," he said.

Tokyo-based real estate investment trust Star Asia Group has acquired full ownership of hotel- and restaurant-operating and hotel consultancy firm Minacia Co., reports HNN's Terence Baker. The deal adds 39 hotels with 5,180 rooms and limited-service hotel brands Wing International and Tenza Hotels to Star Asia's portfolio.

The Wing and Tenza brands "enjoy a high degree of recognition throughout Japan. Minacia has a robust proprietary loyalty program with a large number of repeat guests," according to the news release announcing the deal. "Minacia also has extensive experience in the restaurant business and is developing restaurant concepts inside and outside of its hotels, taking advantage of specialized regional characteristics."

Roughly 700 workers at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, Curio Collection by Hilton, have walked off the job for a two-day strike after months of negotiation for a new five-year contract, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

Officials at the resort did not share the property's operational plans but said business would continue as normal, the newspaper reports. However, it appears that reservations for the weekend were unavailable through online travel agencies and the property's own booking site.

The U.S. hotel industry saw modest performance for the week ending May 4 after declines in performance the week prior, write STR’s Isaac Collazo, Chris Klauda and William Anns. Revenue per available room grew 0.5% year over year as average daily rate increased by 1.3% but occupancy dipped 0.5%. Overall, U.S. hotel performance has slowed over the past eight weeks.

Hotels in the top 25 U.S. markets saw RevPAR remain flat as ADR grew 0.5% and occupancy fell 0.3%. Weekday RevPAR dropped 2.6% while weekend RevPAR grew by 3.1%. The shoulder days Thursday and Sunday grew hotel RevPAR by 0.2%.

Among the chain scales, economy and luxury hotels had the largest RevPAR declines, dropping 4.8% and 2.3%, respectively. Luxury’s drop was the result of falling ADR while economy suffered from decreases in both occupancy and ADR.

“We believe the impact of inflation, higher debt levels and higher debt costs — in other words, interest rates — are driving some of the segment’s decline along with a multitude of other factors, including less temporary housing needs, limited contractors, etc.,” they wrote.

A new study from Internova Travel Group found that 85% of business travelers surveyed expect they will be on the road as least as much as they were in 2024. Roughly 30% combine leisure with their business travel.

The 2024 Internova Index: North American Business Traveler Insights also found that travel agencies are playing a bigger role in planning business trips than they did before the pandemic.

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