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1. Spirit Airlines shuts down after bailout talks fail
After rejecting a $500 million bailout package that would have handed over control of the struggling airline to the U.S. government, Spirit Airlines officially shut down over the weekend, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and leaving roughly 17,000 people without work, CNBC reports.
The airline had twice filed for bankruptcy over the course of the last two years and had not recorded an annual profit since before the pandemic.
Other airlines offered capped fares to Spirit travelers trying to get to their destinations. United Airlines officials said they booked 14,000 former Spirit customers Saturday, and Southwest claimed it booked more than 20,000.
2. Hotel security in spotlight after Washington Hilton attack
The gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner a week ago wrote that he was shocked by the lack of security, and Reuters reports the attack highlights the tension in hotels between offering "warmth and hospitality" and tight security.
“Security is going to continue to improve with technology in identifying strange behavior. But at the end of the day, it's a hospitality business where customers have to feel welcome,” Nicolas Graf, a professor of hospitality management at New York University, told the news outlet.
Artificial intelligence may offer a new layer of security on property, the news agency reports, with more traditional security measures expected to be "costly and complex."
3. Summer outlook strong, but booking windows still short
While the demand outlook for this upcoming summer is expected to be stronger than the same period in 2025, CoStar News' Bryan Wroten reports short booking windows remain a challenge for hoteliers.
The biggest uptick in demand is expected to come from people who book within 60 days of their stay, even with matches for the World Cup just around the corner.
This causes some consternation for hotels in World Cup markets as the events pushed out other forms of demand, experts say.
"On the transient side, there are bookings occurring, but not at any great speed, and so we're left with a decision to make about how we want to strategize that event," said Leah McFarland, senior vice president of revenue strategy at Crestline Hotels & Resorts.
4. DiamondRock sells Manhattan hotel
Hotel real estate investment trust DiamondRock Hospitality sold the leasehold interest in the 189-room Courtyard by Marriott New York Manhattan/Fifth Avenue for $33 million, according to a news release.
Company officials say they are saving $12 million in required capital expenditures over the next year, an increase in lease payments and higher labor costs by offloading the hotel.
Diamondrock CEO Jeffrey Donnelly said despite more than doubling the hotel's net operating income since 2019, the increasing costs associated with the property meant its "expected returns did not meet our investment thresholds."
5. Fuel prices continue to climb as war lingers
Average gas prices across the U.S. hit $4.45 a gallon Sunday, NPR reports, up from the $2.98 seen right before the start of the war in Iran and $3.17 recorded a year ago.
Kevin Book, co-founder of research firm ClearView Energy Partners, told the news outlet that it's likely to be "weeks or even months" before oil supply normalizes due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.