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1. Indian Hotel Company acquires $19 million of shares in ELEL Hotels
Indian Hotels Company Limited, the parent of Taj Hotels and itself owned by Tata Group, has increased its stake in its wholly owned subsidiary ELEL Hotels. Indian Hotels Company announced it has acquired shares valued at approximately 1.65 billion Indian rupees or $19.2 million. The rights issue involved 330,043 shares, according to Business Herald.
IHCL completed its acquisition of ELEL on Dec. 31, 2021, which gave it full ownership of ELEL’s Sea Rock site from Indian family office Nanda. That Mumbai site will become a new hotel for the company's Taj Hotels brand, the Taj Bandstand, which broke ground for a demolition and complete overhaul in February of this year. The hotel is expected to open in 2029 with 330 rooms, according to CoStar.
On July 16 in its first-quarter 2025 earnings results, IHCL reported a 53.4% year-over-year increase in net profit to $1.33 billion rupees and a 15.5% rise in revenue, according to Hindu Business Line.
2. EU and Japanese exports to US fall amid tariffs
The Wall Street Journal has reported that exports from both Japan and the European Union continue to fall amid U.S. tariff policy. EU exports in May fell from €47.7 billion ($55.43 billion) to €46.2 billion, down a little more than 3%. The U.S. and the EU still have not agreed a new trade deal.
Japanese exports in June fell 11.4%, the WSJ reports, which added Japan’s trade surplus with the U.S. fell as a result to 22.9%. U.S. President Donald Trump has “repeatedly voiced dissatisfaction that Japan isn’t buying enough American goods and threatened to impose a "reciprocal" tariff of 25% on Japanese exports starting on Aug. 1,” the newspaper added.
3. UK hospitality jobs drop by 84,000 since October budget
UKHospitality reports that the hotel and hospitality industry has lost 84,000 jobs since the United Kingdom government unveiled its last budget on Oct. 30, 2024. The Office for National Statistics estimated number of vacancies in the U.K. has decreased by 7.2% year over year to 727,000 from April through June.
“These devastating job losses are a direct consequence of policy decisions at last year’s budget, which have disproportionately hit the hospitality sector. The change to employer National Insurance contributions in particular was socially regressive and had a disproportionate impact on entry level jobs,” UKHospitality chair Kate Nicholls said in a news release.
Across all sectors, unemployment has risen to 4.7% between March and May, the highest level in 48 months, the BBC reports.
4. US hotels post negative metrics across the board
U.S. hotel performance for the week ending July 12 saw negative performance metrics almost the board. Occupancy decreased 3.2% to 67.2%, average daily rate decreased 0.5% to $158.42 and revenue per available room fell 3.7% to $106.39, according to CoStar hospitality data.
During the week, hotels in Houston observed the largest performance decreases: occupancy fell 20% to 57.7%, ADR dropped 17.6% to $114.55 and RevPAR decreased 34.2% to $66.05. The best-performing market among the top 25 U.S. hotel markets was St. Louis, which posted a 21% occupancy increase to 81.3%, an 8.1% ADR increase to $145.21 and a 30.8% RevPAR increase to $118.10.
5. BWH signs Philippines master development deal with Savers Group
BWH Hotels — whose brands include Best Western Hotels & Resorts, WorldHotels and SureStay Hotels — has signed a master franchise development deal with Pampanga, Philippines-based owner Savers Group Holdings to develop properties across The Philippines. BWH currently has seven hotels across the country, according to Filipino news site Great Travel Philippines.
Savers already owns two BWH-branded hotels in The Philippines, the 85-room Best Western Plus Metro Clark in Angeles City, north of capital Manila, and 95-room Best Western Plus Hotel Subic in coastal town Banicain.