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1. Chaos Continues for Year-End Holiday Travel
Air travel across the U.S. and into and out of the country continues to be a challenge for passengers as cancellations pile up.
As of Monday morning, more than 1,800 U.S. flights have been canceled while an East Coast storm approaches, USA Today reports.
This comes after more than 2,700 flights were canceled both Saturday and Sunday. In total, 15,000 flights have been canceled since Christmas Eve.
"This weekend's cancellations marked the worst two-day stretch of the holiday travel season and affected passengers on nearly every U.S. airline," the news outlet writes.
2. US Stock Futures Rise at Start of New Year
U.S. stock futures advanced on the first trading day of the new year, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, investors continue to monitor COVID-19 variants and other factors that could cause a rockier path ahead.
On Monday, futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, while the Nasdaq-100 advanced 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%.
“It’s going to be a little bit bumpier than 2021. The three big questions that we ended the year with are still here: omicron, inflation and supply chains, and the Fed,” said Esty Dwek, chief investment officer at FlowBank. “There’s definitely potential for outperformance for equity markets. I don’t think we’ll see 20%-plus but we could see double-digits.”
3. Hotel Forecast for 2022 Positive For Now
Hotel industry prognosticators aren't yet pessimistic about 2022 performance as the power of pent-up demand has proven the resiliency of travel, HNN's Stephanie Ricca reports.
Most of the industry's largest forecasting firms in the fourth quarter of 2021 raised expectations for 2022 performance.
“The summer numbers were better than expected. Forward bookings on group business were short-term positive and even corporate group was turning positive,” said Scott Berman, principal and industry leader of PwC's Hospitality & Leisure Group of his firm’s latest upward revision in November. “The real punchline and lesson learned, and what’s different from any other cycle, is the pricing power. Rate held much better across all the chain scales.”
4. Omicron Challenges New York's Hotel Quarantine Program
A rise in infections from the omicron variant in New York City has put strain on the city's attempt to offer free hotel rooms to those who can't easily isolate, the New York Times reports.
Brittny Gaston, a medical assistant from Brooklyn, said she requested a hotel several days ago but arrangements still had not been made.
"When she finally spoke to someone, she was told she did not qualify for the program because she no longer needed to quarantine, even though she still had COVID-19 symptoms and two people in her household had underlying health issues," the news outlet writes.
The hotel program began in June 2020 with 1,200 hotel rooms, and nearly 30,000 people have participated so far.
5. Hong Kong Hotels Work To Promote More Women to General Manager
The hospitality industry broadly has lagged behind other industries in the advancement of women to leadership roles, but Hong Kong hotels are now helping to shift that dynamic, the South China Morning Post reports.
Across the city's 300-plus hotels, approximately one in five general managers are now women. Kristina Snaith-Lense is one of them.
Snaith-Lense, general manager of The Upper House, told the news outlet that "Typically, the [general manager] role is heavily operational, with hours that do not necessarily appeal to everyone, regardless of sex, nor does it lend itself to enjoying family life. Traditionally, hotel [general managers] have even lived on property, again a lifestyle which may be more of an acquired taste, not feasible with children.”