Hotel brands adjust standards to help owners: Hotel owners and operators are struggling to manage a severe drop in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic while their expenses remain. In response, hotel brand companies have been deferring and changing certain standards to help franchisees lower some costs and build back revenue, reports HNN’s Bryan Wroten.
The changes, some temporary while others could become permanent, include fee deferrals, delays in property improvement plans, cleaning protocols and food and beverage.
This is the first in a series of articles on how brand companies have been adapting their standards to fit the current situation. Stay with Hotel News Now for further coverage.
Tourists buying fake COVID-19 test results: There have been multiple reports of tourists buying counterfeit COVID-19 test results to allow them into countries requiring proof of a negative test before entry, according to the Washington Post. The use of these faked test results has been found in Brazil, France and the United Kingdom.
French authorities broke up a forgery ring selling counterfeit test results at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, the article states. The group was charging $180 to $360 for digital certificates of a negative result. Officials began investigating after an Ethiopia-bound traveler was found to have a falsified document at the airport in September.
Marriott Napa Valley Hotel & Spa sells for $100.1m: Real estate investment trust Xenia Hotels & Resorts sold the 275-room Marriott Napa Valley Hotel & Spa for $100.1 million, the North Bay Business Journal reports. KHP V Napa LLC, an affiliate of KHP Capital Partners, was the buyer.
Xenia Hotels & Resorts announced in August its plans to sell the property, the article states. The two companies closed on the deal at the end of October.
KHP V is KHP Capital Partners’ current active fund, the article states. The company launched the fund in 2018 with $361 million.
Chicago officials alarmed by hotel, vacation rental parties: After the city of Chicago placed restrictions on bars and restaurants to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, city officials have turned their attention to large parties thrown at hotels and vacation rentals, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“We are incentivizing the use of hotel rooms downtown for these big parties,” Alderman Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said. “Hotel rates are cheap, and lots of kids are coming down here and renting out these hotel rooms on the weekend. And these aren’t parties of five or six people. We’re talking 60, 70, 80 people, and these are in licensed hotels.”
Business Affairs Commissioner Rosa Escareno said the mayor’s office is working with hotel operators and the police department to try to prevent these problems, the article states.
Washington, D.C., hotels selling out ahead of inauguration: Details are sketchy for how the presidential inauguration in January will play out because of the coronavirus pandemic, but hotels in Washington, D.C., are already selling out, USA Today reports.
“Historically, inauguration is a large economic engine for the city of Washington, D.C. When a new president takes office, inauguration numbers tend to be larger than second-term inaugurals. We are currently seeing high interest in visitation to Washington, D.C., for the 2021 inauguration," said Elliott Ferguson II, president and CEO of tourism group Destination D.C. "However, it heavily depends on what people are able to do in the city based on COVID-19’s impact this winter."
Compiled by Bryan Wroten.