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1. American, Southwest airlines post third-quarter results
American Airlines reported that it had a "smaller-than-expected loss" for the third quarter, according to CNBC. Additionally, the airline's outlook for the final quarter of 2026 came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts, which sent the stock higher. American’s CEO Robert Isom addressed investors on a call Thursday morning, reporting $13.7 billon in total operating revenue.
In its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Southwest Airlines reported surprising profit results and a fourth-quarter forecast that exceeded analysts' expectations, according to CNBC. The airline had a revenue of $6.95 billion rather than the $6.92 billion expected.
2. Report finds nearly a quarter of Americans haven't taken paid vacation this year
According to survey results from FlexJobs, 23% of United States employees haven't taken a day of paid time off in the past year, per a CNBC article about the study. The survey had 3,000 respondents, and of the nearly quarter who hadn't taken PTO, 43% cited having too much work to take time off and 30% said they worried about falling behind.
“I think a lot of teams are being asked to do more with less, so there might just be kind of a lack of coverage if your team is understaffed,” FlexJobs career expert Keith Spencer said. “People might be feeling sort of guilty about leaving their team with a burden while they’re gone.”
3. IHG reports better-than-expected third-quarter performance
Across its global hotel portfolio in the third quarter, IHG Hotels & Resorts had an increase of 1.4% in its revenue per available room, exceeding the hospitality industry's projections of 1.3% RevPAR growth, reports CoStar News' Terence Baker.
Along with the United Kingdom-based brand's earnings performance and hotel development targets, IHG made two notable announcements, including a new hotel collection brand that the company plans to launch in Europe.
“It will complement our premium conversion brand Voco, which now is in 30 countries since we launched it in 2018. … Over half of the supply [in Europe] is still independent. There is a strong addressable market of owners wishing to align with the strength of our enterprise systems that are shown to deliver RevPAR premiums and group and corporate business,” IHG CEO Elie Maalouf said.
4. Events affect US hotel results, comparisons
For the week ending on Oct. 18, overall hotel occupancy dipped by 2.4% to 68.5%, according to CoStar data. Average daily rate increased 1.7% to $173.14 and revenue per available room fell 0.7 percent to $118.65.
Thanks in part to hosting Dreamforce 2025, San Francisco had the highest increases in its key hotel performance metrics among the top 25 markets. The Northern California city had a 10.2% increase in occupancy to 83.4%, an ADR increase of 68.1% to $368.79 and a RevPAR increase of 85.3% to $307.40.
Meanwhile in Florida, Miami saw the steepest decline in ADR — a 27.2% drop to $178.62 — and RevPAR — a 32.7% decline to $120.96. Miami's performance decrease is likely due to comparison against last year's Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates and Adobe MAX 2024. Tampa has the largest occupancy drop of 23.2% to 63.5%, likely due to elevated demand from Hurricane Milton at the same time last year.
5. National Geographic reveals top 2026 travel destinations
National Geographic has published its annual roundup entitled "The Best Places in the World to Travel to in 2026." Of the top 25 list, four U.S. destinations make the cut — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; North Dakota Badlands; Maui, Hawaii; and Route 66, specifically the Oklahoma stretch.
Other notable international destinations include Khiva, Uzbekistan, which is becoming more accessible with a high-speed train service; designated green city Guimarães, Portugal; and Banff, Canada, which was selected as the “Readers’ Choice Winner.”