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1. Barcelona proposes hotel tax increases
Barcelona is debating an increase in the city’s Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles, or hotel property tax, from 1.17% of a hotel’s average daily rate to 1.30%. That will increase the current cap of €12 ($13.69) in some cases, with Hosteltur stating the move “would affect 10% of the properties with the highest [ratable] value.”
In addition, city officials agreed earlier this week to increase the per-passenger tax on short-stay cruise ship visits to €30 by 2030 from €11 per passenger, with the proposed charge being an increase of 172.73%.
2. Chicago hotel employees vote yes for strike authorization
Chicago hotel employees affiliated with union Unite Here Local 1 have voted for the union to authorize a strike if it deems fit to do so. Their current contract expired on Aug. 31, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which added the union represents “attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front-desk agents, servers and food-service workers.”
The newspapers said the vote was affirmed by 85% of those who voted, most of whom, some 7,000, work in downtown Chicago. Unite Here is negotiating with 46 hotels and include properties affiliated with Hilton, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Marriott International.
3. US hotels post robust numbers across the board
For the week ending Sept. 19, U.S. hotel occupancy rose 4.4% to 71.1%, average daily rate increased 5.7% to $179.30 and revenue per available room jumped 10.4% to $127.43, according to CoStar data. Upper-upscale hotels saw the highest increase in RevPAR with a 11.5% jump to $256.10.
Among the top 25 markets, Chicago hotel occupancy increased 10.6% to 87.8%, ADR increased 28.2% to $257.66 and RevPAR increased 41.87% to $226.18. Between Sept. 14-19, the International Manufacturing Technology Show came to the city, an event that attracts 90,000 attendees.
The worst-performing market among the top 25 was Las Vegas, which posted an 11.8% occupancy decrease to 73.6% and an 11.6% RevPAR decrease to $166.75. Las Vegas’ ADR increased 0.2% to $226.45.
4. Gulf Cooperation Council/North Africa hotels' pipeline worth $90 million
According to a report from business advisory HVS and industry conference Future Hospitality Summit-FHS World, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and North Africa have a pipeline of approximately 200,000 hotel rooms and a value of approximately $90 million. The partners added there are 88,000 hotel rooms currently in construction and 25,000 in final planning.
Saudi Arabia leads the charge, with a pipeline of 110,000 hotel rooms, approximately 50% of the regional pipeline. In second place is Egypt with 42,000 rooms.
"The region’s hotel pipeline is no longer just a story of scale, it’s one of discipline, with capital deployed with far greater intention. But what’s changed the most is how projects are financed. The sector has moved well beyond the traditional mix of developer equity and bank debt," said Hala Matar Choufany, president, Middle East, Africa and South Asia at HVS.
5. US AI investment projected to reach $10.3 trillion
U.S. investment in artificial intelligence is predicted to reach $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, according to The Wall Street Journal, which said that injection of cash is “on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet.”
The numbers come from Columbia Business School economist Stijn van Nieuwerburgh and constitute 3.6% of annual gross domestic product. The WSJ said the investment level comes with significant risk, “as much of it is built on debt.”
At last week’s Annual Hotel Conference in Manchester, England, Cody Bradshaw, CEO of L&R Group, voiced similar concern.
“We’ve got really unprecedented, systemic risk across the globe, with inflated, record equity markets, record concentration risk in those equity markets, government debt, interconnected nature of all these tech companies … including the AI race and the CapEx investment being made, and so now is the time to be really disciplined," he said.