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1. Aimbridge Sues Avion Hospitality
Aimbridge Hospitality has sued Avion Hospitality and its CEO, Robert Burg, alleging the competing third-party management company reached out to then-current employees of Aimbridge to gain confidential property-level information to help Avion persuade hotel owners to switch management companies, reports HNN. Avion would then hire the employees who provided the information.
Aimbridge Executive Chairman Steve Joyce said a lawsuit is not the preferred approach, but the company had no other choice.
“It became so egregious that this is where we ended up,” he told Hotel News Now in an interview.
Burg is a former president and chief operating officer of Aimbridge. After he left Aimbridge in 2021, he went on to form Avion in March 2022. Burg declined to comment at this time as he has not had a chance to review Aimbridge's petition.
2. Park Hotels To Close Hilton Oakland Airport
Park Hotels & Resorts will close the 360-room Hilton Oakland Airport in August, reports CoStar News' Pawan Naidu. The 56-year-old hotel sits on land owned by the Port of Oakland.
“We understand that the hospitality sector continues to be negatively impacted by larger economic trends post-pandemic, and as the owner of this site, the port will be seeking the best use for this property moving forward,” a spokesperson for the port told CoStar News in an emailed statement.
The news comes roughly a year after Park ceased making payments on a $725 million loan for two San Francisco hotels: the 1,921-key Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the 1,024-key Parc 55 San Francisco.
3. Maui Officials Consider Effects of Short-Term Rental Restrictions
Maui County's mayor has proposed restricting the use of short-term rentals on the island to house the people displaced by last year's wildfires instead of tourists, the Associated Press reports. Opponents worry the proposal would cut into tourism revenue and end up costing the government by having to defend against lawsuits.
The wildfires burned the homes of 12,000 residents, and Maui has struggled with housing as many property owners rent homes to tourists while new homes are slow to come to market, the AP reports. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen argues his proposal would lead to lower rents, which would keep locals on Maui as absentee landlords would have to sell or convert their units to long-term rentals.
Hawaii economist Paul Brewbaker told the AP that changing the rules would result in 33% fewer tourists and cost Maui 14,000 jobs.
4. Why Airlines Are Seeing Narrow Profit Margins
Despite this summer being a busy travel season, airlines are facing tight profit margins, the Wall Street Journal reports. A combination of higher costs, newer consumer behaviors and other factors have caused both budget operators and legacy airlines strife.
Companies such as Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are running into trouble in that the lower prices they charge for tickets are competing against higher wages and maintenance bills along with disruptive weather events, the newspaper reports.
Legacy airlines have benefited from the introduction of "premium economy" seating, but travelers have shown a preference for these seats over the more expensive business class seats, according to the article.
5. TSA Reports Record Screenings in Single Day
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration reports it screened a record 2.99 million airline passengers on June 23, according to Reuters. The agency's previous record of 2.95 million was set in late May.
For the period running June 27 through July 8, the TSA is expecting to screen more than 32 million travelers, Reuters reports. That's a 5.4% increase over the 2023 Fourth of July holiday travel period.