While the pandemic lingers on, 2021 did see the triumphant return of conferences for the broader hotel industry, which meant that Hotel News Now was once again on the road looking for insights from top executives.

Below are some of the highlights of the year and some of the best moments and takeaways from dozens of video interviews conducted throughout the year.

In the summer of 2021, the hotel industry was undergoing a labor crisis just like it is today, and then-BWH Hotel Group President and CEO David Kong offered up a simple explanation for that: "It's really hard to work in the hotel business now."

"You think about the supply shortages, and you think about the difficult guests that we all encounter on a daily basis," he said at the 2021 Americas Lodging Investment Summit. "People are just more difficult these days. And if you're working on the front desk, you get yelled at left and right, and you're not going to find it to be too much fun working in that kind of environment."

Later in the year, after announcing his planned retirement, Kong urged his successor to "recognize [Best Western] is very different."

"It's a major hotel company with a global presence, like many other big hotel companies — and it's also a member organization," he said. "My advice to the new person would be you have to respect the organization for what it is. It's unique. It's special. It's different."

At the New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, Kong's successor Larry Cuculic said he was ready for the challenge.

“The first thing I would ask people to know about me is that I have a military background. And because of that, I believe that decision-making needs to be well-thought-out," he said. "And always recognize that any decision you make will impact people.”

HNN's first event back on the road in 2021 was the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in March, at which Rockbridge CEO Jim Merkel promised his company was ready for the next phase for the industry, noting opportunity abounds and "the next few years are going to be big."

“We are in the business of creating value in hotels, through cycles and through markets,” he said. “There’s just a lot of opportunity and a lot of need for investment out there.”

Merkel said hoteliers should be eager to embrace change.

“It's a consumer product at the end of the day, and so if you don’t expect change — if you’re not thinking ahead — then you’re behind,” he said. “That’s how we think of the hotel industry.”

2021 was bookended with video interviews with Sonesta International Hotels President and CEO Carlos Flores, the first — appropriately for the times — done remotely and the second at the NYU conference. The year was one of drastic change for Sonesta, even more so than most of its industry peers, as it digested hundreds of hotels converted from other brands and acquired RLH Corp.

In April, Flores compared the experience to "doing airline maintenance in flight."

"We're building and flying at the same time," he said. "It's very low tolerance for risk work. We can't screw anything up."

Then later, in November, Flores said his company is exploring new and different ways of growing, such as launching a franchise platform for Sonesta's brands.

“We’re really thinking outside of the box — new avenues to grow and extend our capability as a hotel brand, management and ownership,” he said.

One of the more interesting interviews of the year timing-wise was a check-in with Prism Hotels & Resorts President and CEO Steve Van just weeks before the company he founded was acquired by Aimbridge Hospitality. Van, who under the new arrangement will serve as president of Prism, said his company has seen success by valuing relationships with owners and employees — adding support staff at a point when other third-party operators were cutting to the bone.

“By doing the right thing, we benefited immensely from that, and our owners gave us other hotels, and other owners heard about what we're doing, so that's why we doubled the size in a short period of time, just by giving the great service that they deserved,” he said.

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