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1. UK Flight Disruptions Worsen
Technical issues with air traffic control systems in the United Kingdom continue to cause chaos and disruptions for flights across the country, CNBC reports. Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled and officials now estimate it will take days to fully fix the problem.
“It will take some time for flights to return to normal, and we will continue to work with the airlines and the airports to recover the situation,” NATS Operations Director Juliet Kennedy said in a statement.
More than a quarter of flights to and from the U.K. were canceled Monday, with the highest levels of disruption at London's Heathrow Airport.
2. Qatari Fund Buys Park Lane Hotel for $623 Million
The Qatar Investment Authority, the country's sovereign wealth fund, paid $623 million for the Park Lane Hotel in New York, roughly a decade after Witkoff Group's Steve Witkoff and business partners Harry Macklowe, Howard Lorber's New Valley and Highgate Holdings bought the hotel for $654 million, The Real Deal reports.
The news outlet reports the property was last put on the market in 2017 with a $1 billion price tag before the owners refinanced it with a $615 million loan in 2019.
3. Remington Execs See Collaboration as Strength
Remington Hospitality President Chris Green and Senior Vice President of Revenue Strategy Gilbert Arredondo sat down with Hotel New Now's Dana Miller during the 2023 Hotel Data Conference to talk about how the company's approach to collaboration elevates its performance.
Arredondo noted a willingness to cooperate makes it easier to take risks.
"When you take risks, you take risks together. You win together and you fail together. You're going to fail sometimes, and that's OK. I think it's developing that culture that if we all agree to this and it doesn't work out, that's OK, because at least we tried ... either way we learned," he said.
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4. Dalata CEO: Revenge Travel is Here to Stay
Some industry watchers have opined that waves of so-called "revenge travel" coming out of pandemic lockdowns have subsided, but Dalata Hotel Group CEO Dermot Crowley said he believes it's a trend that's here to stay, Reuters reports.
The Irish hotel firm posted a 34% year over year jump in profit for the first half of 2023
"Certainly two, three, four years before COVID people in their 20s would have been prioritizing travel and experiences over buying things. That trend had already started and seems now to have extended to the wider population," he told the news outlet.
5. MCR Picks Up Gramercy Park Hotel
MCR acquired the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York and plans to reopen the property, which has been closed since 2020.
The company is promising an "extensive renovation" and full restoration of the hotel, akin to the company's transformation of the former TWA terminal at JFK Airport into the TWA Hotel.
“We will return this beloved hotel to its original splendor as the jewel of Gramercy Park — one of the most magical and unique neighborhoods in Manhattan,” Tyler Morse, Chairman and CEO of MCR, said in a news release.