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1. Park sells Hyatt Centric Fisherman's Wharf for $80 million
Hotel real estate investment trust Park Hotels & Resorts has sold for $80 million the 316-key Hyatt Centric Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, according to a news release.
The sale price represents 64-times 2024 earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization of the hotel, according to the release. Park will use proceeds from the sale for ongoing return on investment projects in its portfolio and other general corporate purposes.
“Despite a challenging transaction market, I am very pleased with the progress we’ve made toward achieving our strategic objective of disposing $300 million to $400 million of non-core hotel assets in 2025," Park Chairman and CEO Thomas Baltimore Jr. said in the release. "This initiative reflects our continued commitment to improving the overall quality of our iconic portfolio as we continue to aggressively reinvest back into our robust ROI pipeline, while simultaneously enhancing our liquidity position and financial flexibility."
2. Negative outlook for US international inbound travel unchanged
A report from Tourism Economics found negative sentiment toward the U.S. continues to affect inbound travel, and economists there predict a decline of 8.7% for the year, down slightly from the 9.4% decline in the March forecast. The contributing factors include the Trump administration's posturing and politics, including its tariffs, as well as incidents at border crossings.
The sharpest drops in visitations come from Canada at 20.2% and Western Europe at 5.8%. There was a 35.2% decline in April from Canadian land visitors returning from trips to the U.S. and a 19.9% drop in air visitors. Overall international visitor spending is projected to fall by $8.5 billion, or 4.7%, this year compared to 2024.
3. The hotel cocktails of the summer
Hotel bars and restaurants across the U.S. have prepared new cocktails for the summer, ready to give guests a refreshing drink to help them beat the summer heat, reports CoStar News Hotels.
Click through here for a slideshow of some of this year's offerings along with a list of the drinks and their descriptions.
4. US Supreme Court says president can't fire Fed chair
The U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency request to fire federal commissioners without cause while litigation continues, the Wall Street Journal reports. The only carve out, however, was the Federal Reserve.
Federal district and appeals courts had blocked the president from firing Biden appointees from the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board before their terms expired and without cause, the newspaper reports. The decision isn't an official overruling of precedent by the court decades ago, but it's a signal interest in doing so once the case officially reaches the court.
The judges ruling in the majority specifically said the Federal Reserve was not included in this decision because it “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States."
5. Hurricane season starts with reduced staff at National Weather Service
As the U.S. heads into the start of its annual hurricane season, the National Weather Service is contending with fewer staffers across its nationwide operation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The agency lost 600 employees since the beginning of the year due to federal job cuts, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently reported it expects 13 to 19 Atlantic storms this year.
To help manage these staffing shortages, the NWS is trying to refill some vacancies with staff from the NOAA, the newspaper reports. It has also closed some forecast offices overnight and is launching fewer weather balloons used to collect data for predicting when and where storms will hit.