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1. India hotel rates soared ahead of cricket’s T20 World Cup final
Hotel rates in Ahmedabad soared ahead of the March 8 final of cricket’s T20 World Cup as hosts India played New Zealand at Narendra Modi Stadium. According to Outlook Business, hotel rates increased on news of India’s victory in the semifinal over England by “as much as 300% to 400%.” India won the final by 96 runs.
Narendra Somani, president of Hotels & Restaurants Association of Gujarat and CEO of TGB Banquets & Hotels, said room rates that normally would have averaged approximately 5,000 Indian rupees ($54.15) to 20,000 Indian rupees ($217) depending on their segment were being snapped up by fans for as much as 15,000 to 50,000 Indian rupees. He said he expected that hotel occupancy across the city was close to 80% on the night of March 8.
2. Capella appoints Fasel as president
Singapore-based Capella Hotel Group, which has 12 luxury hotels across two brands — Capella Hotels & Resorts and Patina Hotels & Resorts — named Roland Fasel its new president. Fasel arrives from his role of group chief operating officer at Maybourne Hotel Group, which includes such hotels as the 267-room Claridge’s Hotel in London. His 30-year career also has included roles at Aman Resorts and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, and he was once the general manager of the Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
3. Hotels not exempt from recent UK building-safety act
The Building Safety Act 2022 — signed into law by the United Kingdom government following the fire at residential building Grenfell Tower in 2017 killed 72 people — does contain legal requirements for hotels. Hoteliers must heed these requirements, according to panelists at the recent Hotel Industry Development Event in London, writes CoStar News Hotels’ Terence Baker. The act is mostly associated with residential safety, but its legal requirements do extend to commercial elements of mixed-use structures that meet specific criteria.
Gemma Whittaker, partner of construction and engineering building safety at Gowling WLG, said hoteliers need to understand their hotels’ exposure to “reputational, operational and valuation risk” from the new regulations.
David Kelly, director at CHPK Group, added that the “competence of contractors has been a really positive move in the residential market, and that has started to trickle across to other sectors, hotels included."
4. Chinese economy full steam ahead in 2026
Despite U.S. tariff pressure, the Chinese economy grew during the first two months of 2026, according to Reuters, by “21.8% in U.S. dollar terms … sharply up from the 6.6% increase recorded in December and blowing past the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 7.1% growth.”
Reuters added these initial numbers, if they continue along this path, would see the Chinese economy exceed its 2025 export trade surplus of $1.2 trillion. But a potential disruptor is the likely trade fallout from the current tensions in the Middle East. U.S. president Donald Trump is due to meet the Chinese premier Xi Jinping later this month.
5. UK taxpayers front £566,000 asylum hotel battle court costs
The protracted legal battle and subsequent court case to have a hotel in Essex, England, stop housing asylum seekers has cost the plaintiff, Epping Forest District Council, £566,000 ($756,000), according to the BBC. The council lost its case to have the 79-room Bell Hotel in Epping cease hosting asylum seekers. The BBC added “the legal bill represents 2.64% of the local authority’s £21.4 million budget for the 2026/27 financial year.” One part of that bill was a payment of £95,000 to Somani Hotels Ltd., the owner of the hotel.
The council is continuing its fight against the hotel, and against the legal costs it has incurred, stating their action remains in the interests of local residents, the BBC said.