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1. Choice Hotels’ Pacious steps down as CEO
The board of directors of Choice Hotels International has announced that Pat Pacious has stepped down as president and CEO but will remain as an adviser to the company until the end of August, CoStar News' Trevor Simpson reports. The company — which has approximately 7,500 hotels and 650,000 rooms worldwide — said its full-year 2026 guidance has not changed.
Choice Chief Growth and Strategy Officer Dominic Dragisich will succeed Pacious as interim CEO. Pacious has been CEO since 2017, seeing the firm’s portfolio expand from 11 brands to 22. He has worked at Choice for 21 years. Dragisich started there in 2017.
2. Dubai signs $400 million hotel relief package
The government of Dubai has signed an incentive package valued at 1.5 million United Arab Emirates dirhams ($408 million) into law to help boost its hotel and hospitality sector, which has felt the effects of the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, according to Dubai newspaper The National. The package includes a suspension of the city’s nightly rooms tax — which costs 20 Emirati dirhams ($5.45) per night — and a suspension of the 7% municipal tax also added to room rates.
Another initiative in the plan is the exemption from “all permit, postponement and cancellation fees for events, according to Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s crown prince, who added last month the emirate signed a first Middle East crisis relief package valued at 1 billion Emirati dirhams.
3. UAE’s Select Group acquire three hotels in UK
The United Arab Emirates-based Select Group has acquired three golf-course hotels in the United Kingdom from partners Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and The Baupost Group for an undisclosed price, according to Insider Media. The three properties are part of a 33-hotel portfolio KKR and The Baupost Group acquired in November 2024 for £869.2 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
With a combined 380 rooms, two of the hotels are in England, the 112-room Delta Hotels Breadsall Prior Country Club in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and 120-room Delta Hotels Tudor Park Country Club in Maidstone, Kent. The last one is in Wales, the 148-room Delta Hotels St. Pierre Country Club in Chepstow, Glamorgan.
4. US hotels post positive numbers across the board
During the week of May 10-16, U.S. hotel occupancy rose 1.5% year over year to 68.2%, average daily rate increased 3.9% to $173.01 and revenue per available room jumped 5.4% to $117.93, according to data from STR, CoStar’s hotel analytics division. Luxury hotel occupancy rose 3.4% to 73.6%, ADR jumped 7.1% to $455.63 and RevPAR rose 10.8% to $335.21.
Of the top 25 U.S. hotel markets, the best-performing market in the period was Orlando, where occupancy increased 13.3% to 71%, ADR increased 9.3% to $210.37 and RevPAR increased 23.7% to $149.38.
5. Airbnb expands booking platform for indie hotels
Airbnb has announced users now can book rooms in boutique and independent hotels via its distribution channels. In a news release, the San Francisco-based firm said the platform now offers “incredible places to stay and boutique hotels that feel like Airbnb.”
The platform, the release added, initially is focused on 20 “top destinations,” including London, Madrid, New York City, Paris, Rome and Singapore. This is not the first time hotels have appeared on Airbnb, but it is evident it is expanding into the sector.