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1. Jardine Matheson to take Mandarin Oriental fully private
Hong Kong-based Jardine Matheson has announced plans to purchase the final 12% stake in Mandarin Oriental and take the hotel company fully private in a deal giving it a $4.2 billion valuation, CoStar News' Terence Baker reports.
The deal will pay $2.75 in cash plus a 60 cent special dividend for each outstanding share of Mandarin.
Concurrently, Mandarin Oriental has announced plans to sell its Hong Kong headquarters to Alibaba Group and Ant Group.
2. Why one Chinese hotel company is celebrating a drop in tourism spend
Chinese hotel giant H World Group is apparently celebrating a shift in consumer behavior in their home country with more people wanting to travel but individually spend less, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A growth in overall traveler numbers should overcome any decline in spending, said Jihong He, chief strategy officer at the company.
“China is a huge market,” He said. “Even if you only have single-digit growth in traveler numbers, it’s big enough.”
3. Hotel leaders want consistency in technology
While the slow pace of new tech adoption is often pointed to as a problem across the hotel industry, top executives now say they want to see a higher degree of consistency for new technologies, CoStar News' Trevor Simpson reports.
There is some hope that artificial intelligence will be more substantial than other tech trends, said Craig Smith, CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality, while speaking at the recent Lodging Conference.
"I've see so many shiny penny trends that have gone on for a while that I was like, 'Oh, here comes another one.' Everyone's excited about it. ... This is real," he said. "I'm really excited. This is not a shiny penny; this is a shiny dollar."
4. Regional banks once again rattle US markets
In what has become a recurring theme for U.S. markets, uncertainty across regional banks has lead to a new wave of economic instability, The Wall Street Journal reports.
This latest wave has been fueled by Zions Bancorp alleging fraud by auto supplier First Brands and lender Tricolor.
"On Thursday, investors dumped shares of banks broadly, particularly smaller ones whose business models have been increasingly challenged by the dominance of the megabanks," the newspaper reports. "An index of regional banks dropped 6.3%, while the broader KBW Nasdaq Bank Index fell 3.6%, both their worst days since April."
5. Department of Justice targets LuxUrban
Officials with the Department of Justice have filed a motion to take control of LuxUrban, the hotel chain that recently closed several hotels abruptly and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, CBS News reports.
"Last week, the DOJ filed a motion asking the court to take control of LuxUrban's bankruptcy and business operations," the news outlet reports. "It's serious intervention in a bankruptcy proceeding. Citing news reports, the DOJ says 'a hotel operator... that leaves customers stranded' and workers allegedly unpaid is 'untenable, and dangerous.'"