Atlanta hotel prices skyrocket for Super Bowl: Nobody knows who will be this year’s contenders at Super Bowl LIII, but hoteliers in Atlanta know they could come away as winners. Data from travel planning site Hipmunk shows Atlanta hotel booking prices have jumped by 146% for Super Bowl weekend, Curbed Atlanta reports.
As an example of the higher prices, the price for the single remaining room at a Motel 6 that’s 12 miles from the site of the Super Bowl had a rate of $510 a night. The cost for a Motel 6 room downtown near the game? $1,100 a night.
The median booking prices are $474 a night, according to the article, while the February 2019 monthly median is $193.
Hotel dishwasher wins $21m in lawsuit over working Sundays: A hotel dishwasher was awarded $21.5 million in damages after a jury decided her employer infringed on her religious rights by requiring her to work on Sundays, USA Today reports. Along with the $21.5 million in punitive damages, the jury awarded her $35,000 in back wages and $500,000 for “emotional pain and anguish.” The dishwasher won’t receive the full amount awarded to her, however, as the jury was unaware there is a cap on punitive awards of $300,000.
The dishwasher at the Conrad Miami filed her suit in 2017 against Hilton, which previously managed the property, alleging her kitchen manager forced her to work on Sundays, the article states. In 2009, she had tried to resign for religious reasons after being scheduled to work on Sundays, but instead she remained after her employer changed her schedule so she wouldn’t quit. However, she was required again in 2016 to work Sundays and was later fired due to “unexcused absences, negligence and alleged misconduct.”
Hilton shared a statement with USA Today expressing the company’s disappointment in the verdict and that it had made multiple concessions to accommodate the employee’s personal and religious commitments. Hilton intends to appeal the decision.
Rising costs challenge future California development: The number of new hotel openings in California should keep its steady pace for the next few years, but the rising cost of development should slow that pace as early as 2021, writes HNN’s Bryan Wroten.
Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, said the hotels that opened in 2018 and on schedule to open this year and next started years ago before development prices skyrocketed, which means there will likely be fewer owners and developers starting or completing new projects.
“We are starting to see some clients with sites tied up, some with nonrefundable money, walk away from those projects just because of the huge front-end construction cost,” he said. “Those already under construction and financed, those will get built.”
U.S. might lift Chinese tariffs to incentivize trade deal: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has proposed the U.S. lift some or all of its tariffs on Chinese imports to improve trade talks with China and “win China’s support for longer-term reform,” The Wall Street Journal reports. However, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has argued any concession on tariffs would be seen as weakness.
There is a deadline of 1 March that would see the tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods increased to 25% from 10%, according to the article. U.S. officials have a meeting with the top Chinese trade envoy scheduled for 30 January.
Satellite imagery shows North Korea on track to open beach resort: New satellite images released by a Washington, D.C.,-based policy research group that monitors activity in North Korea shows the country could open a beach resort this year, USA Today reports. The images show the additions of a water park that includes a water slide, sports facilities and other building expansions.
The site of the resort is in the Wonsan-Kalma Tourist Zone, an area where North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, visited as a child, according to the article. The country’s state-run media reported that Kim recently traveled to the site to see its progress and requested the creation of the water park.
Compiled by Bryan Wroten.