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Wyndham Hotels & Resorts executives reported what they called "impressive first-quarter results" this morning, headlined by 12% year-over-year growth in revenue per available room.

HNN's Robert McCune reports optimism during the company's first quarter earnings call went beyond performance metrics and into excitement over net rooms growth, which is fueled in party by the extended-stay brand Echo Suites.

"Internationally, we opened over 4,000 rooms and grew net rooms by 7%," Wyndham President and CEO Geoff Ballotti said. "Organically our Latin America team added some fantastic conversions from competitive brands, like our new Wyndham Garden Torreón in this booming Mexican city, along with the new La Quinta Quito steps from the upscale stores and entertainment and Ecuador's capital city."

During Hilton's second-quarter earnings call, President and CEO Chris Nassetta discussed — without naming — a lower-midscale, new-build extended-stay brand that would slot in below Home2 Suites by Hilton, HNN's Stephanie Ricca reports. The new brand would be a hybrid of an efficiency apartment and hotels, looking to house workers on the road for one to six months at a time.

“We’re talking about an average length of stay of probably 20 to 30 days on average, versus most of the core extended-stay brands with five to 10 days, in that range,” he said. “It’s a different demand base, different types of locations, which is why we love it because we’re not already serving it. It’s not competitive with Home2 and certainly not competitive with Homewood.”

Hilton’s current extended-stay brands, Homewood Suites by Hilton in the upscale segment and Home2 Suites by Hilton in the midscale space, had 1,125 hotels comprised of more than 124,000 rooms open globally at the end of the first quarter of 2023.

A report from Reuters highlights the story of Ahmad Shams, a Lebanese-born hotelier who set up a life and business before having to flee violence in that country only to be greeted by economic crisis in his home country. The news agency describes how he had to shelter from gunfire and shelling in the Khartoum hotel he ran in the Sudanese capital for 17 years and the challenges to returning to Lebanon.

"We've returned to a country that's already collapsing. If there had been a choice to go somewhere else, I would not have come to Lebanon," he said.

While the Federal Reserve's efforts to tamp down inflation have taken hold in some parts of the economy, the Wall Street Journal reports a persistent labor shortage and other issues continue to push up inflation for U.S. hotels and lodging, which was up 8.1% in March.

A lack of workers have pushed wages up significantly in the industry, going up 6.2% over the last year, according to the newspaper.

“We are doing a lot more with fewer people, but those people want to be paid more,” CoStar national director of hospitality analytics Jan Freitag told the newspaper.

The U.K. is seeing hotel demand benefits from both the upcoming coronation of King Charles in London and the Eurovision song contest in Liverpool, according to data from CoStar's hospitality analytics firm STR.

As of April 24, coronation weekend in London has 67.7% occupancy on the books for Friday, May 5, and 66.8% for Saturday, May 6.

Liverpool's occupancy maxes out at 82% on Saturday, May 13, the day of the Eurovision Grand Final.

“Eurovision is an event that always attracts significant demand for hotels and this year is no different,” said Thomas Emanuel, STR’s senior director. “Last year, Turin hotels reached an occupancy of 83% on the final night, while back in 2019, host Tel Aviv’s occupancy peaked at 84%. Naturally, when Rotterdam hosted in 2021, occupancy was more muted due to COVID restrictions. Bookings are only projected to grow even more as we get closer to the event period.”

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