From Dallas to New York to Chicago to Singapore, the Hotel News Now podcast spanned the globe last month, tackling issues as varied as filling yourself on Thanksgiving dinner to focusing on well-being.
Here's a look at the podcasts published by Hotel News Now in November.
Early in the month, Andria Ryan, partner at Fisher Phillips and co-chair of the law firm's hospitality group, joined HNN's Bryan Wroten to unpack what recent changes at the National Labor Relations Board — including a new decision by that board — mean for joint-employer status, which has been see-sawing back and forth since 2015.
"We actually are referring to it as a bit of a whiplash effect given all the changes that have occurred in this area over the past few decades, and really over the past few years with the change in the most recent administration," Ryan said.
Capella Hotel Group President Cristiano Rinaldi told HNN's Sean McCracken how the latest iteration of the Singapore-based company is now looking across the globe for opportunities after finding its footing in the Asia-Pacific region. But he said the company will continue to be driven by their goal of "creating wonderful experiences for our guests."
"We always position ourself to a degree in a niche of experience travel, to be very honest," he said. "I think we've been really crafting the art of creating these experiences way before the pandemic. That's something Capella has always done rather successfully."
Hyatt Hotels Corp., meanwhile, has long made health and well-being core concepts across its company. TJ Abrams, vice president of global well-being for Hyatt, told HNN how that translates to both guest and employee experience.
"But at Hyatt, we define well-being as helping our guests and customers feel healthy, happy and fulfilled," he said on the Hotel News Now podcast. "We're thinking about this holistic aspect of how does your physical, mental and emotional well-being become supported through travel?"
Soon after, CoStar's Colin Sherman and Candace Carlisle joined the Hotel News Now podcast to discuss the transformation of Dallas into a premium hotel market, particularly with the addition of several luxury properties across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
"We just got our first JW Marriott," Carlisle said. "We have a Four Seasons that's in the design phase. It's coming. We're told there's going to be a second Ritz-Carlton in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. And it just seems like the level of amenities and hospitality that's coming to the market is something that Dallas-Fort Worth has never really had before."
On the Next Gen in Lodging podcast, hosts Davonne Reaves and Omari Head discussed the power of crowdfunding as a vehicle in the hotel space and how it can open up opportunities to nontraditional hotel investors.
"I find that folks that are fully capitalized, sometimes they just don't know how [to invest in hotels], because we don't hang for-sale signs on hotels," Head said.
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., McCracken and CoStar's Emmy Hise met to discuss just what hoteliers have to feel thankful for in 2023. Hise said her top answer to that is always a simple one.
"What I'm thankful for in this industry, it's always the people. Always, always, always the people," she said.
Soon after, Wroten dove into market dynamics in Chicago with CoStar's Ryan Ori and First Hospitality President and CEO David Duncan, who said the city saw a strong wave of tourism in summer months despite a continued softness in the office sector.
"We really benefit from a strong tourism presence during the warmer months, and that has really sort of helped offset the lack of business travel demand, especially in the city center," Duncan said.
On the Tell Me More podcast, CoStar's Jan Freitag and STR's Isaac Collazo dove into how supply changes are driving a shift in New York's rate environment.
“At the end of the day, it’s supply constraints” in New York City, Collazo said. “If you peel back that onion, you see a lot of the supply loss has been on the lower end of the spectrum and that’s where you’re seeing a lot of ADR growth, because there’s not many low-price hotels available … so you’re seeing strong ADR growth.”