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1. Marriott, Wyndham Hit International Milestones
Marriott International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts have hit new portfolio milestones in international locations.
Marriott opened its 50th hotel in Thailand with the Madi Paidi Bangkok, Autograph Collection, according to a news release. The company intends to open another 10 hotels across its luxury, premium, select- and longer-stay brands.
Wyndham reached 100 open hotels in Turkey with the 176-room Days Hotel by Wyndham Istanbul Esenyurt, according to a news release. The company now has 105 open and operating hotels in the country, and it has a pipeline of 20 additional hotels for Turkey.
2. Regional Airports Lose Flights
Smaller airports across the U.S. are steadily losing airlines servicing their customers, NPR reports. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have left 74 regional airports collectively since the start of the pandemic.
Along with a pilot shortage, changing airline economics are a major driver of this change.
"The 50-seat jet today is just not economic as it was 10 years ago. Labor costs going up. Fuel costs going up. Maintenance costs going up. And it's hard for that airplane at that seat size to be profitable," longtime industry analyst William Swelbar told NPR's Morning Edition.
3. Hoteliers Share What Keeps Them Up at Night
During an executive panel at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific Australia New Zealand, hoteliers spoke about the challenges they're dealing with that are often out of their control, reports HNN contributor Tamara Thiessen.
“Whether it’s capacity, whether it’s the return of certain markets, whether it is ESG. ... The cost of living, cost of operating a business, foreign exchange, those are the things we spend most of our time talking about at the moment,” said Sarah Derry, CEO of premium, midscale and economy brands in the Asia-Pacific region for Accor.
4. Slowing Inflation Hits Profits
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that after-tax U.S. corporate profits fell 9.4% year over year during the second quarter, according to the Wall Street Journal. An estimate by Refinitiv showed a 2.9% decline in earnings registered by companies in the S&P 500.
"No matter how you look at it, though, the stellar growth that companies began experiencing shortly after the pandemic hit has come and gone," the newspaper reports. "In the second quarter of last year, U.S. after-tax profits were up 7.7% from a year earlier, while S&P earnings per share were up 8.4%. And in the second quarter of 2021, they were up 55% and 96%, respectively."
5. Abu Dhabi Fund Buys Spanish Hotel Portfolio
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has closed on its acquisition of a 17-hotel portfolio in Spain following approval from the European Union's competition authority, reports HNN's Terence Baker. The portfolio comprises full-service hotels in popular tourism destinations across the country.
JLL brokered the deal for the sovereign wealth fund.
“This historic transaction signifies a major milestone in the real estate market. The strong interest from global investors, particularly from the Middle East, who accounted for nearly 50% of transaction volume in Spain as of August 2023, underlines the resilient and appealing nature of the hospitality sector,” said Patrick Saade, JLL’s senior managing director for hotels and hospitality capital markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.