| | These hotel stories dominated 2023 | | by Cameron Sperance, Senior Hotels Reporter | |  | I might be biased as one of TPG's senior hotel reporters, but 2023 was a banner year for hotel news — and plenty of it benefits you as a traveler. Yes, there was more in the hotel news cycle than speculation over the next hotel stand-in for "The White Lotus."
For starters, I'd say 2023 was the year of fee transparency; after facing a string of lawsuits across the country, Marriott finally began to incorporate resort fees upfront in a nightly room rate. Hyatt and others followed suit. Even Airbnb got in on the fee transparency action.
There were also many brand launches this year, largely in the affordable end of the spectrum — Hilton launched an extended-stay brand (dubbed Project H3) as well as the "premium economy" Spark while Marriott debuted the extended-stay StudioRes brand as well as affordable options like Four Points Express by Sheraton and City Express, a Mexico-based brand it acquired earlier in the year. IHG added its own new affordable brand with Garner. Hyatt added Hyatt Studios, an extended-stay concept, as well as a vacation home rental platform: Homes & Hideaways by World of Hyatt.
We should also mention the new and extraordinarily long-awaited Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened this month — more than 18 years after it was first announced back in 2005.
In terms of wheeling and dealing, MGM Resorts ended a loyalty partnership with Hyatt to instead create a much deeper partnership with Marriott. Alas, MGM then faced a cyberattack that cost the company $100 million before an insurance payout. Ultimately, the MGM and Marriott partnership, slated to begin sometime this fall, was delayed until sometime next year.
Those aren't even all the top stories of the year, but we have word limits here! Check out a few more of our favorites below:
That's all from me for today. I'll catch y'all again sometime soon!
| | | Posts in this newsletter contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page. | | Photo Credit: MR & MRS SMITH/HYATT . | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment