What does it take to lead a successful hotel brand while keeping people at the heart of everything you do? In this episode of The Turndown, Diego de Ponga, CEO of Port Hotels, shares his journey from head of revenue management to CEO of one of Spain's most iconic family-owned hotel groups.
What does it take to shape the future of hotel development while staying true to your vision? In this episode of The Turndown, Richard Kessler, Founder of The Kessler Collection, shares his journey from building budget hotels to becoming a visionary in boutique luxury.
Stock market volatility is both normal and expected. Anyone who has analyzed stock prices or attended a trading course knows this well. A wide range of factors can influence market prices: company-specific events like appointing a new CEO, publishing annual reports, or issuing corporate announcements; economic factors such as inflation, interest rate shifts, and changes in monetary policy; and political developments including leadership transitions, new legislation, and (geo)political instability.
What if the next breakthrough idea for your business did not come from your internal team – but from the outside?
In 2024, B&B HOTELS Germany aimed to strengthen its online presence and visibility by leveraging the Cendyn Digital Marketing Platform.Additionally, they were committed to increasing direct bookings, reducing reliance on third-party platforms to drive more profitable revenue.
In the battle for direct bookings, hotels face intense competition from OTAs’ marketing power in the online space. In 2024, the four largest players—Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Airbnb, and Trip.com Group—spent $17.8 billion on sales and marketing.
UrVenue, the leading commerce and booking technology provider for hospitality and gaming, has announced its strategic partnership with The Nash Casino, New Hampshire’s largest charitable gaming venue, to provide online event booking at the DraftKings Lounge, a two-story retail sportsbook and entertainment complex, Stadium Social Sports Bar & Grill and Topgolf Swing Suite golf simulator bays. Just in time for the biggest sports betting month of the year, The Nash is leveraging UrVenue’s innovative venue management system technology to offer seamless booking of its sports entertainment areas, featuring a 60-foot-wide and 22-foot-tall video wall, the largest single-wall-mounted video screen in New Hampshire.
In a luxury suite overlooking Hong Kong’s vibrant skyline, a senior banking executive concludes her quarterly board meeting on Thursday afternoon. By Friday morning, she’s exploring local markets with her partner, who flew in specifically for the weekend. Once an exception, this scenario now represents a powerful trend reshaping the travel industry.
In the hotel business if you want to get ahead you better be ready to move. It’s the way in which you can multiply your opportunities and increase your chance for greater personal prosperity. That’s the way it was explained to me many years ago and it has certainly been my experience. On the flip side, moving is not easy and it can take its toll on you and the people in your relationships.
Luxury travel is evolving, and at its forefront is a rapidly growing sector: glamping. The fusion of nature and high-end hospitality has propelled glamping from a niche offering to a mainstream industry poised for significant expansion. According to Arizton research, the U.S. glamping market is projected to skyrocket from $561 million in 2023 to $1.3 billion by 2029, underscoring the increasing demand for high-end outdoor experiences.
Accor, the largest hotel operator in the Pacific, successfully concluded its 2025 Pacific Franchise Conference, bringing together franchise partners, hotel general managers, industry leaders, and Accor executives for two days of insightful discussions, networking, and strategic presentations.
Yesterday, Orient Express Sailing Yachts officially opens reservations for Orient Express Corinthian, the largest sailing yacht in the world, setting sail in summer 2026. Inviting travelers to embark on her first sailing season between May to October 2026, guests can expect an unprecedented sailing experience of the highly anticipated yacht.
YOO, the largest residential design brand in the world, and IWG, the global leader in flexible workspace and office solutions, announce a brand-new global partnership, set to redefine the boundaries between work and design. The joint venture blends YOO’s cutting-edge design ethos and hospitality roots, with IWG’s unparalleled expertise in flexible office solutions, and will be rolled out over the next five years.
With more than 100 dual‑brand properties under development, pairings like Hilton’s Home2 Suite by Hilton and Tru by Hilton dual‑brand are delivering flexibility for guests and cost efficiencies for hotel owners
Novotel Hotels and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have unveiled an exciting new initiative, the Novotel Legendary Rooms. This innovative project brings to life the legacies of iconic PSG players through immersive hotel rooms located in flagship Novotel hotels worldwide. Each Legendary Room offers an unparalleled blend of bespoke design, digital interaction, and memorabilia, celebrating the unique stories of these football greats.
Hotel operations involve every department from the front desk and housekeeping to facilities maintenance, marketing and HR. And of all the facets of a hotel business, operations present the biggest opportunity to enhance performance and optimize commercial outcomes.
As I write this, the submarine with five souls on board is missing and time is running out. They have barely a few hours of oxygen left. There has been no communication with the ship since the first two hours after it was launched on Sunday June 18th, 2023. This piece is about that faithful ship and my obsession with it and a connection to the hotel world, both personal and historic.
Today, Massachusetts lawmakers, hospitality industry leaders, and survivor advocates gathered at the Massachusetts State Capitol to highlight the urgent need to implement human trafficking recognition training across the hotel industry.
This article provides an overview of capitalization rates and rooms revenue multipliers, as well as a summary of recent trends for these metrics and their role in the valuation of limited-service hotels. U.S. Hotel Appraisals and HVS continually track capitalization rates and rooms revenue multipliers for limited-service assets on which we consult.
The California Hotel & Lodging Association supports Gov. Newsom’s Executive Order extending the non-establishment of tenancy in Los Angeles County hotels to July 1, 2025 to give Los Angeles fire evacuees the ability to stay in hotels longer.