CANNABIS HOTELS
214 | The Weed Frontier: How hotels are capitalizing on cannabis
CANNABIS HOTELS
Marijuana consumption in America has lost its stigma, and it is on track to become a $23 billion U.S. market over the next couple years.
Hotels in states that have legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana are just beginning to think about how to incorporate the trend into their businesses. The laws can be confusing. Cannabis use is not legal in every state. Each state where it is allowed has its own regulations. And marijuana use and distribution are still outlawed by the federal government.
But the landscape is rapidly evolving on many fronts. And hoteliers and hotel developers in legalized states are figuring out how to navigate and stake a claim in the new frontier of weed.
In this episode, we talk with two hoteliers who are invested in the market. Beej Das of Troca Hotels in Massachusetts has opened a boutique property to users, and Roger Bloss of Alternative Hospitality is developing a portfolio of cannabis friendly hotels – first in California and the next in Nevada.
We also talk with Kenny Dickerson, a builder who owns EcoMaster Corporation and a partner with Bloss in the California project.
For the businessmen, enabling customers to use marijuana is not about getting high, it’s about wellness – for their guests as well as their business’s bottom lines.
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CANNABIS HOTELS
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317 | Together Again: U.S. hotel industry begins to see return of small meetings
Ginny Morrison of Evanston, Illinois, is a 33-year veteran of Spire Hospitality, a hotel management company with a portfolio that spans coast-to-coast. As vice president of sales and marketing, Morrison saw the coronavirus pandemic decimate the meetings business. More than a year later, she’s witnessing a comeback as small-meeting planners are actively booking events for the last half of 2021 and beyond. As public health agencies expand COVID-19 vaccination programs across the U.S. and states ease up on public-gathering restrictions designed to keep the virus at bay, the hotel industry is seeing small meetings begin a comeback. In Episode 317, Long Live Lodging covers the state of the small-meetings sector and how hotels can grab their share of the meetings business during and post-pandemic. This report is part of our ongoing coverage about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the hospitality industry.
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316 | Pandemic Trailblazer: Hunter Hotel Investment Conference leads lodging industry’s 2021 event circuit
The Hunter Hotel Investment Conference will be the industry’s first large event to be held during the coronavirus pandemic. The Atlanta event will be a hybrid format of in-person and virtual access, also an industry first. Lee Hunter, chairman of the conference, knows the level of expectation is high among other conference planners as well as industry professionals eager to network after more than a yearlong hiatus. Episode 316 of Lodging Leaders podcast features Hunter as he tells what it takes to re-launch the industry’s conference circuit amid the COVID-19 outbreak.