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CORONAVIRUS
April 27, 2020267 | Comeback Opportunity: LodgingStream digital conference looks toward a post-COVID-19 future
This episode features sound bites from previous podcast reports covering the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the hospitality industry. The voices belong to Lily Mockerman, Dave Shah, Darshan Patel, Andressa Chapman, Jamie Lane and Ron Mitchell. They have all been featured in our special news project that’s focused on the crisis. So far, we’ve read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 22, 2020266 | Return Policies: Hotel industry works out rehiring plans
As the recognized COVID-19 infection rate began to gain strength in the U.S. in mid-March, lodging industry analysts said they expected at least half of the nation’s 4 million hotel employees would be laid off. It’s a startling number when you consider that six weeks ago, most hospitality jobs were firmly intact. In fact, in read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 15, 2020265 | Franchising In Deconstruction: COVID-19 crisis amplifies problems in brand licensing
Earlier this year, a large group of hotel owners began to organize and create a comprehensive push back at the hotel franchising model. Fair Franchising Initiative held its launch conference on March 5, a little more than a week before President Trump declared a national emergency as the new coronavirus pandemic spread to the U.S. read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 10, 2020264 | Seeking Signs of Relief: Hoteliers wade through financial aid programs and proposals
As the recognized COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. and the nation’s subsequent shutdown approaches its fifth week, hotels and other small businesses are seeing some relief ahead. Federal financial aid is coming in the form of loans and grants from the Small Business Administration. In the past week, hundreds of thousands hotel owners have filed read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 8, 2020263 | Risk Adjustment: Hotel tech platforms face their own COVID-19 crisis
Last week, Zoom, a video-conferencing program, was prime bait for hackers who infiltrated conversations taking place among people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. As if Zoom bombers weren’t bad enough, a day or two later, the internet-based program crashed because it could not handle the surge of users from businesses, schools and friends read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 3, 2020262 | Strongest Link: Hotel procurement specialists keep supply chain connected
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain. With most whole goods and components coming from China, the U.S. hospitality industry began to scramble in January to keep the supplies coming. Manufacturing has resumed in China as the crisis has reportedly eased there, but the outbreak has yet to reach its peak in the read more
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CORONAVIRUS
April 1, 2020261 | Let’s Make a Deal: Coronavirus crisis alters hotel transaction landscape
The U.S. hotel industry has practically grinded to a halt in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. As Lodging Leaders shared in our previous report, Episode 260, hotel business performance has declined to unprecedented levels. Another area of the industry that the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting is hotel transactions. Properties remain on the market, but read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 30, 2020260 | Startling Statistics: Industry analysts stunned at depth of downturn
Last week, several hospitality-focused analytical companies released data that specifically show how the coronavirus pandemic is decimating the U.S. hotel industry. The picture they paint is grim. And – though experts say they believe the industry will eventually resurge – the months ahead will be hard. In this report we review reports from STR, CBRE read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 27, 2020259 | Trust Factor: Hotels can channel the right message during the coronavirus crisis
While many of the country’s 57,000 hotels have closed during the coronavirus pandemic, owners and operators are spending limited resources and a whole lot of time on retooling their property systems and deep cleaning rooms and public areas. They want to be ready when the nation starts traveling again. And that’s a message that needs read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 25, 2020258 | Cash in a Crisis: SBA launches COVID-19 loan program, but experts urge caution
Dave Shah grew up in his family’s hotel and watched his parents and other hoteliers struggle to stay in business during the Great Recession. He thinks the economic situation for hoteliers during the COVID-19 crisis is growing worse than that time. Shah founded Pineapple Capital Group five years ago to help hotels and other small read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 23, 2020257 | Hotels Become Hospitals: Government takeover of lodging leaves big questions for owners
As hotels in the U.S. are forced to dramatically scale back operations or close altogether because of the new coronavirus pandemic, government officials are looking to use the empty rooms to fight the spread of the virus or help patients recover. Meantime, hotel operators are taking a fresh look at cleaning procedures to assure guests read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 20, 2020256 | What’s a Hotelier To Do? AAHOA’s Cecil Staton on the industry’s ‘dark times’
Cecil Staton has had his hands full to say the least. He has been at the helm of AAHOA, the world’s largest hotel owners association, for just four months. The new coronavirus outbreak and its devastating effect on the travel industry has hotel owners turning to him for solutions. This is the third installment of read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 18, 2020255 | Workforce Woes: Hotels try to avoid layoffs
Seemingly overnight, the new coronavirus pandemic has dramatically curbed travel in the U.S. Hotels are feeling the pain as occupancies dropped to historic lows, in some cases down by 80 percent. The American Hotel and Lodging Association on Monday reported major hotel managers said they’ve laid off or furloughed one million employees. Long Live Lodging read more
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CORONAVIRUS
March 16, 2020254 | High Cancellations and Low Demand: Hotel pricing in a steep downturn
The U.S. hotel industry is undergoing an unprecedented experience as the new coronavirus or COVID-19 grows more and more real every day. Long Live Lodging and its Lodging Leaders podcast has decided to put a temporary hold on its usual programing from one report a week and move to providing updates throughout the week with read more
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FRANCHISING
March 11, 2020253 | Franchising Report Part 1 – Power Struggle: New hotelier organization lobbies for franchisee protection
Fair franchising. It’s a phrase that’s been used countless times in negotiations with brands, at industry conferences and among associations formed to ensure a balance of power between franchisers and franchisees. As the hotel industry in the U.S. celebrates nearly a decade of growth, leaner times are ahead, say forecasters. Owner operators are cutting as read more
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BHARAT SHAH LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES
March 4, 2020252 | The BulletInn #2: Coronavirus and group business; Sara Blakely of Spanx at Hunter conference; and short-term rental’s surprising shift
Welcome to the second edition of BulletInn, a news report of Long Live Lodging and its Lodging Leaders podcast. In this episode, we cover three topics: The spread of the new coronavirus and its impact on travel and the legalities around cancelling group meetings in the U.S. Surprises in a report by CBRE Americas Hotels read more