What to Know Now

Hilton announced a new hotel brand in the works this week called Canopy, a “brand built to cater to business and leisure travelers that care about design and make decisions based on value.”

Seems like that covers a lot of target markets, right? With Canopy, Hilton appears to building a lifestyle brand that targets the next generation of highly desirable “millennial” travelers — but also everyone else.

Whether they’re unfocused or full of empty brand positioning statements or chock full of the same stock photos as everyone else doesn’t matter, I suppose — what I’m looking forward to is a fresh take on the corporate hotel design for tomorrow’s traveler. Like Starwood’s Element hotels, the Canopy has great potential to cut much of today’s crap out of the hotel equation and add some efficient, clean thought into the process. When they launch in 2015 with 11 properties, I’ll be the first in line to try them out.

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Social Quote of the Day

Hilton announces new hotel brand, inexplicably named Canopy after private-label tableware sold at Walmart…

@joesentme | Joe Brancatelli, Business Travel Writer

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Airlines

Southwest Begins New Era with Long-Distance Flights from Love Field: When Southwest Airlines recently introduced a new paint job for its planes, a senior executive joked that at 43 years old and being from Dallas, it was time for the airline to get a face-lift. Read more at Skift

Family Cabins to Debut on Thomson Airways 737 MAX Aircraft: Thomson Airways — which helps define leisure travel in Europe — has thought outside the fuselage when planning its new cabin interiors for its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, bringing the coziness of travel by train to the skies. Read more at Skift

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Airports

The Oahu Airport No One Can Find Brings Complaint from Mokulele Airlines: An airline is complaining that passengers are getting lost and missing their flights because of a lack of road signs helping them find an out-of-the way Hawaii airport. Read more at Skift

Cape Town Airport to Start Producing Wine in Its Arrivals Hall: Cape Town International Airport, which handle more than 8 million passengers a year, is to start producing wine in its international arrivals hall, Business Day reported. Read more at Skift

Airlines, Airports and Cabin Crews Responding to Ebola Crisis: Airlines are adjusting to a reality of the Ebola era: Crews are holding planes on the tarmac to ensure that a traveler’s inflight illness isn’t due to the deadly virus. Read more at Skift

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Tech

NYC Subways to Expand Wireless Services to 40 More Stations: New York City subway riders will get access to wireless service in 40 more underground stations in midtown Manhattan and Queens under a plan the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will announce this week. Read more at Skift

U.S. Flight Attendants Sue FAA to Regain Control of Mobile Devices: In case you haven’t noticed first-hand, American flight attendants are fuming over the fact that they no longer control your in-flight cell phone use. So they’re suing the US Federal Aviation Administration over its relaxing of rules last year about the use of phones, tablets, and other electronics during takeoff and landing. Read more at Skift

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Hotels

Renaissance Hotels Turns to Celebrities for New Content Campaign: A new photography book called The Art of Discovery, sponsored by Renaissance Hotels and produced by The Creative Coalition, launches today at Renaissance properties worldwide. Read more at Skift

Virgin Hotels Video Teases Travelers with Guest Experience Promises: After much talk and delay, the first Virgin Hotels property is set to open in Chicago in January 2015 and the brand is teasing future guests with promises of a tech-centric, design-savvy hotel experience. Read more at Skift

The 20 Most Sought-After Luxury Hotel Brands Worldwide: The global appetite for a luxury hotel experience and its subsequent price tag is growing, according to research from the Digital Luxury Group and Samad Laaroussi, the chair of luxury hospitality at Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. Read more at Skift

Hilton Gets Into the Lifestyle Hotel Game With Its New Canopy Brand: Hilton Worldwide CEO Christoper Nassetta today announced the launch of a new lifestyle brand Canopy at Hilton Worldwide’s Global Partnership Conference in Orlando, Florida. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

For those of you stuck commuting between non-exciting locales for work, may we suggest looking at the new Humanity iPad magazine app by Kerrin Sheldon? Each issue focuses on one destination, with the inaugural one all about Skift favorite Iceland. More details here.

Tips and Comments

Can be sent to [email protected] and @grantkmartin. We publish the Business Newsletter twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

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Photo credit: Rendering of an atrium in a Canopy property. Hilton Worldwide

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