Marriott’s Growing Pains and 10 Other Hospitality Trends This Week

Marriott Cites Growing Pains Following Data Breach, Labor Strikes: Being bigger, Marriott is discovering, may not always be better in the short term. But if the company can weather a massive cyberattack and some debilitating labor strikes, the future shouldn’t be nearly as challenging, executives hope.

IHG to Replicate Its Light-Touch Kimpton Approach With Six Senses: Let’s just hope, for everyone’s sake, IHG sticks to its word here and lets Six Senses be Six Senses.

Marriott’s New Marketing Campaign Aims to Make Bonvoy a Thing: We can just imagine what some befuddled viewers of the Oscars were thinking Sunday night, but here are a few guesses: Uhhh, what does Bonvoy mean? Bon Voy … age? Also, stop trying to make Bonvoy happen.

This Is What Hotel CEOs Really Think About Homesharing: While most still don’t think it’s necessarily for them, there are a few who are starting to be open to giving it a try.

New Hilton Brand Invests in Flexible Spaces: It makes sense for Hilton to fix its marquee brand by appealing to event planners with upscale lodging and interesting spaces. It will take some time to see how its commitment to pleasing planners really goes.

Caesars Looks to Mobile Tech to Raise the Hotel Guest Experience: Caesars had under-invested in the tech needed to support the hotel side of its business. Recently it has been playing catch up. Some of its experiments are innovative, such as mobile ordering for food at the lobby or by the pool.

How Luxury Hospitality Can Use Technology to Stay Human: Trends in travel are never mutually exclusive. We take a look at a new report out of Switzerland to examine how the biggest trends in hospitality overlap and how they impact the luxury sector.

How a Performance Artist Is Helping a D.C. Hotel Be a Hub of Culture: It’s not unusual for hotels to talk about how they curate local culture into the experience. But a new hotel in Washington, D.C. is not just talking the talk, but walking the walk with this job.

Making Meetings and Events Healthier Goes Beyond Tight Budgets: Reading between the lines, it seems many events are making modest tweaks to ensure attendees aren’t sitting in their chairs feeling miserable all day. You don’t need yoga and hikes to make an event slightly healthier.

Travel Megatrends 2019: Travel Loyalty Is Overdue for Disruption. Being a member in loyalty programs today is about as engaging as a trip to the auto mechanic. For most, complex rules and constraints take much of the utility out of the programs while other, more motivated travelers simply find them uninspiring. To survive, tomorrow’s loyalty programs will need much more than blockchain — they’ll need true disruption.

Travel Megatrends 2019: Labor Shortages Force a Wake-Up Call. From cockpits to guest rooms, the travel and tourism industry confronts a dire need in finding and training qualified job applicants to fill their needs. Training and rewarding workers in even the lowest-paying jobs is vital because they can make or break a brand or a trip.