The Most Important Story in Hotels in 2021
Photo Credit: Hotel companies moved away from counting on major corporate travel contracts to fill hotel rooms in 2021. Wikimedia / Daderot
Skift Take
Despite all the uncertainty in the hotel orbit, all the major hotel companies returned to profitability. Keeping a grip on the p-word is going to require major structural shifts.
Even the travel industry’s biggest skeptics must marvel at how major hotel companies this year went from a couple billion in the red to profitability in a matter of months.
All the major hotel conglomerates, from hard-hit Accor to Marriott, vaulted into profitability by the summer. It was a huge win and major change in the narrative for a sector that hit rock bottom the prior year.
But hotel companies recognized that to better prepare for the next catastrophe, they must find more durable revenue streams. This means a shift away from the kind of business traveler hotel companies typically compete for as well as an embrace of local customers.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta indicated the company was putting even more focus on so-called road warriors, business travelers who work for small- and medium-sized companies
