Hotel Deal Challenges, Flight Cancellations and Oyo’s Couples Ban

Skift Daily Briefing Podcast

Listen to the day’s top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, January 7. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The U.S. hotel transaction market is currently hot for luxury properties. But that’s not the case for mid-size properties, reports Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill.

Dan Peek, an executive at hotel brokerage firm JLL, said hotels worth below $50 million and over $250 million are finding buyers. However, O’Neill writes the heart of the hotel transaction market — full-service hotels worth between $50 million and $250 million — is essentially frozen. 

Peek said one reason the market has dried up for mid-size hotels is that they often need significant capital expenditures, noting that construction and renovation costs have jumped substantially since 2019. O’Neill notes 2025 may not bring a deal-making frenzy, with buyers uncertain they want to pay the 2019 prices many owners want to sell for. 

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Next, airlines canceled more than 1,400 flights in the U.S. on Monday due to a major winter storm hitting the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, writes Airlines Reporter Meghna Maharishi. 

Maharishi notes more than half of the flights scheduled to depart from  Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport were canceled, the most among any U.S. airport. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines had the most cancellations among airlines on Monday morning. 

Southwest said it was giving travelers the option to rebook their flights within 14 days of their original travel date. Meanwhile, American said it would allow customers to rebook flights with no change fees. 

Finally, Indian budget hotel-room operator Oyo will no longer permit unmarried couples to stay in Meerut, a city roughly 50 miles from Delhi. Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia reports that the move could spread to other cities in India.

Bhutia writes local hotel owners wanted the discretion to deny access to unmarried couples, which Oyo had not previously allowed. 

However, one travel executive said while hotels must ask guests to display IDs, there’s no legal basis for denying rooms to unmarried couples. Oyo, which has often been known for budget stays for young couples, operates 16 hotels in Meerut, according to its website.