Moneyball for Hotels, Penn Station’s Overhaul and Huge Labor Day Air Travel
Photo Credit: An advertisement for Vrbo at Penn Station's Moynihan Train Hall in New York City. Skift
Skift Take
Today's podcast looks at a different approach to managing hotels, a rebuild of the U.S. key rail center, and prospects of a record travel weekend.
Skift Daily Briefing Podcast
Listen to the day’s top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday.Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Michelle Russo has built HotelAVE into a 12 billion dollar hotel asset management firm by crunching hotel performance data to identify gaps between what properties should earn and what they actually generate.
Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill writes that HotelAVE has found millions in additional profit at properties by questioning conventional wisdom about everything from housekeeping schedules to room pricing strategies.
At the typical full-service hotel, improvements can include basic changes like implementing amenity fees, along with more complex revenue management strategies around room type pricing, distribution channels, and market segmentation.
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The firm has also developed its own software to manage data from the systems used by multiple hotel management companies.
Next, officials from the Trump administration have announced that a multi-billion-dollar renovation of New York’s Penn Station will start by the end of 2027, writes Airlines Reporter Meghna Maharishi.
The administration, which took control of the project this spring, is partnering with Amtrak to renovate the station. Amtrak executive Andy Byford, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said he was open to moving Madison Square Garden for the renovations.
Amtrak also debuted its new Acela trains, which are the fastest trains in the U.S., operating at around 160 miles per hour.
Finally, U.S. airlines are getting ready to cap their busiest summer in 15 years with large numbers of flyers this Labor Day weekend, reports Associate Editor Rashaad Jorden.
TSA said it expects to screen nearly 17.4 million people between Thursday and September 3, a slight increase from last year. United Airlines and American Airlines anticipate setting Labor Day holiday records. The FAA estimates more than 5 million flights have taken off since Memorial Day weekend.
