Cameron Sperance

Blackstone and Starwood Capital blinked, bowing to critics on what they deemed a lowball offer for Extended Stay America.

Increasing the allotments to international worker visa programs like H-2B and J-1 will barely help the hotel labor shortage crisis in vacation markets. Longer-term solutions, like marketing hotel careers early to students, need to be implemented to achieve any real change.

Huazhu's massive one-month jump in revenue should be a giant jolt of optimism for hotel owners in struggling markets. People really do want to travel and book hotel stays once they get the all-clear on health and safety.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association and Unite Here can't do the silent treatment and wish away the dissent of one of the labor union's largest chapters. A disunited front — along with a strong summer travel season — gives Congress an easy way to reject the $20 billion pitch for targeted hotels relief.

Acore's $200 million investment in Graduate Hotels would be a rare transaction in a hotel investment market where owners and potential buyers can't see eye-to-eye on valuations.

Lifestyle hotels come in many forms, with some focused more on the hip and trendy while, others like Hilton see it as an opportunity to scale up more experiential and food-focused properties around the world. Long story short: we still don't have a textbook definition for what a lifestyle hotel actually is.

The relative stability found in the U.S. will help companies in the online travel agency and vacation rental orbit fuel growth for the next few years — but don’t completely write off Asia and Europe. Most major hotel companies see those regions as the way to continue adding thousands of hotels to their portfolios.

It's a question of when, not if, business travel returns for Barry Diller. Booking data from the likes of Marriott and Alaska Airlines back his claim.

Travel companies increasingly looked to go public via SPACs this year, but the exuberance might be short-lived as a slowdown is likely in the U.S. Regulators are already looking into the explosion of activity.

Vacation rental companies want to mimic hotel companies with brand standards around cleaning and other operations, but they're also facing similar problems as hotels when it comes to labor.