Cameron Sperance

Yes, it’s easy to scoff at Accor launching yet another brand. But inking deals with independent luxury hotel owners requires a collection the Paris-based hotel company didn’t readily have in its line-up of more than 40 brands.

Folks in small cities still have money to spend on trendy bars and restaurants. There’s a new playbook for high-end, lifestyle hotels that doesn’t require a massive, global city to usher in success.

Providing younger travelers with more flexibility makes the timeshare sector more appealing to millennials with disposable income. And that makes properties in the sector more attractive for M&A.

Hilton is a winner in the Trump D.C. hotel sale while China's hotel development pipeline isn't suffering like the country's occupancy rates amid new coronavirus mitigation efforts.

Fourth time’s a charm? Sara Nelson is the latest union leader to attempt to organize flight attendants at Delta Air Lines, which has a mostly non-union workforce. If it’s going to ever happen, the pandemic will be the catalyst to give Nelson a victory.

Profitability remains elusive for Soho House parent Membership Collective Group. Raising prices will help the company eventually change this, but company leaders must be careful about not scaring off people who could begin to think membership no longer holds its value.

Some sort of marriage, whether an outright acquisition or more of a loyalty alliance, is necessary to give Accor stronger footing in the U.S. But the pandemic didn't provide any opportunity to capitalize on takeover bargains.

Even though the hotel industries in the U.S. and Europe have outperformed China in recent weeks, developers in these stronger markets should consider how their projects will be impacted by China’s closed borders remaining walled off.

Accor’s lifestyle hotels are more than a chic place to grab a drink or a bite to eat in your local neighborhood. They can be cash cows relative to some of their more mainstream sibling brands like Novotel.

Next year is the first major test of whether a new brand line-up and self-review is enough to roar IHG back to an era of pre-pandemic expansion levels.