Sean O'Neill

Young travelers are flocking to cruise ships, and Royal Caribbean is cashing in by creating private ports and islands as new attractions.

For Hyatt, which has been aggressively expanding in this segment, the joint venture will boost its all-inclusive room count by about 30%.

The real test will be whether Wyndham can scale this extended-stay hotel concept beyond a handful of trophy locations while maintaining the upscale positioning needed to justify premium rates.

Despite advance skepticism, the Paris Olympics provided a sugar rush for Accor's hotels. But the company may need more than Olympic-sized live tourism events to sustain its ambitions for rapid growth worldwide.

Hilton had painted a more subdued picture of leisure demand. Wyndham's results show the benefits of having a heavy mix of hotels and resorts in the economy and midscale segments.

New York City has tightened the rules for hotel operations. After having supported a campaign to rein in short-term rentals, the city's hotel sector has now gotten a taste of greater regulation of itself.

This summer, Hilton opened more hotels than they've ever opened in a three-month period. When you subtract the hotels they lost, it grew its hotel count by 7.8%, also a record.

Choice Hotels is betting big on extended-stay hotels but is doing so methodically.

Hilton said its revenue growth won't quite reach forecasted heights this year because demand is softening (not cratering). The news arrived like room service: slightly delayed and not quite what was hoped for.

IHG posted its strongest quarter of hotel openings in recent years, as the hotel giant accelerates its global expansion plans.