Sean O'Neill

Imagine converting a roadside billboard that you paste up once a season to an electronic screen with real-time pricing and images. That's how to think about Google's upgraded search ads.

The U.S. vacation and short-term rental market has seen its supply growth rate drop in half over two years. It's like watching a sprinter decide to take up power walking.

In an interview, Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta spoke about sticking to Hilton's "core competencies" with traditional lodging and not expanding into cruises and vacation rentals like rivals have.

Hyatt's growth strategy seems to boil down to this: build more roadside hotels, not just urban luxury complexes, in places where travelers need to be for practical reasons, without trying too hard to be hip.

Lower interest rates could jumpstart transactions and development next year, but the industry isn't out of the woods yet.

The most intriguing of Premier Inn's plans is to replace many of Whitbread's restaurants with mini-hotels. While this tactic is only a small part of the brand's overall growth plan, it highlights how hotels are outperforming restaurants.

It's true that giant hotel groups like Marriott and Hilton loom large. But independent hotel brands aren't going down without a fight.

The labor movement has organized most of its strikes this year as localized, short-duration walkouts.

An uncomfortable truth is emerging in the aftermath of two hurricanes making devastating sweeps through Florida. Natural disasters can be good for business at regional hotels that escape damage.

Unlike its publicly traded competitors, BWH Group doesn't have to appease shareholders with quarterly growth reports and ever-expanding room counts.