Articles tagged “hilton”

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.

Building better roads and airports across the U.S. will help build hotel profits, but not everyone will see an infrastructure windfall. This is largely a boost to brands like Choice and Wyndham — already profitable and not facing the uncertain recovery hurdles that some competitors face with business travel.

The branded-is-better argument between major hotel companies and smaller, boutique brands heated up during the pandemic. If a hip brand like Virgin Hotels sees some merit in at least an occasional branded partnership, the global giants clearly have a winning argument at the negotiating table.

Nobody is anticipating any major financial windfall news from Marriott this week, but shareholders still want to hear where future growth is coming from during an investor update. All-inclusive resorts and home rentals, relatively new divisions of the company, will certainly be on the list.

In Skift's top travel stories this week, Expedia agreed to sell Egencia to American Express Global Business Travel, IHG is shedding subpar properties, travel needs to push for vaccine equity, and India's travel industry and people are suffering.

If Hilton sees reason to be optimistic around a faster-than-expected travel recovery, that’s a major boost to all hotel companies, especially ones with less exposure to convention and business-transient customers.

Hotel companies with a strong focus on leisure and drive-to properties are going to show the strongest development numbers this cycle, but don't expect a massive downturn in construction from even the more business-oriented brands. Real estate is a long-term play.

Just because the risk is low for surface spread of coronavirus doesn’t mean hotels are going to back away from door seals and hourly lobby cleanings. There’s still a psychological and confidence factor at play in bringing back more travelers.

Major travel companies like Hilton Grand Vacations are pumping millions, if not billions, of dollars into the idea travelers favor the familiarity of a brand. If it pays off, the vacuum of boutique offerings will be the next travel investment opportunity.