This week in Hospitality & Tourism #38 2023

Young hackers are sticking up Las Vegas casinos for hefty ransoms

Both MGM and Caesar's Entertainment were hacked by a group named “Scattered Spider” in recent weeks. Caesar's rumored to have paid $15 million USD in ransom.

Lodging Econometrics's latest forecast for the Americas' new hotel openings

Current hotel construction pipeline stands at 6,399 projects/785,897 rooms. LE is forecasting 718, 831, and 969 hotels for 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively. Majority of the projects in the pipeline are Upscale and Upper Midscale chain scale hotels.

Wyndham launches new owner, guest engagement platforms

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has launched new platforms for owner and guest engagement to enhance the hotel ownership experience for its franchisees worldwide.

The platform provides enhanced customer service in four key areas:

• AI-driven property messaging.
• Smart check-in.
• Dynamic upsell.
• Smart checkout.

STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 16 September

U.S. hotel performance increased from the previous week, according to CoStar’s latest data through 16 September.

• Among the Top 25 Markets, Oahu Island saw the largest year-over-year occupancy increase (+7.4% to 83.6%).
• Helped by Dreamforce 2023, San Francisco posted the highest jumps in ADR (+39.7% to US$345.78) and RevPAR (+33.9% to US$271.19).
• New Orleans saw the steepest RevPAR decline (-23.8% to US$69.01).

10-16 September 2023 (percentage change from comparable weeks in 2022, 2019):

• Occupancy: 67.7% (-2.2%, -4.8%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$161.15 (+2.3%, +18.6%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$109.07 (+0.1%, +12.8%)