Travel Industry Archive

Although there were several reports of real estate investment trusts, or REITs, being crushed by Wall Street on Monday, the carnage hasn’t stopped California-based Sunstone Hotel Investors or Apple REIT Cos. from expanding their hotel holdings. Apple, based in Richmond, Va., bought three hotels in Charlotte, Valencia, Calif. and Allen, Texas for $41 million, or the equivalent of...

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The tidal wave from the implosion of insurance giant American International Group is spreading far beyond Wall Street. Carnival Corp., the largest cruise ship operator in the world, with a portfolio of cruise brands that includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess and Cunard Line, reported in its third-quarter 10-Q filed with the SEC on Friday that AIG is the payment intermediary for some of its...

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I’ve had a few people ask me why I didn’t write anything about the fact that Delta and Northwest had voted to approve their merger. Should be big news, right? Sort of, but the really big news will come when the Department of Justice approves the deal. Yes, last week, more than 98% of Northwest shares and 99% of Delta shares were voted in favor of the deal. That overwhelming...

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Travelocity announced today it will launch another Spanish-language site, primarily aimed at Chile, Colombia and Peru. The online travel company already has outposts in Mexico and Argentina. In these tough economic times, expanding into South America seems like a good idea, if you look at the number of companies (and even countries!) making similar moves. IHG, JetBlue, Hilton and even...

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The Metrolink crash earlier this month has already highlighted the high cost of employee error. Via ManageSmarter, I see that an IDC report from June actually put a dollar amount on the risk that companies face from unprepared or uneducated employees. The report suggests that on an overall basis, U.S. and U.K. workers are costing their employers $37 billion a year because they...

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The Delta and US Airways Shuttles are odd animals. Each airline operates hourly between New York/La Guardia and both Boston and Washington/National and they have special perks you won’t find anywhere else. Up until now, Delta ran an all-coach configuration on the sub-one hour flights, but that’s about to change. I’m guessing this was strictly an operational decision. Right...

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At a time when profits are falling and other hotels are abandoning expansion plans until a rosier economy,  InterContinental Hotel Group, the London-based owner of Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, continues its global expansion. Today the company announced an alliance with a group of Florida-based resorts to create a new timeshare brand — its first foray into the timeshare market,...

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This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but it isn’t exactly pleasant to think about. The credit crunch / financial crisis / whatever you want to call it is not going to magically disappear anytime soon, and that spells bad news for the airlines. They’re already seeing premium cabin weakness internationally as the economy softens, and now the financial crisis is only going to...

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Las Vegas is rapidly losing its “recession-proof” luster, but the city is still prudish when it comes to a mixing two of its  vices: stripping and gambling. However, one enterprising hotel has hit upon a way to combine the two, without breaking any of the moral and business codes that govern the place. Caesar’s Palace, Mandalay Bay, the Mirage, the Venetian and the Wynn...

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A judge ruled that Expedia must now pay the full hotel taxes for hotel rooms booked in Columbus, Ohio, putting it on the hook for more than $70,000 and potentially establishing an unwanted precedent for other online travel companies. The city government filed a complaint against Expedia in May 2006, claiming Columbus was being shortchanged on hotel tax collections, for which the city gets...

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