Market Trends

🏠 Trafalgar St. James, a 5-star lifestyle hotel in central London, reveals its luxury refurbishment's first stage with the new Rockwell Bistro & Wine Bar and a redesigned lobby. The £6m renovation includes six new suites set to be unveiled in February 2025, adding to the hotel’s current 131 rooms. Rockwell offers a day-to-night experience with specialty coffee, all-day deli-style dishes, and a curated wine list. Design LSM crafted the contemporary interiors. Federico Ciampi, London Cluster General Manager, anticipates the suites elevating the hotel's status.

Munich, 8th January 2025 – Bob W, the tech-powered hospitality operator, has today announced it has signed long-term lease agreements to convert two former hotels and an aparthotel in Munich into…

🏨 Understanding the five levels of economic value: commodity, Goods, Deliver, Experience, and Transformation, helps hoteliers enhance guest satisfaction and improve revenue. Applied to the hotel industry, these levels range from offering basic accommodations at competitive prices for budget travelers to providing transformative experiences for those seeking personal growth. With each level comes a different target audience, services offered, and pricing strategy. The model suggests hotels maximize revenue within their current level rather than attempting costly repositioning.

🏨 Key facts about starting a hotel business include planning, building guest loyalty, and staying competitive. The article lacks specific dates, locations, and statistical data, but was last updated on January 12, 2025. Written by Akanksha Mohapatra, it aims to guide entrepreneurs through the process of opening a hotel.

🎧 Listening bars, first emerging in Japan during the 1920s, have become a global trend. Kioku Bar in London's OWO hotel, designed by Pirajean Lees, offers a bespoke wood turntable for guests to play Japanese records. Bar Ton in Bucharest, created by Anda Zota and Muromuro Studio, merges historical architecture with modern design, featuring marble mosaic floors and a central DJ booth. In Sydney, the JAM Record Bar by Akin Atelier aims to mimic the interior of a pink speaker box and holds a library of 15,000 records. Brooklyn's Upstairs lounge, part of Public Records, is shaped for acoustic excellence. Goodbye Horses in London, by Leopold Banchini Architects, is crafted from a single oak tree, while Anima in Berlin is designed by Grzywinski+Pons with a focus on music lovers. Space Talk in London, by EBBA Architects and Charlotte Taylor, offers an eclectic interior with distinct sound and light zones.

📈 The US economy added 256,000 jobs in December, unemployment rate fell to 4.1%. Leisure and hospitality sector grew by 43,000 positions in December, with an average of 24,000 jobs added monthly in 2024, versus 47,000 in 2023. Eating and drinking places added 29,800 jobs in December, up from 23,200 in November. Overall, 172,500 net new jobs were created in 2024 at these establishments, down from 309,000 in 2023. The industry is now 1.4% above its February 2020 peak. Full-service remains 4% lower, while quick-service and fast-casual are 4% higher, and snack/beverage concepts 17% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Twenty-four states and DC have fewer jobs than in November 2019, while 26 states are above pre-pandemic employment. Average hourly earnings' growth slowed, with year-over-year wage growth at 3.8%, the lowest since May 2021.

📖 Saladplate, part of Informa Markets, serves as the official content and engagement hub for the Hospitality, Food and Beverage industries, offering weekly news updates, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. It provides exclusive insights into over 10,000 brands and companies, alongside updates from over 35 international trade events.

💪 Since 2020, health & wellness has been the leading mega-trend, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted focus to immunity and mental wellness. Continuous tracking of this trend is crucial for addressing consumer behavior and demands.

🥃 Indian whiskeys, often called "rum whiskeys," are blended malts made with molasses and can mature within a year due to India's hot weather, contrasting with Scotch and Irish whiskeys' three-year maturation. This rapid aging process and the common practice of selling Indian brands with low-age or no-age statements have impacted their reputation among whiskey enthusiasts.

🍜 Since 2018, plant-based dairy and meat alternatives have gained traction in the Asia-Pacific region. The global meat supply chain disruptions and increased concerns of disease transmission via meat during COVID-19 in 2020 further accelerated this growth, leading to more consumers trying plant-based meat alternatives.