Market Trends

🍴 Award-winning chef Sean Brock opened Joyland's first location in Nashville in 2020; the second opened in Birmingham, Ala. in mid-August. The fast-casual restaurant serves biscuits, burgers, fried chicken, and features a popular Crustburger. The Birmingham location seats 84 inside and 49 on the patio. The menu includes items like breakfast burritos, biscuit sandwiches, and seasonal hand pies. Organic chicken is sourced from Springer Mountain Farm in Georgia, and Bear Creek Farm in Tennessee provides a proprietary beef blend. Joyland is in partnership with Nick Pihakis of Pihakis Restaurant Group and Southall Farm & Inn founder Paul Mishkin. More Joyland locations are expected to open in the South in the coming months.

🏨 YOTEL to open new hotel in Belfast's historic Shaftesbury Square by late 2026, their 35th signed hotel, expanding key count to ~8,000. Partnering with Andras Hotels, YOTEL Belfast offers 165 rooms featuring space-saving design and smart technology. The £17 million investment will create jobs and boost tourism, with a planning process initiated and development starting in 2025. The brand, with 23 global properties, plans to expand in Ireland, U.K., Tokyo, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur.

👨 Bashar Wali, CEO of Practice Hospitality, has stayed at 249 New York City hotels and numerous others globally, never repeating a stay to better understand the guest experience. He critiques the hotel industry's reliance on shock and awe tactics, emphasizing the importance of meaningful gestures and emotional connections over points-based loyalty programs. He highlights a personal experience at W Hotel Bangkok, where personalized teddy bears created a memorable moment. Wali encourages the hospitality industry to shift from transactional service to creating memorable, emotionally resonant experiences, comparing hotels to theater where the staff's performance is key to leaving a lasting impression on guests.

🏖 Playa Hotels & Resorts opens reservations for the 355-room Kimpton Tres Rios, the first all-inclusive resort by Kimpton, part of IHG Hotels & Resorts, scheduled for early 2025 in Mexico's Riviera Maya. Spanning 326 acres with three ecosystems, the resort underwent a transformation since early 2023, featuring over 20 room categories, seven dining venues, five bars, four pools, a spa, wellness programs, and a kids' club. Kimpton's global presence includes over 75 hotels and 100+ dining venues.

🖤 REM, a furniture manufacturer for over a century, caters to the Salon, Beauty Spa, and now the Hotel and Hospitality sectors. They focus on high-quality, aesthetically pleasing, and durable furnishings like massage tables and Pedispas. Their Design Team prioritizes trends, sustainability, ergonomics, and materials. REM's environmentally-friendly product line, REM Earth, targets eco-conscious consumers. For custom-designed spa furniture that integrates comfort and ergonomics, REM collaborates with hospitality businesses. Contact at marketing@rem.co.uk or visit www.rem-earth.co.uk.

🏛 IHG Hotels & Resorts expanded in Spain with four new hotel signings: Vignette Collection Mallorca – Finca Banyols, Vignette Collection Jerez, Hotel Indigo Gandia – Beach, and Holiday Inn Express San Sebastian – Errenteria. These add to the existing 500 rooms, bringing the total to approximately 13,000 rooms across Spain. The Vignette Collection Mallorca and Jerez are set to open in the first and second half of 2025, respectively, while Hotel Indigo Gandia – Beach will also open in mid-2025. Holiday Inn Express San Sebastian – Errenteria is expected to begin welcoming guests in mid-2026. In the first nine months of the year, IHG signed around 700 rooms in Spain. Currently, IHG operates 55 hotels with 22 Iberostar properties open and 12 more planned, under eight different brands.

🍴 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, guides F&B trends reporting since joining in 1999. Hosts "In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn" podcast. Wrote for The New York Sun (2005-2008), and in Thailand for Manager magazine and Asia Times (1995-1997). Magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University (1990), studied at Le Cordon Bleu (1986), and reported for ABC News during the Tiananmen Square protests (1989). His column won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal Award. Inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier (2014). Contact: [email protected]; Social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (@foodwriterdiary), Instagram (@foodwriterdiary).

🏨 Paradise Resort Gold Coast achieved an average upsell per reservation of A$139 using Mews. Hostellerie Cèdre & Spa increased revenue by €14k+ in less than a month. Old Stocks Inn saw an 8% ADR increase within two months. Green Hotels attained an 18% direct booking conversion rate. The Julius, Prague, generated over €55k from parking in the first half of 2023. GuestHouse Hotels earns €9,000/month through upselling. All benefited from Mews Hospitality Cloud's automated solutions for rate management, upselling, secure payments, and direct bookings.

🏆 In the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics, mid-tier hotels overestimated demand, causing prices to drop from 530 euros to 274 euros. Short-term rentals doubled to nearly 170,000 units in Paris, impacting hotel pricing and increasing review volume by 90% from August 2023 to 2024. Despite high guest satisfaction, value for money was criticized in three- and four-star hotels due to inflated rates, and luxury hotels were admonished for hidden fees. Key takeaways for hoteliers include adopting a flexible, transparent pricing strategy and utilizing data-driven insights.

🔔 U.S. Leisure & Hospitality sector added 8 million jobs since April 2020, reaching 16.9 million employed by April 2024, yet travel industry unemployment remains at 6%. Over 1 million job openings were reported in Accommodation in May 2024, despite a 7% decline in accommodation employees since March 2019, contrasting a 16% increase in room revenue. Between 2019 and 2024, hotel industry employees decreased by 7%, hourly salary rose by 32% (from $17.98 to $23.76), and room revenue grew by 16% (from $167.9B to $195.5B).