Market Trends

🏠 Bedruthan Hotel & Spa offers a unique stay overlooking Mawgan Porth beach, with rooms equipped with Hypnos beds ensuring a restful sleep. Hypnos, with over 120 years of experience, caters to diverse hospitality needs and has partnered with Bedruthan to enhance guest comfort. The hotel features adaptable guestrooms with beds and sofa beds. Hypnos will showcase at the Independent Hotel Show, Olympia, on 15-16 October, and at HIX, Business Design Centre, on 27-28 November.

🍸 Non-alcoholic spirits are increasingly prevalent on menus, rising by 487% over four years to feature on 2.8% of U.S. menus. Younger consumers often opt for these beverages to socialize without alcohol. Brands like Seedlip offer booze-less options that rival traditional spirits in complexity. The shift in perception from "mocktails" to standalone menu items caters to both drinkers and non-drinkers.

🏖️ Driftwood Capital's latest fund, Driftwood Florida Space Coast Portfolio, LP, has amassed $330 million, targeting hotel assets on Florida's Space Coast. The fund’s portfolio will control 11% of the region's guestrooms and 62% of beachfront hotel inventory with the opening of Westin Cocoa Beach resort. Their presence since 2013 has helped catalyze the area's growth. The portfolio includes Westin Cocoa Beach Resort (502 guestrooms), Hilton Cocoa Beach (295 guestrooms), Element by Westin Melbourne (130 guestrooms), and Crowne Plaza Melbourne (290 guestrooms), totaling over 1,200 rooms. Space Coast is witnessing increased demand, with 111 rocket launches anticipated this year, up from 72 last year, and a projection of more than 300 launches by 2028. Driftwood's development pipeline is valued at around $500 million, with projects under construction or breaking ground in 2023.

📈 Saladplate, Informa Markets' hospitality, food, and beverage hub, offers weekly news, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. It features a supplier directory with over 10,000 brands and updates on more than 35 international trade events.

🍽 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality since 1999, hosts the podcast "In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn." He covered New York City's restaurant scene for The New York Sun from 2005-2008. In Thailand during 1992-1997, he contributed to Manager magazine and Asia Times. A Tufts University magna cum laude graduate and Phi Beta Kappa member, Thorn studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and in China at Nanjing and Beijing Universities, witnessing the 1989 Tiananmen Square events as an ABC News runner. His work earned the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award and he was president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council in 2005. Thorn was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014 and has written for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.

🏢 UBS sold its 23-story, 920,000-square-foot office building at 135 West 50th Street in New York for a mere $8.5 million, a steep discount from its $332 million acquisition in 2006. The sale reflects a 97% value erosion, despite a $76-million renovation. The building is 35% occupied with design issues like low ceilings and awkwardly placed columns. UBS turned a profit selling the ground for $285 million in 2019 after buying it for $279 million in 2012. The ground lease expires in 2123 with 99 years of rent remaining.

🏡 Dezeen magazine showcases a selection of luxurious members' clubs from around the world. Highlighting venues such as Soho House São Paulo – the first South American Soho House in São Paulo's Italianate early 20th-century Cidade Matarazzo; George in London's Mayfair with its bronze dachshund and art-deco style bar; Annabel's in Mayfair with its "fantasy" ambiance, pink onyx basins, and one of London's first nightclubs; House of Koko, also in London, offering a "timeless" members' club with retro train carriage vinyl rooms; Soho House Mumbai in India, adorned with regional materials and textiles; Allbright London, a women-only club in Mayfair with art by female creatives; Làlia in Palma, Mallorca, with a jewel-toned palette inspired by local architecture; and Chief Los Angeles in the USA, a club for influential women in business set within a 1940s puppet theatre with interiors designed by AvroKO.

🏨 U.S. third-party hotel management companies outperform chain-managed and independent hotels in guest satisfaction, with a score of 683/1000, an 8-point increase YOY. Guests experience better value despite higher room rates, with value scores rising 6 points. Notably, Davidson Hospitality Group leads with a satisfaction score of 735, followed by HEI Hotels & Resorts (705) and White Lodging (704). The 2024 J.D. Power study is based on 4,907 guest responses and covers over 14,000 branded hotel rooms.

📌 Travelers now visit 277 web pages before booking a vacation, a significant increase from 38 in 2013. The booking process takes on average 303 minutes, or over 5 hours, often involving a return to online travel agencies (OTAs) after checking other sites. Early planning averages 2.5 pages per day, increasing to 25 pages on the purchase day. Despite efforts to simplify, the complexity underlines the growing importance of travel advisors.

🏠 The Barcelona School of Arts & Design (LABASAD) launched a 12-month online master program in interior design and hospitality, led by Italian architect Chiara Luzzatto. Classes are capped at 25 students, taught in English, and cover 13 courses in five modules, including 3D practices and project-based learning. The program is designed for industry professionals, designers, and enthusiasts, and it aims to equip students with comprehensive design skills for the professional world. Classes are held weekly and can be recorded for flexible learning.