Regulatory and Legal Affairs

💲 In Texas, U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan struck down the Department of Labor's final overtime pay rule, which would have raised the threshold incrementally to $58,656 by 2025. The rule, which went into effect on July 1, raised the yearly threshold to $44,000, impacting nearly 4 million salaried U.S. workers. However, this will now revert to the pre-pandemic level of $35,568. The Restaurant Law Center and Texas Restaurant Association's lawsuit led to this ruling, which the hospitality industry largely supports.

💰 The UK Government is introducing legislation to reform business rates, beginning its delivery as promised in the Labour manifesto. Funded by a tax increase on the top one percent of high-value properties, the bill aims to permanently cut rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses from 2026. Last month, business rates support was extended for a year, but reduced from 75% to 40%, capped at £110,000. This will lead to an average 140% increase in rates for over 250,000 premises; restaurants' bills will rise from £5,051 to £12,122, and pubs from £3,938 to £9,451.

📍 According to the report by FREENOW and GBTA, 85% of travel programmes have risk policies for business travel, yet only 55% frequently address ground transport risks. Regular safety trainings are conducted by 62% of programs, with 56% covering ground transport. Although 89% have traveler tracking systems, only 24% can consistently locate employees using ground transport. Half of the travel managers view taxis as the safest ground transport; vehicle safety checks and professional licenses are vital for 93% and 91% respectively. Business relationships with transport vendors exist for most companies in Germany, UK, Spain, and Ireland, enhancing operational efficiency.

📌 HOTREC reports that Booking.com is legally required to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) as of today but has not met compliance or communicated necessary changes by the deadline. Booking.com's market share exceeds 70%, but changes to parity clauses and data access are considered cosmetic or unaddressed, such as the pre-payment option and website interface concerns. HOTREC's Director General, Marie Audren, urges the European Commission to investigate Booking.com for non-compliance.

🏖 A survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Morning Consult reveals 52% of Americans plan to travel overnight for leisure in the next four months, with hotels preferred by 45% for leisure and 59% for business. High-speed Wi-Fi is the top hotel technology priority. About 32% will travel for Thanksgiving, and 34% for Christmas. Sustainability is important to 66% of travelers. Inflation could reduce hotel stays for 56% of respondents. The survey included 2,201 American adults and was conducted from September 30 to October 2.

📡 In the travel industry, digital regulation is intensifying. Europe launched the "EU Data Package" with five legislative pieces: Data Governance Act, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Data Act, and Artificial Intelligence Act, within the last five years. Similar laws have emerged in the U.S. and China, affecting data privacy, consumer protection, competition, AI, marketplace platforms, and taxation.

🛡 Gwen Mills, president of Unite Here, a labor union with approximately 275,000 members in the US and Canada, discusses the ongoing hotel worker strikes for improved wages, workloads, and staffing, which were cut during the COVID era. Unionized workers are striking in cities with high living costs, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, Boston, and Baltimore. The hospitality industry has recovered from the pandemic, with hotel owners making record profits, yet workers' wages have not kept pace. Mills emphasizes the need for respect and asserts that one job should be enough to live on. The strikes aim to address the gap between soaring room rates, which hit record highs with $100 billion in gross operating profits in 2022, and the quality of service and labor treatment. The conversation touches on the challenges faced by housekeepers, bellmen affected by operational changes, and the broader economic factors influencing wage demands. Unions are calling for re-investment in the workforce to maintain high hospitality standards amidst changing hotel ownership dynamics, where detached investors focus on bottom-line profits.

🏠 Alexandros Vassilikos was unanimously re-elected as President of HOTREC in Warsaw. Morten Thorvaldsen (Norway) became Vice-President, Adrian Cummins (Ireland) Treasurer, and Sami Nisametdin (Finland) Chair of SSD. European hospitality leaders discussed EU priorities, sustainability, digital trends, and policies impacting the industry. HOTREC's next General Assembly will be in April 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark. For media, contact Jasper Dober at [email protected]