Third-party hotel management companies Benchmark Global Hospitality and Pyramid Hotel Group announced they are merging to create Benchmark Pyramid.

Blackstone Inc. has reached an agreement to sell the Cosmopolitan casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for $5.65 billion, telling investors that the sale is the company’s most profitable of a single asset ever. The deal separates ownership of the property from the hotel and casino operations, which are being sold to MGM Resorts International for about $1.6 billion. Blackstone acquired the two-tower property for about $1.8 billion seven years ago and spent an additional $500 million on upgrades.

As the summer leisure travel surge subsided, the U.S. hotel industry reported August occupancy at 63.2 percent, down 11.3 percent from August 2019. Average daily rate reached $137.57, up 3.7 percent from August 2019. Revenue per available room was $86.88, down 8.1 percent from August 2019.

In April 2020, 814,000 rooms — or 15% of the U.S. hotel room inventory — closed. That figure has dropped to around 2% in June 2021, just over 100,000 rooms.

In the second quarter, hotel REITs’ cumulative funds from operations turned positive for the first time since early last year.

In the second quarter of 2021, $13 billion in hotel transactions have taken place — the highest ever and twice the amount of transactions as happened in 2019.

While extended stay hotel occupancy dipped in January 2021 amid a second wave of COVID-19 and a slow start to the U.S. vaccination rollout, the segment maintained its occupancy premium over other types of hotels, averaging occupancy 20 points higher than non-extended stay hotels.

Fifty-four U.S. hotel markets (33%) entered the “recovery” category, up from 30% the prior week, but 20 markets remained in the “recession” category, with RevPAR between 50% and 80% of 2019 levels.

MGM Resorts International formally proposed building a $9 billion casino resort in Osaka, reinvigorating its push to open Japan’s first casino gambling facility after pandemic-related delays.

The share of U.S. restaurant and hotel workers leaving their jobs hit a two-decade high in May at 5.7%. Though the latest jobs report shows restaurants and bars added 194,000 jobs in June, employment at such establishments remains down by 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began.