The recovery of hotel demand is exacerbating the industry’s ongoing labor shortage, leading companies to explore new ways of recruiting employees to their hotels, including the possibility of paying them at the end of their shifts.

U.S. hotel revenue per available room for the week was 70% of what it was during the same week in 2019. RevPAR has been at or above 67% of 2019 levels for the past four weeks.

Cruise operators could restart sailings out of the U.S. by mid-July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, paving the way to resume operations that have been suspended for longer than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pre-pandemic, the average hotel logged a little over two hours of labor for every occupied room, but that’s dropped to 1.5 hours over the course of the pandemic in part because housekeepers aren’t going into rooms each day and reduced food and beverage service.

Mack Real Estate Group has taken over control of seven limited- and full-service hotels totaling 1,087 rooms in New York City through a loan foreclosure. A Mack affiliate provided an $85 million mezzanine loan while the value of the ownership transfer was listed at $315.8 million.

Hotel brand company stock values were down 7.4% from March 2020, but up 39.7% over March 2019, whereas hotel REIT stock values were down 27.1% year-over-year and up 10.1% from this time in 2019. Year-to-date, hotel brand stocks are up 10.6%, compared to a 17% increase for hotel REITs.

Of the travelers surveyed, 43% said they are “more likely” to travel domestically post-pandemic and 44% are “more likely” to travel internationally, while 50% are “as likely” to travel domestically post-pandemic and 41% are “as likely” to travel internationally.

The company reported operating costs and expenses of $10.49 billion for 2020, down 45% from 2019, in part because of layoffs, furlough programs and reduced work hours. Marriott had 121,000 employees at the end of last year, compared with 174,000 the year before COVID.

Around 44% of US corporate travel managers think that travel volume will shift to virtual in 2021, up from 34% when surveyed in October. The expectations are a bit more optimistic for 2022, showing only 27% expecting the shift up from 22%.

According to pipeline data as at December 2019, there were 3,867 hotels and 603,037 rooms set to open in 2020. Of these, 322,561 rooms were completed, equating to a 53% completion rate. This is a substantial drop compared to 2019 when completed hotel projects totaled 77% of the pipeline.