AH&LA’s 2021 forecast: “AHLA’s State of the Hotel Industry 2021” outlines the forecasted state of the U.S. hotel industry in 2021. Business travel is forecasted to be down 85% compared to 2019 through April 2021, and then only begin ticking up slightly, and not expected to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023 or 2024.
When will UK lockdown ease?: It is “too early” to say whether England’s COVID restrictions will be able to end in the spring, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Once the four priority groups have been vaccinated, by mid-February, “we’ll look then at how we’re doing.” Nearly two million people in the U.K. have had their first dose of vaccine in the past week, government figures show. Scientist Marc Baguelin, who advises the government, said restaurants and bars should not reopen before May.
Eagle Hospitality Trust bankruptcy: The owner of two San Francisco Bay Area hotels, one in San Jose and one in San Mateo, has filed for bankruptcy, grim new evidence of the woes the lodging industry faces while the coronavirus rages on. Eagle Hospitality Trust, which owns 18 hotels in the United States, including eight in California — the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach among them — has filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Four Points by Sheraton San Jose Airport and Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in San Mateo are among the hotels owned by Eagle Hospitality Trust, according to company documents and bankruptcy court records.