Wednesday 17th June, 2020 TODAY'S TOP STORY Times Square EDITION to close one year after debut US: The 452-room hotel located in New York’s Times Square is to permanently close on 13 August 2020 due to financial issues caused by the coronavirus crisis. LATEST NEWS If you missed our last newsletter... check out the stories below! Macdonald Hotels warns of 80 per cent layoffs Domestic travel searches surge in May Beyond Green Travel acquired by Preferred Hotel Group The Gettys Group relaunches The Hotel of Tomorrow Project FEATURES PODCASTS EDITOR'S COMMENT 17/06/2020
• One of the most sobering and shocking facets of the pandemic's impact on hospitality is how it has affected every company, big or small - nobody is safe. Businesses that were otherwise in rude health and able to withstand almost any other type of shock have been defenceless in the face of Covid-19.
This even applies to the industry's giants. Hilton has announced it will lay off 22 per cent of its global corporate workforce, equating to around 2,100 jobs. And Marriott International has had to give notice to Maefield Development, the owner of the EDITION Times Square - one of the jewels in the Marriott crown - as part of a foreclosure proceeding.
Ian Schrager, the hotelier behind the EDITION brand, said on Instagram: “It is very unfortunate that The Times Square EDITION got dragged into a dispute between the real estate owner and its financial institutions. The dispute has absolutely nothing to do with the hotel or its resounding success.”
Sadly it is not the first New York property to run into financial difficulty during the pandemic. The owner of Hilton Times Square wrote down the value of the property to less than its $77 million mortage. And according to the Wall Street Journal, as many as 25,000 rooms - or 20 per cent of the city’s total - might not reopen.
• Don't forget to register for the next in our Urban Living webinar series, which takes place on June 24, at 14:00 BST when we will be discussing how work is converging with the new-age of hospitality - or Workspitality as the folks at Accor's Wojo coworking brand put it.
Joining moderator Piers Brown will be:
Click here to register for the no cost webinar.
Future topics include:
If you are interested in being a guest speaker in any of the webinars, please contact me at george@internationalhospitality.media
George Sell, editor
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