Grab your coffee, Round-Up readers, lots to share this week!

Attended two interesting press events in London; The Fife Arms in Scotland hosted a Christmas-themed breakfast showcasing their new line of sustainable crafts in partnership with Anna Garnered, a former Vogue staffer and fashion director at Henri Bendel and Selfridges. Anna’s passion for craft and sustainability is clear in the collection she has curated for the Fife Arms. Then had a major fangirl moment with leaders from Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO, and Brenda Collin, EVP of Europe, at their annual media lunch. The company is growing and doing some innovative leadership training programs with Cornell, so look for more on that soon!

Welp, I know summer is here because media of all sorts are covering travel! Interesting takes on hotel room tech, scents, music tourism, tattoo tourism...so much!

Let's just get to it...

 Business, Women, and Random Trends:
 

• OTC Birth Control Approved in the US BIG YAY for this! The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first ever over-the-counter birth control daily pill, a positive development amid a heightened debate over contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court’s momentous decision last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade.
   

• Women are Never the "Right" Age <MASSIVE SIGH> A new study published in Harvard Business Review, "Women in Leadership Face Ageism at Every Age," reveals age bias now occurs across the career life cycle. “Youngism” is fueled by the conflation of age with maturity. Middle-aged women are feeling age bias due to perceived family obligations or menopause, and forget about being over 60. HBR offers tips to combat these biases. Also worth reading takes on the study in HuffingtonPost and Forbes.

   

• Why We Get Scammed and What to Do About It To avoid being fooled, we need to become aware of the mental habits and shortcuts that make us easy to deceive. Scams are only going to get worse with AI, and it can happen to anyone, and recently did to someone in my family, which is super upsetting. Please read in WSJ. Email me if you want to read, but don't have access.
   

• The 100 million Threads users aren’t all that engaged Though Meta’s Twitter clone has grown rapidly, Threads may not be holding people’s attention. This week, the number of daily active users was down about 20% from its peak, and users spent 50% less time on the app, NBC reported.

Travel & Hospitality: so much travel news this week, had to use subheads! Do you like this better?
 

IN THE NEWS
 

• UK Staffing Shortages Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls OBE spoke to BBC News about ongoing staffing shortages, which are causing hospitality to turn away £25 billion worth of business in the UK.
   

• Thousands of L.A. Hotel Workers Are On Strike Again Room attendants, cooks and front desk agents walked off the job Monday over pay at several major hotels at the peak of summer travel. ICYMI, Local 11 in LA had workers striking at 21 hotels.

WOMEN & TRAVEL
 

• Women in Technology: Stories of Inspiration and Success Hospitality Upgrade magazine shines a light on three women-Sue Graves, Heather Bishop and Riise Walker-navigating careers in hotel tech who share their career journeys and offer great advice.

   

• From Specialized Health Retreats To Heart-Pumping Adventures, Women’s Getaways Get A Makeover Is your hotel offering special packages for female travelers? Forbes Travel Guide reports on this trend which includes everything from pregnancy and menopause retreats to safari camps and surfing.

GUEST EXPERIENCE
 

• The Things Hotels Still Can’t Get Right WSJ (paywall) has a moan about fees and service. Lots of comments on this article which reports travelers are paying more for hotels but often getting less, from problems with pools to missing food and drink items on menus.

   

• Encountering the Infuriating, Overwhelming and Unwanted Smart Tech in My Hotel Room The New York Times (paywall) reports that automatic mood lighting and motorized drapes do not make for relaxed and happy travelers.

   

• Special Scents Make Good Sense for Hotels Linda Wells pays homage to her favorite hotel fragrances in Air Mail (paywall). "Hotels are so rich with scent memories that, sometimes, a spritz is enough to really take you places."

TRAVEL TRENDS
 

• Sweet Sound of Music Tourism + Can it be Sustainable? CNBC takes a look at the Swift-bump in Asia. In the US, Swift's tour is so important to the economy that she’s in the latest Fed report, reports Fortune (paywall). Meanwhile, Coldplay released the results of their first ever sustainability initiatives from "Music Of The Spheres" World Tour. It will be interesting to see if other music acts follow their green lead.
   

• The Rise of Tattoo Tourism Millenials and Gen Z travelers now have a new angle when booking a vacation: Secure an appointment with a famous tattoo artist in a far-flung location and return home with the ultimate souvenir, reports the WSJ (paywall). Speaking of which, a new study shows tattoos help entrepreneurs with crowdfunding.

   

• The Secret to Getting Ahead at Work Is How Much Vacation You Use WSJ says don’t be afraid to take all of your time off. It boosts your creative problem-solving—and your career. For those of us that work in travel, this is a WIN-WIN. (paywall)
   

• A Case Against Travel + A Case For It Seems I missed the trending anti-travel essay in The New Yorker from June, where philosopher Agnes Callard writes, "Travel turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best. Call this the traveller’s delusion." Yet, in The Atlantic this week, "Are We There Yet? What traveling with my parents as an adult taught me," by Elaine Godfrey.

REAL ESTATE
 

• Branded Residences Find a Home in Hotels Been noticing this trend here in London with the opening of the new OWO and flats The Dorchester. HOTELS magazine says it's hot everywhere and moving beyond ultra luxury to lifestyle brands like MamaShelter.
   

• Hoteliers Ready to Pounce on Opportunities as Debt Markets Dry Up Costar reports from Atlanta where hotel owners and investors see change coming in capital markets for the last half of the year.
   

TECH
 

• Holy Guacamole!! Chipotle tests ‘Autocado,’ a robot that makes guac, read about it on CNN.

On hertelier this week:

Big welcome to our new subscribers! The story in Forbes, How Women Are Changing The Hotel Industry, keeps bringing new readers! Super excited to have you here. 

• What to Do When You Hit a Plateau Columnist Nancy Mendelson unpacks what to do when you are feeling stuck in life or work
   

• Bringing Sustainability to Istanbul: Ayşe Zeynep Sezerel, Owner, No11 Hotel Growing up with a restaurateur father and realtor mother, it seems logical Ayşe would venture into hospitality. Her story is inspiring!
   

• Driven to Win: Chef Gracie Black Takes the Prize in Hilton F1 Cake Competition Winning a Hilton F1 themed cake competition has fueled Chef Gracie Black's passion for patisserie. We chat with her about the winning cake.

Listen UP: IWTTF + Women and Travel Thrive HITEC events are online!

• Be 10% Braver The Keynote address from the recent IWTTF in London by Jaz Ampaw-Farr is available online. So good, I watched again even though I was there!!
   

• Unleashing Your Potential: Women in Travel Thrive Day of Impact at HITEC Talk by best-selling author Randi Braun and fabulous panel with Dorothy Dowling, Traci Mercer, and Lisa Jordan + an interview with Melissa Jurkoic by Mercedes Blanco. Many amazing takeaways, you can listen to the audio on YouTube.
   

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Thank you for reading! Have a great week!

Em

LAST CHANCE!! Hertelier Special Offer!! wmnsWork is offering Hertelier subscribers $100 USD off registration until July 19th! 

 
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