Dear Round-Up Readers,

Celebrating one year of Round-Up––our 52nd issue!  If you love it, please tell a friend to sign up.

The sixth week of war: is the Ukraine invasion at a turning point or is this just Russia re-grouping? The optimist in all of us hopes that the talks held in Turkey this week could be the beginning of a resolution, but as David Ignatius says in the Washington Post, “painful choices lie in the path to peace in Ukraine” and that unfortunately “wars are easier to start than to stop.”  Here is what the hotel industry is doing to help Ukraine, HospitalityNet keeps this up-to-date. 

A few other links you may find useful:

• Women Take the Wheel: One determined Polish woman, Ella Jarmulska, has created a safe female-only carpool service for vulnerable Ukrainian women, transporting many to Poland, writes People. The sex trade is actively preying on desperate refugees, according to the BBC, though the chaos of war is now behind them, they are not entirely safe outside Ukraine either. "For predators and human traffickers, the war in Ukraine is not a tragedy," UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns. "It's an opportunity - and women and children are the targets."

• How Can Individual People Most Help Ukraine? The Atlantic says “For starters, donate your money and time, not physical stuff.”  

On to other news––

Two business stories:

• Amazon Workers Unite in NYC: despite Amazon throwing lots of money to stop unionizing, social media was effectively used to build community and organize workers despite a lack of experience or funding. (Seems like a bit of home cooking helped too!) Also, it shows what a high employee churn rate Amazon has. Maybe an opportunity to scoop up some workers who left hospitality to join Amazon during the pandemic?
• Jobs report: hospitality led the gains for last month, economists expected to add slightly more jobs overall, but unemployment is at 3.6%. 

Women in the news from this week: 

• Will Smith: we don’t usually cover Hollywood, but can’t help following this story which raises issues around race, gender, and plain-old civility.  If you’ve not read this essay by basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it’s the best analysis I’ve seen “Will Smith Did a Bad, Bad Thing.”  On the other hand, the Washington Post makes a powerful case for cutting Will some slack, while still condemning his actions, "What if we honored the reason every religion worth its salt embraces forgiveness: We’re all messed up. Though broken and flawed in uniquely unadmirable ways, we’re as stingy with forbearance as we’re in desperate need of it."  What do you think? Email me!

• Gender Pay Gap narrows for women under 30: in 22 markets women make the same or more than men.  But overall there is still a big gap, 82 cents on the dollar (up from 77 cents), and common life events such as having kids are persistent obstacles to wage growth, reports the Washington Post. 

• Have you heard of ‘Medical Gaslighting’?  From the NYT, studies show that female patients and people of color are more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by medical providers. Experts say: Keep asking questions.

• Why So Many Women in Middle Age Are on Antidepressants: we're all aware of the increased mental health toll of the last two years, but this article from the WSJ reports on data from before the pandemic and looks at the correlation between depression and menopause. Worth a read no matter how old you are!

Travel news from the week:

• A few more stories from Hunter Investment Conference in Atlanta and the Skift Europe Forum came out this week:

  • Why Hotel Owners Wouldn't Mind Looking More Like Airlines: from the “Main Street Talks” panel from Hunter which had several hotel ownership CEOs.  As costs rise, owners are looking to transfer them on to consumers in the form of specific fees–housekeeping, parking, etc. Do you see this happening? 

  • Hotel Brand CEOs Recognize Childcare as an Obstacle: hotel companies starting to acknowledge that childcare is the main obstacle to keeping employees, "It is a contributing factor to our [employee] turnover. We may be able to get those team members in, we may be able to make them content for a short period of time, but ultimately it boils down to childcare cost and availability," said Rob Palleschi, CEO of G6 Hospitality.  

  • New Buzzword: Shrinkcations George Limbert, president of Red Roof Inn, gets the credit for this one, defining it as  “travelers aren't going as far, but they're still traveling.”

  • Accor, CitizenM CEOs Tout New Remote Working Models: from the Skift Europe conference, an exploration of trends in co-working and what some hotel companies are doing to compete for these customers. 

•  F&B in the news: 

  • Hotels Refurb to Accommodate More Guests Dining in Rooms, Skift credits the pandemic for fundamentally changing room service delivery, menus, and even guest room design. 

  • 20 Trends to Watch in Hotel Restaurants.  From payment systems to plant-based options, HMM cooks up the top 20 shifts taking place in F&B. 

  • In a Starving World, Is Eating Well Unethical? A thought-provoking essay by the NYT on the true cost of dining when nearly one-third of the planet lacks regular access to food.

On hertelier this week:

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. 

• The Last Tourist: a new film by G Adventures explores the cost of overtourism and how our industry can build back better.  We interview Kim Greiner, head of comms for G Adventures about the movie, which includes Dr. Jane Goddall and other inspiring women. 

• Herstory: Heidi “I’ve had the time of my life” Stone She took an ailing property, the Mountain Lake Lodge in Virginia capitalized on its history as the iconic filming location for Dirty Dancing, and turned the hotel into a star.  On the 35th anniversary of the movie, we chatted with Heidi about marketing the connection to Dirty Dancing, her career, tips for recruiting during the labor shortage, and how to develop leaders within your team. She was open about her setbacks and successes, being a single mom, and why she’s “had the time of her life” at Mountain Lake Lodge.

• Amplifying the Voices of Women in Travel Media: as we say goodbye to Women’s History Month, urging you to read our interview with Jacqui Gifford from Travel & Leisure.

• No Vacancy Live!  Thanks to Dr. Suzanne Bagnera, for including me and hertelier, it was fun to be interviewed by hotel industry legends Glenn Haussman and Anthony Melchiorri. You can watch the video here or listen wherever you get your podcasts.  We talked about the main obstacles for women in hospitality, how the industry is changing and what’s next…please email me your thoughts if you have time to listen! 

Are you still here? I'd love to hear from you. Why do you read hertelier and what would you like to see covered? Is there someone you'd like to suggest for a profile?  My goal in 2022 is to get to know more of our readers, just reply to this email. I am a real person 😃 

Have a great week! 

Em