Hello Round-Up Readers!

Is it busy where you are?  My Mom and sister are visiting this week and we traveled up to York, the oldest walled city in England, which was amazing, packed with fascinating history, and it was BUSY! Great to see people traveling, though we weren't able to get into a few restaurants we wanted to try...we'll have to go back.  We stayed at the historic 207-room The Grand, York and it was an absolute pleasure to meet in person the incredible Lisa Williams, Executive Housekeeper, who shared her "Super Solutions to the Labor Crunch" with hertelier earlier this month. 

On to the news stories you need to know about from this week: 

• Travel is good for brain health, according to science. The Washington Post ran an interesting article summarizing research on why and how travel changes you while you're away and after you get home.  According to research, we all have various identities, and travel taps into them challenging our minds and making us more open, creative and trusting.  Science also says travel is good for brain health because it disrupts our rote behaviors.  Worth reading as it also discusses trends emerging from the pandemic––adult gap years, remote work as well as people choosing to try and travel closer to home but still looking for the mind shift. 
• The White House announced the new travel system for international and domestic flights which goes into effect on November 8. Some 20 months after the U.S. began imposing travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, vaccinated international travelers will be allowed with proof of vaccination and negative COVID tests, the new travel system also adds more stringent testing requirements for unvaccinated U.S. travelers. Read more here. 

A busy week on hertelier:

• October is #cancerawareness month, and we are so pleased to be introducing you to The C Card and its creator, Michelle Walder, who's currently running the stunning new  91-room NOMAD London and has worked for some of the hottest luxury hotels under icons such as Ian Schrager and Andre Balazs.  Inspired by her own experiences battling Hodgkin's lymphoma and needing to stay in a hotel during her lengthy bone marrow transplant treatment, Michelle created The C Card to link cancer patients and their carers with hotels near hospitals at a discounted rate, when there is availability.  Michelle is so inspiring, please read this story to see if your hotel might be able to support the good works of The C Card. 
• New research shows that empathy is the most important leadership skill, columnist Nancy Mendelson says, "it's about effing time!"
• Check out the banner at the base of this email, Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) has a new division offering strategic and managerial consulting, run by industry leader, Dr. Laila Rach.  She is hosting a series of webinars on leadership, "Thinking Differently" the second in this series on October 20th is about having direct conversations, click below to learn more!

Listen Up: back with a great podcast reccy, Peggy Berg, head of the Castell Project, was a guest this week on Long Live Lodging where she talks about how the pandemic has changed the way women view their careers; and how employers need to respond.

hertelier was featured by the Cornell University SC Johnson School of Business! Please CLICK HERE to read about the community YOU are helping to build for women in lodging!

If you're still reading this, you must like hertelier...please help us grow by sharing the site with your colleagues and friends! Anyone can sign up for this weekly email here.

Have a great week,

Emily