Hello, Round-Up Readers!

Welcome new readers! BIG thanks to everyone for sharing Round-Up, our list grew by almost 10% this week––that's huge!  This week marked our 150th post!!! And there are still so many more stories to tell about women making their mark in hospitality.

Please keep sharing––forward this email, anyone can sign up by clicking here!  Also, if you're not following on LinkedIn, click here and you'll get our news faster. 

Now, on to this week's news:

Can we talk about the wage gap? This week the US Census reported new data, that "women consistently earned less than men," and the gap widens with age.  On the bright side, the wage gap has narrowed for younger women as they increase their education and break into occupations traditionally dominated by men. However, women are still over-represented in lower-paying industries, and hospitality falls into that bucket. Castell Project founder & CEO, Peggy Berg commented on LinkedIn, "The compelling note is not the wage gap - it's the clear expectation that hospitality jobs will be low-pay and low-level. We have a workforce issue in no small part because we have an image issue. This has to change both in reality and in perception if we want to attract talent to our industry."

Now, have a scroll to the banner at the bottom of the Round-Up, a tweet by a female recruiter blew up the Internet because she admitted to offering a woman a job at a pay rate $45K less than the budget because the candidate didn't ask for more, and she didn't have the 'bandwidth' to help her. Right, wrong, or misunderstood, the tweet has started the conversation, which is the first step toward change. We reported last week on NYC enacting a wage transparency law, we need this systemically...but we also need to do our research and advocate for ourselves!  What do you think about the tweets?  Email me, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

• Cool travel news!
  • A hotel in London is introducing a four-day work week!  Read about The Landmark's plans.
  • More hotels have introduced "subscription models" to attract the "bleisure crowd"
  • Science says: planning a vacation boosts your mood! January 25 was officially (the first?) Plan a Vacation Day (sponsored by USTA)
  • Crypto or not to crypto?  Hotel Business reports on a slice of hotels accepting crypto while Fast Company reported this was a terrible week for Bitcoin, crypto-crime has skyrocketed and President Biden is calling crypto "a threat to national security."
  • More guests prefer to communicate by chat, hotel companies are doing this function remotely to increase efficiency and decrease costs reports the WSJ.
• More 2022 predictions! The only conclusion to be made is that the more uncertainty, the more people make predictions.  Skift released 2022 Megatrends, Deloitte the 2022 Traveler Outlook, and AHLA joined with Accenture to on the "State of the American Traveler". We've heard a lot of this before, but just for fun, some key themes:
  • Business travel not coming back this year––def not the individual biz traveler, and only half of meetings coming back–– while CVENT noting that a quarter of meetings planned are hybrid. (AHLA/Accenture)
  • Hopes pinned on leisure and "bleisure"––loss of biz travel has airlines scrambling for these travelers (Bloomberg) hotel room night demand and room revenue are projected a near return to 2019 levels in 2022. US room revenues are likely to reach within 1 percent of 2019 figures/an increase of 19 percent compared to 2021 (AHLA/Accenture) but does not make up for ancillary $48 billion in pre-pandemic spending on food and beverage, meeting space, etc. (AHLA/Accenture). 
  • Sustainability is not just important, it is demanded by both consumers and investors. (Skift) this will result in the continued popularity of staycations, innovation in new forms of eco-friendly transport.
  • Labor will continue to be a challenge upskilling and training is the way forward Skift, flexibility, and re-thinking scheduling, along with showcasing career paths, not just jobs (AHLA/Accenture)
  • Volatility remains in booking patterns, but generally much shorter windows (all)
  • Loyalty programs will evolve (AHLA/Accenture) with high-volume business travel down, traditional loyalty programs no longer make sense, most effective loyalty programs will offer more personalized rewards.
  • Hoteliers need to embrace technology solutions in marketing and operations (all) as with more hybrid work/leisure stays this is increasingly important.

On hertelier this week:

• BIG Wins for Women at ALIS (American Lodging Investment Summit)!! from an award for Peggy Berg of Castell to Wyndham inking its first deal in the new "Women Own the Room" program with Trusha Patel, read more!!!
• Cheers to Clever Cocktails: Meet the "wicked smaaaaht" Paige McGroarty who's changing the Boston bar scene and managing a team of men at The Langham, Boston. 
• Why it's good to be a 'late bloomer': columnist Nancy Mendelson unpacks the pressure to achieve early and how women bloom throughout their lives. 

LISTEN UP:  Morning Brew has a new podcast, Imposters where host Alex Lieberman interviews, Kat Cole, President and COO of Athletic Greens, who worked her way up from a cocktail waitress to VP at Hooters, then on to run Focus Brands (Cinnabon, Aunite Anne's, etc.).  She spoke about "humble leadership," having confidence in knowing you can figure things out and how to ask for help, and how her difficult childhood and an alcoholic father propelled her career success.  So much great advice packed into 30 minutes!

If you're a new subscriber, you may not know 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! 

Hey, 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, please reply to this email. I am a real person 😃 

Have a great week,

Em