Starting to travel again

[jpiniero]

anecdotal evidence is still just that. There are still a large number of hotels that are still shut down across the country. Their employment levels are about 20% lower than precovid. The hotel occupancy rate in the US is still about 25ish percent lower than preocovid. The hotel industry isn’t expected to make it to precovid levels of profit until 2025ish. The industry itself is still very much recovering from billions in losses.

Business hotels are hurting... hotels in touristy places are doing okay.

 

[allisolm]

Husband and I are currently 900+ mi from home visiting family for the first time in what seems like forever. Drove and stayed one night in a hotel. Took all the precautions we could. We are vaccinated but the 8 and 11 yr olds we’re visiting aren’t. It is so great to have close contact with someone other than my husband (much as I love him.) Hugs from children give one hope that it will all be okay again.

 

[nOOky]

I'll be flying to Virginia from Minnesota next week for work. Flying to Carson City in July, Geneva in August, Oregon in September, and New Zealand next February. Possibly taking a road trip to Wyoming in June, but no worries about that.

 

[ponyo]

Traveling is all I think about now. My family is vaccinated so I'm comfortable enough to travel again. I'm still waiting on countries closed to tourists to open back up. Especially asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, etc. I refuse to travel to any country that requires quarantine. That's retarded. I also prefer not to travel to any country that requires negative covid test prior to entering. My wife and I are going to Cancun, Mexico, this month. Next month in June, my family is headed to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.. Then in July, back to Cancun with my sister's family and her friends. It will be my nephews first international trip so I'm looking forward to treating and spoiling them. I'm not making future plans past July since some of the asian countries along with Europe might open back up. That would be great. I'm ready to book and go.

 

[Zorba]

I'm hopeful that state legislation will fix the way hotels are using fees. The past few years, this had gotten out of hand and I read that some states are cracking down because enough people were complaining that the fees weren't on par with the services received. Even worse is when you pay a $45 daily fee and then have to pay $40 valet because self parking isn't an option.

I understand that hotels are often privately owned franchises. I also understand the burden of staffing them and covering maintenance expenses and franchise-related expenses. (where they're forced to do things that don't readily generate any profit) Just saying, they should boost the room rate and stop playing games. When travelling, I'll sometimes just opt to stay 5-10 minutes out from where I want to be for the sake of avoiding the nonsense. I'm just afraid business travelers and wealthy leisure travelers will keep on putting up the dough.

It should be like airfare, all required fees and taxes should be shown in the marketed price up front. That would end resort fees over night.