Pennsylvania state legislators and leaders from the hospitality industry recently convened to urge passage of House Bill 1286, which would require short-term rental operators—in addition to hotels and other lodging establishments—across Pennsylvania to provide human trafficking awareness training to employees. The legislation, introduced by State Representative Regina Young (D-HD185) and co-sponsored by Representatives Robert Leadbeter, Eric Nelson, and Tarik Khan, is currently pending before the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The bill introduces new human trafficking prevention and safety measures for Pennsylvania’s entire hospitality industry, applying the same standards to short-term rentals as to hotels. Aimed at enhancing employee and guest security, the...

Beyond Green, a global portfolio of sustainable accommodations, announced the addition of 10 new and returning member properties to its global portfolio between April 1 and June 30, 2025. This expansion demonstrates the brand’s continued growth, including its inaugural properties in Sweden and Mozambique. Since its launch in 2021 by Preferred Travel Group, Beyond Green has continued to expand its footprint in different destinations around the globe. These new additions are each required to adhere to over 100 sustainability indicators aligned with global standards and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Harnessing the strength of its collective resources and community, Beyond...

Massive popular resistance, water guns, and locals demonstrating is the reality in many big cities and popular tourist destinations around the world, where tourism faces issues with overcrowding and visitor behavior. In clear contrast to these negative scenarios, Copenhagen has taken forward-thinking steps by engaging and rewarding tourists for their behavior. The aim of CopenPay is to inspire and nudge travelers about the choices they make when they travel. Copenhagen offers free boat tours and bike rentals and even a free lunch to tourists for collecting litter, choosing public transport or helping out in a communal garden. Last summer, the...

Hunger Action Month is next month. One hotel company doing its part to alleviate hunger is Omni Hotels & Resorts. Since 2016, the company has donated over 20 million meals to families in need through its Say Goodnight to Hunger program in partnership with Feeding America. The initiative supports food banks in all 42 communities where Omni operates, helping provide nutritious meals to children, families, and seniors facing food insecurity. The success of Omni Hotels & Resorts’ efforts is not only because of efforts at the property level but also due to initiatives such as the PGA TOUR “Birdies-or-Better” partnership. As...

Thank you to PhocusWire for providing this blog entry. The resurgence of global tourism post-pandemic has brought with it a pressing challenge: overcrowding at major attractions. As cities and cultural sites grapple with this issue, governments, destination managers, and travel service providers are reevaluating their strategies to strike a balance between visitor access and the preservation of cultural heritage. In Italy, the Colosseum in Rome became a focal point of controversy when the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) fined CoopCulture and six tour operators €20 million. The issue? Unfair ticket distribution practices that limited public access. CoopCulture was...

Over the years, I have come across many instances of hotels or convention centers with rooftop hives for the production of honey. Oftentimes, that honey is used in a special drink. A number of years ago, the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort in Lincolnshire, Ill., partnered with a local brewery, Tighthead Brewing Company in creating custom honey beer. At that time, Executive Chef Pierre Daval told me, “The beer is awesome. It has a crisp, refreshing taste. There is an awesome flower aroma.” This past week I learned that the Sheraton Dallas has unveiled House Honey Lager, a collaborative creation with popular Dallas-based craft beer brewery, Manhattan Project...

If you happen to have a 150-million-year-old cave to use for dinner and a show, why not use it? In Vietnam’s north, such a cave has become the extraordinary setting for an immersive theatrical show and a fine dining celebration of hyper-local Vietnamese cuisine. On May 30 this year, Asia Premier Cruises (APC) Corp. welcomed its first guests to the 2.5-hour cave dining and entertainment experience at the majestic 4,000-square-meter Dragon Pearl Cave, about a 30-minute drive from Halong City. At 45 meters above sea level, Dragon Pearl Cave is one of the largest caves in the Bai Tu Long area of...

What green news topics are currently capturing the most lodging industry interest? I took a look at Green Lodging News data and the following are the top 10 most read articles from the Green Lodging News website so far this year: 1. Optimizing Pool Operations with Ecolab AquaIQ Program 2. Earth Day Highlights from Properties & Companies Around the Planet 3. Bill Moving Through Maine Legislature Would Phase Out Most Single-Use Plastic Amenity Bottles 4. Marina Bay Sands Earns Global Sustainability Certification 5. New Report Details Size of Global Wellness Economy, Related Tourism 6. Marriott Makes Much Progress Toward 2025 Serve 360 Goals 7. Is Your...

Whenever my family eats out and we are automatically offered plastic straws for our drinks, we tell the server we do not need them and to take them back. With what we know about plastic straws—they are non-biodegradable and take hundreds of years to decompose and break down into microplastics—you would think they would no longer be used…but no. They are still all too common in hospitality. Numerous hotel companies have pledged to stop buying plastic straws. Six years ago, Marriott phased them out. Five years ago, Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. eliminated single-use straws from its branded properties as part of...

HITEC will kick off next week at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis (June 16 to 19). Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals announced earlier this week that exhibit space is officially sold out, with 360+ companies exhibiting across 81,500 net sq. ft. of exhibit space. Among the companies exhibiting that fall into the green lodging space: Bodhi, EISI SOFT, Growth Advisors International Network, Honeywell Building Automation, Intello by TELUS Business, National Battery Supply, Smartcon Solutions, Verdant Energy Management Solutions, Vingcard | ASSA ABLOY | Nomadix, VDA Telkonet, Zennio, Cisco Systems, Inc., OpenKey, PressReader, Samsung Electronics America, FreshAir Sensor, Intelity and Topanga IO. Related...