Nancy Trejos

More people are visiting the U.S. capital, but occupancy rates and revenue per room have not budged much. Chalk it up to an old-fashioned economics problem of supply and demand, but that's not stopping developers from building more hotels.

The Guild, a hospitality startup, is not quite a hotel but not quite Airbnb. It's betting on $25 million in new funding to expand its apartment-like accommodations to urban centers to attract more business travelers.

Hotels are ripe for data breaches, with all the information guests provide them. The Marriott hack sounded a wake-up call when revealed last year. But hotels have been slow to come up with ways to protect their guests.

Richard Branson created Virgin Hotels nine years ago, promising to deliver about two dozen boutique hotels with flair. So far, only three hotels have opened. Will it be able to accelerate its growth in 2020?

U.S. hotel companies are facing a shortage of construction workers just as they are building new brands and properties. The result: delayed projects and higher costs. The industry will have to get more aggressive to recruit workers if it plans to keep the momentum going on its expansion plans.

Big hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton, and others are moving increasingly to an asset-light strategy, signing on more franchisees. Many are still owned by individuals and families: How diverse and adaptable will the next generation of hotel owners be?

Hotels are known for wanting to please their guests, and feeding them is one way of doing it. But food waste deteriorates the environment. Hotels are making an effort to cut down on it. So they are earning praise for trying, but they have a long way to go.

W Hotels were once the hottest hangouts in town but two decades after its creation, it has been overshadowed by its younger competitors. Marriott inherited the W Hotel brand when it bought Starwood in 2016. Now it's up to Marriott to make the W brand shine again.

The latest perk hotels are offering guests: flexible check-in and checkout. Some charge a fee. But some are granting it for free. It's an interesting play to attract more loyal customers who will book directly with the hotels and not with online travel agencies.

Hyatt joins Marriott and IHG by promising to get rid of single-use plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and lotion with large-format bathroom amenities. Hotels are wisely promising to do what they can to mitigate waste. Let's see if they can make their deadlines.