Predictive Scheduling and One Fair Wage Public Hearing

Dear All,

On Thursday, March 9, the Labor and Public Employees Committee will have a public hearing at 10:00 a.m. There are two bills that CLA opposes, HB 6859, An Act Concerning Predictable Scheduling (which would require hotels affiliated with any of the brands to be subject to the bill upon implementation and any hotel with more than 500 employees globally), and HB 1177, An Act Concerning One Fair Wage (which would eliminate the tip credit). Both bills would have a significant negative impact on our business. These bills impact restaurants, banquet facilities, retailers, and long-term healthcare facilities.

Please sign-up to testify or submit written testimony by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8.

Anyone who would like to sign up to testify, below is the link:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H-b9Z15UTUW1wjJDs95l-Q

For anyone who would like to submit testimony, below is the link:

https://www.cga.ct.gov/aspx/CGATestimonySub/CGAtestimonysubmission.aspx?comm_code=lab

The bills and the CLA testimony are attached.

Please do not hesitate to contact Steve, Chris, Armando, or myself.

Paolino Public Affairs Consulting, Inc. Legislative Report - 03/06/23

Attached is your weekly bill tracking report. The legislature has been convened for two months now, with many committees heading toward their Joint Favorable deadlines later this month. Last weeks snow storm canceled several meetings and hearings that were scheduled for last Tuesday. Although the Legislative Office Building remained open, Governor Lamont closed all Executive Branch buildings. This week committees are going to continue conducting public hearings and meetings to JF bills. The public hearing regarding predictive scheduling and one fair wage are this Thursday, March 9th. Deadlines to testify in front of the committee are 3pm on March 8th. You may submit written testimony at any time. Currently, there are no sessions scheduled by the House of Representatives or the Senate. 

U.S. Hotel Update 03.01.23

Here are our latest observations of the current national State of the Union from CBRE Hotels, plus download link at the bottom:



• Fundamentals remain strong. 2022 was a record year in terms of nominal RevPAR and GOP performance. 

• Inflation is beginning to ease. Jan was the eighth consecutive month of easing inflation.

• For All Hotels, total revenues in 2022 had a 108.2% index as compared to 2019, while GOP was up 18.1%. Performance was led by the resort sector that posted RevPAR growth of almost 40%, and GOP at more than 224% of 2019 levels. Q1 ’23 RevPAR for all hotels is forecast to grow by 16.2% over Q1 ‘22.
• While GOP (total dollars) has increased meaningfully over 2019, margins have contracted for the 7^th consecutive month as opex and labor costs in particular are growing at a faster pace than top line revenue.

• Unemployment reached a 53-year low in January, at 3.4%. Further, wage increases for the hotel sector were up 7.2% in January as compared to retail wages, indicating increased margin pressure for operators. Employment in the hotel sector continues to improve, but it still lags pre-pandemic levels. As a result, margins are expected to continue to contract near term.

• TSA Throughput – running over 95% of 2019 levels but pulled back slightly in February. Year over year growth remains positive, with a surge in early February accounting for the Omicron effect. 

• Inbound international travel was reported at 66.7% of 2019, pulling back slightly from December in this seasonally low travel period, but still a marked improvement over January 2022 levels of 34.9%. 

• Urban markets have been the slowest to recover from the pandemic but are expected to be the top growth locations over the next 5 years at a 6.2% CAGR, driven by a combination of increased corporate and group travel and modest supply side pressures.

• Future travel indicators are positive: Google search trends for corporate travel are off 2019 levels by only 1% and up 20% Y-O-Y; searches for point redemptions are up 6% over 2019, and 25% y-o-y; and finally, searches for the Amex Centurion Lounge is up 166% over 2019 and over 52% y-o-y.

STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 25 February

U.S. hotel performance increased from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through 25 February.

19-25 February 2023 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):

• Occupancy: 64.2% (-1.5%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$156.51 (+22.2%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$100.43 (+20.3%) 

The U.S. weekly occupancy level was the highest since the week ending 12 November 2022.