U.S. merchants paid card issuers an estimated $55.4 billion in Visa and Mastercard credit-card interchange fees in 2021, more than double the amount in 2012.

For 2021, extended stay chains ran at an average occupancy of 73%, as other business-oriented hotels recovered much slower averaging less than 60% occupancy.

Realty Income Corp. is making the real estate investment trust’s first foray into hotels and gaming with a $1.7 billion sale-leaseback deal for Wynn Resorts’ Encore Boston Harbor Resort Casino.

Crown Resorts Ltd., one of Australia’s biggest casino operators, said it agreed to a $6.3 billion takeover by Blackstone Inc., following a roughly yearlong effort by the U.S. private-equity giant to acquire the company.

For the Super Bowl, analysts anticipate near-record average daily room rates of $445. Occupancy is expected to reach 89% and REVPAR is forecast near $400 a night. If those projections prove accurate, Los Angeles would notch the second-highest average-daily room rates on record for Super Bowl host cities, after Miami in 2020.

Occupancy rates and room revenue are likely to approach 2019 levels in 2022, but the outlook for ancillary revenue is less optimistic. Business travel is expected to remain down more than 20 percent for much of the year, and only 58 percent of meetings and events are expected to return.

Blackstone Inc. and Starwood Capital Group, two of the largest real-estate investors in the U.S., agreed to jointly purchase 111 extended-stay hotels under the WoodSpring Suites brand for about $1.5 billion.

STR forecasts the U.S. hotel industry should reach peak occupancy in 2023. In 2024, as group and business transient travel returns, the industry is expected to set a new occupancy record.

Many hotel owners and operators who put off projects amid a demand crisis at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are now financially able to renovate their properties, but face the same challenges as developers of new projects: higher prices and less availability of materials and construction labor.

The focus on automating hotel operational processes intensified due to the industry labor crisis. Contactless check-in/check-out and automation of day-to-day room rate setting are two leading examples of technology that will be increasingly adopted and refined in response to the lack of staff to complete processes manually.