Hampton Inn travelers consume 30 million waffles at the hotel chain each year as part of its breakfast buffet.

Red Lobster, the largest seafood restaurant chain in the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to reduce debt and will sell its assets. Under a stalking-horse agreement, the company will sell its business to an entity formed and controlled by its existing term lenders.

According to the latest report of the U.S. hotel construction pipeline trend report, there are 6,065 projects with 702,990 rooms in the pipeline, representing a 9% YOY and 7% YOY increase in projects and rooms, respectively. Across the country, there are 1,144 projects comprising 141,336 rooms under construction, marking a 9% increase in projects and a 1% increase in rooms YOY.

Hotels are projected to pay a record high total of wages, salaries and compensation in 2024—$123.4 billion compared to $118 billion in 2023.

The data show hotels are projected to generate a total of nearly $83.4 billion in tax revenue in 2024.

Blackstone has about $25 billion invested in U.S. hospitality assets, excluding its gaming business and plans to be more active this year, buying between $4 billion and $5 billion worth of hotel acquisitions in 2024. Blackstone is also focused on reinvesting about $2 billion into its existing hotel portfolio, including the Hotel Del Coronado and Grand Wailea Resort.

Executives of publicly traded hotel real estate investment trusts say they’re actively engaging in opportunities to both buy and sell, and the second half of 2024 could bring increased competition for assets as investors have more conviction to participate in the market.

Choice Hotels is abandoning its hostile $8 billion takeover bid for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

U.S. RevPAR is forecast to increase by 2.6% to $100.50 in 2024, driven by ADR growth of 3.1% to $160.50 while occupancy declines 0.5% to 62.6%.

In January, prices for food eaten away from home were up 30% compared with the same month in 2019. Restaurants’ food bills have stopped their pandemic-era surge, but payroll costs are still climbing.