CHLA September/October 2021

2 CALIFORNIA LODGING NEWS 414 29th Street Sacramento, CA 95816 916-444-5780 www.calodging.com EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR Bijal Patel, CHA Coast Redwood Hospitality VICE CHAIR Tom Patton, CHA Ramada Santa Barbara IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Michael Pace InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel SECRETARY/TREASURER Hee-Won Lim Pacific Palms Hotel GOVERNMENT & LEGAL RELATIONS CHAIR Javier Cano JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE AUDIT & INVESTMENT COMMITTEE CHAIR Laurenne Douglas Pacific Plaza Hotels, Inc. 2021 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Bhupen Amin Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Javier Cano JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE Vipul Dayal Days Inn San Francisco Airport West Laurenne Douglas Pacific Plaza Hotels, Inc. Jeff Durham Redwood Fortuna Riverwalk Hotel Paul Gibbs, CHA Sonesta Redondo Beach and Marina Ross Gimpel Encore Ken Greene AAHOA Terri Haack Terranea Resort Jon Handlery, CHA Handlery Union Square Hotel Niles Harris InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Wendy Heineke Pebblebrook Hotel Trusts Todd Hersperger Sunstone Hotel Investors Nic Hockman Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel Daniel Kuperschmid Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego Elvin Lai Ocean Park Inn Mark LeBlanc Aimbridge Hospitality Hee-Won Lim Pacific Palms Resort RJ Mayer The Mayer Corporation Michelle Millar University of San Francisco Michael Pace InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel Bijal Patel, CHA Coast Redwood Hospitality Bimal Patel, CHA Hotel Zico Dhruv Patel Ridgemont Hospitality Pragna Patel-Mueller Samata Management Tom Patton, CHA Ramada Santa Barbara Joe Piantedosi Park Hotels & Resorts Chip Rogers American Hotel and Lodging Assn. Pam Ryan The Inn at the Mission John Spear Hotel Drisco Jeffrey Thurrell Fisher Phillips Wes Tyler, CHA Chancellor Hotel on Union Square Bobby Walia Hyatt Hotels Corporation ADVERTISING & DESIGN LLM Publications 503.445.2220 | 800.647.1511 www.llmpubs.com Design & Layout Sales Representative Stephanie Pendell Grandt Mansfield grandt@llmpubs.com Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved www.calodging.com CALIFORNIA IS IN THE MIDST of a shift in consumer and business sentiment that is making effective marketing more important than ever. As COVID-19 guidelines and regulations change, hoteliers need to adapt operations and marketing strategies to fit the new mold. The good news—hotels are moving in the right direction, and the changes are working. According to forecasts from Visit California and CBRE, travel is slowly recovering towards 2019 levels and will reach that level around 2023 or 2024. While this is a distant future, that future is bright. This time last year, the state was entering its second major lockdown phase and travel was heavily restricted. Now, hoteliers are able to welcome guests pursuing all types of travel and are rolling out travel-promotion campaigns to get guests in the door. Recreational tourists and businesses are again booking conference centers and hotel spaces for meetings and events as hotels expand their horizons to target often overlooked markets such as cannabis tourism, in-state travel, or eco-tourism. For our part, CHLA is resuming our in-person events calendar and is proud to host conferences for hoteliers across the state. After over a year of advocacy to protect hoteliers and their employees, CHLA’s focus is on making sure that hotels retain a clear path towards a normalized travel market and an industry-wide recovery. Right now, that means fighting against unnecessary and burdensome legislation at both the state and local levels, encouraging policies that promote business and recreational travel, and ensuring that hoteliers have the tools and information they need to adapt and thrive. At this time, we can’t predict exactly what the future holds, but we can say with a fair amount of certainty that when restrictions arise, hotels will continue to unveil creative campaigns to attract travelers. While the challenges our industry face seem daunting at times, hotels are evolving at an unprecedented pace and are revolutionizing the future of travel. There is little doubt in my mind—in the years ahead, our industry will emerge stronger than ever and will be positioned to serve more types of travelers than ever imagined.  While the challenges our industry face seem daunting at times, hotels are evolving at an unprecedented pace and are revolutionizing the future of travel. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Lynn Mohrfeld CHLA President & CEO