Lodging

U.S. hotel acquisitions are up dramatically in the past 12 months. Who's behind the hot buying streak? JLL, a real estate services firm, gives us the numbers and tells us who.

As of YTD 2018, hotel transaction volume in the United States reached $29.7 billion, more than a 25 percent year-over-year increase, with private equity firms representing 37 percent of hotel acquisition in the United States, or $11 billion.

Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter, a convicted felon, faces the death penalty for the murder of two Vietnamese tour leaders at the Circus Circus Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The latch on the victims door was inspected the next day and found to be broken.

Danny Copus, owner of the Montecito Inn in Santa Barbara, California, unexpectedly found himself in grave danger from the Hill Fire, which was  burning on both sides of the freeway he was on, Highway 101.

Hotel housekeepers enter hotel rooms not sure what they will find inside. Sometimes what they find is sexual harassment or other dangers. Major hotel operators, such as  Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton,  Wyndham and IHG, working with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, are issuing panic buttons to protect their employees better.

After countless complaints of hotel workers enduring sexual harassment, the industry is finally responding by introducing increased measures to better protect its employees, including a portable panic button.