The Modern Hotelier #219: US Government Shutdown, Holiday Travel, Visa Law and more | with Anthony Melchiorri
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier. This is an episode of Hospitality Hot Topics, what Happened in the Month of September. Don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. For September's Hot Topics, we are joined by Anthony Melchiorri. Anthony, thank you for joining us. How you doing today? 
Anthony Melchiorri: What's up? Is this live? Is this a podcast? Oh my God, I'm so nervous. 
Steve Carran: Your first one, I'm sure. Why do you do this? 
David M.: Talking to the mic. 
Steve Carran: II'm sure you'll get a hang of it pretty quick, Anthony. So to kick off the first topic. Of what's going on in September in hospitality still, we are dealing with labor shortages. New projections came out. Hotels are projected to employ about 2.17 million people this year. Um, well below the 2.37 million people employed in 2019, and 71% of hotels are reporting unfilled positions. Anthony, I'm kicking over to you first. What do you think about labor shortages? Are we ever gonna get out of this slump?
Anthony Melchiorri: We had labor shortages before the pandemic, we'll have labor shortages to the day I die. 71% of hotels reporting labor shortages. I think it's more like 100%. 'cause I mean, there's not a hotel I walk into and I do a lot of consulting that, that aren't short labor, you know. We we're about to make an announcement.
I'm putting my name on an AI product, and somebody said to me, um, well, that's taking away jobs. I said, no. It's supporting people at the front desk to help them actually provide service because we've all been at hotels, the best hotels in the world. Please hold, please hold, please hold. And you're standing in front of an agent.
And they're on the phone. Or you're on the phone and they don't get back to you for 20 minutes because they're dealing with the gaps. So I think AI is going to help. So when you look at ai, you're not taking jobs away, in most part, in the hospitality industry, you're supporting the hospitality industry.
But way before, there was a thing called ar. Way before COVID. We were always short staffed. I mean, it was, you know. And now we're only short staffed. We're we're short in talent. So even when you find people to fill the body, supervisors and managers are so desperate to find people, they're settling. So you're seeing mediocrity settle in.
So anything we can do to support the teams so we can get the best people. So it's okay to be short staffed. 'cause if you have short staffed. Somebody at the front desk says, oh, I'm so sorry. Can I place you on hold for just a moment? Or Can I take your number and call you back? Or if you are in line waiting and saying, just gimme one second, sir, would you like a bottle of water?
I'll be with you in a second. You can be short staffed, but if that person's well-trained and that person cares about their job, we don't mind. It's, it's that only being short staffed. It's hiring mediocre people and expecting 'em to perform at a higher level. That's our real crisis. It's not being short staffed, it's our training. The first thing we lose is training. That's the biggest problem in our industry. 
Steve Carran: Well said Anthony. And before I kick it over to you, David, one of the things, things in, of course it is well said, I said it in in the article where younger workers continue to avoid the industry setting low wages and limited career stability.
So I think you're hitting the nail on the head. David, what are we thinking here on labor shortages? 
David M.: I mean, you guys covered it. I think we covered almost every time we talk about to somebody or, or on the podcast. But the one thing that was interesting is somebody just told me yesterday, I won't name the hotel group, but a large hotel brand in Las Vegas is laying off 800 people.
So I know that's a anomaly and that's Vegas. But it is interesting on some markets, it's, you know, not only there's a shortage, but we're actually creating and laying off people at the same time. So, yeah. 
Anthony Melchiorri: Yeah, but I also think that those 800 people are gonna be, get their jobs back when it gets busy, which usually happens.
And you know, Vegas, you know, if you go, I just came back from Vegas and I'm going to Vegas in a couple weeks. Yes, they're, you know, they have to run at such high occupancies in order to, to pay the bills. So if you are running at 98% in some of these big hotels, the basically 2% is your margin of profit.
So if you drop below 94, 90 3%, that's a problem because that's when you're not really making money. And, um, so yeah, I listen, I think. This is ebbs and flows. We've been in this business for 40 years. I've been in this business for 40 years. It's ebbs and flows, so everybody wants to make a crisis bigger than it is.
I'm not saying it's not, I'm not saying we're not having labor charges. I'm not saying we're not laying people off, but this is business. You know, it ebbs and flows. 
David M.: Yeah. And so something I was surprised to see is that with the US government shut down, not millions, there's claims now it's gonna be costing billions of dollars to the hospitality industry. What do you think about that, Steve? It's a, it's kind of a staggering number. 
Steve Carran: Yeah. I remember the other government shutdown, um, you know, back in 20 18, 20 19, that lasted about a month. This one, you know. Interesting. I, I am not in DC for this one in Colorado didn't re I guess maybe I didn't realize how much national parks were gonna be affected during this.
433 parks are gonna be shut down or not have any visitor services available, the president and CEO of US Travel Association, Jeff Freeman said a shutdown is a preventable blow to America's travel economy costing. Billion dollars every week affecting millions of travelers and businesses while placing an unnecessary strain on an already overextended travel workforce this is also gonna affect TSA, so your TSA workers when you go through the airport are no longer gonna be paid. So I am glad I'm not traveling or flying, uh, over the next few weeks. Anthony. What do you think about this? How is this gonna affect the traveling? This? 
Anthony Melchiorri: Well, I'm about my daughter. My daughter's going to the Hamptons for the weekend, so her travel plans aren't getting interrupted. My daughter, my other daughter's gonna Costa Rica tomorrow and you know, I told her, I said, I'll, I'll drive you to the airport at six o'clock. It's three hours. Before you have to take off. She goes, no, an Uber's taking us at five 30. So she's preparing herself, you know, ho hopefully she doesn't have any travel issues and hopefully, you know, all go smoothly.
Listen it again. We've had how many government shutdowns? 15, 20, 30 government shutdowns in his first presidency, his first term, he had the longest shutdown, so this might be the second longest. Or the longest one in, in history. And we all have to, you know, we, you know, the great thing about our travel industry is we're so used to getting darts thrown outta our forehead that it's just another thing we have to deal with.
You know, whether it be, you know, whether happened on nine 11, what it happened in 2008, what hap you know, every, you know, every couple years is a recession. COVID, you know, our, our industry gets hit all the time, and I think we're probably the most flexible business people in business because we have to deal with high occupancies overnight, quickly, and we have to deal with low occupancies overnight really quickly.
So I think we're just so used to it. I just don't like when people make everything. The world is coming to an end. We just have to adjust. That's what we do as business people. It sucks, you know, this shutdown sucks and we have to adjust to it. 
Steve Carran: Well, kind of another thing, not to pile on travel of bad news, but um, as far as there's a new visa law in place and another hurdle for international travelers that might delay them getting their visas.
One stat that I saw was international tourism is at a 8.2% decline international tourists spend about 181. Billion dollars in 2024. So, um, looks like we're gonna lose about $3.6 billion, um, for this $250 Visa integrity fee. David, what do we think about international tourism? We gonna see a bounce back coming up here, or how is, how are these visas gonna play a role here?
David M.: The visas are gonna play a role. I think there's also outbound for us. There could be some new visas that we normally haven't had to had, but. I think, you know, just in general, I mean, I'd love for us to see and get back to kind of a little bit more of a norm and a little more, more of an openness in people wanting to come here without additional hurdles coming to the states.
So, you know, like as Anthony said, there's always challenges. There's always issues. We're resilient, uh, as an industry, but. I personally know, like when I have to go to Brazil and get a visa, it's a real pain in the neck. And so for me, I would rather be more open and less restrictive when it comes to visas.
Anthony Melchiorri: You know, I think it's the visas. I think it's also people are seeing what's going on in America right now and they're feeling a little like hesitant to come. But also in the last couple of years, I mean, you know, how many people do you know, in the last three years have been. Greece, Spain, Italy, they've been everywhere. But you're starting to see that trend where people are traveling domestically. So hopefully we can pick up some of that business that we're losing domestically and that every one of your friends are gonna be in Greece or Spain or you know, Italy. Although this friend me will be in Italy in April. 
David M.: So, alright, good. And so along with that, talking about domestic travel, um. Holiday travel trends and the prices are through the roof for, for me, even I find it very interesting as I travel. Rates are expensive everywhere. I mean, for the most part, I mean, we were just in Miami, rates were expensive. I'm looking to go to Vegas next week.
Rates are expensive, but they're saying that the holiday, the holidays this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas are gonna be super expensive. So Steve, where are you going for the holidays? And are you gonna be spending a lot of money on a hotel room? 
Steve Carran: I am road tripping out to Wisconsin for holiday season in state of Colorado. So I don't have to worry about this, which I'm excited about, but I, you know, I feel like people just are booking earlier and earlier and earlier trying to get these, uh, affordable tickets. Thanksgiving travel's up 7%. Holiday travel around Christmas is up seven per, or sorry, Thanksgiving's 10% Christmas and holidays are ten seven percent.
So, people for the holidays are booking now. I think we're just gonna get to the point where right after, uh, Christmas or the holidays, we're just gonna have to book our plane ticket for the next year to get ahead of these high fares. Anthony, what about you? 
Anthony Melchiorri: The problem is, is AI is making it impossibly get ahead of any high fares.
You know, revenue management was great the last. 20 years, it's improved significantly. AI is gonna make it impossible to get ahead of anything. And so, you know, I'm going away. For the first time ever we're, we're rent into a house with family and we're  upstate and it was expensive. You know, it wasn't a great house, it wasn't the most beautiful house, but just for three days was really expensive. You know, I was watching something on, uh. Uh, uh, somewhere on social media where Bobby Flay says it's expensive to go to dinner. He goes, he thinks twice before going out to dinner because just your regular Tuesday night, it costs you over a hundred dollars a person for a regular restaurant on a Tuesday night.
That's Bobby Fla, who's worth probably $30 million. So. It may be more. And he's concerned and he runs restaurants and he's like, you know when you spend a hundred dollars per person in a nice restaurant and not, again, not a fancy restaurant, when we were growing up, right, you know, when you were 25 years old and you took your girlfriend out and you, you spent a hundred dollars for the check.
That was like the fanciest restaurant in New York City. Now you spend a hundred dollars to go to breakfast. I went, I took my kids out, the five of us, we went out for breakfast. I think it was $350 for breakfast. It, it's insane. And, um, so I don't think it's gonna change. And I think there's gotta be, there's gonna be a moment where there's gotta be some kind of change in some kind of shift, you know?
And what happens is you have inflation and then things drop, and then people have to have to drop their prices on hotel rooms. 'cause the occupancy's down. And again, it's all, it, it, hopefully it all works out in the Washington. It always does. But it is very expensive to travel and it's very expensive to go out to dinner.
That's where I noticed it more. 'cause I haven't really traveled outside of business. I haven't been really on a vacation in a very long time, but it's, um, it's going to a restaurant, you know, I just went to a restaurant with my daughter this morning for breakfast after the gym, and I was shocked. I looked to Bill, my daughter said, I think they missed something.
So it was 44 bucks and we had steak and eggs, both of us, and we looked, it was 44 bucks and we looked at the check and I was like. They forgot things. So I asked the waitress, I said, you forgot things. She goes, don't worry about it. I said, okay. So I gave her a big tip, but 44 bucks for steak and eggs. I was like, that was the bargain I, I haven't seen in a long time.
David M.: Probably be there tomorrow.
Steve Carran: Cheapest breakfast would just be to fly to New York, go to that restaurant and fly back home for lunch. Great. So this, I don't know, I feel like it's been a little downer of a hot topics, but on some good news, Delta partnered with YouTube, uh, to bring ad free access to a selection of YouTube videos.
Podcast so you can watch The Modern Hotelier on your flights. Now, along with any music onboard, Anthony, I'm kicking to you first. Do you think we're gonna see more of these partnerships where, you know, you don't have to be downloading all these videos or movies before you get on the plane? 
Anthony Melchiorri: You may not like my take on this because I love hospitality because we always come to things very late.
YouTube is the number two most visited URL. Outside of google.com and it we're in 2025, right? Looking at the end of 2025 into 2026 and hot news is that Delta is allowing you to take to, to go to YouTube. Like, that's great, but really that's like saying, you know, I don't know, like you could put gas in your car.
I don't, it's kind of like silly that it's great. It's great news for Delta. It's great news for YouTube. Love it. Okay.
Steve Carran: that same thing reading this article. I'm like, how are we just getting here now? Like, uh, we've had DirecTV on flights for years and years and years, but we haven't had YouTube yet. 
Anthony Melchiorri: David, listen, I have owners still saying to me, you think it's a good idea to put smart TVs in? I was like, no. Why don't you just put one in where you have, change the chat and get up and just move the channel.
Steve Carran: Just the antenna. 
Anthony Melchiorri: We are the best industry in the world, but technology in our industry, we've been challenged. 
Steve Carran: David, what about you? How excited are you to watch YouTube on your next flight? 
David M.: Really? Yeah. I spent I'm one of those people who contribute to YouTube being the second most channel, uh, or Google, what, what have you.
So for me, I love it. I mean, even, my hack now is I have to fly American. I know Anthony's a big Delta guy, but American has this thing where you get 20 minutes free if you watch like a commercial, and I use that on flights to LA or. Vegas because it's like, it's only gonna be an hour flight, so what I want to pay, you know, 15, 20 bucks for wifi, and it goes all the way back to, oh, I'm sorry, 
Anthony Melchiorri: Delta. Delta gives you free wifi. 
David M.: Right. American's gonna do that next year, but it's, it's, oh really? 
Anthony Melchiorri: They're gonna do it next year. It's like these hotels that still charge for internet service. Nobody wants to go to those hotels. You go to the three-star hotel, it's free. You are a big hotel. It costs money.
You know, we come to things too late. The only reason that they're doing it is because the consumer's demanding it. That's why they're doing it. I just wish we would do things when the consumer's not demanding it. 
David M.: Well, what's funny is we can even go back before we wrap this up, your comment about, you know, did the Algonquin give people a pen to write with?
And so how are you gonna charge people for wifi? In a hotel. And it is kind of funny when even, even when you're in like, like you're saying, Americans behind the game, even if I get upgraded to business or I buy a business ticket, I still have to buy wifi. 
Anthony Melchiorri: Right. You know, you so even I, if I, and just to explain that, you know, when I was Joe Manger, the owner said to me, we're charging for wifi. And I said, yo Algonquin's known as a writer's hotel. It's a theatrical hotel. People come here to write their book, to write their play. The Godfather's contract was signed in our lobby. My Fair lady was, was, was created in one of the rooms in the hotel. I was like, so they would come and we would give them a pen.
I am not charging them for wifi 'cause that's how they write now. And the owner looked at me and goes. That's a good point. Right. So we didn't charge for wifi, but we were the first nice hotel in New York City, not charge for wifi, because it didn't make any sense to me. Right. So I don't wanna lose money. But you'll spend a, but I was charging $22 for a martini five years ago. No, five years ago, 20 years ago. And I was getting, 
David M.: Yeah, I was gonna say, 
Anthony Melchiorri: You know, but the charge for wifi, I just thought that was disrespectful. So. I just wish our industry would do the right thing. That's the right thing, not being forced to, you know, because you know when, when you have a resort fee and you're still on your bill says, well, we give you 1-800-NUMBERS for free and we give you newspapers, and they don't deliver the newspaper.
I mean, who's ever used a hotel phone to make a, a phone call in the last 10 years? So if you are gonna use a resort fee, give value to that resort fee. And we won't mention who was the first person to ever have a resort fee in the country. We won't talk about that. Okay, good. It might been Nickelodeon when I ran it, but we're not talking about that.
David M.: Ooh, what was the resort fee? Do you remember what the number was? 
Anthony Melchiorri: For my hotel it was $22. 
David M.: For the Nickelodeon? 
Anthony Melchiorri: Yeah, it was $22. But you got free popup. Entertainment. You got entertainment at the pool, you got entertainment at night. Um, you got all this entertainment for free. So I felt good about it 'cause there was value and I never got complaints about it 'cause there was so much value. Now there's no value. 
Steve Carran: Yeah. Get two bottle the waters in the room and uh, that's your resort for you right there. 
Anthony Melchiorri: Yeah. that's right. We give you two. Two, seven waters in the room. You know, I'm working with a company now that has resort free on a lot of their properties, but there's real value.
You know, you get free breakfast, you get, you can spend all of that in the breakfast area. You can spend that in the gift shop, you can expect that at the bar. So all they're really doing is trying to keep the business in the hotel, but they're giving it back to you in the restaurant at the bar and the gift shop.
So if you are checking out and you still have $10 on your resort fee, just go to the gift shop and buy $10 worth of stuff. It's not, you know, they don't wanna keep your money. They just want you to spend it within their hotel, which makes sense. 
David M.: Before we wrap it up, I'm gonna give a shout out to, to John, our producer, because we just didn't, uh, I won't name the hotel, but we were just on a road trip and the hotel actually put two free bottles of water by the, the TV stand, and then had two bottles of water that were like $7 each, right next to the right on the nightstand.
So if you wake up in the middle of the night, you just, you're thirsty. You drink the $7 bottle of water, and then the, the other bottle of water, which is free is sitting, you know, eight feet away from you. Is that true, John? It is true. That's true. They got me, I woke up in the morning and I was like, son of a, you know, 
Anthony Melchiorri: But just tell them that, you know, when I go to a room and they leave me an amenity, um, and just depending on what room I'm in, if I'm in a suite, I'll grab that $7 bottle of water and go, damn.
I have a bottle of water on the table. I do it all the time, but then I go downstairs and go, I didn't have that bottle of water. And they said, but I don't do that typically. But I think it. 
David M.: So be careful about getting free stuff. I did an episode on getting free stuff and people destroyed me on YouTube anyway, so Anthony, we're wrapping up. Tell people what's going on with you. What's new? No, I've doing for 
Anthony Melchiorri: 40 years and I travel every week. If I, if somebody wants to gimme a piece of proof of free, I'll take it. 
David M.: You heard that here first. 
Steve Carran: People are just gonna be walking up you at the airport giving you like they're half burger. Do you know Anthony? Just wait. 
David M.: Anyway, since we're telling funny stories, the funniest thing that Bill Murray does is if he goes through an airport. He walks past where people are, are eating in a restaurant, he leans over and Doug will take one of their french fries and just say, who's ever gonna believe you? And then just eat it and he just keeps walking anyway.
Alright Anthony, so tell us what's going on with you. Anything you wanna talk about or plug away? Anything new? Um, I'm still 
Anthony Melchiorri: doing consulting. I'm traveling every week. I'm doing speaking a lot of speaking gigs and, uh, about to sit down and start the outline for my new book that you don't even know about. I'm actually gonna be talking with you guys about new podcasts. We'll talk about that. And, um, I'm working on another project that's a personal project, um, that I've been wanting to write for years and years that, you know, I wrote a movie in 2008 and, and so I'm writing an outline probably this year, by the end of the year on another movie.
And hopefully AI will help me and it won't be so arduous this time. Um, so, uh, yeah, so you know, I'm taking on projects I wanna take on at this point in my career. 
David M.: What's the best way for people to get in touch with you? 
Anthony Melchiorri: I'll call you. 
David M.: Okay, great. Alright, well that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier Hospitality's Most Engaged Podcast.
Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to see you again soon. Thanks for joining us, Anthony. 
Anthony Melchiorri: You are welcome.