Tag: hospitality

Patrick Tate looks back on a life in hospitality

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There is a solution to every problem, says Patrick Tate, retiring divisional director of operations at City Lodge Hotel Group (CLHG). This approach, coupled with a lifetime of experience, steady and grounded disposition, and an abundance of patience has made Tate excel as a hotelier.

Patrick Tate

City Lodge Hotel Group will bid a fond yet sad farewell to Tate on 30 November 2020 after 32 years of loyal service with the company. He was appointed by the group’s founder, the late Hans Enderle – also Tate’s mentor – in 1988 when the group only had three hotels: City Lodge Hotel Bryanston (then called City Lodge Randburg), City Lodge Hotel Sandton, Katherine Street (City Lodge Sandton at the time) and City Lodge Hotel Johannesburg Airport, Barbara Road (previously known as City Lodge Jan Smuts Airport). Tate was no stranger to the team he was joining as he had worked with all his new colleagues previously at Holiday Inn, before that group was bought out by Southern Sun (now Tsogo Sun).

Tate left his post at Holiday Inn Eastern Boulevard to manage City Lodge Cape Town (now City Lodge Hotel Pinelands) on 1 August 1988 – the group’s third birthday. He initially worked out of City Lodge Randburg with then general manager, Clifford Ross, who was preparing to open City Lodge Durban. Together with Ross and Lynda Schroeder, Tate learned the City Lodge way of operating through assisting in opening the group’s first hotel in KwaZulu-Natal, and went on to open City Lodge Hotel Port Elizabeth while the delayed Cape Town construction continued.

City Lodge Pinelands was successfully opened in 1989 under the capable control of Tate, who then moved on to open City Lodge V&A Waterfront in 1992. He fulfilled his role as general manager at the latter hotel until his promotion to divisional director of operations at central office in 2001, at the same time that Ross stepped up as managing director.

Tate’s current position as divisional director of operations was carried out with boundless energy and unrivalled commitment to the continuing success of the group. His last day reporting to duty is 30 November 2020 but he will always remain a friend to the group.

Looking back over his prolific career, Tate is a hotelier to the core. When he left school, he initially wanted to be a dentist, but didn’t get into the one dentistry school he applied to. He did a stint at Safmarine as a navigational cadet, and on his return to South Africa his call-up papers saw him heading off to Upington to start his national service. While in Namibia (then South West Africa), he became friends with a chef who was a trainee at Holiday Inn in Cape Town. After national service, the two of them returned to Cape Town and Patrick joined Holiday Inn in 1976 as a trainee in the kitchen. He worked in the kitchen in a hotel in Polokwane (then Pietersburg) for a year before working his way through

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Global Hospitality Leader Millennium & Copthorne Prepares for Post-COVID-19 Recovery of Hotel Operations

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SINGAPORE / LONDON, Nov 18, 2020 – (ACN Newswire) – – A year after delisting from the London Stock Exchange, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Limited (M&C), a global hospitality leader, disclosed today major initiatives that will prepare it for a recovery by as early as 2021 from the recent challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The privatisation granted M&C greater agility and cushioned impact of the pandemic. Lessons learned and operational changes in recent months have helped to lay a much stronger foundation. Properties across the globe have started to show ‘green shoots’ of improvements in occupancy and Gross Operating Profit (GOP) from the second half of 2020 which are expected to gain momentum in 2021.

London-headquartered M&C was privatised on 19 November 2019 after delisting from the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of GBP2.23 billion (S$3.96 billion). M&C operates 66 hotels (seven of which are managed by third parties) in Asia (12), Europe/UK (21), USA (18) and New Zealand (15) under the Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR) global brands; and 79 are under franchise and management contracts.

M&C, with an inventory of over 40,000 rooms and operations in 29 countries, is wholly owned by Singapore Exchange-listed City Developments Limited (CDL), a leading global real estate company with total assets of over S$23.8 billion. CDL is also a Sponsor that holds an effective 37.8% effective stake in CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT), a Singapore-listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with a market value of over S$1.40 billion.

Assessing The Operating Landscape

In 2019, M&C recorded revenue of GBP1.025 billion (S$1.82 billion) (2018: GBP997 million (S$1.78 billion)) and a pre-tax profit of GBP102 million (S$181.2 million) (2018: profit of GBP106 million (S$188.3 million)) and included net valuation and impairment charges of GBP34 million (S$60.4 million) (2018: GBP36 million (S$101.2 million)). Excluding the effects of impairment losses and net revaluation gains, M&C reported profit before tax of GBP136 million (S$241.6 million) in 2019 (2018: GBP142 million (S$252.3 million)).

M&C has assessed as positive recent reports of vaccines against COVID-19, air travel ‘bubbles’, the recent US presidential elections and plans to hold the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (postponed from 2020). The signing by 15 countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) world trade pact also points to a brighter future for the region.

In Singapore, where M&C operates over 2,000 hotel rooms, several properties will resume pre-COVID-19 activities such as selling rooms, corporate bookings, events and weddings in the next few months.

M&C recognises that in this ‘new normal’ hygiene is much more important when a customer chooses a hotel, restaurant or consider events; and that brands must look beyond ‘personal touch’ and ambience to include the promise of safety and to emphasise value for money.

The new business dynamics mean that large hospitality groups such as M&C must have sufficient working capital to weather possible prolonged uncertainty or

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Proper Hospitality turned luxury suites into private offices for remote workers

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  • Hotel brand Proper Hospitality and coworking space provider Industrious partnered to turn some of Proper’s luxury hotel suites into private offices.
  • The suites can accommodate one to six people depending on the location.
  • Visitors will receive free WiFi, coffee, an extra computer monitor, printing access, and a digital subscription to The New York Times, to name a few perks.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Hotel brand Proper Hospitality and coworking space provider Industrious has partnered to turn some of Proper’s luxury hotel suites into private offices.

The “work from anywhere” mentality and digital nomad lifestyle saw a strong resurgence during the pandemic when employers across the US started announcing long-term or permanent work from home protocols. As a result, several industries started looking at this rising nomadic workforce as a potential segment of new customers.

This includes Proper Hospitality, which recently partnered with Industrious’ “Work From Here by Industrious” program to turn some of the brand’s luxury hotel suites into private offices for the work remote crowd. 

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Ryman Hospitality Properties: Here’s Why This Hotel REIT Is Worth Owning

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Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE:RHP) is certainly hurting this year. At a time when conventions, conferences, and other large events are just not happening, it’s not a great time to own group-focused hotel properties. However, there could still be a very bright future for this company, and in this Nov. 5, 2020 Fool Live video clip, Millionacres REIT analyst Matt Frankel, CFP and Millionacres editor Deidre Woollard discuss the recent results and why investors should look beyond the pandemic. 

Matt Frankel: Moving on to our next one, which is Ryman Hospitality Properties, ticker symbol is RHP. If you’ve ever been to a Gaylord Hotel, this is their parent company. Unlike Empire State, Ryman is not profitable. Ryman’s hotels are specifically oriented toward conventions, conferences, other large group of events. The one in DC hosts the big ICE exhibit every year, just to name one thing. The DC one is actually still closed. They’re using this opportunity to renovate it a little bit. It’s not a great hotel just for leisure travelers, so they decided to keep that one closed. The other four are open. But for Q3, they were less than 50 percent occupied. That’s better than zero, and Ryman’s obviously decided that that’s enough that it’s worth keeping them open for, but this is not a profitable company right now. They’re burning through about $23 million a month. They have that to burn through. They have over 700 million in liquidity, so they’re not in the danger zone or anything like that, which is why their stock actually has not done that bad since start of the pandemic. They also own some entertainment venues. They get their name from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. They also own the Grand Ole Opry, which had been experimenting with some very, very lightly attended live shows recently, and just got the go-ahead to bump that up to 25 percent capacity. That could be a positive going forward. But for now, they are hemorrhaging money, but they’ve rebooked successfully over a million canceled room nights for subsequent years. Deidre, I’ll let you take this because you actually tweeted out a comment by Ryman’s CEO about the future of conferences and conventions, if you remember that one.

Deidre Woollard: Yeah. Colin Reed was talking about how he feels like the Work From Home movement actually benefits Ryman a little bit because they’re already seeing some companies hold their retreats at the properties and that that’s going to continue. If people are a distributed workforce, they will need to get together from time to time, and what better place to do it than at a Ryman property. They’re beautiful places to be, so it’s a treat for the workers and there’s plenty of room. So he really sees that as something that’s going to be something people will be looking at going forward.

Matt Frankel: I’m glad you mentioned just how beautiful and iconic these hotels are. They are very valuable assets. They’re really one of

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New ModPipe malware targets hospitality, hotel point of sale systems

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A new Point-of-Sale (PoS) malware is targeting devices used by “hundreds of thousands” of organizations in the hospitality sector, researchers have warned. 

Dubbed ModPipe, the malware is a backdoor able to harvest sensitive information in PoS devices running Oracle Micros Restaurant Enterprise Series (RES) 3700, management software that is particularly popular in the United States. 

RES 3700 is described by Oracle as the “most widely installed restaurant management software in the industry today.” The software suite is used to manage PoS, loyalty programs, reporting, inventory, promotions, and mobile payment. 

On Thursday, ESET researchers said in a blog post that the operators of ModPipe likely have a “deep knowledge” of the software, as the malware contains a custom algorithm designed to harvest RES 3700 POS database passwords by decrypting them from Windows registry values. 

See also: ESET takes down VictoryGate cryptomining botnet

This direct, sophisticated approach is in contrast to the standard PoS malware method, in which “noisy” keylogging and credit card skimming is often practiced. 

Alternatively, it may be that the cyberattackers were able to steal the software and reverse-engineer the code following a 2016 data breach at Oracle’s PoS division. 

Once executed on a PoS device, ModPipe will access database contents, including system configuration, status tables, and some PoS data concerning transactions — but it does not seem that in its basic state, the malware is able to grab credit card numbers or expiry dates. 

According to the researchers, this sensitive information is protected by encryption standards implemented by RES 3700 — and so the only payment card-related data threat actors will be able to access is cardholder names. 

ModPipe’s modular architecture comprises of a 32/64-bit dropper, a loader, and the main payload that creates a “pipe” used to connect with other malicious modules, as well as serve as a dispatch point for communication between the malware and a C2. 

ModPipe is also able to download additional modules from an attacker’s command-and-control (C2) server to extend its malicious capabilities. 

The modules found by ESET, so far, include GetMicInfo — the module containing the custom algorithm — which is also able to intercept and decrypt database passwords; ModScan 2.20, which gathers PoS information by scanning IP addresses; and ProcList, which monitors running processes. 

CNET: Misinformation about election fraud has flooded the internet. Here’s how to spot false reports

The majority of PoS malware will hone in on guest or customer payment card data as this is the most valuable information a PoS device will process. Without a module to grab and decrypt this information, ESET says the operator’s business model remains “unclear.”

However, it should be noted that there may be such a module and it just hasn’t been found — yet. 

“To achieve this the attackers would have to reverse engineer the generation process of the “site-specific passphrase,” which is used to derive the encryption key for sensitive data,” the researchers note. “This process would then have to be implemented into the module and — due to use of

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Aimbridge Hospitality Expands Full-Service Portfolio with the Addition of the Renaissance Charleston Historic District Hotel

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PLANO, Texas, Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Aimbridge Hospitality, the leading, global, third-party hotel management company, announces it has been selected to manage the Renaissance Charleston Historic District Hotel.

With specialized operating expertise across all verticals and a deep understanding of full-service properties, Aimbridge Hospitality leverages its scale to add resources, efficiencies, and proprietary tools along with operating acumen focused on nuance. “We are very pleased to be the designated management company for Renaissance Charleston Historic District Hotel,” said Mike Deitemeyer, Global President of Aimbridge Hospitality. “As we continue to expand our full-service portfolio, our specialized teams provide a focused approach in operating this hotel category, backed by our advantage of scale.”

Renaissance Charleston Historic District Hotel boasts 166 design-forward guest rooms and eclectic, inviting décor throughout common areas. Located between King Street and Meeting Street, the property is central to the best of Charleston’s attractions, yet nestled in on a quiet street, giving guests the best of both worlds. The AAA four-diamond boutique hotel’s amenities include more than 2,700 square feet of event space and an outdoor saltwater pool. Additionally, renowned Chef Vivian Howard has designed two new restaurants, Handy and Hot, currently open for grab-and-go breakfast and lunch opens, and Lenoir opening for dinner by the end of 2020.

Renaissance Charleston Historic District Hotel is located at 68 Wentworth Street, Charleston, South Carolina 29401. For more information or to book a stay, please click here or call 843-534-0300.

About Aimbridge Hospitality

Aimbridge Hospitality is the leading, global, third-party hotel management company operating branded full service, select service, luxury hotels, destination resorts, convention centers, and lifestyle hotels. Aimbridge merged with Interstate Hotels & Resorts in 2019, and now represents a premium portfolio of more than 1,400 branded and independent properties in 49 states and 20 countries. Aimbridge is based in Plano, Texas, and has additional corporate offices in Atlanta, Calgary, Fargo, Puerto Rico, San Clemente, Toronto, and Washington D.C. Aimbridge’s International Division, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, has supporting offices spread across Europe in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Moscow.

For more information on Aimbridge Hospitality, please visit www.aimbridgehospitality.com and connect with Aimbridge on LinkedIn.

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Artyzen Hospitality Group Presents A New Lifestyle Hotel – YaTi by Artyzen in Shanghai Hongqiao

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SHANGHAI, Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — YaTi by Artyzen is Artyzen Hospitality Group’s latest lifestyle inspiration in the fast growing Hongqiao area in Shanghai. The hotel is conveniently connected with direct access to another design-led brand under Artyzen, Artyzen Habitat, that was officially launched a year ago.

Smartly designed guest room for business and leisure travellers.

 

The Living Room and Bar for working, relaxing and social gatherings.

 

The Bar at night provides a variety of drinks, cocktails, snacks and hot food.

 

Stylish meeting rooms for meetings, networking, collaboration and achievement.

 

Artyzen Hospitality Group Logo

“Embracing the group’s philosophy of ‘Art, Culture and Emotional Wisdom’, and catering to today’s modern traveler’s evolving lifestyle, YaTi by Artyzen represents a simplified but diverse lifestyle of creativity, vitality and passion. We believe YaTi is more than a place to stay, it is a living room for those youthful travellers who seek today’s social, art and culture scenes wherever they go,” said Peter Wynne, newly appointed Senior Vice President of Artyzen Hospitality Group. “YaTi by Artyzen Hongqiao Shanghai is strategically positioned as a select service hotel that provides essentials without fanfare and complications. In conjunction with the adjacent Artyzen Habitat hotel, guests enjoy the unique benefit of direct access to the added facilities in Artyzen Habitat, such as a fully equipped gym, Utility Hub with self-serviced laundry, a bistro and café, an amphitheater and events studios. Together, the two hotels create a smart business model and added value for guests that cannot be found in other comparable select service hotels.”  

Located in the greater Hongqiao area, the hotel is an integral part of the multi-faceted Shanghai MixC complex with a few steps from the Ziteng Road Metro Station on Line 10 and a short drive to the Hongqiao Railway Station and the Hongqiao International Airport. Guests can easily get to entertainment hotspots including Xintiandi, Yu Garden, Nanjing Road and nearby shopping malls.

YaTi by Artyzen Hongqiao Shanghai has 303 guest rooms that are efficiently decorated for a clutter free experience. It is smartly designed with business and leisure travelers in mind. The 2×2 meters over-sized bed with huggable pillows, tent-size duvets and fluffy bedding offer quality restorative sleep. The full-length window for superior outlook of the city view or a fully pressurized rain shower after a long day brings true relief while travelling. The Living Room and Bar are contemporary and socially designed for working and relaxing, as well as social and casual gatherings. Surrounded by a specially commissioned art collection, there are hot desks for co-working, computer desks equipped with Apple desktop computers, and sofa areas with big screen TVs. A bar located centrally in the Living Room, provides all-day beverages and a simple menu with localized cuisine offerings. It is a food pantry by day and a bar by night. Guests can also try out the mixology by well trained, multitasking baristas-slash-bartenders at the designer-furnished outdoor patio to unwind after an exciting day in the city. On the second floor, there are 8 one-of-a-kind stylish meeting rooms for meetings, networking, collaboration and achievement. Each room is equipped with up to date technologies, filled with art pieces and colorful furniture with whiteboard and chalkboard wall where brilliant ideas can be jotted down.

YaTi by Artyzen Hongqiao

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The Chloe, Uptown mansion turned hotel, opens with ‘21st century New Orleans hospitality’ | Where NOLA Eats

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Only St. Charles Avenue could make a mansion like the one known now as The Chloe seem to subtly blend in.

With its elaborate façade veiled by gray/green oak limbs, it stands back along a stretch of Uptown thick with similarly grand homes, where the streetcars clatter, Mardi Gras beads truss the power lines and another major institution or old neighborhood standby waits around every bend.

Now though, this lushly revamped 19th-century property is stepping forward as the centerpiece of a bold undertaking. Its Uptown setting is the key.

The Chloe is a new hotel, restaurant and bar in a historic mansion on St. Charles Avenue, deep in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. Deve…

The Chloe is a 14-room hotel with a restaurant, bar and pool patio. Together they make a pitch as much to locals who want to sink deep into their own city as to visitors out to explore a new one.

The Chloe opened early in October. Long in the works, it debuts as the pandemic has simultaneously plunged restaurants and hotels into the hardest times these entwined sectors have known in generations.
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Róbert LeBlanc at the Chloe, his new hotel on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, where alligators crawl down the  carpeted steps, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)




What gives proprietor Róbert LeBlanc confidence in The Chloe’s prospects is how, from the start, it was devised to tack differently from conventional restaurants or hotels.

The Chloe was conceived to mesh with Uptown neighborhood life, and that dynamic has remained buoyant.

“There’s so much rich New Orleans culture around us here,” LeBlanc said. “We wanted to give people a sense of that, a terroir of what Uptown New Orleans is about and how people who live here experience it.”
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A mural on the back wall of the poolside bar at The Chloe on St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans shows scenes of Uptown on Tuesday, October 13, 2020. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)




Sense of place, and style

The Chloe is the latest from LeBlanc + Smith, the local company behind the restaurants Sylvain, Meauxbar, Cavan and Longway Tavern and the bar Barrel Proof.

These spots share an evocative aesthetic, each weaving modern style into an old framework. They give a timeless New Orleans sense of place, but also a sense of how the next generation applies its own tastes and influences, reading like new chapters added to long narratives.

“We think it’s important to honor the heritage of this city while at the same time doing our part to define what 21st century New Orleans hospitality should be,” LeBlanc said.

The Chloe layers this idea with the amenities of a hotel, presenting a place people might stay for the weekend, for an afternoon at the pool (patio chairs will soon be available for reservation) or for a

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Different Varieties Of Hospitality Administration Systems

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Running a hotel or motel generally is a worthwhile enterprise, but there is nearly no end of upkeep, service and repairs that must be addressed so as to preserve your clients glad and earnings rolling in. A few of the most potentially costly and time consuming hotel upkeep includes plumbing and drain cleansing, and the multitude of various companies that supply these companies could make it difficult to seek out the most effective deal. The artwork of negotiation lies in securing the advantage earlier than you start; on this case, this implies you need to attempt to e book hotels in the off season, or a minimum of keep away from peak instances. By deciding on a hotel or a guest home lodging in the vicinity you’ll be able to spend more time relaxing in the comfortable suite of your hotel or visiting new places.

In case you are on a shoestring, look for hotels that present just the mattress and loo. When you’re in a location like the Bahamas or Maldives, then how are you going to miss the enjoyable of staying in beach front resorts? Costa Rica has Treehouse hotels and Japan has capsule hotels the place people sleep on top of each other in rectangular containers.

The Club Level values for the weeks, seasons, and unit sizes for every Membership resort might be discovered in the printed Member’s Guide Most resale patrons tend to focus on the Hilton constructed properties, to keep away from confusion and ensure they receive a consistent number of Membership factors every year.

He was decided that his hotel to be the very best in each metropolis and coined the phrase, “take me to the Hilton”. 7. Management of Online Status – although Google Alerts can hold you updated with what persons are saying about you online, monitoring this and taking effective motion might be very time consuming.

The chain is targeted on the wants of enterprise and leisure travelers who desire a full array of high quality services. The reality is hotels and profitable companies of all kinds typically share one comparable trait and that is they’re nice at communication. three) Internet, emails, direct mailing, print media are all good mediums of getting your message throughout to individuals within the hospitality business.…

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Different Sorts Of Hospitality Administration Programs

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Staying at a B&B is always a unique experience, however the execs and cons of staying at a bed and breakfast lodging must be acknowledged to help vacationers plan a trouble-free vacation. Notes: -State the date and approximate time of arrival and departure as a result of it helps the staff know which guests shall be arriving first to arrange the way in which for them, so ready time in your room is stored to a minimal. Usually, you will be able to acquire deep reductions if your hotel or motel signs a quarterly maintenance contract for frequently scheduled drain cleansing services throughout the year.

This feature of airport hotels makes it easier to travel to central district to meet contacted enterprise individuals or to catch up on business work, or to fly out for brief break getaway, and fly again in. But you need to verify if the airport hotel is actually close to the airport.

Notes: -State the date and approximate time of arrival and departure as a result of it helps the staff know which friends will probably be arriving first to organize the way in which for them, so waiting time to your room is saved to a minimal. Typically, it is possible for you to to acquire deep reductions if your hotel or motel indicators a quarterly maintenance contract for regularly scheduled drain cleaning companies all year long.

This contains snug beds with clean sheets, excessive speed internet access within the room, access to films, full toilet amenities, free native calls, continental breakfasts, newspaper within the morning outdoors the door, get up name service, alarm clock, hair dryer, espresso maker or complimentary coffee, iron and ironing board, and air-conditioning.

Most prospects get pleasure from making the most of hotel recreational providers. Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent, travelled to Exeter to obtain the liberty of town, however died while staying in Sidmouth on 23rd January 1820. High progress areas of the hospitality business include food and drinks, and full service hotels.…

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