2022 Challenges + Meetings on the Rise + Managing Risk for Live Events + Marijuana Use + Remote Work & Employment Law

The hotel business is rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a collective $111.8 billion loss in room revenue alone during 2020 and 2021 according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). While leisure travel continues to bounce back, business travel has been slower to return; in the same report, AHLA predicted only 58 percent of meetings and events will resume in 2022.

The path to full recovery may be uneven and lengthy, and the challenges created by the pandemic over the past two years will create new hurdles for hoteliers in the year ahead, ranging from financial to operational in nature. Here are three challenges hoteliers are facing in 2022:

Hotel executives, administrators, marketing professionals, office staff, salespeople and countless other employees, have spent the past two years working in their living rooms, home offices, kitchens and dens. Whether remote work is simply the new way we work or a temporary measure to weather the pandemic storm, what’s clear is that many hospitality employees will be working from home for the foreseeable future.

What’s equally clear is that many hospitality businesses are treating their remote staff as if they still go into the office every day. While technologies like Zoom, Google Meet and sometimes the traditional telephone have made the transition to remote work almost seamless, things are not quite as simple from an employment law standpoint.