Where has the $100 million gone? The deposit promised for the purchase of The Pierre hotel in New York has still not arrived, and the sale is wobbling. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry keeps moving forward.
Today’s hotel industry news, 30 September 2026: from openings and investments to end-of-season reviews and employment figures, here is what you need to know today.
🇫🇷 France
⛰️ Mountains, Development | Banque des Territoires, the Agence des Pyrénées and the French State are today, 30 September, launching the Pyrenean strand of the “Territoires de montagne” (Mountain Territories) plan in Ax-les-Thermes. New hotels and the conversion of former children’s holiday camps are intended to help the range diversify an economy that remains heavily dependent on snow. #Pyrenees #Mountains #BanqueDesTerritoires
🎰 Casinos & Hotels | The Barrière casino in Enghien-les-Bains, France’s largest, is expanding its slot-machine hall to 539 machines, a national record, and is building a new 4-star hotel. After welcoming 750,000 visitors in 2025, it is targeting 800,000 by the end of the year. #Barriere #EnghienLesBains #ValDOise
⚖️ Governance | In Biarritz, former mayor Maider Arosteguy, who filed a complaint in July over defamatory writings relating to her chairmanship of the Hôtel du Palais, has been granted the town’s statutory legal protection (protection fonctionnelle). Councillors from the ruling majority are calling for the cost of her defence to be made public. #Biarritz #HotelDuPalais #BasqueCountry
📈 Performance | In Bordeaux, hotel occupancy held steady at 66.3% from January to August, supported by an upscale segment buoyed by North American guests. However, July’s wildfire in the Gironde pushed RevPAR down 15% in August, while leisure sales are falling. #Bordeaux #RevPAR #Tourism
📊 Employment | The first sector study by Urssaf Île-de-France on the hotel, café and restaurant (HCR) sector counts 392,400 workers in 2025, almost a quarter of all accommodation and food-service jobs in France. The average gross salary stands at €2,290, compared with €3,930 across the region’s private sector, and resignations account for 48% of terminations of permanent (CDI) contracts. #IleDeFrance #HospitalityJobs #Urssaf
🌍 International
🏙️ Transaction | A new twist in the sale of The Pierre hotel in New York: the $100 million deposit promised by Saudi businessman Motasem Khashoggi, in partnership with Dorchester Collection, has still not arrived. The co-op has withdrawn his exclusivity and pushed back the vote on the $2 billion offer to the end of October. #HotelPierre #NewYork #DorchesterCollection
🚀 Development | Choice Hotels is opening six upscale properties in the United States: two Cambria hotels in Colorado Springs and Jacksonville, and four Ascend Collection hotels in Florida, Vermont and Wisconsin. Its upscale portfolio now exceeds 300 open hotels, with nearly 150 projects in the pipeline. #ChoiceHotels #Cambria #AscendCollection
💼 Investment | Hotel investment firm TMGOC Ventures is rebranding as Montford Group, with no change to its ownership or management. Co-founded by former Blackstone executives Sunju Patel and Glenn Alba, the platform represents around $1.5 billion in assets and pipeline, amounting to more than 4,200 keys in the United States. #MontfordGroup #HotelInvestment #USA
🏨 Opening | Moroccan Golden Cube will develop a 5-star hotel of around fifty rooms at El Arguoub, near Dakhla, for close to MAD 100 million, with opening scheduled for 2027. The destination captured 52% of the MAD 2.5 billion invested in southern Morocco in 2025. #Morocco #Dakhla #FiveStar
🎮 Themed hotel | A 69-room Minecraft World Hotel will open in 2027 at the heart of the new Minecraft zone at Chessington World of Adventures, near London. It confirms the move upmarket of video-game-themed hospitality, already embodied in Japan by MIMARU’s Pokémon rooms. #Minecraft #UK #ThemedHotel
🍣 Opening | Nobu Hospitality is making its debut in Puerto Rico with Nobu Hotel and Restaurant San Juan, a 50-room luxury hotel expected in 2028. The property will house a Nobu restaurant on the ground floor and a rooftop lounge bar. #Nobu #PuertoRico #Luxury
