On Monday, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation (AHLEF) both finalized and released their 2017 Annual Reports detailing last year’s hospitality industry accomplishments.
The theme of AHLA’s annual report is “All Together,” which the association says reflects the nature of the hospitality business, where each team at a hotel comes together to provide a positive guest experience.
Key highlights from AHLA’s 2017 Annual Report include the industry’s work to end hotel booking scams by introducing the first bipartisan, bicameral bill to stop online booking scams in the House and Senate, and also by forging a national partnership with the Better Business Bureau and advancing a major national awareness campaign to help consumers avoid hotel booking scams. The report’s advocacy victories also included reining in illegal short-term rentals state by state and bill by bill and protecting and expanding legal guest worker visas.
The annual reports also detailed efforts to grow the hospitality talent pipeline by teaming up with the U.S. Department of Labor and committing to recruit some 2,500 hotel industry apprentices in the next three years. In addition, the industry donated $500,000 in community grants to train opportunity youth for hospitality careers in 2017. AHLA also launched the “Dreams Happen Here” national awareness campaign to highlight the economic impact of the hotel industry to Members of Congress and local legislators.
The full annual reports are available here.
