Airbnb was first for home owners. Now it's going after hotel owners. In an open letter penned today by Airbnb and addressed to boutique hotel and bed-and-breakfast owners, the home-sharing titan outlined its case for why those properties should list on its site, which already boasts around 4.5 million global listings. It read in part: “We know that many of you are thinking about the best ways to market your rooms online... Time and again, small business owners told us that th

Perhaps the overall positive outlook of this year’s International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin can be summarized by the bright hues of the socks modeled by this year’s line-up at the annual CEO panel. The sock challenge was leveled by Tuesday morning panel moderator Andreas Scriven, Deloitte’s head of hospitality and leisure, and it was all in good fun. But it was a visual reminder that the challenges facing the panelists, who combined represented about 80 brands: growth,