*By Samantha Errico*
Your days to travel in 2018 may be numbered, but 2019 beckons. So what's ahead for the travel industry next year? Lola.com CEO Mike Volpe joined Cheddar to present his predictions for travel in 2019.
**Day-Rate Hotels**
"In this world where everyone wants to be faster and more agile, your needs around business are changing," Volpe told Cheddar Friday. Hotels are incorporating flexible check-in times for travelers who take red eyes, and offering hourly rates for visitors who are only in town for the day. Hotels are adapting to the pace of the modern travel and the growing demand of customers.
**Out with Corporate Travel, in with Consumer Travel**
The business travel industry is expected to hit $1.6 trillion by 2020, and more companies are trying to exploit the market. Companies are meeting the growing demands of the market by "taking the consumer speed and agility from the consumer travel world into the corporate travel world," Volpe said. Travel companies are racing to find the easiest booking system possible, Volpe said. "The average corporate travel system takes a person about an hour to book their flight and hotel for an upcoming trip," he added.
Much like all the upheaval shaking the world, the huge swings rocking Wall Street may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, this is normal.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
