Regulatory and Legal Affairs

🍔 Beef & Bass to open first site at 356-360 King’s Road, Chelsea. The 4,512 sq ft restaurant features a 14-cover speakeasy bar, an open kitchen, charcoal grill, and a private dining room. Founders Alessandro Verdenelli and Daniele Pampagnin join other debuts on Sloane Stanley’s Estate. Hannah Grievson from Sloane Stanley highlighted the area’s F&B hub. Mister Lasagne also opens at 273 Fulham Road. Miles Commercial and Levy Real Estate represent Sloane Stanley Estate.

📌 The European Accessibility Act (EAA) will be enforced on June 28, affecting EU hotel websites. It's mandatory for digital products, including travel and e-commerce websites, to be accessible to people with disabilities. Penalties for non-compliance can reach up to €60,000 in fines or 18 months of imprisonment. There are about 100 million people with disabilities in the EU. Five essential upgrades for website compliance include keyboard navigation, ARIA labels, text and contrast adjustments, AI-driven image descriptions, and an accessibility-first tabbing structure. Vision platform clients will receive automatic updates starting at €1,200, payable over four months, or they can opt-out and assume full liability.

💰 TPG Capital to acquire Sabre's Hospitality Solutions for $1.1 billion in cash. Hospitality Solutions serves over 40% of top hotel brands with a SaaS platform. Sabre's net proceeds of approximately $960 million will largely pay down debt. The deal, advised by Haynes Boone, was announced on April 28, 2025, and is expected to close by the end of Q3 2025, pending regulatory approvals.

🏨 Amid market volatility and US President Donald Trump's tariffs, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the travel sector are experiencing delays, as seen with 3i Group postponing the sale of Audley Travel. Despite these hurdles, interest remains high, with transactions subject to more extensive due diligence, according to Martin Alcock and Henry Wells. The deal-making environment is challenging, with a surplus of sellers over buyers, yet opportunities exist for committed investors, per Christopher Jones. Nicola Sartori notes persistent deal activity, especially in the small to mid-sized market, even as timelines extend beyond pre-Covid norms.

💰 Expedia's stock soared by 55% in 2025, surpassing Booking.com's increase of just over 10%. Over the past 18 months, Expedia's approach has involved acting as the infrastructure for travel services rather than competing for consumer traffic. Ryanair, Revolut, and British Airways are now partnered with Expedia. Expedia's wholesale bookings increased 26% year-over-year in Q3 2025. Booking.com was designated an EU "gatekeeper," limiting its pricing strategies under the Digital Markets Act.

📓 In 2026, an experiment involved creating a fictional luxury paperweight brand, Xarumei, to analyze AI's handling of misinformation. The fake brand was tested on models like ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-5, and Microsoft Copilot using 56 misleading questions. While ChatGPT models mostly rejected the falsehoods, others like Perplexity and Grok were manipulated by conflicting fake stories on platforms like Reddit and Medium. The study showed AI's vulnerability to detailed misinformation over official truths.

📈 August 2025: Soho House's plan to go private with a $2.7 billion deal led by MCR Hotels encounters issues as MCR withdraws a $200 million funding commitment. This caused a 20% drop in Soho's share price in New York, trading at about $7.50. Investors planned to buy shares at $9, below the 2021 IPO price of $14. Soho House, aiming to maintain a 4,700-member venue average, seeks alternative funding with Apollo Global offering $800 million.