The U.S. Lifts the Pandemic Travel Ban and Opens the Doors to International Visitors

The reopening of the border to many international visitors today comes with a new set of rules, such as vaccination requirements.

Airlines have reported a jump in bookings to the U.S. and expect an immediate surge in travelers, even before peak holiday periods—and the best people to guide travelers through the turbulent holiday travel season are HotelPlanner CEO, Tim Hentschel and Mahesh Chaddah, co-founder of Reservations.com.

• What foreign travelers can expect as they return to America. Most foreign travelers are visiting America for the first time will encounter vaccine requirements, mask rules, and more that didn’t exist before America shut down.

• The impact of staffing shortages. Some workers are refusing to apply for cleaning jobs. Many pilots refuse vaccines. These trends lead to staffing shortages, which in turn are causing travelers to run into delays when checking into hotels, a lack of cleaning people, and more new dilemmas. Fear not. Hentschel has tips to get you through it, like hotels’ new digital check-in programs.

• What types of travel is increasing. Conventional wisdom says travel is decreasing. Not all of it. In the past few months, weddings, reunions, and more have increased dramatically to the point where many hotels transform lobbies into wedding spaces.

• How hotels have changed because of COVID-19. Weddings aren’t the only additions to lobbies. Many hotels are renovating lobbies to resemble Starbucks to welcome workers who work on the road.