Morning Report: Spring break drives up travel costs

This year’s surge of spring break travel is driving up airfare and hotel rates. A return to pre-pandemic booking habits has increased the demand for flights and hotel rooms. The travel app, Hopper, reported last week that domestic airfare is averaging $264 round trip in April in March. That is a 20% increase from last year’s rates. Despite the costs, 60% of spring break travelers expect to spend $500 or more on their trips this year while 33% anticipate spending over $1,000.

Thankfully, there are ways to save money on travel this year. By avoiding flights on popular travel days, like holidays and Sunday return flights, travelers can save over $1,000.

In spite of generating cumulative losses of more that $1.1 Billion, Caesars predicts that its online betting business will finally be profitable this year. The digital business, which offers sports betting and online casino games, could generate half a billion dollars in profit by 2025.

A growing number of big office landlords are coming to terms with the increasing likelihood that some properties may remain empty. The Wall Street Journal reports that surging vacancies and interest rates are prompting more owners to restructure debt or simply default. Real-estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield forecast that the U.S. will see a record breaking amount of vacant office space left open by the end of the decade. They estimate 1.1 billion square feet, a massive jump from the 668 million square feet left empty pre-pandemic.

By age 28, many people believe that you should no longer have cheap furniture in your home. The survey commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress and conducted by OnePoll asked 2,000 Americans about “fast furniture”. Respondents replied that they believe cheap, mass produced, quick assembly furniture has a two year lifespan and does not belong in your home once you begin approaching your thirties.

Stocks had their worst day of the year so far on Tuesday.
Walmart and Home Depot also report that this year will be tough.
Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve Meeting will be released today, which may reveal two to three more interest rates.