Coming out of lodging industry recessions, we have historically observed fairly significant increases in hotel operating expenses. Since the initial revenue recovery is typically driven by occupancy, variable expenses naturally rise with the increased volume of rooms occupied and guests served. In addition, hotel managers desire to reinstate the services and amenities that were discontinued durin...

The great recession appears to have been harder on hotel spa operations than on hotels themselves. According to a new study released by PKF Consulting USA (PKFC), hotel spas experienced deeper declines in revenues and profits than did hotels, as measured by RevPAR, in 2008 and 2009 and also are taking longer to recover. While the hotel industry began to improve in the second quarter of 2010, hote...

Mark Woodworth, President of PKF Hospitality Research, and Jack Corgel Ph.D., Senior Advisor to PKF Hospitality Research and Robert C. Baker Professor of Real Estate at Cornell University, discuss five reasons for optimism in 2012.

In 2009, all segments of the lodging industry struggled. However, the combined impact of the economic recession and the demonizing of corporate meetings, resulted in an even more dramatic fall off in performance for conference centers. Now, as the U.S. lodging industry has turned the corner and proceeded up the recovery slope of the business cycle, the fortunes of U.S. conference centers have imp...

"Analyzing the performance of U.S. hotels in 2010 and 2011, we have seen the progression of indicators that one would expect during an industry recovery. Occupancy levels increased in 2010, followed by real average daily rate (ADR) growth in 2011," said R. Mark Woodworth, president of PKF-HR. "The only surprise has been the pace and magnitude of the surge in hotel demand."

Despite inconsistent economic news, increases in lodging demand and property-level net operating income (NOI) have most industry participants feeling optimistic that hotel property values are heading upward. An analysis of the 2011 edition of PKF Consulting USA's Hospitality Investment Survey (conducted in the spring of 2011) sheds some light on the market and transaction factors that are influen...

PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) has released their preliminary Hotel Horizons® updated forecast for the U.S. lodging industry. Based on performance data through September of 2011 (provided by Smith Travel Research), and Moody's Analytics' October 2011 domestic economic forecast, PKF-HR believes that RevPAR in the U.S. will increase by 8.1 percent in 2011, and rise another 6.2 percent in 2012.

After suffering through record-breaking declines in revenues and profits during 2009, it is not surprising that U.S. hoteliers were a bit conservative when preparing their operating budgets for 2010. In the fall of 2009 (when the 2010 budgets were being prepared), hotel owners and operators were anticipating some degree of a turnaround in 2010. How could conditions possible get worse?

"After reading and hearing recent news reports, many clients have been questioning why we are raising our estimates of revenue growth for the year. However, after a thorough analysis of the latest lodging performance and economic data, it is tough not to be optimistic regarding the future of U.S. hotels," said R. Mark Woodworth, president of PKF-HR. "It is understandable why so many industry part...

After two years of declining revenues and profits, U.S. hotels turned the corner in 2010. According to the 2011 edition of Trends® in the Hotel Industry published by PKF Hospitality Research (PKR-HR), the average hotel in the nation achieved a 4.8 percent increase in total revenue during 2010. While 70 percent of the properties in the Trends® sample enjoyed an increase in total revenue in 2010, o...