Lodging Econometrics Launches Two Major New Research Products

One new product, MSA Reports, will provide developers, hotel owners and investors, franchise executives, hotel operating and marketing staff and other strategic planners with a macro overview of all lodging real estate activity in each of the nation's major markets.

The second product, Owners and Managers Names, will provide the same group, as well as suppliers and vendors, with arguably the most difficult information to find in the hotel industry: the name of the owner and general manager of every individual hotel asset in the top markets nationwide.

MSA Reports, is LE's new capstone product. It provides lodging decision-makers with a comprehensive, easy-to-understand snapshot of each market. Under development for two years, the highly specialized, targeted reports are compiled by a staff of more than 30 economists, analysts and researchers.

"For years, hotel industry executives have had to make multi-million dollar real estate decisions about development, buying, selling and reinvestment based on sketchy market information or only after conducting countless hours of analytical research by in-house analysts," said Patrick Ford, president of Lodging Econometrics. "These products change that.

"Starting today, every decision maker will have at his immediate disposal comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use market research, updated and transmitted automatically every quarter. It will be an invaluable time-saver for every lodging real estate executive," Ford noted.

MSA Reports is divided into two sections:

The first, Market Trends, provides both a historic and current view of the MSA, as well as a future forecast of the all-important Demand/Supply Equilibrium. "The balance between demand and supply drives or retards new development, acquisition programs and the growth plans for every brand and company," Ford said.

Market Trends also examines the historic growth rate of additions to the hotel census, analyzes current Development Pipeline projects, future supply growth, and ranks one city against another so that strategic decision-makers can determine which markets still have growth potential and which may soon encounter over supply problems. Finally, Market Trends, provides a four-year history of lodging transactions, offering critical insights into volume and valuation trends.

"MSA Reports provide accurate and up-to-the-minute information to enhance the strategic decision-making process," Ford said. "We believe it will have a significant impact on future decision-making for development and buy/hold strategies.

"As we enter a period of slower economic growth, critical attention will now focus on the nation's major markets, which control a disproportionate percentage of the industry's room revenues and profitability. We expect industry executives to be highly focused on the impact of future supply additions on their current lodging investments and that MSA Reports will be an important new evaluation tool," he said,

The second section of MSA Reports, Market Share, examines the current census and development pipeline, and also predicts the scheduled completion dates for every newly planned project.

The hotels in each category are then compiled by size and segment, by individual market tract in each MSA and by brand and company. The compilation also provides invaluable market penetration scores, market-by-market, for each brand and company.

Ford said that MSA Reports are best used as a companion research piece to LE's popular Development Pipeline reports, which provide subscribers with a micro analysis through detailed individual records for every project in the Development Pipeline by the categories of Under Construction, In Permitting or Early Planning.

LE's second new product, Owners & General Managers Names, provides hotel executives with the hard-to-find names of owners and general managers, their address, telephone and fax numbers for every open and operating hotel in each MSA Current Census. The product is designed for executives, such as franchisers, suppliers and vendors, who need to pinpoint owners and general managers in order to present their products and services.

Headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., Lodging Econometrics is the primary provider of hotel real estate data and analysis to the lodging industry. The company tracks all new development projects and real estate sales transactions in every market nationwide, Wall Street funding, mergers and acquisitions and the strategic plans of major hotel companies, REITs and investor groups. Its allied company, National Hotel Realty, provides brokerage, consulting and management services to the lodging, real estate and lending industries.