For those who haven’t read the first few editions of this Mille Club series, membership qualification is simple: offer rates of more than a thousand (hence ‘mille’) dollars, pounds, Euros or equivalent. If you’re already there (or very close), or aspire to this lofty room rate level, please read on.
Under the influence of international operators, hotel management methods in France and Europe have evolved, with management agreements increasingly being favoured over leases. The profile of hospitality investors has also changed, with highly professional funds able to adopt this type of management solution.
Sometimes when explaining a concept, it’s best to look at the numbers. Before going straight into using hotel rates, we’re going to start small with a bottle of run-of-the-mill wine, a product that’s also dear to our hearts and many other hoteliers.
Hospitality has been a driving force for the UK and European economies for years, employing 3.2 million people before the pandemic and generating £38 billion in tax revenue for the UK government. Providing job opportunities for young people and students and inspiring young entrepreneurs to launch enterprises of their own, hospitality was a dynamic and booming sector before the initial complications of COVID, and the many challenges that followed.
Booking.com creates a large positive impact in the Netherlands. This is the finding of a new study by consultancy KPMG based on its True Value methodology. This research project provides a holistic assessment of Booking.com’s economic, social and environmental impact in the Netherlands.
The Magic City, so named because its soil contains the three elements needed to produce iron, was able to steel itself against long-term hospitality demand loss in 2020 better than many hotel markets across the U.S. The city’s proximity to outdoor demand generators, its rapidly growing sports entertainment industry, and the dedicated work of local municipal offices and aid organizations were all important factors that supported the swift recovery of Birmingham hotels.
For those who haven’t read the first two editions of this Mille Club series, membership qualification is simple: just offer rates of more than a thousand (hence ‘mille’) dollars, pounds, Euros or equivalent. Whereas American Express since 1987 espoused the selling line, “Membership has its Privileges™,” the opposite applies to your property if it wants to uphold four-figure nightly rates. Aptly expressed, as a member of the Mille Club, “Membership has its Responsibilities.”
With much of a challenging Q1 behind us it feels to be an appropriate time to take stock and look forward to the rest of 2023. Hopefully, there is only a positive trajectory for hotel transaction market for the year ahead with the consensus being that H2 2023 will see more activity across the real estate market. With several factors at play, some new and some old, it will be interesting to see whether these expectations are indeed fulfilled...
The hospitality industry experienced many highs and lows across 2022 and as a sector, faced challenges including recovery from the pandemic, the impact of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine and the ongoing cost-of-living and energy crisis, the instability of government on the economy and rising interest rates. The sector has tried to remain resilient, in the knowledge some of these obstacles are continuing this year and will shape the outlook of the market as we progress further into 2023.
We’re seeing a trend in post-pandemic luxury – the mantle of attaining then surpassing a thousand dollars per night per room. This is what we have dubbed the ‘Mille Club’ after the Italian for said four-digit number. If your average daily rate has pushed into the four-figure range or thereabouts, congratulations and welcome. But know that this is something that must be earned because of the psychology that comes with paying above this threshold and because luxury guests have plenty of options nowadays.
Commitment to a policy of corporate social responsibility no longer makes a company special. Especially when the entire world has become aware that we cannot simply act without taking heed of the impact of our actions on the planet and its inhabitants. In terms of CSR, the law that is already imposed on large companies will eventually come to bear on all economic players.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Accor co-founder, Gérard Pélisson, who died on Monday, March 6, 2023, at the age of 91, surrounded by his loved ones.
Over the past year, we’ve bolted out from the gates in the aftermath of the pandemic, staying at multiple properties with daily rates in excess of 1,000 dollars, euros or pounds as part of our consultancy work auditing luxury hotels to improve their topline performance. The fact is that any four-figure guest daily hit propels your property into a new snack bracket, and one that plays by a slightly different set of service and amenity requirements. There’s prestige, but much, much higher expectations that you must surpass each and every day.
I think most of us in the UK hotel investment market will look back to early 2022 and recall positive sentiment for the year ahead and a sense of light at the end of the tunnel. In reality, the year brought in a number of headwinds for the sector; but with 2023 ahead of us could there be a glimmer of change on the horizon?
For 2022, international real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) recorded a total hotel transaction volume of EUR 1.9 billion in Germany. This is 25 percent below the previous year's figure and falls almost 60 percent short of the 10-year average. The year was again characterised by single-property transactions, contributing approximately 85 percent of transaction volume. Only four portfolio transactions were recorded. The average transaction size was EUR 29 million.
In today’s financial climate, opportunities for innovation can feel few and far between. As a result, the hospitality industry finds itself in the crux of an economic crisis and the need to offer guests truly incredible experiences that are supported by ever-evolving best practices has never been more essential.
With 2023 almost upon us, perhaps the tourism industry can finally expect to rebound in the coming months to its happy and healthy state. But the word "perhaps" cannot be overlooked, as nobody can predict the future and we will certainly live future crises. The travel sector cannot experience another collapse and should not rest on the status quo when recovering from downfalls. Therefore, rethinking tourism and building resilience in the coming years is exactly what is needed to prepare and minimize future challenges. In a joint effort to stay ahead with trends, the Swiss tourism and travel sector has chosen to bet on data and technology to undertake its national resilience journey, thanks to a national Innosuisse-funded project: The Flagship Resilient Tourism Project.
Many global economies are going through a period of high inflation, brought on by macroeconomic factors such as government stimulus and global supply shocks. We have asked the questions: can rising costs be passed along to the consumer and what does the current inflation environment say about hotel pricing over the next few years?
As the cost-of-living crisis continues apace, and the value of pound remains low, affordable staycations are back on the agenda with people choosing to holiday near UK tourist hotspots, instead of taking trips abroad. With this in mind, AGO Hotels is looking at what this means for its own business and the wider UK hospitality market.
It felt quite strange when, for the first time, I saw the station name ‘Battersea’ appear on a dot-matrix signboard on a platform of the Northern Line a year ago. For some time I’d been reading in newspapers about the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station but I had no idea that this neighbourhood would also become home to one of the newest Underground stations in London.