Finance External Articles - Hospitality Net

March 2, 2009

Whitbread Trims Down As Vacancies Loom | forbes.com

The economic downturn has so far boosted sales at British leisure company Whitbread by attracting cost-conscious corporate clients to its relatively cheap hotels. But even this seemingly recession-resistant firm said the year ahead would be difficult. Shares of Whitbread (other-otc: WTCBF - news - people ) fell 4.2%, or 31.00 pence (44 cents), to 715.50 pence ($10.17) in morning trading in London, after the company, which owns a portfolio of hotels, pubs and coffee shops, said in a trading update that 2009 would be "challenging."

Forbes

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March 2, 2009

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding sells Geneva hotel stake | AFP

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding, headed by tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said on Monday it has sold its 50 percent stake in the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. Kingdom (KHC) netted 225 million Saudi Riyals (US 60 million dollars) in the sale of its share of the 170 year old luxury hotel, which it purchased in 2003. "The sale of the Hotel des Bergues comes in line with KHC's active management of hotel assets and focus on extracting value out of management company interests," the company said in a statement.

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February 24, 2009

A Lesson In The Risk Of Discounting | hotelnewsnow.com

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee -- During these challenging economic times, it is easy to justify discounting rates to capture as much share as possible in the marketplace. But what are the long-term ramifications of managing for short-term solutions? Here is a specific example of what could happen to a hotel when it starts discounting: Let’s assume that a 117-room, limited-service hotel has had a 69-percent occupancy and US$95 ADR over the past 12 months.

HotelNewsNow

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February 23, 2009

Travel And Corporate Hospitality Feel Pinch | FT.com

Employers have cut spending on business travel and client entertaining as they look for other ways of reducing costs to stave off damaging redundancies, a study reveals on Monday. Some 38 per cent of organisations reported that they had reduced business travel expenditure, with cuts likely to be deeper in the private sector than the public sector, according to a survey of almost 900 employers conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and consultants KPMG.

ft.com

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February 18, 2009

2009 revpar slumps at Millennium & Copthorne | caterersearch.com

Millennium and Copthorne Hotels (M&C) today revealed that it experienced a dramatic decline in group revenue per available room (revpar) in the first five weeks of 2009. The biggest decline suffered in revpar was seen at the group’s three New York hotels, which fell by 41%, while Asian hotels saw a fall of 20%. London, however, suffered a lower 4% decline as the weak pound served to draw more visitors to the UK capital

caterersearch.com

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February 17, 2009

InterContinental Hotels gloomy on year ahead | reuters.com

InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L), the world's largest hotelier, said a marked fourth-quarter slowdown had continued into 2009 and demand was still easing, as it met forecasts with a 13 percent rise in 2008 profit. The operator of InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel brands, said underlying revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key industry measure, fell 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and slid 12.2 percent in January, led by a steep decline in demand in the Asia Pacific region.

reuters.com

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February 16, 2009

IHG Hotel group warns on bleak outlook | timesonline.co.uk

LEISURE giant Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is expected to warn that the trading outlook for the rest of the year remains tough when it unveils annual results this Tuesday. However, the company, headed by chief executive Andy Cosslett, is likely to insist that a programme to relaunch its Holiday Inn chain is on schedule and will be completed by the end of 2010. The group, which also owns the Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental and Indigo chains, is committed to a $1 billion (£693m) modernisation of the Holiday Inn estate. Cosslett views the upgrade as essential and hopes that the mid-market chain will capture customers looking to save money. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express account for about 70% of the rooms IHG operates.

timesonline.co.uk

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February 7, 2009

Hotels Cut Capital Spending | btnonline.com

The U.S. hotel industry is scaling back capital expenditures to their lowest levels in years, although industry analysts said travelers are unlikely to see any drastic amenity cuts as a result. Bjorn Hanson, an associate professor at New York University's Tisch Center, this month released a report forecasting a nearly 30 percent drop in capital improvements on U.S. hotels, down to $4 billion from a record $5.5 billion in 2008. This is the first year since 2003 that the industry will spend less on capital expenditures than in the prior year, he said. Hotels could see profits drop as much as 25 percent to 30 percent, and Hanson said they will look to trim expenses in terms of amenities. Hanson in a subsequent report said that the amount of fees and surcharges that U.S. hotels collect in 2009 would drop to $1.65 billion, from $1.75 billion collected in 2008. He attributed the drop to decreased demand, particularly in higher tiers with the most fees and surcharges, and reticence by hotels to introduce or increase those fees.

The BTN Group

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February 5, 2009

Interview with Kimpton's Mike Depatie | hotelnewsnow.com

Kimpton's Mike Depatie discusses how the boutique brand is positioned in an increasingly crowded segment. San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is the first and leading collection of boutique hotels throughout the United States and Canada. Founded by Bill Kimpton in 1981, privately held Kimpton Hotels offers services and design elements focused on care, comfort, style, flavor and fun. Every Kimpton hotel reflects the energy, personality and pulse of its location, history and architectural style.

HotelNewsNow

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February 5, 2009

Upclose with Wyndham’s Eric Danziger | globest.com

Eric A. Danziger has certainly worked his way to the top. Starting as a bellman in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco right out of high school, he has worked in nearly every position imaginable, from the front desk to the executive suite, during his more than 30 years in the lodging business. His past titles include president and COO of Carlson Hotel Hotels Worldwide; president and CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide; as well as a previous stint as president of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. In 2001, he left Carlson to return to his native California to take care of his ailing father. While there, he served as CEO of WhiteFence, an online shopping website for home services, and prior to that, he was president and CEO of ZipRealty, a national, full-service real estate brokerage.

globest.com

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January 30, 2009

Sternlicht Seeks $100 Million for Luxury Hotel Firm | bloomberg.com

Barry Sternlicht, who built Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. into the third-largest U.S. lodging company, is raising $100 million for a new hotel management company that would develop and operate properties around luxury brands. The Oregon Investment Council, an investor in two prior hotel funds run by Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group Global LLC, agreed to invest $5 million in the new company, called SH Group, said Brad Child, senior real estate investment officer for Oregon’s state pension fund, which met yesterday.

Bloomberg

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January 28, 2009

Hotel deal volume to drop further in 2009-report | reuters.com

The volume of global hotels changing hands, which fell 80 percent in 2008, will drop further this year to levels last seen between 2001 and 2003, according to a report on Monday from real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. The group found that $23 billion worth of hotels changed ownership in 2008, down from $113 billion in 2007, as the credit crisis and the global economic slowdown took hold. With a short-term market recovery unlikely, the forecast for 2009 is for transactions worldwide to further decline to $19 billion.

reuters.com

Ad #1 Hotel PMS

See why hotels are switching to Mews

Revenue up. Manual work down. Hotels using Mews see 35% higher RevPAR and 45% more upsells. Book a free demo.

Mews

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January 28, 2009

ALIS: Macroeconomics point to 2010 rebound | hotelnewsnow.com

World economics paint a dim picture for travel and tourism through 2009, but things should look better in 2010, according to information presented by Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. The non-profit organization measures things such as gross domestic product contributed by the travel and tourism industries, employment and demand. “There is a marked slowdown in the most recent monthly indicators of travel and tourism activity,” Baumgarten said. “It will be a tough year … two months ago we evaluated (the travel and tourism economy GDP) forecast and we expected a dip in 2009. We think the dip will be stronger, and we’re in the process of reevaluating that right now.”

HotelNewsNow

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January 28, 2009

ALIS: Hotel leaders address uncertainty | hotelnewsnow.com

With an all-star cast of hotel industry executives, Tuesday’s Hotel Leaders Outlook at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit confronted some difficult issues that are facing hoteliers. With more than 2 million rooms in 100 countries among them, the leaders included: • Gabriele Burgio, chairman & CEO, NH Hoteles • Andrew Cosslett, chief executive, InterContinental Hotels Group • Gerald Lawless, executive chairman, Jumeirah Group • Christopher J. Nassetta, president & CEO, Hilton Hotels Corporation • Gilles Christian Pélisson, CEO, Accor • Frits Van Paasschen, president & CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

HotelNewsNow

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January 22, 2009

Troubled W Scottsdale Hotel now faces foreclosure | azcentral.com

The bank that financed the new W Scottsdale Hotel and Residences has begun foreclosure proceedings, the latest in a string of legal and financial woes for the high-profile project. HSH Nordbank, a German lender, filed a notice of trustee's sale, the legal precursor to a forced sale of the 224-room property near Scottsdale Fashion Square. A public auction is scheduled for April 15, unless the matter is resolved before then or the auction is postponed. The bank lent W's developer, Triyar Hospitality Scottsdale LLC, $73 million, according to Maricopa County documents. The documents do not say how much Triyar owes or how far behind it is in payments.

azcentral.com

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January 21, 2009

Video Interview: Randy Smith (Part 1) | hotelnewsnow.com

STR Founder and CEO Randy Smith reveals one of the greatest challenges facing the hotel industry in the first installment of an exclusive two-part video interview.

HotelNewsNow

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January 20, 2009

Orange County fights for hotel taxes tangled in Web | orlandosentinel.com

Orange County leaders Friday stepped up the fight to make online hotel-booking companies pay the full tourist-tax bill on rooms they sell and asked lawmakers to block any attempts to shield the Internet outfits from lawsuits to recoup unpaid taxes. Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Comptroller Martha Haynie say companies such as Hotels.com, Expedia and Orbitz buy blocks of rooms in bulk from hoteliers and pay the 6 percent hotel tax on that reduced rate. The companies then sell the same rooms to online customers at a higher price -- but usually don't collect tax on the final price. Crotty said that's wrong. "It's important that all pay their fair share," Crotty said, calling his effort to collect the taxes "loophole reform."

orlandosentinel.com

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January 19, 2009

Hotel industry prepares for worst of times | chicagotribune.com

Hotel industry fortunes fell hard at the end of 2008, and the prospects for 2009 look grim as Americans cut travel spending and leave plenty of room at the inn. Hotel operators have seen room reservations fall drastically as business travelers and vacationers cut down on trips. In 2009, U.S. hotels will suffer one of the greatest annual declines in occupancy and revenue in history, according to analysts. In their suffering, however, many hotels will give travelers a break by lowering prices or offering incentives, such as free meals, in hope of enticing more business. "We just get creative," said Mehdi Eftekari, general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, where, he says, occupancy is down slightly. Incentive packages might include a free breakfast, car rental or spa treatment with room rental.

chicagotribune.com

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January 16, 2009

DiamondRock affirms outlook, but shares slide | forbes.com

Shares of DiamondRock Hospitality Co. declined with the broader market on Thursday after the hotel real estate investment trust affirmed its 2008 financial guidance and said it is looking to sell one or two of its properties to boost liquidity. DiamondRock shares fell 24 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $4 in afternoon trading, as the broader market also sank on worries about the ongoing banking crisis. The stock has lost 72 percent since hitting its 12-month peak of $15.28 last January. DiamondRock said it expects to report 2008 adjusted funds from operations at about the midpoint of its guidance range of $1.46 to $1.51 per share.

Forbes

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January 16, 2009

Market Report: Dubai, UAE | hotelnewsnow.com

Dubai’s exponential hospitality growth may start to plateau as the United Arab Emirate begins feeling the effects of the global economic downturn. Despite RevPAR growth of 3.0 percent November year-to-date 2008 from STR Global, a December Deloitte prediction emphasized that weakening pound and euro currencies will likely have a dramatic impact on travel to the Gulf capital. Staving off the downturn will present a challenge particularly with Europeans, who make up 40 percent of the visitors to the Emirate, when many other Middle Eastern destinations—including Egypt and Turkey—are not feeling the consequences of the strengthening dollar.

HotelNewsNow