Barron's: It's Time to Check Out of Hotel Stocks | barrons.com
Hotel chains like Starwood and Host Hotels will book more business as the economy revives. But their stocks reflect a bit too much optimism. Hotel profits are highly sensitive to modest changes in occupancy levels and room rates. As they say in the industry, room rates change overnight, allowing hotel operators to benefit quickly from an economic upturn, like the one that's apparently under way in the U.S. Hotel stocks, however, look overpriced because the industry is only starting to come out of one of its deepest slumps in decades. ...
