RobertDouglas announced today that it advised KHP Fund I, L.P., a Kimpton sponsored hotel real estate fund, in the $44 million refinancing of the Nine Zero Hotel, a Kimpton Hotel, in Boston, Massachusetts. The 5-year, floating-rate financing was provided by Mesa West Capital.
Magnuson Hotels, the world"s largest independent hotel group, announced today the complete rebranding of the Magnuson Hotel Brownsville
In this second annual Lodging Tax Study, HVS Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Consulting surveys lodging tax rates and revenues across the United States. Updating the first edition, this study is expanded to include a broader range of cities and tracks policy trends in lodging tax imposition. This research identified the lodging tax rates levied at the state, county, city, and special district levels, and the collection and distribution of revenue from lodging taxes levied in all 50 states and in the 150 largest cities in the United States.
M3 Accounting + Analytics, the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, operations reporting and business analytics, has closed out its fifteenth year in the industry with another successful year of growth in 2013. In December, M3's flagship hotel accounting platform, AccKnowledge, crested the 3,000 threshold of active hotels online.
RobertDouglas announced today that it advised Justice Investors in the $117 million refinancing of the Hilton San Francisco Financial District. The 10‐year, fixed rate financing was provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Clarion Partners. Ideally located in the heart of San Francisco, the iconic hotel is at the crossroads of the Financial District, Chinatown and North Beach.
The holidays may be over, but for the U.S. hotel and motel industry, the good times could continue into 2014. Privately held hotels and motels saw their third year of solid sales and profit growth, according to recent data from Sageworks, a financial information company, and net profit margins have turned nicely positive in recent years as tourism and business travel continue to improve from the depths of the recession.
While the transaction market is heating up, compared to other cycles, there still remains a shortage of hotel properties coming to market. One major factor driving this is that many owners are looking at their improving operating metrics and deciding to delay selling their assets in hopes of realizing greater gains in the future. A second factor is that low interest rates and aggressive competition among lenders has resulted in a market where owners can receive high loan proceeds should they choose to refinance rather than sell. When viewed on an after-tax basis, the refinancing scenario may very well yield higher proceeds than a sale. That said, the common view is that we will see more hotel transactions in 2014 and 2015.
In one of the largest buyouts of all time, Blackstone Group acquired Hilton Hotels in the heady days of 2007 for $26bn including debt. It sought to give the hotel company a new lease of life, and part of the private equity group’s task was to restore the Waldorf Astoria’s original grandeur. Now after six years under Blackstone ownership, the company – renamed Hilton Worldwide – is set to go public within weeks. Seeking at least $1.25bn, the offering would be the highest amount raised for a US hotel company and would move the buyout firm closer to realising the profits from its biggest single investment.
As a hospitality consultant, I have the opportunity to visit hundreds of hotels and resorts each year as part of hotel appraisal and feasibility study assignments. Recently, I've noted that limited-service hotels are adding miniature versions of the gift shops once spotted only in the lobbies of full-service and select-service hotels.
Inland American Lodging Group, Inc. ("Inland American"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Inland American Real Estate Trust, Inc., today announced the acquisition of three luxury boutique hotels from Kimpton's Hotel Monaco collection for a purchase price of $189 million. The acquisition includes the Hotel Monaco Chicago, the Hotel Monaco Denver and the Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City, totaling 605 rooms. All three properties are part of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants' prominent boutique brand, Hotel Monaco, a collection of high quality, luxury boutique hotels that are converted from iconic, historic buildings and feature upscale bars and restaurants.
Today, the Global Executive Committee and Board of Directors for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) officially begin their 2013-2014 term. The association leaders represent a variety of hospitality industry segments (clubs, hotels, academics and management companies), and will use their professional expertise to help guide the association as it carries out its strategic plan. Upcoming goals for the association include growing globally, successfully serving the current global membership and continued development of the Global Hospitality Accounting Common Practices (GHACP), and maintaining the top-notch education and resources for the hospitality finance and technology professional community.
Today, Jerry Trieber, CPA, CHAE, CFE, CFF, CGMA officially starts his term as Global President for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), with a directive to lead the association in carrying out its strategic goals. Trieber is regional director of accounting for Crestline Hotels and Resorts based out of Virginia. A member for 16 years, Trieber was recently honored at the HFTP Annual Convention & Tradeshow this past October in Dallas, Texas.?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /
During the depths of the 2001 and 2009 industry recessions, hotel managers underestimated their revenue levels by an average of 10.4 percent, while the profit deficits averaged 23.4 percent. Conversely, when market conditions were on the rise, the budget variance for revenues was a positive 1.2 percent on average, while profit goals were exceeded by 3.4 percent. For the purpose of this analysis, profits are defined as net operating income (NOI) before deductions for capital reserve, rent, interest, income taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Do you have upcoming hotel financing needs? Whether you are in the market for a simple refinance or acquisition financing, a discounted-payoff (DPO) financing or a PIP-induced recapitalization, the same rules apply.
Labor and related costs have long been the single expense category in operating a hotel. In 2012, 45 percent of all dollars were spent on personnel to manage, market and, critically, deliver hospitable service to create a memorable (and hopefully positive!) guest experience. Thus, managers spend a significant portion of their time recruiting, training, and scheduling employees.
By August of each year, the budgeting process for most hotel managers is well underway. Prior analysis conducted by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) found that 80 percent of a property's performance is influenced by local market conditions. Therefore, in order to begin to understand how your hotel will perform in the upcoming year, it is important to appreciate how the overall market in which you operate is expected to perform.Among the 50 markets covered by our June 2013 Hotel Horizons reports, we see 2014 revenue per available room forecasts ranging from a low of 2.6 percent (New Orleans) to a high of 10.2 percent (Oakland, Calif.). This proves the localized nature of the lodging business. Accordingly, PKF-HR is pleased to present a summary of our local market forecasts for 2014 to aide U.S. hotel operators in the preparation of their 2014 budgets.SUPPLY AND DEMANDFor most hoteliers, new competition will not be an issue in 2014. In 45 of the 50 Horizons markets, the net change in supply forecast for 2014 is less than 2 percent. Hotel construction continues to remain most active in New York City where the lodging supply is projected to increase by 6.6 percent. The impact of the fall 2013 opening of the 800-room Omni Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., is the primary influence of the 4-percent increase in citywide rooms available during 2014. Other metro areas expected to see relatively strong gains in supply include Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.High economic and regulatory hurdles limit the ability of developers to construct new hotels in northern California. Therefore, it is not surprising that the lodging supplies in Sacramento, Calif., Oakland and San Francisco will remain virtually the same in 2014 compared to 2013.Fortunately for hotel operators in New York, Pittsburgh, and Nashville, Tenn., PKF-HR is forecasting relatively robust growth in demand to accompany the strong projections of supply in their respective cities. Also forecast to enjoy greater than average gains in demand are Tucson, Ariz., and Charlotte, N.C. While lodging demand is forecast to decline by 1.7 percent in Oahu during 2014, the occupancy level for the market is projected to remain above 80 percent.OCCUPANCY, ADR AND REVPARThe combination of a 4.7-percent increase in demand with a 0.3-percent increase in supply will result in a nation leading forecast boost to occupancy of 4.3 percent in Tucson during 2014. Also projected to enjoy strong gains in demand, combined with minimal increases in supply, are the Kansas City, Mo., and Minneapolis lodging markets.Occupancy levels in Oahu, Newark, N.J, and New York are forecast to decline in 2014, but remain above 70 percent. Demand growth less than one percent will result in declining levels of market occupancy for hoteliers in New Orleans and St. Louis.The best news for hotel managers in 2014 is the projections of strong average daily rate growth. All 50 Horizons markets are forecast to achieve ADR increases greater than Moody's Analytic's 2.5-percent forecast for inflation in 2014. ADR growth in excess of inflation typically leads to significant gains in profits.Limited new competition should allow hotel operators in Oakland, Calif., and San Francisco to push room rates aggressively in 2014. Down in Texas, the surge in oil and gas production will provide a healthy economic environment and enable hoteliers in Dallas and Houston to raise room rates by 7.1 percent.For the most part, ADR growth is the primary factor driving RevPAR gains in the markets forecast to achieve the greatest increases in revenue in 2014. Conversely, limited or declining occupancy levels are inhibiting revenue increases in the markets forecast to lag in RevPAR growth.BULLISH FOR 2014PKF-HR is bullish regarding the outlook for the nation's major lodging markets in 2014. All 50 of the markets we track are expected to enjoy an increase in revenue during the year, but the diversity of the composition of supply, demand, and pricing changes that will fuel the revenue growth is something worthy of further investigation by industry participants as they prepare their marketing plans and budgets for the upcoming year.
Jonathan Nehmer + Associates, Inc. (JN+A) and HVS Design are proud to announce the completion of the 2013 Hotel Cost Estimating Guide. The Guide is a comprehensive listing of capital expenditure construction and FF&E costs for hotel renovations.
Morgans Hotel Group Co. (NASDAQ: MHGC) ("Morgans" or the "Company") yesterday held a webcast for shareholders to discuss the commitment of the Company's board slate to promptly initiate a process to sell the Company upon reelection at the Company's 2013 annual shareholder meeting on June 14th.
In September of 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend the EB-5 Regional Center Pilot Program through September of 2015 1. This is more than another proverbial act of Congress; it is in fact very timely news for hoteliers. Financing for hotel projects through traditional sources remains scarce, and the EB-5 program can help investors complete the "capital stack" necessary to finance a hotel. Recent high-profile EB-5 hotel investment campaigns include the NYLO South Dallas hotel, the Knickerbocker Hotel in Times Square, and the 377-room Marriott in Los Angeles. With the energy behind these EB-5-funded projects rippling across the country, more hotel developers are considering EB-5 financing as a source for financing new hotels and hospitality careers. EB-5 Regional Centers
With the U.S. hotel industry nearly fully recovered from the recession, are lenders finally ready to revive the long-dormant construction industry for hotels? Some hoteliers speaking at an industry conference this week in Los Angeles said that construction lending has come back, and a wave of new hotel openings will result in the coming years. Others, however, cautioned that underwriting standards remain stricter than during the boom, and lenders mostly are focusing their attention on the best projects, markets and developers.