M3, the hospitality sector’s #1 cloud-based accounting, financial and data management platform in North America, has been named a winner in the 13th Annual 2021 Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards in the Business Intelligence Innovation category for its dedicated business intelligence solution, Insight.
Hotel real estate investors need to measure both the absolute and relative financial performance of their properties. A 10% annual return may appear solid unless a collection of comparable investments earned 15%. Risk-adjusted returns measured against the appropriate index provide a way to assess managers’ abilities to generate excess returns. Measures of investment return come in many flavors.
Hardship sparks creativity. Hotels all around the globe were forced to fundamentally rethink revenue generation during the Covid crisis. Like so often, many successful concepts started with putting the guest at the centre and looking at what (s)he really wants right now, not what it is that we traditionally like to sell (a room night with breakfast).
In the post-pandemic world, I see three significant revenue generation initiatives for the utilization of the hotel spaces: 1. Create co-working spaces: Similar to Roger Smith Hotel's KettleSpace Flexible Workspaces, create work-from-hotel spaces for out-of-towners, digital nomads and local entrepreneurs who do not want to be tied down by office leases.
Every square metre can potentially generate extra revenue for a hotel, but many properties keep only strategizing the bedrooms' revenue.Ideas? Here are a few:Pre-arrival:Upsell rooms and added value packages and items via app and mailing, with tools such as Oaky or UpsellGuruReview your room inventory.
Inspirato LLC (“Inspirato” or the “Company”), the innovative luxury travel subscription brand, and Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp. (“Thayer”) (Nasdaq: TVAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Inspirato becoming a publicly listed company. The transaction values the pro forma company at an estimated enterprise value of $1.1 billion. Upon closing, the combined company will operate as Inspirato, and its Class A common stock is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ISPO.”
See how JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® can help you.Click here for the latest articles on EB-5 Financing here for C-PACE Financing.
M3, the hospitality sector’s #1 cloud-based accounting, financial reporting and data management platform, onboarded over 25 hotel management companies onto its entry-point software, Accounting Core, in Q1 and Q2 2021. The addition amounts to 320 new hotel properties utilizing M3 to drive cost savings and increase efficiencies.
If there is one thing we know, it is most likely that we know nothing at all anymore. We do not know which border will open or close tomorrow due to a newly spotted variant. We do not know who will be our guest two weeks, three weeks, let alone a month from now, and we do not know who we will be competing with for those guests.
The traditional competitive set selection process in the US has always been driven by financial models, which are developed to satisfy financing and banking requirements. As such, they are usually based on aspirational comp sets in order to show future growth opportunity and return on investment.
Today, every hotel in the world has not one, but three categories of direct competitors. Official Comp Set This is your traditional comp set, included in the property's dSTAR Report by STR or rate shopping report by Fornova. These reports provide real value by benchmarking how well your property is performing against the “official” competition.
Bally's Corporation (NYSE: BALY), a leading U.S. omnichannel provider of land-based gaming and interactive entertainment, today announced that it completed its acquisition of the Tropicana Evansville casino operations from Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: CZR). As part of the transaction, Bally's also acquired the unencumbered rights to the Evansville operations' sports betting and iGaming skins, which will provide the Company with greater access to the growing Indiana gaming market.
Start Treating Direct Online Distribution Costs as… Distribution Costs! Currently direct online bookings and their distribution costs: ongoing website hosting and technology upgrades, website content optimization, SEO, website visitors referrals fees (metasearch and paid search CPCs, online media and retargeting referrals, etc.), hosting, analytics, data marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing agency fees, etc.
While cost optimization (or rather, profit measurement in general) is crucial for hotel operators, just like for any other business, our current reality is that hoteliers are offered a very minimal amount of technical functionality that would make profit maximization a user-friendly task.
Finding a calculation that fits every hotel is impossible – different taxation, rules of cost allocation, franchise vs managed vs owned % fees, P&L fee structures, etc. We also need to be realistic. RM has never had the notion of cost optimization – it's just been talked about for the last 1000 years, as much as we talk about TRevPAR.
Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: BHR) ("Braemar" or the "Company") today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the 138-room Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, California (the "Mr. C" or the "Property"). In addition, the Company is also acquiring five luxury condominium residences adjacent to the hotel. The acquisition is expected to close on or prior to July 9, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Because the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, the Company can give no assurance that the transaction will be consummated by such date or at all.
Following the toughest year on record for our industry, Pathfinder Development positioned itself for success by focusing on providing value and Platinum Service, paving the way for an incredible first quarter of 2021. We are thrilled to report that we had 4 out of our 6 hotels rank in the top 8% out of 6,143 Texas hotels in REVPAR. We couldn’t have achieved this without the outstanding staff, both on-property and behind the scenes providing unmatched service to our guests and associates.
In Q1, 2021 labor costs consumed 60%-87% of RevPAR globally (CBRE, HotelEffectiveness), making hotel operations completely unsustainable. Labor costs are increasing up to 5x faster than RevPAR (HotelEffectiveness). The travel rebound in Q2, 2021 has added another headache for the industry - acute labor shortage.
I think one of the first things hotels need to do, especially those that are on older "closed systems" is to convert their core technology stack to the cloud. Why? Simple, once they do, they have a whole set of new services they can subscribe to that can help with automation, make things more efficient.
Over the past five years, Commercial PACE (or C-PACE) financing has gained wider acceptance and moved from a novel technique to a mainstream practical solution for financing. For more background on what C-PACE financing is, why it can be attractive, why it is becoming more popular and how JMBM’s attorneys can help, see C-PACE Financing – Now an accepted tool for hotel lenders and borrowers.
PACE financing guidelines are finally available for New York City, and while the program has not officially launched yet, hotel owners and developers in the area should start planning how to use these loans to retrofit their properties. My Partner David Sudeck discusses the program requirements, below.
Oh boy! Are we tired of the game of whack-a-mole yet? Maintaining rate parity is a major effort and somehow OTA "partners" find a way to skirt the rule by offering member-only rates (with very few qualifications), bundling with air, or grabbing a wholesale rate and unbundling it.
Rate Parity is not a new pricing strategy nor is it a hospitality industry-specific invention. It has been used in retail for many decades: fashion clothing, perfumes, appliances, golf equipment, smartphones, automobiles, etc.
Rate Integrity should be the focus, not rate parity. With so many different distribution channels, programmes and closed user groups, making sure the correct rate is getting to the right audience is very challenging. Importantly, at the core of any pricing architecture, a clear understanding of how rates relate to each other, should drive client/customer value taking into account contractual obligations, holistic customer value as well as the contribution to profit of each rate/channel of distribution.
There are significant revenue opportunities outside of room revenue:1. Make your property the “hero of the destination:”Bundling rooms with local places of interest and activities into attractive hotel packages offers significant revenue opportunities.
Revenue managers need to focus on revenue generation. Upselling, cross-selling, total revenue management, new revenue streams should be part of the business strategy. Customization and personalization have to be at the core of revenue generation strategies.
By viewing the entire building/space as a series of opportunities to drive revenue will not only drive top line revenue but also increase asset value. The obvious focus would be to concentrate on staying customers to increase revenue opportunity through F&B, MICE or other retail streams, however looking at local footfall and local residents could also unlock opportunity.
First thing hoteliers should do is invest and implement technology NOW! With today's SaaS monthly fees and free trials, even in this time with little cash on hand, implementing new technology is possible and affordable. Focus on automation.
While there are reasons for optimism for sure, now is not the time to let up. Hard work will be required to stay ahead of the curve (or, let's be honest, with continued uncertainty, just on the curve would be great!). Guest behaviour, travel purpose and travel preferences will not be stable.
Due to the pandemic, in 2020 hoteliers slashed their IT and marketing spending by over 50% compared to 2019 (STR, 2021). Due to budget constraints, this year the big question is what can hoteliers do in this environment of weak but growing travel demand and limited resources?
As the hospitality industry awaits the return of travelers, the government's Paycheck Protection Program has helped many hotels weather the COVID-19 storm. D.J. Rama, Auro Hotels, Chip Rogers, American Hotel & Lodging Association, and CBRE's Bob Webster, join Spencer to discuss PPP's impact and the potential timing of the sector's recovery.
My hometown is St Andrews, New Brunswick in eastern Canada. The town overlooks Passamaquoddy Bay and to the south we are flanked by the great state of Maine. Every year in this part of the world the US governors and the Canadian provincial premiers get together for bilateral talks, some good food, and fun. This story is about one of those meetings, The Algonquin Hotel, and how I met our then Premier, Richard Hatfield who is partially responsible for my hotel career.
The once-in-a-century pandemic has caused hoteliers to endure a firestorm that decimated the hotel and leisure industries.