As part of the Americas
Lodging Investment Summit’s Patron sponsorship program, ALIS organizers asked
JLL’s Kevin Davis nine timely questions as we prepare for the 22nd
annual event January 23-25, 2023, at the JW Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles
L.A. LIVE. Following are his responses.
ALIS: How has inflation and
the threat of a recession affected the U.S. hotel transactions market?
DAVIS: Inflation has impacted
the US hotel market both directly and indirectly, and the impact is profound.
Because we re-lease our rooms every night, the industry has benefitted from
inflation with the pricing power to push ADRs to record high levels in some
markets and at many properties. We’ve also seen sky-high spending on food-and-beverage
and on ancillary servicers as travelers have had more money in their pockets
and have been willing to spend. To the downside, we’ve seen a run-up in labor
costs, food costs, and energy costs, which have partially offset increased
revenues. From an indirect perspective, inflation has been the primary driver
for the Fed’s aggressive increase in the Fed Funds rate, which has substantially
increased the cost of debt and has put downward pressure on hotel asset
values.
ALIS: Most forecasts show
supply growth checking in at about 1% each year for the next two or three
years. How will that affect transactions volume?
DAVIS: Muted supply growth
going forward is a good thing for our industry, particularly in some of the
darling markets in the southeast, which have seen robust supply growth. I’d
like to see a stronger recovery in hotel profitability industrywide before we
begin to see a major ramp-up in new supply. Theoretically, less new supply will
be good for existing hotels, which should perform better, all other things
being equal, which will result in stronger asset pricing.
ALIS: What’s
the message to hotel owners, investors, and developers from the lending
community in general as 2023 approaches?
DAVIS: The
most important thing for owners to know is that there is debt liquidity for
hospitality, it has just gotten a lot more expensive. We have not run a single
hotel financing campaign where no one showed up – we are getting bids on
everything we are taking out. However,
the index is over 200bps higher compared to earlier this year and credit
spreads are 100-200bps wider, resulting in all-in loan coupons, that are
300-400bps higher when compared to early 2022. Unfortunately, the index will likely
increase as the Fed continues to raise the Fed Funds rate. My hope and
expectation is that we will see compression in credit spreads early next year
once the market believes the Fed has inflation under control.
ALIS: What is the outlook for
CMBS markets as the recovery from the pandemic continues to solidify?
DAVIS: The CMBS markets will
move in conjunction with the broader capital markets. If we begin to see
tightening in other credit sectors, I’d expect CMBS to tighten, and vice versa.
What’s unfortunate about hospitality is that our industry fundamentals are
improving, while the CMBS and capital markets have been deteriorating. The
reason is that the broader inflation and capital markets dynamics are driving
the hotel financing/CMBS markets, not industry fundamentals.
ALIS: What hotel asset type
will be the most popular to trade hands in 2023? Why?
DAVIS: 2023 will be the year
of big box and urban hotels. We correctly called the start of this trend in
2022, and we expect that it will gain steam in 2023 as urban markets and group
meeting demand recovers quickly. Markets such as New York and Boston have been
among the most liquid in 2022 and based on the deals that we are working on,
and the inbound calls, we definitely see an acceleration of this trend. We are
also working on several big box dispositions, and we expect that owners will
sell into an improving demand environment.
ALIS: What’s the most common
question you are hearing from clients, and how do you respond to it?
DAVIS: Among the most common
questions is whether we believe the record NOI levels achieved by many drive-to
resort assets will be sustainable. I do believe that many of these assets will
be able to maintain the majority of the post-COVID rate/NOI gains, with only a
modest bit of slippage. For example,
this summer, we did see some softening in operating performance of many
drive-to leisure assets in 2022 as travelers had more options to travel abroad.
However, I believe that we’ve set new pricing thresholds at many assets and
travelers have become conditioned to higher rates. Consumers are experiencing
sticker shock everywhere else in their lives - at the grocery store, at the gas
pump, with their energy bills, etc. – so they are less likely to balk at higher
hotel rates.
ALIS: The ongoing labor
shortage has presented issues for hotel owners. How has it impacted
transactions, and do you see that impact growing or shrinking during 2023?
DAVIS: As economic growth
slows, we should begin to see an improvement in the labor situation for
hospitality in 2023. The challenges presented post-COVID have been related to
significantly increased costs and difficulty providing high levels of service.
The higher costs obviously negative affect the NOI line which is not good for valuations.
However, paradoxically, the difficulty in getting labor has forced hotels to
operate extremely efficiently, albeit at the risk of guest satisfaction, but
these efficiencies have produced strong profitability at some properties that
will be hard to replicate.
ALIS: What’s the most under-estimated challenge the hotel industry
faces, and why?
DAVIS: Funding PIPs and keeping properties in good physical
condition will be challenging for some owners, who will be pressured by high
construction costs and significantly higher debt costs now and when they
refinance. There’s a lot of talk about distress due to the capital markets
dislocation, but very few people are talking about the implications on the physical
condition of the assets, many of which already have deferred maintenance due to
COVID.
ALIS: What’s the most under-estimated opportunity for the hotel
industry, and why?
DAVIS: there’s a great opportunity for us to design product to better
appeal to longer term travel and travel by families. Perhaps it’s remote/hybrid
work and pent-up demand following COVID, but people are taking longer trips and
length of stay has increased. With the rise of short-term rentals, many
travelers are opting for STRs for longer trips and family travel. I believe
traditional hotels can get some of that demand back with extended stay product
that offers more apartment style living and can accommodate people that are
traveling for several weeks or months at a time. We’ve seen the launch or
expansion of several brands that aim to capture this demand, but I believe that
there’s a lot of remaining white space.