Quotes of the Week: Hilton, Choice, Frontier Development, MGM

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We feel pretty good about 2025. I’ve been doing this for longer than I’m going to admit, maybe close to 40 years. I’ve rarely seen a stronger consensus view on the macros, particularly here in the U.S… Resiliency is the word I use to describe our business. That word is getting used a lot to describe the economy… It remains strong, resilient and showing positive growth. Our consensus view is that next year will be more of that – we’ll have positive economic growth. The odds of a recession at this point I think are quite low.” – Chris Nassetta, Hilton   Read story

“(By) going through trial and error and starting small, I eventually literally just played Monopoly in real life. I started off just flipping small $30 (thousand) $40 (thousand), $50,000 homes, and then I traded in my four homes for a hotel at some point. It’s always been my favorite game, and I think I played it in real life.” – Evens Charles, Frontier Development & Hospitality Group   Read story

“Our relationship with Marriott has far exceeded our expectations, demonstrating the power of its brand portfolio and the strength of their distribution channels. W Las Vegas, the latest hotel to come to life as part of our collaboration, will allow our guests to access a new luxury lifestyle experience recognized worldwide for its distinct personality, dynamic programming and elevated service culture.” – Steve Zanella, MGM Resorts   Read story

“I’ve been saying there’s no need for any big M&A… I don’t believe you will see further consolidation in the industry. America belongs to five exceptional hotel operators. Maybe something is going to be happening in America, but you’ve seen Wyndham and Choice failing. I don’t see any cross-Atlantic merger. It’s super difficult to execute.” – Sébastien Bazin, Accor   Read story

“We’ve even seen some lenders start to treat extended-stay as its own asset class versus lumping it together with a lot of the other hospitality investments, which is encouraging and overdue, in my opinion.” – Matt McElhare, Choice Hotels   Read story

“Comparing Q3 2024 with Q2 2024, the number of trades increased nearly 8% while total dollar volume grew approximately 11% and sale price per room declined by under 5%. By further comparison, the LWHA Q3 2023 Major U.S. Hotel Sales Survey includes 88 single asset sale transactions over $10 million which totaled roughly $3.2 billion and included approximately 14,000 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of $228,000.” – Daniel Lesser, LW Hospitality Advisors   Read story

“Five to seven years ago, probably 40% of our business came from within Asia. Today, it’s almost 60%. We see incredible opportunity on both the development side and the return side. When you develop great assets, you’re able to deliver phenomenal returns to your owners. So, I think the world is going to shift focus [to Asia].” – Rajeev Menon, Marriott International   Read story

“We dare to make changes to the asset [in Japan] in order to do what works for us and bring in the appropriate brand to serve the price point of what the customer in that locality will pay. Even though we may have to pay tighter pricing, by bringing in value, we are able to add incremental yield to what we buy, which is why we have been selling.” – Hoe Kit Mak, CapitaLand Investment   Read story

“We awarded 10% more franchise contracts domestically this quarter, driving 5% growth in our development pipeline. Stabilizing RevPAR trends and improving comparisons coupled with increased infrastructure demand are expected to pave the way for improved results in the coming quarters.” – Geoff Ballotti, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts   Read story

“The collaboration will accelerate our asset-light expansion in China by leveraging Jin Jiang’s franchise-ready infrastructure, complementing our successful management strategy in the market where we currently operate more than 220 properties in over 40 cities. With 90% of Ascott’s global portfolio already operating under management and franchise agreements, we remain focused on advancing our asset-light strategy for further growth.” – Kevin Goh, Ascott Ltd., CLI Lodging   Read story