Noteworthy quotes from this week's stories, including Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta talking about evolving demand trends.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We think we will globally see growth in all segments. It’ll
be very low in leisure transient, but positive, a little bit higher on business
transient side and very, very strong on meetings and events.” – Chris Nassetta,
Hilton Read story
“Operational bloat resulting from this includes mandatory
24/7 security coverage for any hotel over 100 rooms, which amounts to
approximately $500,000 a year. That is a death knell for many small hotels,
many of whom have yearly revenues in the $10-$15 million range.” – Vijay
Dandapani, Hotel Association of New York City
Read story
“When you look at total U.S. numbers, there’s not as much opportunity for boom for the rest of this year… I’m not worried about the downside of demand. It’s more about the rate.” – Amanda Hite, STR Read story
“What’s happened in the last 12 months is that capital is
available, but people thought instead of investing in equity, they should do
debt, and that didn’t pan out because fewer transactions happened.” – Mehul
Patel, NewcrestImage Read story
“Recent growth in larger transactions has been partly fueled
by a rise in CMBS/SASB issuance which increased 3.3x relative to last
year. Expect this capital to gravitate to assets in high barrier-to-entry
markets that cater to a diverse customer mix.” – JLL Hotels &
Hospitality Read story
“In the short-term vicinity, July was extraordinarily strong
in terms of total bookings. The bookings that we’re getting are not just
filling rooms at compromise rates. We are realizing great ADRs… We also have a
swelling of tentative business that is really striking.” – Mark Hoplamazian,
Hyatt Hotels Corp. Read story
“We celebrated 126 hotel openings in the half and the
signing of a record-breaking 384 properties, equivalent to more than two a day.
These included the first six openings and 118 signings from the Novum
Hospitality agreement, which doubles our presence in the important and
attractive German market. After growth of +7% in Q1, a very busy Q2 saw +23%
more signings year‑on‑year or a more than doubling when including Novum, and
this keeps us on track for net system size growth expectations.” – Elie
Maalouf, IHG Hotels & Resorts Read
story
“We’re very comfortable with how our consumers are
behaving... We think what happened this quarter was that the high-end leisure
travelers went abroad... We believe this is a moment in time and the pendulum
will swing back.” – Jim Risoleo, Host Hotels & Resorts Read story
“We just signed a new project in Fulton Market in Chicago,
and that's going to be a renovation of a former Schwinn Bicycle factory. That
one's about two years away from delivery. And then we're actively looking again
in the Southeast as well as looking in the San Francisco area, kind of around
wine country… We have two more projects in Southern California, though I can't
announce the locations for those yet; we'll be delivering those within the next
two to four years.” – Philip Bates, TMC Hospitality Read story