Quotes of the week: AAHOA, Choice Hotels, Apple Hospitality

“It’s important to realize these are two really high free cash flow businesses with a really high margin, which gives us the opportunity to de-lever pretty quickly. We’ve demonstrated that in the past as our balance sheet today is only at a 2.6 times net leverage ratio… We believe that putting these two companies together will allow us to realize these synergies on a very quick path and deliver the company back to our normal target range.” – Patrick Pacious, Choice Hotels president and CEO, on their proposed acquisition of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts  Read story

“We have seen in the past the major impact that mergers and acquisitions by the big hotel franchisor corporations can have on our members as the hotelier franchisees. Indeed, our AAHOA members fear a significant further dilution of the brands and fighting over the guest reservations on one reservation system. The changes can be highly disruptive to their business practices, and even cause a significant decrease in revenues overall.” – Laura Lee Blake, AAHOA, on the proposed Choice Hotels acquisition of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts  Read story

“We remain cautiously optimistic that successful Fall 2023 conventions can help re-convince meeting planners that San Francisco is able to host major events without issues for attendees. However, our view is more hope/gut feel than from actual forward data.” – Gregory Miller, Truist Securities  Read story

“While overall industry transaction volume remains muted, the strength of our operating performance and our relative liquidity position have provided us with unique opportunities to pursue accretive acquisitions and to grow our portfolio. We are actively underwriting additional opportunities and are well positioned to further add to our portfolio in the coming months.” – Nelson Knight, Apple Hospitality  Read story

“This is going to be a challenge for those hotels that have haphazardly implemented resort fees with little education on what those fees actually pertain to. Those are the hotels that this bill is really targeted at. And they will have to make those changes by [July 2024.]” – Isaac Rodriguez, Twenty Four Seven Hotels, on the new California law that bans “offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or chargers other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction.”  Read story

“Asia Pacific hotel assets have performed well over the past year, making them highly coveted investments. We anticipate a repricing of Asia Pacific hotel assets to be more moderate than in many other parts of the world, as the rebound in international arrivals and higher hotel revenue helps to offset headwinds from the capital markets environment.” – Steve Carroll, CBRE, Asia Pacific  Read story