Quotes of the week: Driftwood Capital, Strawberry, Choice Hotels

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Construction has dwindled to a minimum, and I don’t see it having an uptick for the next five years. I see construction being very little around across the board.” – Carlos Rodriguez, Sr., Driftwood Capital   Read story

“The timing of the refinancing was absolutely tied to the attractiveness of the CMBS financing market. While there was a maturing loan at the end of the year, that was incidental to the timing. Trinity and Credit Suisse have been very deliberate over the past 18 months in determining the right time to go to market and as the window opened, they executed the refinancing.” – Kevin Davis, JLL Hotels & Hospitality, on Trinity Investment’s refinancing of The Diplomat in Florida   Read story

“It’s an accessible market compared to the massive markets of China and India. You also have amazing demographics, which is a prerequisite for hotel development, and it’s very manageable. You literally cover north to south in two hours… It’s less intimidating because it’s more consolidated.” Linh Vu, Key Hospitality Consulting on developing in Vietnam   Read story

“Experiences is something that kind of transcends chain scales.” – Nils Korsvoll, Strawberry   Read story

“The new construction pipeline in the Middle East has been through many ups and downs during and since the pandemic. At present and over recent quarters, many developers have decelerated their schedules to push openings out. Many of the major brands have stepped in to keep key projects on track.” – Bruce Ford, Lodging Econometrics   Read story

“These last couple of years have been a big step for the company. We've grown roughly from 200 to about 400 hotels [in the upscale space. So, the size component of competing in upscale is already there… We feel pretty good about actually approaching this from the mindset of being a challenger and an aggressor to the sector.” – Indy Adenaw, Choice Hotels International   Read story

“With Orient Express, Accor is reinventing the art of travel, discovery and great odysseys. With LVMH today, we are opening a new chapter in this exciting journey, with the ambition of exploring new horizons and embodying the audacity and creative passion that drive our groups. We’re delighted to enlist LVMH’s rare expertise to continue pushing further the frontiers of this legend and bringing its embodiment to life in an ever more singular way.” – Sébastien Bazin, Accor   Read story

“We’re seeing most lenders max out at 65% loan-to-value when, in previous years, it was more like 75%. Lenders are also concerned about hotel values holding up in this rate environment. To mitigate risk, they’re quoting terms at lower leverages.” – Ryan Bosch, Arriba Capital   Read story