Some noteworthy quotes from the past week, including perspective on Singaporean sovereign wealth fund acquiring from Blackstone Group a 35% stake in Spanish hotel group Hotel Investment Partner (HIP).
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The partners’ cumulative size, scale and capital will bolster our ability to
continue the transformation of the hotel landscape in Southern Europe. The
fundamentals of the Southern European hotel market continue to be strong with
revenue booked for the balance of the year over 20% ahead of last year.” –
Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas, HIP, on its new tie-up with Singapore’s GIC Read story
“The Philippines and Malaysia don’t have a lot of
international brands. It’s mostly domestic… People are going, but not everyone.
It’s not for everyone. You need to have good relationships, and the owner is
king in this [area].” – Jesper Palmqvist, STR, at HICAP 2023 Read story
“While there is heightened geopolitical risk and continued
macroeconomic uncertainty, the consumer is still generally holding up well and
our forward bookings through the end of the year in most regions around the
world remain solid.” – Leeny Oberg, Marriott International, during 3Q23
earnings call Read story
“For most of the hotels we have developed and expanded with
already in Europe, the main clients are Europeans. But we’ve been very
surprised to see more Americans becoming interested. The thing about Europe,
though, is that not all the destinations are a fit for an all-inclusive
product, and there are some important nuances. We have a brand, Alua, for
example, where, in many cases, we do have all-inclusive packages, but in other
cases, we offer meal plans. We've also developed some Secrets, Dreams and a
Zoetry in Europe, and the idea is to adapt the product but still make sure that
we have the same basic promises in place.” – Gonzalo del Peon, Hyatt Hotels
Corp., on its all-inclusive development Read story
“We’re seeing in some hotels it’s in the double digits, more
than 10% of total revenue. Even when you’re underwriting something, you would
never imagine that. It [property tax] has to be looked at and dealt with
proactively, just like payroll, utilities or any other large expense.” – Ahmer Naushad,
Sonesta International Hotels Corp., on property tax challenges Read story