Asia Pacific Set to See Strong Hotel Development

Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.

Sunday, November 27

Hilton Worldwide has hired Proof & Co.’s beverage consultancy arm to revamp the bar experience at all of its Waldorf Astoria properties. Remaking the bars will be done at more than 30 properties worldwide by early 2024.

Ala Moana Hotel by Manta in Honolulu, Hawaii, said its 1,200 rooms recently received new bedding, pillows, and mattresses. A full renovation of the rooms will begin in late 2023, followed by full renovations of the hotel’s public spaces in its two towers.

Skift Note: Many properties that deferred renovations during the pandemic are pursuing them now.

Monday, November 28

Despite continued strong data in the STR benchmark performance reports each week, Raymond James and PwC have written down demand forecasts for the U.S. fourth quarter. RJ believes lodging, despite short booking windows, is a lagging economic indicator, probably by 3-6 months. Building economic headwinds will soon catch up to weekly lodging data. However, STR and Tourism Economics maintained their full-year 2022 U.S. hotel forecast projections for ADR (average daily rate) and RevPAR (revenue per available room) in their final revision.

Crisil Ratings said the Indian hotel industry will likely witness 23 percent growth in revenue this fiscal year over the pre-pandemic level, driven by a strong recovery in domestic and international business travel. Profitability will hover around 34 percent this fiscal compared to 24 percent in the pre-pandemic period. Revenue is expected to increase 23 percent over the pre-pandemic level. They expect the average rate of return for owners will increase by 8-10 percent.

Baird said they analyzed TSA Thanksgiving checkpoint travel numbers to gauge the health of the leisure traveler during the holiday weekend. TSA checkpoint data suggest flexible travel patterns still exist. The three busiest travel days of the 2019 holiday were Wednesday before and Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving. In 2022 those days experienced double-digit declines in demand versus 2019 but the days before and in between were relatively stronger. Baird said reduced airline capacity could be impacting demand and day-of-week travel patterns.

U.S. private equity firm Lone Star has reportedly purchased the company behind the landmark Hotel Metropole in Brussels, from the Bervoets family for an undisclosed sum. Centaurus Hospitality Management has been tapped to run the property. 

Skift Note: Is U.S. hotel demand weakening or strengthening? Analysts conflict in their predictions. But the consensus in India is that demand will outpace supply for at least a few years.

Tuesday, November 29

Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Dream Hotel Group announced an agreement for a Hyatt affiliate to acquire Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle hotel brand and management platform including the Dream Hotels, The Chatwal Hotels, and Unscripted Hotels brands.

Oxford Property Group announced The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit will undergo a $20 million renovation by around June 2023 of the hotel’s 453 guest rooms and suites, 36,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, and all of its public spaces, plus add a restaurant.

Pan Pacific Hotels Group announced it will double its serviced suites portfolio in 2023 with openings in key gateway cities such as Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi. Its developments are under the parent company UOL Group Limited. The Group’s latest wave of expansion will increase its global development portfolio by 50%, adding more than 4,000 keys by 2023.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group announced it would manage a new resort with branded residences in Phu Yen province, one of Vietnam’s coastal regions. The project aims to open in 2026 and will be the group’s third property in Vietnam.

Skift Note: See Skift’s story on Hyatt’s push into lifestyle hotels, here, for more context.

Wednesday, November 30

CoStar published an article on Swire Hotels and its plans to expand The House Collective brand to destinations like Tokyo and Shenzhen Bay in China. The House Collective today has four hotels in China and Hong Kong. The Shibuya (Tokyo) property aims to open in 2027. Another in the heart of Shenzhen Bay, China is slated to open in 2025. Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Australia are also on the map for the development company and hotel brands. The brand aims to appeal to Chinese outbound travelers.

Cambria Hotels announced the opening of its six-story, 121-room location in downtown Minneapolis to complete the newly constructed dual-hotel building. Four years after developers bought the 1-acre plot, the hotel building is finally housing both the Cambria Hotel Minneapolis Downtown and Fairfield Inn & Suites. The Fairfield Inn, also six stories, opened in August. JR Hospitality and Hawkeye Hotels began construction on the 215-room, dual-branded hotel in 2020. 

Skift Note: Swire Hotels, in its 2021 financial results to the Hong Kong stock exchange, had detailed a $12 billion ($100 billion Hong Kong dollars) expansion fund to strategically develop hotels and invest in key cities in China over the next 10 years.

Thursday, December 1

Accor announced details on some of its newest properties across Australia and New Zealand that will open in 2023. In Australia, the Hotel Morris, a boutique hotel, will open following an extensive refurbishment. Also opening in January will be the Manly Pacific – MGallery featuring 213 rooms. Rounding out the NSW openings will be the 153-room Pullman Sydney Penrith, opening in 4Q23, adjoined to the new 1,250 square meter Western Sydney Conference Center. Accor said Mercure Hotel Cairns would open in January in Tropical North Queensland. The new 75-room hotel emerges following a multi-million dollar refurbishment and rebrand of the ibis Styles Cairns. The Sebel Wellington Lower Hutt is expected to open in Q2 2023 with 60 fully serviced studios and one-bedroom apartments while the 313-room Te Arikinui Pullman is expected to open in Q4 2023 near the airport.

Hotel Lotte’s hotel division is merging with its resort division to enhance competitiveness. Lotte Hotels will merge with Lotte Resort to form a single division. The company said Hotel Lotte will transform from four divisions to three – hotel/duty-free/world. The two businesses were integrated to boost management efficiency and to raise hospitality competitiveness as Korea’s biggest hospitality group. Lotte Hotels operates 29 hotels in and outside Korea while Lotte Resort operates three resorts and golf clubs domestically. The merger allows for a hotel group with 11,000 rooms internationally. The merged division has five brands – Signiel, Lotte Hotels, Lotte City Hotels, L7 Hotels and Lotte Resort. The unit expects to launch more brands.

Skift Note: Asia Pacific presents tremendous growth opportunities for both global and regional brands.