U.S. Hotel Performance Is Revised Upward

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, May 21

CBRE is again raising its forecast for U.S. hotel performance this year. The company has revised its forecast for 2023 RevPAR (revenue per available room) to $97.89, up 6 percent year-over-year and an increase of $0.43 from its previous forecast. Rate increases will be a bit weaker than expected but occupancy growth will compensate.

InterContinental Hotels Group announced Jolyon Bulley will succeed Elie Maalouf as IHG’s Americas CEO. Jolyon is currently IHG’s CEO for the Greater China region and the Group’s Transformation Lead for Luxury & Lifestyle.

Marriott International, Inc. appointed Brian Povinelli as Senior Vice President, Global head of Marketing and Brand. Povinelli, who has been with Marriott since it acquired Starwood Hotels, will lead the company’s overall marketing strategy and the guest experience for Marriott’s 22 Premium, Select & Longer-stay brands.

A joint venture between Gencom and GD Holdings announced the acquisition of the newly constructed 192-key St. Regis Chicago, located in the city’s Lakeshore East Loop community of Chicago, Illinois. The hotel features nearly 12,000 square feet of meeting space, five unique dining venues, St. Regis Spa, a fitness center, a rooftop terrace, and an indoor pool. Magellan Development Group has overseen the development of the hotel. JLL Capital Markets arranged $76 million in acquisition financing for St. Regis Chicago.

Bob van den Oord has been named CEO for Langham Hospitality Group, stepping up from his current role as Regional Vice President, Europe, Middle East, and North America from September 1, 2023. He will succeed current CEO, Brett Butcher, who is stepping down from this role.

Pyramid Global Hospitality announced the Wayfinder Newport hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, as the latest addition to the company’s management portfolio. Continuing its longtime partnership with Dovetail + Co, owner of the Wayfinder Newport, Pyramid Global has assumed management of the 197-room hotel with immediate plans underway to rebuild and revitalize the property following extensive damage in a catastrophic fire. Wayfinder Newport is anticipating reopening this year.

First Hospitality has added the Holiday Inn Express Milwaukee West, in Wisconsin, to its national management portfolio.

Springboard Hospitality announced the addition of Hotel St. Michael in Prescott, Arizona, to its portfolio. The hotel offers 70 guestrooms, Bistro St. Michael, and several boutique shops.

Sage Hospitality Group announced the addition of Yotel San Francisco to its growing portfolio. The 203-room property becomes the 19^th in the Sage Independent Hotel Collection and brings the total number of hotels Sage operates in San Francisco to four.

Skift Note: For more context, read Skift’s profile of Wayfinder, our interview with First Hospitality’s top boss, our strategy review of Springboard Hospitality, and our interview with the CEO of Sage Hospitality.

Monday, May 22

InterContinental Hotels Group was upgraded to Neutral from Sell by Redburn.

Developers plan to build two Jacksonville, Florida-area TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotels. One will be a 126-room property in Middleburg in Clay County, with a 2024 opening. Paradigm Development Partners are developing it along with Kellogg & Kimsey. The city of Jacksonville is reviewing a permit application for another TownePlace Suites by Marriott. Shivam Property Management LLC is the developer of this other $7.9 million, 93-unit hotel. 

In Alabama, a new $140 million, eight-story, 257-room Embassy Suites hotel and conference center is under development by owner PHG WB Gulf Shores LLC, a partnership of Peachtree Hotel Group, Woodbine Development, and DD Partners.

Pal Pacific Hotels Group announced the opening of Bellustar Tokyo, a Pan Pacific Hotel, and Hotel Groove Shinjuku, a Parkroyal Hotel in the heart of the district of Shinjuku in Japan. The 48-story Tokyu Kabukicho Tower is the first skyscraper designed by a woman in Japan. The luxury Bellustar Tokyo is located on the tower’s upper floors and features 97 rooms ranging between 41sqm and 227sqm, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the skyline. The hotel includes five ultra-luxurious one-bedroom penthouse suites on the 45^th to 47^th floors.

Skift Note: Japan appears to be having a boom in hotel development after a multi-year lull, based on a string of recent announcements.

Tuesday, May 23

Melbourne-based global fund manager Salter Brothers has acquired five hotels in the NSW Blue Mountains in Australia, The Australian reported. Salter Brothers has acquired the Escarpment Group’s boutique hotel and estate portfolio which encompasses 237 rooms and is valued at well over $65 million ($100 million Australian). Besides the 89-room Lilianfels Resort and 84-room The Majestic Hotel, Salter is buying the 14-room Echoes Boutique Hotel, the 31-room Parklands Country Garden & Lodges and the 19-room The Convent Hunter Valley.

Truist upped its price target on Hyatt Hotels to $149 from $145. This follows Hyatt’s Investor Day. Truist said the bottom line is they find Hyatt has an encouraging long-term runway for growth. Truist also upped is forecast for its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust gave its monthly update saying for the second quarter of the year, overall demand and profitability trends continue to remain within expectations. Business transient and group categories are experiencing solid demand. The booking window remains short term but group room nights and average daily rates are pacing higher than in 2022.

The Ascott Limited announced it is expanding its global business development team with the appointment of Ryan Chen and Dulaphan Amatyakul as Vice Presidents of Business Development. The move is in line with the company’s aim of doubling its fee revenue about $370 million (over $500 million Singaporean dollars) in the next five years.

Ignore the “booking slowdown” cited by Airbnb. Fresh data shows the short-term rental industry strengthened in the second quarter of 2023, according to KeyData, which offers a benchmarking and data analytics tool. The number of nights booked for global second-quarter stays is up 15.9 percent annually, with 22.6 million more nights sold than at the same point last year. In the US, the average daily rate is down 1.9 percent but total nights booked for Q2 have risen 10.2 percent annually while occupancy has increased by 1.6 percent annually.

Skift Note: For more context on the short-term rental demand and pricing trends, read Skift’s story.

Wednesday, May 24

The common consensus among lodging analysts is that the Choice Hotels/Wyndham Hotels rumor makes little sense and won’t happen. Most brought up what we did yesterday, not a very good environment to raise debt or equity capital and the concentration in the economy segment could raise anti-trust concerns. As to why WH stock is staying so strong, despite travel and leisure stocks collapsing around them, there is a sense that this could put Wyndham in play. Once again, not out of the question particularly since for some reason Wyndham has avoided private equity interest even though they have what PE likes, amazing cash flow. The problem is this environment is not a great one to raise debt financing and most analysts are saying the price tag for Wyndham would have to be around $90 a share. Wyndham ended the day up nearly 3 percent at $70.74.

Host Hotels held their Investor Day, getting a lukewarm to a warm reception from the Sell Side. In other words, the bulls used this as validation; those Neutral said HST is in good shape but are not ready to change their view in this environment. The news out of the Day is that 2023’s group revenue pace was now 3.2 percent above this time in 2019. That is up from +2.5 percent on March 31. HST management showed how they would get to $2 billion in Adjusted EBITDA. We don’t think anyone out there will say the stock is not cheap. The big question is in this current environment, who is going to stick their neck out? 

Placemakr announced its expansion into the condo hotel market in partnership with CA South. Placemakr will operate most of the building as high-end furnished rentals for CA South’s latest luxury condo development project, Hyve. Hyve is a collection of 83 premiere, short-term, rental-eligible residences located within proximity to the Convention Center, Broadway, and So Bro in Downtown Nashville. Placemakr will act as both property manager and hospitality operator of Hyve units. 

Outrigger Hospitality Group has acquired the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel and Lahaina’s Plantation Inn for an undisclosed amount. The Ka’anapali Beach Hotel is a beachfront resort on Maui spanning 11 acres with 432 rooms and recently completed a $75 million property-wide renovation. Outrigger will also take ownership of The Plantation Inn, an 18-room bed and breakfast in historic Lahaina Town in Maui. The transaction is expected to close on July 26.

A proposed project to redevelop the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Miami, Florida is moving forward. The new $1.7 billion project known as Riverbridge will include three towers. There will be 1,806 apartments, a 615-room Hyatt Regency Hotel and 190,000 square feet of meeting space. Project partners include Gencom, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and Arquitectonica.

Douglas Development Corp. announced the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore Inner Harbor, in Baltimore, Maryland, is undergoing $6.5 million in renovations to update its hotel rooms, lobby, and a restaurant. These are expected to be finished in early 2024.

Cooper Hotels, owners of the Crowne Plaza hotel located at the Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers, Florida, announced the hotel would join the Hilton portfolio by year-end 2023, converting to a DoubleTree by Hilton.

Skift Note: For more context, read: Analysts Skeptical of Choice Hotels Acquisition Interest in Wyndham. For more about Placemakr’s plans for growth, catch the company CEO Jason Fudin speaking at the Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City on June 7.

Thursday, May 25

Dhaka is set to welcome four new five-star rated hotels over the next three years, boosting the capital of Bangladesh, reported The Daily Star. Bengal Group‘s long-awaited Swissotel Dhaka is due in 2026. Borak Real Estate Ltd (BREL), a unit of Unique Group, signed a hotel management agreement with Indian Hotels Company on April 17. BREL will operate IHCL’s Taj and Vivanta-branded hotels in Dhaka’s Gulshan thane, or district once it opens in three years. The Daily Star’s sources said the Hilton Dhaka will launch in 2025 as a 250-room hotel.

STR said China hotel RevPAR (revenue per available room), when compared with the same week in 2019, was down only -2.4 percent. The domestic travel recovery in normal weeks is nearly complete.

Minor International Pcl said they expect a record year for its hospitality business on pent-up travel demand and a recovery in Chinese tourists holidaying abroad. Bookings all across Minor’s markets, especially Europe and Thailand, will remain high in 2023 after a strong recovery earlier this year, according to Chairman Bill Heinecke. He expects the return of the Chinese traveler to shift into gear as early as the third quarter and that it will support further demand for accommodation. Thailand’s tourism authority predicted earlier this month that arrivals from China are on course to hit 1 million a month from October, a level last seen before the pandemic. Heinecke said they are having trouble hiring staff for existing and new hotels as accommodation demand currently exceeds 2019 levels.

Oberoi Realty was reported by Economic Times to be in talks with global hotel majors including Marriott International and Hyatt to manage and operate a five-star luxury hotel property they are planning to develop in Thane, Maharashtra. Oberoi is planning to develop a 300-key property as part of its proposed integrated development spread across nearly 75 acres. This will be the first five-star hotel in Thane near the country’s financial capital Mumbai. The news story said among the key brands being discussed for the proposed hotel property are JW Marriott and Grand Hyatt. Oberoi already has a relationship with Marriott and also has another upscale mixed-use project, Three Sixty West, which includes branded residences and a five-star 220 key hotel to be managed by Ritz-Carlton so they are getting the edge in handicapping.

Skift Note: Dhaka has only a handful of five-star hotels in Dhaka with roughly 1,000 rooms, so it’s time for more inventory.