LVMH Stopped From Building a Luxury Hotel in Beverly Hills

Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. Jump to Tuesday, below, for the headline story. 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 28

Lightstone has opened a dual-branded hotel tower in Downtown Los Angeles. The 37-story tower, the first component of a two-tower project, includes 727 guestrooms divided between the Moxy Downtown Los Angeles and AC Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. The AC and Moxy hotels are the initial component of the larger Fig + Pico development, which would see the construction of a smaller 27-story tower containing 378 guest rooms. A Hilton Garden Inn had previously been slated for that building, Urbanize reported.

Quorum Hotels & Resorts announced the Inn at the Pier in Pismo Beach, California has joined the Curio Collection by Hilton. Owned by Somera Capital Management, the Inn is the first lifestyle Hilton property in the Pismo Beach market. The 104-room hotel received a multi-million-dollar renovation and will get a new rooftop restaurant and bar this summer. 

Hilton announced the opening of Canopy by Hilton San Francisco SoMA. The 12-story property includes 194 guestrooms, a rooftop lounge, a street-level coffee shop, a fitness center, and five meeting rooms offering 4,400 square feet of event space.

Shaner Hotels announced the acquisition of the 86-room Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Hershey in Pennsylvania. Shaner also will operate the property and plans to implement $1.2 million in renovations to remodel guest rooms completely. The property offers a Sweet Shop, fitness center and heated indoor pool. Additionally, the company announced it will break ground on another hotel, a TownePlace Suites, in the coming months. 

Skift Take: There’s a global wave of renovations happening at hotels as properties catch-up on maintenance and improvements after the pandemic crush and supply-chain disruptions.

Tuesday, May 30

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is scrapping plans to build a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills after residents in the city appeared to vote against the project, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company confirmed that two measures on the Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills project had fallen short by a narrow margin.  LVMH’s offer got shot down by voters swayed by union organizers decrying the lack of affordable housing in the area, the Financial Times reported.

Vector Hospitality has plans to add nearly 350 hotel rooms to downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Plans include a seven-story, 162-room AC Hotel by Marriott on Walnut Street and Locust Street, as well as a 175-room Tempo by Hilton hotel and 275-space parking deck on W. Church Street. Tempo is still in its planning phase. The AC’s estimated completion date is August 2025. The future Tempo has an estimated completion date of spring 2026. 

IHG Hotels & Resorts broke ground on its new Even Hotels property in suburban Miami, Florida. Even Hotel Sweetwater – Doral is projected to open in time for the 2024 summer travel season. The hotel will feature key elements of the brand’s recently introduced refreshed prototype including three room types containing varying exercise amenities, the new Even Kitchen & Bar restaurant, and a 24/7 market. 

Accor has signed a management agreement with Kokyo Asset Management Group in partnership with PGIM Real Estate for a new Novotel in Nara, Japan. Novotel Nara is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2024. The hotel will feature 264 guestrooms and suites, an all-day dining restaurant, four versatile function spaces, a wellness area and a premium lounge on the top floor with an expansive outdoor terrace and bar, offering views of Nara. Accor currently operates 20 properties with 4,950 keys in Japan across several brands. They have six more properties in the pipeline with a total of 1,282 additional keys.

Skift Take: “In 2022, the luxury hospitality market more than doubled in value year-on-year to €191bn despite remaining below its pre-pandemic peak, according to consultancy Bain,” according to a Financial Times article on LVMH’s loss in Beverly Hills. So expect more attempts to build luxury hotels thanks to booming demand.

Wednesday, May 31

H World Group, formerly known as China Lodging, has sold one-fifth of its holdings in Indian hospitality company OYO to a United Arab Emirates-based buyer. The transactions were done over the course of 2022 in multiple tranches with about US$9 million going to H World. The return on H World’s investment is 500% and that also values the rest of their stake at $36 million, a valuation of $6.6 billion for OYO, which has been trying for months to launch an IPO. H World acquired its entire stake in 2017 for $10 million.

Simon announced construction has commenced on a new Residence Inn by Marriott at Northgate Station in Seattle, Washington. The first hotel in the mixed-use development, the 167-room Residence Inn, joins the newly upgraded Northgate Sound Transit light rail bus station and Kraken Community Iceplex.

Loge Camps purchased The Mountaineer Inn, in Asheville, North Carolina, for $6.1 million from the Moutos family. Loge plans to refresh the 1939 motel and adopt it into its outdoor recreation-oriented bra

IHG Hotels & Resorts announced the opening of its latest Australian Holiday Inn property in Melbourne’s southeast. The 124-room Holiday Inn Dandenong is owned by Pelligra Group, who invested A$12 million to create the next-generation Holiday Inn hotel featuring the brand’s modern “open lobby” concept, conference rooms and a restaurant.

Skift Take: For more context on the Oyo news, read Skift’s story: “Chinese Hotel Firm Rakes in Six-Fold Return as It Sells Minor Stake in Oyo.” For more on BWH, read: “Best Western’s Parent Company Looks to Outflank Its Hotel Peers.”

Thursday, June 1

Trip.com data shows that global – not just China-based – travel bookings for June 1 to August 31 have already surpassed the 2019 level. The most booked cities in Asia are Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taipei, while Singapore and Jeju City at 7 and 10 are in the top 10 and the other two are casino destinations.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association released three scenarios for forecasts for 39 Asia Pacific destinations for 2023. Predicted international arrival numbers in 2023 range from 705 million under the mild scenario to 516 million under the medium scenario and almost 390 million under the severe scenario, equating to visitor numbers in 2023 that exceed that of pre-pandemic 2019 by 3.3% under the mild scenario but still nearly 25% short under the medium and 43% behind under the severe scenario. PATA doesn’t expect China to make a run at 2019 volumes under any of the scenarios until 2024.

Hilton announced the opening of Hilton Garden Inn Da Nang in Vietnam, not far from My Khe beach and a claimed 15-minute car ride from Da Nang International Airport. The 234 rooms all have beach views. The property is owned by Hai An Investment Trading and Import Export Joint Stock Company and joins a portfolio of 12 trading and pipeline Hilton hotels in Vietnam. Hilton will also welcome Hilton Saigon and La Festa Phu Quoc, Curio Collection by Hilton this year.

Fitch Ratings upped their outlook for OYO’s parent company, Oravel Stays, to Positive from Stable. Fitch believes OYO is on track to generate positive EBITDA and cash flow. They expect the demand recovery in the travel industry to drive revenue growth over 20% and their cost-reduction measures to support improving profitability.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced the opening of the Ajul Luxury Hotel & Spa Resort, its first Registry Collection hotel in Europe. Owned and operated by Zeus International Hotels & Resorts, the resort is located in Halkidiki, one of Greece’s most sought-after destinations. Ajul Luxury Hotel & Spa Resort, a Registry Collection Hotel offers 171 rooms including 26 private villas and 92 bungalows; five pools as well as access to nearby heavenly pebble beach; three restaurants; Spa Center; two tennis courts; a basketball court; a beach volleyball court; an adventure park and other outdoor activities.

Skift Take: While business travel has roared back faster than many expected, mid-2020 predictions that international travel wouldn’t fully regain 2019 levels until 2024 increasingly look accurate.