Attendees at the fourth annual North America Hotel and Tourism
Investment Conference (NATHIC) last week in Washington, D.C.,
rubbed shoulders with a reality TV show star and were encouraged by
optimistic outlooks for the hotel industry.
Anthony Melchiorri, host and star of Travel Channel's "Hotel
Impossible," answered audience questions in a session moderated by
Mike Cahill, chief executive officer of Hospitality Real Estate
Counselors.
"I'm there to turn around hotels, not to make a TV show,"
Melchiorri said. "I'm not there to play with (hoteliers') emotions
because it's good TV. I want to help." He announced that the second
season of "Hotel Impossible" would premiere this week.
Melchiorri was followed on stage by J.P. Ford, senior vice
president of Lodging Econometrics, who delivered an update to the
audience on the current hotel pipeline. Ford said that new
construction announcements totaled 1,218 projects consisting of
151,545 rooms.
"Underlying fundamentals are improving, and there is a return of
financing," Ford said. New projects are concentrated in the
upper-upscale and upscale segments. He ranked New York, Washington,
San Diego, Houston and Los Angeles as the top cities for room
growth.
Jan Freitag, senior vice president of Smith Travel Research,
presented his organization's latest industry performance data. Year
to date through October 2012, room demand in the United States was
up 3 percent, occupancy was up 2.6 percent, average daily rate was
up 4.2 percent and revenue per available room was up 6.9 percent,
he reported.
Smith Travel Research is forecasting gains across the board for
2013, he said, with demand expected to gain 1.2 percent, occupancy
0.3 percent, ADR 4.6 percent and RevPAR 4.9 percent. The luxury and
upscale segments are expected to benefit the most, with occupancy
gains of 1.9 and 2.2 percent respectively, ADR gains of 6.3 and 5.5
percent and RevPAR of 8.3 and 7.9 percent.
Freitag's presentation complemented a panel discussion on the
conference's first day that addressed the overall state of the
industry. Panelists included Scott Andrews of GE Capital Franchise
Finance, Bruce Lowrey of RockBridge, Jalil Mekouar of Jones Lang
LaSalle Hotels and Keith Thompson of Hotel Assets Group.
"The overall sentiment is positive and performance is on the
rise," Mekouar said. "Debt is coming back and the basket of lenders
is widening, which drives competition and increases loan-to-value
ratios."
Lowrey said that as customer credit shrinks, guests will look
for hotels with high value propositions, notably select-service
properties. In regard to transactions, Andrews said private equity
is looking at secondary and tertiary markets.
Summing up the conference value proposition, attendee Andrew
Pace, vice president of development for Atlanta-based Hotel
Equities Group, described NATHIC panelists as "very focused,
efficient and candid about hotel development and investments,"
which he said is critical in the "very dynamic political and
economic current environment."
NATHIC, part of the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF)
summit series, focused on a wide range of critical topics
identified by the NATHIC Advisory Board, composed of a wide
spectrum of prominent hotel owners, operators, franchisors,
management companies, marketers and analysts who have a pulse on
the North American hospitality and tourism scene.
Other conference highlights included:
- Open discussion by the Lodging Industry Investment Council
(LIIC), a prestigious think tank of hotel owners, brokers,
financiers and lawyers
- Briefings by lobbyists regarding their latest government
relations and policy agenda efforts
- An overview of current and future construction costs from
planning, design and project management to the financial
perspective and bottom line
- A discussion of how hotel operators can benefit by partnering
with convention and visitors bureaus
- Innovative views on maximizing the value of a hotel owner's
capital investment
- A discussion about consumer trends and how hoteliers can
fulfill those expectations
The conference concluded with an executive-level "Power Hour,"
featuring some of the hotel industry's most dynamic leaders
including David Pepper, senior vice president, global development
for Choice Hotels International; Bill Fortier, senior vice
president-development Americas, Hilton; and Mark Williams, vice
president of North American development for Best Western
International.
Marilyn McHugh, who oversees the NATHIC show as vice president
of global events for Questex Hospitality + Travel, said this year's
event offered more formalized networking opportunities in an
intimate setting and topics of immediate relevance to attendees.
"We put the content in the hands of industry leaders and give them
the power to determine what they want to accomplish and learn," she
said.
The NATHIC board represents the Trump, Starwood, Hilton, La
Quinta, Marriott, Wyndham and Choice hotel companies as well as
senior leaders from Cornell University, Lodging Econometrics,
Embassy Bank, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Hospitality Real
Estate Counselors, hotelAVE, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors
Bureau and Daly Gray Public Relations. For more information, visit
www.nathic.com.
Questex Hospitality + Travel, the largest multimedia
organization in the world dedicated to hospitality and travel,
drives revenue, productivity and value creation for these related
industries through strategic investment and deal-making forums,
powerful lead-generation tools, interactive online business
solutions, world-class events and industry-leading
publications.
The Questex Hospitality Group, a division of Questex Hospitality
+ Travel, operates throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East
and Africa and Asia-Pacific region through a variety of
market-leading properties and services including the International
Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Berlin, North America Hotel &
Tourism Investment Conference, Asia Pacific Tourism Destination
Investment Conference, North Asia Hotel Investment Conference,
Russia & CIS Hotel Investment Conference, Central Asia &
Turkey Hotel Investment Conference, HOTEC Design North America and
HOTEC Operations & Technology North America; lead generation
portal HotelManagement.net; and industry news delivery services in
print, online and mobile worldwide via IHIF: Hotel Investment News
along with Hotel Management and HA+D magazines. For more
information, visit www.questex.com.
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