What's Trending in 2024
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' first-quarter systemwide RevPAR increased by 1 percent year over year, and executives cited a new corporate travel program and increasing levels of U.S. infrastructure spending as reasons for optimism.
BTN
Hertz plans to sell an additional 10,000 electric vehicles from its fleet, on top of the 20,000 it announced in January it would sell, the company said during its first-quarter earnings call.
BTN
Southwest Airlines will pull out of four airports, reduce service at Chicago O'Hare and Atlanta and reduce headcount by 2,000 employees, executives announced during a dour Thursday earnings call. Business travel demand nevertheless was a bright spot.
BTN
BTN’s Meetings Strategy survey showed a concerted push among organizations to get their hands around meetings activities. How meetings strategy crosses with travel management—or not—can be seen in the following data story, concluding BTN’s special coverage.
BTN
Occupancy rates at US hotels continued to decline in March, dropping to 63.7%, a year-over decline of 2.5%, according to data from STR, which says some of the decline is due to lessening demand from lower-to-middle income leisure travelers. In the same period, the revenue per available room went down year over year to $101.81, while the average daily rate had a slight 0.4% increase to $159.79.
BTN
As seen in the Q1 2024 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the end of the first quarter, there were 6,065 projects with 702,990 rooms in the pipeline. This new all-time high represents a 9 percent year-over-year (YOY) increase in projects and a 7 percent YOY increase in rooms compared to last year. The details can be seen directly within the stages of the pipeline, which all saw YOY growth in Q1.
Lodging Magazine
Overall distress rate increases 440% in 2023, led by the office sector at 16.2%. 44.6% of the distressed loans have passed their maturity and have not paid off, in breach of their loan terms
CredIQ
Florida cities are pretty clean compared to many metropolises in other states, according to the newest American Lung Association “State of the Air” report.
FloridaTrends
Loan modifications in 2023 more than doubled compared to 2022. Of the $162 billion in securitized commercial mortgages which matured in 2023, 542 loans were modified with cumulative balances just over $20 billion
CredIQ
A pressing issue echoing throughout the commercial real estate world is how inflation will continue to impact day-to-day activity. The latest Consumer Price Index Report seems to offer little reassurance for those worried that the economy may be at risk of a recession — but is the reality as the government paints it?
BisNow
The first half of this year was supposed to be when interest rates began coming down, providing a lifeline to struggling commercial real estate owners. But it now appears the Federal Reserve may not be coming to the rescue anytime soon.
BisNow
Florida home values have more than doubled in the past decade
Home values have increased in every American state since 2013, according to a study from Architecture Lab. However, Florida is one of the states where values have increased the most dramatically. Using data from the Zillow Home Value Index, Architecture Lab ranked every U.S. state based on the difference between average home values in 2013 and 2023. Florida ranked No. 2: A decade ago, the average home was valued at $144,464. Last year, however, that value had jumped 164% to $381,922.
South Florida Agent
To mitigate overtourism, Amsterdam has banned the construction of new hotels and set an annual limit of 20 million hotel overnight stays by visitors, although new hotels that already have a permit are exempt from the rule. Also, a hotel can be built if another hotel shuts down, provided it does not increase the number of guestrooms and is an improvement over the shuttered property.
CNN Travel
IHG Hotels & Resorts has become the first hospitality company to offer Apple AirPlay in its guestrooms, with the capability now available at over 60 North American properties. Guests can stream content from their iPads or iPhones to the TV in their rooms by scanning a QR code to the hotel's Wi-Fi network.
Hotel Management
US hotels are expected to generate an all-time high of almost $83.4 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue in 2024, with California, New York and Nevada receiving the largest share, according to projections from the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Amid an ongoing staffing shortage, hotels are also expected to pay record salaries of $123.4 billion, compared to $118 billion last year.
Hotel Management Online
Miraj Patel, a second-generation hotelier and president of Wayside Investment Group, was named the new chair of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association at the group's 35th annual Convention and Trade Show. Patel, 26, is the youngest chair in the association's history and has served on the AAHOA board of directors since 2019.
Asian Hospitality
Hilton has announced a deal to acquire the Graduate Hotels brand from AJ Capital Partners for $210 million. AJ Capital will retain ownership of the real estate, and Hilton will enter into franchise agreements for all existing and signed pipeline properties. The deal is expected to finalize in the second quarter.
CoStar Group
Hotel companies and real estate investment trusts that are part of the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index saw a 6.3% increase in stock values in February compared with the prior month. On a year-over-year basis, the top performers were InterContinental Hotels Group, which rose 55.6%; Marriott International, up 47.6%; and Hilton Worldwide Holdings, which increased 41.4%.
CoStar Group
The producer price index was up 0.6% in February, according to the Labor Department, surpassing the 0.3% gain seen in January. A core measure that strips out food and energy prices gained 0.3% last month.
CNBC
Some cities are rolling out fresh incentives for office-to-residential conversions or expanding existing programs, but obstacles to these projects remain. In some cases, the physical characteristics of a building can make conversion challenging; in others, it can be difficult to make the financial aspects work out. It's clear that more housing is needed, but "fulfilling that demand in the way that it needs to be fulfilled is very difficult to make work when you're putting numbers down on paper," said CBRE's Julie Whelan.
The Business Journals
Market interest rates are unlikely to return to levels seen before the pandemic due to current market realities and forecasts in the private sector, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says.
Bloomberg
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, for 2023, reported net income of $26 million in the fourth quarter and $220 million for the full year, which exceeded the full-year outlook for last year. Comparable systemwide RevPAR increased 9.1% in the fourth quarter and 17.0% for the full year compared to the same periods in 2022, and exceeded the full-year outlook for 2023.
Hotel Business
As the number of high-net-worth people around the world increases, spending on luxury hotels has spiked, making it a desirable sector for investors. Luxury hotels accounted for 21.4% of global single-asset hotel liquidity last year, while single-asset luxury hotel pricing hit $640,000 per room, an all-time high.
Hotels Magazine
A group of banks led by JPMorgan Chase will provide a refinancing loan of approximately $1 billion to Great Wolf Resorts that will be used to repay part of a $1.7 billion CMBS loan on a 14-property portfolio. Blackstone has a 65% controlling interest in Great Wolf, which has had a strong rebound since pandemic closures.
CoStar
How much longer will rate lead hotel performance when occupancy continues to slip? Hard to say, but it was still happening in January.
BTN
Las Vegas is already a market accustomed to hosting big events, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the market's first Super Bowl set a new record in hotel rates for cities hosting that event. STR's Isaac Collazo, Chris Klauda and William Anns report that Las Vegas hotels recorded the highest average daily rate in the history of the event at $747 for Friday and Saturday.
CoStar
Hoteliers must be innovative in their use of AI and other new technologies to remain efficient and attract more guests, particularly younger travelers from Generation Z, said hospitality leaders at the 2024 Americas Lodging Investment Summit. At the same time, hotels need to balance the connectivity afforded by tech with personalized service and old-fashioned hospitality.
CoStar
Record-high wages and unprecedented mobility in hospitality career paths are boosting recruitment, according to AHLA.
BTN
Amidst a burgeoning hotel development pipeline in the U.S., marked by the highest counts recorded since Q2 2008 by Lodging Econometrics (LE), there’s been a significant rise in the popularity of extended-stay hotels. This noticeable surge of extended-stay hotels is a result of the way Americans approach lodging.
Hotel Business
A report from Research and Markets forecasts estimates that the global business travel market, which was around $665.3 billion in 2022, will grow to $928.4 billion by 2030, with much of the increase to come from a strong rebound in China. Spending on lodging and food is expected to rise 5% annually and reach $509.8 billion by 2030.
Business Traveler
