The Economy Is Back, And So Are Hotel PIPs
That three-letter acronym many hotel owners loathe to hear, PIP, or property improvement plan, has come out of hibernation. With the net operating income of the average U.S. hotel expected to rise 10.9% this year, according to PKF Hospitality Research, the major brands are exerting more pressure on hotel owners to complete PIPs. ...
Hotel Lenders Invade Hunter Conference
If you were at this week’s Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in Atlanta, you would think plenty of lenders are providing lots of money to finance hotel industry deals. While that’s far from true, it was a good sign that, unlike last year, many lenders were at the conference. More importantly, those in attendance or speaking on panels said they’re providing financing for a wide range of ...
New Membership Brand Offers Flex-Concept
Two years after opening its first hotel in Spokane, WA, FairBridge Hotels International, a new brand based on the membership model, is gearing up to go national. Owned by Hotel Marketing Solutions, a management firm with offices in Spokane and Seattle, the “flex-concept” brand consists of full-service FairBridge Hotels; select-service FairBridge Inn Express and FairBridge Inn & Suites; and the budget offering, Loyalty Inns....
Design Awards 2011 Call for Nominations
It’s once again time for Lodging Hospitality’s annual Design Awards competition. The Design Awards will run in the April 15 print issue and we need your help identifying the year’s best hotel and resort design. ...
Digital Signage Expo A Draw for Hoteliers
The Digital Signage Expo last week drew a record number of exhibitors, registrations and offered the most educational opportunities in its eight-year history. The event held at the Las Vegas Convention Center covered a broad spectrum ...
New Website Helps Hotel Guests Find the Right Room
It may be the last piece of the hotel distribution puzzle. Room77.com is a website launched yesterday that enables hotel guests to get detailed glimpses of their hotel rooms before they check in. And armed with this information, guests will be able to request the rooms that best suit their needs and preferences. So far, the site has information on more than 425,000 guestrooms in 2,500 properties in 15 U.S. cities and London....
Red Roof Gets Aggressive For Growth
Back on solid financial footing, Red Roof Inn is poised for growth, particularly through franchised conversions. Top targets for the Columbus, OH-based economy chain are the Northeast, the West and Canada. In recent months, the company hired new development executives for each of those regions....
Hilton Plays Matchmaker To Hotels Looking For Food & Beverage Concepts
In the next few days, Hilton Worldwide will launch a new web-based service to help its hotel owners find the best restaurant concepts for their properties. The website www.hiltonrestaurantconcepts.com acts as a matchmaker between owners and restaurant companies with concepts that can work in one of Hilton’s full-service brands. The site launches with 15 companies, including such well-known foodservice brands as Ruth’s Chris, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Mitchell’s Fish Market and others. ...
Carlson Revamps Loyalty, Eyes New Brands
Yesterday at its annual conference, Carlson launched a rebranded and revamped loyalty program and outlined broad plans to add new brands in the economy and luxury lodging segments. But company officials were most anxious to talk about Carlson’s ongoing Ambition 2015 initiative to grow the company’s revenues and portfolio and to revitalize its lodging brands....
Sage Hospitality Partners in Higher Education in Denver
Some lodging companies, like Sage Hospitality, recognize the future health of the hospitality industry rests with the quality of the education system serving it. As a way to bring life to that philosophy, Sage is partnering with Metropolitan State College in its home city of Denver on an intriguing, if not unique, project that combines academics with real-world hotel and f&b experience for MSC’s 500-plus hospitality majors....
Home2 Suites Debuts Brand in North Carolina
It takes a special kind of hotel company to develop a new brand’s first property, like the Home2 Suites by Hilton that opened yesterday in Fayetteville, NC. Alabama-based LBA Properties, a 35-year-old, vertically integrated developer and operator with 60-plus properties in eight states in the Southeast, developed the first Home2 on behalf of Apple REIT Cos....
ALIS: Brand Company Execs Confident in Recovery
Arne Sorenson didn’t back down from his “wildly optimistic” viewpoint about the industry’s recovery that drew the attention of his boss, Bill Marriott, and the rest of the industry. In fact, eight months after his comments ...
ALIS Live: Hotel Investment Leaders Like the Future
Like most other speakers and attendees at this week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit, the big dogs of hotel financing were enthusiastic about the next couple of years. The final session at ALIS brought together eight members of IREFAC, the industry’s top investment and financing think tank, and their consensus was for a bright future for lenders, borrowers and owners....
Russell Launches Music-Driven Hotel Chain
Serial brand creator John Russell has done it again. Russell, along with group of hotel industry veterans and in conjunction with Indian and Brazilian investors, debuted his latest brand, MODO Hotel, at this week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego....
ALIS: Branson Talks Hotel, Space Launches
Sir Richard Branson offered only a few more details on the launch of his latest brand, Virgin Hotels, but the engaging entrepreneur captivated approximately 2,000 attendees during the keynote address Tuesday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego....
ALIS Live: Not Quite Heaven in ‘11
It may not be, as ALIS organizer Jim Burba suggests, “finally heaven in 2011,” but the lodging industry’s operational performance and financial health are finally back on track. That was the consensus of a panel of economists and industry analysts at yesterday morning’s opening session of the 10th annual Americas Lodging Investment Summit in sunny San Diego....
Wyndham to Franchise Dream, Night Brands
Coming on the heels of last year’s deal to franchise Planet Hollywood hotels, Wyndham Hotel Group has followed with a similar arrangement with Chatwal Hotels & Resorts for exclusive rights to franchise and manage its Dream and Night boutique hotel brands globally....
First Staybridge Suites With Student Designs Opens
A unique partnership between the Savannah College of Art and Design and IHG’s Staybridge Suites brand has born fruit. The first hotel in the brand’s portfolio to open with designs created by interior design students at the school debuted last week near Houston. ...
Cautious Optimism for 2011
Cautious Optimism for 2011 Members of the Lodging Hospitality roundtable believe 2011 will be better than ’10 and certainly ’09, but they’re not completely sold. ...
Relaunched Shoney’s Focuses on Southeast
With a courtroom victory under its belt, Boomerang Hotels says it will relaunch Shoney’s Inn with an emphasis on the Southeast, the brand’s birthplace and original stronghold. Boomerang CEO Brendan Watters hopes to eventually grow the brand to 80 to 100 properties, with 10 open within a year....
Distress Heads List of Top Hotel Stories
Just about everyone agrees 2010 was a better year for the hotel industry than was ’09. Occupancy, rates and RevPAR numbers finally went from contraction to growth, and while many properties are in varying degrees of financial distress, the market for transactions is beginning to show some life....
Top Hotel Stories of 2010
Just about everyone agrees 2010 was a better year for the hotel industry than was ’09. Occupancy, rates and RevPAR numbers finally went from contraction to growth, and while many properties are in varying degrees of financial distress, the market for transactions is beginning to show some life....
Hilton’s Hands Get Slapped in Starwood Settlement
As many analysts believed, Starwood’s sensational lawsuit against Hilton Hotels won’t make it to a courtroom. In a decision filed in federal court yesterday, the two sides agreed to a settlement of the nearly two-year-old suit in which Starwood accused Hilton of stealing trade secrets to launch the since-scuttled Denizen lifestyle hotel brand....
Briad Sells Portfolio to Focus on New Construction
While most lodging investors and development companies are bypassing new construction and focusing on acquisition opportunities, Briad Lodging Group is taking a different approach....
Vantage Adds Lexington Sub-Brands
Looking to close a gap in its brand strategy, Vantage Hospitality has added two sub-brands to its Lexington Collection flag. Vantage found it didn’t have a logical home for three-star-type properties that are too upscale for the Americas Best Value Inn brand but not quite at the quality level of other Lexington properties....
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