From the desks of the Hotel News Now editorial staff:
- Owners’ insights into finding value-add assets
- Midscale, luxury segments lead May US hotel performance
- Caribbean offering ‘hurricane guarantees’
- New hotel in Japan to accommodate nine languages
- French food brand to open collection of boutique hotels
By the HNN editorial staff
1. Owners’ insights into finding value-add assets: Hotel owners say they have to search high and low to unearth assets with value opportunities in today’s investment market, writes Hotel News Now’s Jeff Higley, and value can be defined differently depending on the deal.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a secret sauce. It’s more difficult than it’s ever been,” said Dan Hansen, chairman, president and CEO of Summit Hotel Properties. “We’re not seeing what you’d call a middle of the fairway deal that’s kind of in the first cut.”
Owners agreed that value, in large part, stems from effective management of hotels.
2. Midscale, luxury segments lead May U.S. hotel performance: Preliminary data from HNN’s parent company, STR, shows United States hotel industry revenue per available room and average daily rate both grew 2% to 4% year over year, despite occupancy growth ranging from -1% to 1%.
Breaking the industry down by chain scale, the midscale segment recorded the largest RevPAR growth (3% to 5%), followed by the luxury segment (2% to 4%). The luxury segment reported the greatest ADR growth (3% to 5%). The upper upscale, upscale and upper midscale segments each recorded 1% to 3% ADR growth.
3. Caribbean offering ‘hurricane guarantees’: Hurricane season started on 1 May and runs through 30 November, CNBC reports, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expecting a “near-normal hurricane season” in the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Due to this, the Cayman Island’s department of tourism has launched a “Worry-Free Hurricane Guarantee.”
Participating hotels, condos and villas across the island will include a full refund of accommodation fees, the news outlet reports.
“As soon as a hurricane watch is issued by authorities, travelers who cancel up to 48 hours before check-in will only face a maximum one-night penalty,” the article states. “They will get a free replacement stay throughout the summer.”
4. New hotel in Japan to accommodate nine languages: The Daiwa Royal Hotel Grande Kyoto, which is set to open on 9 June in Kyoto, Japan, will have staff who can speak nine different languages in order to support tourists from about 120 countries, reports the Japan Times.
Languages include Japanese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Chinese and Korean. The hotel will be operated by Daiwa Resort Co., a unit of Daiwa House Group.
5. French food brand to open collection of boutique hotels: Fauchon, known as one of France’s historic, best-known upmarket food brands is in the works of launching a collection of 20 boutique hotels targeting “wealthy, overseas tourists,” Reuters reports.
The company is planning to debut its first hotel this September in Paris by the Place de la Madeleine, where the company was founded in 1886, the news agency reports.
“The strategy is to establish a portfolio of Fauchon L’Hôtel branded properties, with a goal of 20 hotels over the next decade,” said Jacques-Olivier Chauvin, head of Fauchon’s hospitality unit.