T-Mobile’s Trump Hotel stays: Cellular company T-Mobile reportedly wrote a letter to congressional Democrats saying the company had spent nearly US$200,000 at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. after announcing a US$26 billion merger with Sprint, the Washington Post reported. Two Democratic lawmakers pointed out that the day after the merger announcement, all of T-Mobile’s nine executives had rooms in the Trump hotel. Executives have stayed at the hotel 52 nights since the announcement, compared to just twice beforehand.
Hot and hotter in Mexico: JLL Hotels & Hospitality anticipates more momentum across Mexico’s lodging markets in 2019, buoyed by strong travel to its regions. Three hotel assets seem to be the current preferred types among investors and owners – hotels with a mixed-use component located in cities with a corporate presence; properties in vacation destinations, including those with a branded residential or rental component and all-inclusive resorts. Total transaction volume at year-end 2018 reached US$980 million, a 26% increase over the prior year. Additionally, 2018 recorded a price-per-key average of US$466,000 – the highest annual average in the past 10 years, driven by several luxury hotel sales, such as the September 2018 sale of JW Marriott Mexico City for US$183 million.
Water everywhere. Waterford Hotel Group, Waterford, Connecticut, and Waterton, a Chicago-based real estate investor and operator, have formed a new venture. Waterford will drive the operational component of the portfolio, while Waterton will concentrate on growing the hotel portfolio. As part of the deal, Waterford has assumed management of eight hotels with more than 1,600 guest rooms previously operated by Waterton, growing its portfolio to 41 properties, representing more than 6,200 keys.
Booming pipeline. Lodging Econometrics reported that at the close of 2018, the total global construction pipeline hit record highs with 13,573 projects/2,265,792 rooms, a 7% increase in projects and a 6% increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY). There are a record high 6,352 projects/1,172,591 rooms currently under construction. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 3,860 projects/572,483 rooms. The United States has 5,530 projects/669,456 rooms, still short of its all-time high of 5,883 projects/785,547 rooms set in the second quarter of 2008. China’s pipeline, with 2,761 projects/580,635 rooms, reached an all-time high.
Orange gets itself The Maritime: Orlando, Florida-based Orange Lake Resorts has acquired The Maritime, a luxury apartment building originally built in 1893 as New Orleans’ first skyscraper. The historic building is being purchased from Timeshare Acquisitions Real Estate, which acquired the property from Maritime Building. Following renovations, the property will join the 26 timeshare resorts in the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand portfolio as the company’s first urban property and New Orleans location. Renovations will start in May and an opening for the 105 villa-hotel is set for 2020.
TripAdvisor, now sponsored: TripAdvisor (which recently faced additional accusations of not doing enough to protect sexual assault victims who use its site) launched Sponsored Placement, an advertising option available to hotels who share live rates and availability with TripAdvisor. The ads enable accommodation businesses to capture the attention of travelers and drive quality, targeted traffic to their property by advertising in high-visibility placements on TripAdvisor. The sponsored placements appear in high-profile pages across TripAdvisor, including above search results and on nearby listings.
Happy Investor Day: Hyatt Hotels Corp. hosted an Investor Day Tuesday in New York City, in which it shared details around the company’s performance and its strategy to create long-term shareholder value by driving asset-light growth. Hyatt said it is now increasing its sell-down target by US$1.5 billion over what has been achieved to date. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, an archive of the webcast will be available on the company’s website.