2007's Hot Spots for Operations

By Karyn Strauss, Senior Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 1/1/2007

Where will general managers have the best ride in 2007?

• "Ireland. It has a huge portion of the North American market. Lake Como (Italy), for the same reason. The Rivieria. For city hotels, Antwerp, Munich, Prague, Valencia, Copenhagen and Istanbul."

- David Stein, CEO, The Stein Group

• "Luxury properties in any 24-hour gateway cities. I would avoid second-tier resort areas."

- Charlie Peck, president and COO, Destination Hotels & Resorts

• "London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai. These will be 2007's rate/occupancy leaders."

- Paul McManus, CEO, The Leading Hotels of the World

• "Asia. The further opening of China and India, the strong recovery of Japan, the continued strength of Hong Kong and Singapore allow us to diversify our markets further and tap new niches, thereby enabling us to maximize yield."

- Thomas B. Meier, Raffles Hotels & Resorts area general manager, South East Asia & China

• "A Holiday Inn in a secondary market. Why would I want the headache of a primary market with complex labor structures? In a secondary market, a general manager has more room to improve performance and hit incentives. Yes, it is fun to operate a large hotel in a major market. But the secondary market offers a lower cost of living and a lot of personnel development opportunities."

- S. Kirk Kinsell, senior vice president, chief development officer, InterContinental Hotels Group

• "Moscow. RevPAR was up 26.9% in October, reflecting the lack of quality hotel stock. Currently, this is a sellers' market when it comes to hotel rooms. However, occupancy is the weak spot. London, Paris, Amsterdam. They balance strong weekday demand from business with weekend tourist traffic. Paris moved ahead of London with the best RevPAR in absolute terms in October."

- Jonathan Langston, managing director, TRI Hospitality Consulting

• "Any of the big city centers such as New York, San Diego, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago. I would want to be in a full-service hotel with lots of meeting space. Also, major resort cities such as Orlando, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Phoenix/Scottsdale."

- Bill Fortier, Hilton Hotels Corp.'s senior vice president, development

• "Southeast coastal cities and destination resorts in the United States. Business and leisure travel are increasing along with population growth."

- Thomas Griffiths, vice president, WORLDHOTELS-the Americas.