Deal Tracks
Commentary, observations and questions arising from the state of the hospitality transactions marketplace, including financing, purchase-and-sales, new development and anything else that suits my fancy.
Michael Shindler's New Gig
We at HOTELS are happy to congratulate former Deal Tracks blogger Michael Shindler on his new position, announced this morning, as executive vice president of hotels and casinos for Hard Rock International. Shindler will oversee global development of Hard Rock’s hotels and casinos, as well as strategic and day-to-day management of existing assets within the brand’s current licensed a ...... Read More
Comments (1)Goodbye To Deal Tracks
This will be the final Deal Tracks. I am retiring my pen (OK, it’s a keyboard), as I suspend operating activities of Four Corners Advisors Inc. The particulars of what, when, where and why will be made public shortly, but I am moving on for now. This is bittersweet on several counts. I have had an opportunity - one that I never thought I would pursue - to be my own boss (other than my wi ...... Read More
Comments (2)Chutzpah in Hotels? No!
It may not be my place to criticize the New York Times, but I’m taking this space to do it. In this article, a Times reporter intimates that certain brave people, including, of course, Donald Trump, are bucking the hotel trends and opening their new hotels in 2010. Somehow, he seems to suggest that they know more than anyone else that there are good things to come from opening this year a ...... Read More
Comments (2)Groupon For Hotels
Over the holidays, my wife and I bunkered in. We had no plans to go anywhere and the two long (four-day) weekends were quite enjoyable. One recent weekend morning, we went to one of our favorite breakfast places in Chicago, Ina’s. Ina Pinkney is the “breakfast queen” of Chicago and her menu and restaurant are really what every restaurant should be — warm, inviting, co ...... Read More
Comments (1)Inter-national Hotels & Resorts?
A recent Wall Street Journal piece on budget hotels in China (”China on $35 a Day”, December 6) seemed to engender the recent announcement (on December 18) that Interstate has agreed to sell itself to a joint venture between Thayer Lodging and Jin Jiang Hotels (OK, I know the two are unrelated, but it is not just the conservatives in the Journal who see conspiracy theories). Intere ...... Read More
Comments (0)Random Thoughts On Hotel (And Other) Matters
I used the last few days of 2009 to tie up some loose ends and see what notes I had kept for blogs going forward. As none of these really makes for a whole blog, I thought I’d throw them out there together. JAL As of year-end, there were reports that Japan Airlines Corp. might be considering a bankruptcy filing. I do not purport to know much about bankruptcy law, particularly, Japanese ba ...... Read More
Comments (2)Don't Be Cruel: Lessons From The King To The Hotel Industry
“It is not often you can look at someone and know exactly what his job is,” I remarked recently to the gent who was quite clearly an Elvis impersonator taking a down elevator at a Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. We chatted as we rode down and he told me that, even on days when he was not 100%, he was buoyed by his audience and truly loves what he does for a living. It made me thin ...... Read More
Comments (0)Skin In The Hotel Game, Part 3
Just when you thought it was safe to go into the kitchen, I find myself writing yet again about owners, managers and workouts (or, more precisely, one involving each). Over the Thanksgiving holidays, I missed the news that the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville was removed from the jaws of the special servicer by assistance from, of all people, Hyatt Hotels Corp. As indicated in this Wall Street Journal ...... Read More
Comments (1)A Small Hotel Fortune
There is a cynical and well-worn joke about investing in hotels. “How do you make a small fortune in the hotel business? Start with a large fortune.” Though it may not be entirely true, it comes to mind when one reads the article in the December 7 Wall Street Journal about Robert Sillerman’s investment in Tenemos in Anguilla. Mr. Sillerman apparently fell in love wit ...... Read More
Comments (4)A Little Less “Extend and Pretend”
We may actually be reading the first signs of recovery, in both STR numbers and, generally, the economy itself – even if it does not feel like it in the deal world. I’ve been saying for a while that, until we see a loosening of capital, we won’t see too many deals, and I don’t think we’ll see a loosening of capital until we begin to see a real uptick in ...... Read More
Comments (0)Hotel Owners, Managers & OTAs
At the recent Dallas Hotel Conference, there was an excellent panel that included Monty Bennett of Ashford, John Scott of Rosewood, Mike Deitemeyer of Omni and the ever-present and always quotable Tom Corcoran of FelCor, moderated by Dave Johnson of Aimbridge. These guys gave a more granular “view from the top” than we customarily see at ALIS or NYU. Quite fascinating was Monty ...... Read More
Comments (2)South American Capital Markets: Is The Grass Greener? Part 2
In the first part of this posting last week, Adam Shindler, principal, Wilshire Hospitality, Buenos Aires, discussed the impacts of the capital markets in hotel dealmaking in South America, as expounded at the recent New York “Real Share” Conference and the HVS-sponsored South American Hotel Investment Conference (SAHIC) in Rio. This is the second post in a two-part series. As o ...... Read More
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