Jumeirah’s European aspirations: Dubai-based Jumeirah Group CEO Jose Silva told Gulf News last week that the group soon plans to investment more than US$1 billion as part of a major expansion into key Europe cities such as Paris and Rome. This news comes as the group owned by sovereign wealth fund Dubai Holdings prepares to open properties in Bali and Guangzhou, China, this year, and in Hangzhou, China, next year.
F&B feeds US growth: Record high TRevPAR in U.S. TRevPAR hit record highs at hotels in the U.S. in March, propelled by a 6.8% year-on-year increase in non-rooms revenues, which offset a 0.6% decrease in RevPAR, according to the latest data tracking full-service hotels from HotStats. Hotels in the U.S. successfully recorded a 3% increase in profit per room in March to US$126.47, which was the fourth consecutive month of GOPPAR growth and was only just below the recent high recorded in October 2018 at US$126.51. The robust increase in ancillary revenues included a YOY increase in food and beverage (up 4.7%) and conference/banqueting (up 6%) revenue, on a per-available-room basis, which fueled the 2.1% increase in TRevPAR in March to US$295.88, the highest recorded dollar amount in the past four years.
Tale of two UK markets: RevPAR in the UK’s regional hotels dropped 2.8% in Q1 2019, according to the latest UK Hotel Market Tracker: Q1 2019, produced by HVS London, AlixPartners and STR. This was in marked contrast to the fortunes of London’s hotels, which saw like-for-like RevPAR up 3.6% against the previous year while occupancy reached 77%, up 1.7%, and average rates rose 1.9% to £134.05. Strong performance in the last two quarters lifted the last 12 months’ RevPAR 4.1%, despite a relatively subdued six months trading.
Oakwood-WaterWalk deal: Furnished housing and serviced apartment leader Oakwood, wholly owned by Mapletree Investments, has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with WaterWalk International, a DeBoer family entity, to create a new brand, Oakwood WaterWalk. The purpose-built product will provide 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartments in the extended-stay, multifamily and corporate housing segments. The move allows Oakwood, to expand its footprint in the U.S. across eight high demand markets, broadening its product offering. WaterWalk’s development pipeline includes approximately 13 additional sites.
Driftwood sees opportunity: Driftwood Acquisitions and Development (DAD), a privately held investment firm specializing in the acquisition, development and investment syndication of hotel assets, has launched its initial qualified opportunity zone fund (Driftwood QOF) with a target raise of US$50 million. The firm has already secured two opportunity zone investments for Driftwood QOF: a joint venture for the development of the 218-key dual branded hotel Home 2/Tru by Hilton in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and the redevelopment of a 10-story office building in Wilmington, Delaware, into a 136-room IHG-branded urban hotel. Since launching in 2015, DAD has built a portfolio that includes 18 operating hotels yielding an average cash-on-cash return of 10% with targeted IRRs of 14% to 18%. DAD and its affiliates are also currently developing three new-build hotel developments across the U.S.