Brookfield taking control of REIT properties: New York-based REIT Hospitality Investors Trust is nearing a deal that would hand control of the debt-laden hotel operator to Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The REIT said in a regulatory filing last week that it was negotiating with Brookfield, its largest investor, over a potential Chapter 11 filing.
Mercer co-owners want Balazs out: André Balazs could soon no longer have anything to do with New York City’s Mercer Hotel if its majority owners, who claim to have made financial settlements on his behalf and dealt with the fallout of misconduct allegations, have their way. Via their company, BDL 147 Mercer Street LLC, Richard Born and Ira Drukier, who own 65% of the Mercer Hotel, filed lawsuit late last week in New York to “remove” Balazs from his 35% ownership of the hotel and his role as manager. The men claimed Balazs has repeatedly violated the terms of a joint management agreement and that his “moral culpability” calls for his forced removal, along with his paying damages to the hotel of at least US$2 million.
IHG grows in Japan: IHG Hotels & Resorts and Iwate Hotel & Resort Co. have signed an agreement to open or refurbish three hotels in Japan’s Appi region and flag them with IHG brands in December 2021. With more than 1,000 rooms joining the hospitality brand’s Japan portfolio across the ANA Intercontinental, ANA Crowne Plaza and ANA Holiday Inn brands, it marks the biggest deal IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed in Japan since it formed its joint venture with ANA in 2006. It is also the first time IHG will have three brands located on one site. The hotel portfolio will have 18 restaurants and bars, more than 3,000 square meters of meeting and conference space, several retail outlets, and ten health and recreation venues, including a 2,000 square meter onsen facility.
The Green Michelin Star: Michelin Guide is returning to award its 2021 Star recipients and announcing a new distinction on sustainability – the Green Michelin Star. The new star will highlight:
- The chefs’ sustainable gastronomy practices into the culinary experience they provide
- The chefs with a common cause, whose initiatives and methods help to raise awareness of environmental issues
- The entire ecosystem of a restaurant, gathering information about the chefs’ practices and their philosophy on sustainable gastronomy
- The chefs whose establishments are included in the Michelin Guide selection
Israel-UAE investment webinar: The first-ever webinar on Cross-Border Hotel Investment between the UAE and Israel took place last week, jointly presented by HVS at the Israel Ministry of Tourism, the UAE-Israel Business Council and Copeland Hospitality. More than 230 delegates from the hospitality industry worldwide gathered online to hear contributions from MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen, Minister of Tourism of the State of Israel, and her ministry colleagues Amir Halevi and Lorin Maugery. Robin Rossman of STR presented an analysis of the recent performance of hotels in the UAE and Israel, followed by an interview with Kamal Naamani of the Al Habtoor Group and Fleur Hassan-Nahoum of the UAE-Israel Business Council, conducted by Ronit Copeland (Copeland Hospitality).
US$80M non-performing loan portfolio available: JLL’s Loan Sales and Hotels & Hospitality teams have been exclusively retained on behalf of a CMBS special servicer to market the sale of a US$80 million, non-performing loan portfolio that includes six loans collateralized by full- and limited-service hotels, totaling 1,022 keys across five states. Pre-COVID-19, the loans were performing with a weighted average (WA) debt yield of 11.8% and DSCR of 1.51x, signifying the potential for quicker asset-level recovery in the interest of the buyer. Loan characteristics of the portfolio include amortizing, fixed-rate loans, which carry a WA coupon of 5.29%, have seasoned a WA of 80 months and have a WA maturity in July 2024. The portfolio consists of two full-service and four limited-service hotels located in Lexington, Kentucky; Springfield, Virginia; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis and Portage, Indiana; and West Coxsackie, New York. The seller will consider bids for the entire portfolio, any individual loan or combination of loans.
New Castle’s RM tool: Recognizing that comprehensive real-time data is essential to revenue management efforts in 2021 and beyond, Ridgefield, Connecticut-based owner-operator New Castle Hotels & Resorts, along with software engineers, has developed a proprietary data aggregation and reporting tool, RevDash, that compiles valuable data from multiple platforms into an easy-to-analyze dashboard with dynamic charts and graphs. RevDash pulls relevant statistics from each hotel’s forecasting platform, competitive set data source, on the books intelligence and brand revenue extracts, combining it into comprehensive charts and graphs that compare average daily rate, occupancy, and revenue to budget, forecast and the previous two years. Data is delivered in daily, weekly, monthly, and multi-month graphics. The dashboard highlights areas of opportunity and saves property-level professionals valuable time.
Upscale NYC hotel converts empty rooms gyms: Facing the same steep drop-off in customers as the rest of the hospitality industry during the pandemic, one Manhattan hotel has gotten creative by converting its empty rooms into tiny gyms. The Park Central Hotel, which resides in a nearly century-old building, is now offering a set of rooms as private workout pods, which can be rented out for 90-minute sessions at US$30 each. Each so-called “FitPod” is aimed at “locals who aren’t ready or able to return to the gym,” the hotel said.
Omni’s job posts increased by 248% since January: Dallas, Texas-based Omni Hotels and Resorts saw a sudden boost in job posting in 2021, after nearly a year of low hiring activity. According to analytics from data company GlobalData, Omni posted more than 1,000 jobs in March 2021, a 248% increase compared to January 2021, and the highest since April 2020. Omni’s hiring indicates that the company is recruiting across all job levels for its properties across the US, including new hotels.
Pining for business travel: Travel experience services company Collinson has released new data on business and travel, which indicates a fatigue from missing out on such travel due to the effects of COVID-19. Highlights include:
- More than four in five (81%) business travelers have, despite video conferencing technology, seen their job negatively impacted by the lack of cross-border business travel.
- One-third of respondents said not being able to travel for business had made their company less productive, with 28% of those surveyed admitting they felt unable to do their job effectively as a result.
Meanwhile, for leisure travelers:
- Globally, while 87% of people said social distancing was important to them as they move through the airport, the same proportion of respondents (87%) specifically said they wanted access to socially distanced spaces in which to “de-stress” and “relax away from the crowds”.
- When asked why they might be hesitant to travel in light of COVID-19, the top reason people gave was that they were worried they would need to quarantine either on arrival or return (51%).