The Current State of Vacation Ownership

The DJIA rose 56 points while Nasdaq was up 162, the S&P 500 rose 35 points and the 10 year treasury yield fell .07 to 3.80%. Lodging stocks were modestly higher. SOND was the only real big mover, down -7%.

Truist published a report on Vacation Ownership following 3Q results from the public companies involved in the segment. While they believe the reports and outlooks were generally positive, it was not uniform as HGV had a sizable earnings beat, VAC a smaller one and TNL missed expectations. Truist updated price targets, lowering BVH to $45 from $46, HGV to $62 from $63, TNL to $60 from $72 and VAC was the only one increased, to $205 from $202.

Genuine Hospitality announced the opening of Tru by Hilton Naperville Chicago, the first Tru by Hilton in Illinois. The 121-room hotel offers a multifunctional fitness center, a heated indoor pool and a retail market. Tru by Hilton Naperville Chicago will be the second Hilton asset and the 16^th hotel in Genuine Hospitality’s growing portfolio.

TPG Hotels & Resorts announced the start of a transformational renovation of the Renaissance Boca Raton Hotel, located in Boca Raton, Florida. The company is dedicating tens of millions of dollars to the renovation of aspects of the property, including all 189 guestrooms, guest corridors, club lounge, meeting spaces, lobby, fitness center, elevators, resort-style pool, bar, exterior, back-of-house facilities, and the introduction of an upscale restaurant, Meat Market. The exterior renovations include paving, hardscaping, landscaping and the roof. Meat Market will operate the restaurant, along with banquets and catering for the property.

The Hotel Group announced the grand opening of TownePlace Suites by Marriott Ellensburg with owner and developer Hogback Development. The 76-room hotel is located close to Central Washington University and approximately 110 miles away from Seattle, WA. TownePlace Suites by Marriott Ellensburg offers meeting space, a large indoor pool and hot tub, expansive fitness center, in-house restaurant, outdoor fire feature with plenty of seating and two gas grills and parking.

The Willard InterContinental, one of Washington, D.C.’s iconic hotels, will retain its brand, as IHG Hotels & Resorts and Willard Associates have signed a 25-year management deal. The 12-story, luxury hotel offers 335 guest rooms, a French restaurant and a bar.

IHG also announced the opening of the new avid hotel Toronto - Vaughan Southwest. Owned by 2334504 Ontario Inc and managed by LMH Canada, the hotel features 119 guest rooms and a fitness center.

Sonesta International Hotels Corporation announced the grand opening of Regency Miami Airport by Sonesta, the first Sonesta branded franchise property located in the greater Miami, Florida market. Regency Miami Airport by Sonesta features 176 guest rooms, 8,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant, lounge, bar and an outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.

Red Roof announced the opening of the 51-room Red Roof Inn Rocky Mount - Battleboro in Battleboro, North Carolina.

Tommy Bahama announced plans for the late 2023 debut of a new resort concept with the introduction of the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, California. Tommy Bahama is partnering with Lowe to execute and present the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa. CoralTree Hospitality will continue to manage the property, with Tommy Bahama’s parent company, Oxford Industries, Inc., making a minority equity investment in the projects. The resort will offer 215 custom-appointed rooms including 23 suites, 35,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space, three resort-style pools, and a spa.

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, in Acme, Michigan, announced a $10 million renovation of its original six-story hotel. Work is expected to be finished in spring 2023, completing a four-year, $13 million renovation plan. The renovation includes all 242 guest rooms, two junior suites, four hospitality suites and corridors. As a premier destination for corporate meetings and events, the Resort has more than 550 guestrooms and 86,500 square feet of newly renovated meeting space. The property is also home to three championship golf courses, a spa, and a restaurant and lounge. 

With the opening of its first hotel in New York City, Motel One Group presents its new lifestyle brand, The Cloud One Hotels. The announcement comes as Motel One Group reveals its best quarterly result in the company’s history. The Q3 financial results show a revenue increase of nearly 40% from pre-Covid (2019) to EUR 202 million. In the UK, Motel One has seen significant growth this year and has secured two new locations in London. Boasting a prime location in Downtown Manhattan, The Cloud One New York-Downtown offers 326 rooms across 28 floors, including two rooftop suites. The Cloud One Wine Bar & Lounge is located on the sixth floor with an outdoor terrace. Union Investment is the property owner and partner.

WorldHotels announced the launch of the WorldHotels brand in Canada with the introduction of nine hotels across the Luxury, Elite and Crafted Collections. The properties are all owned by Prestige Hotels & Resorts. The nine hotels are some of British Columbia’s finest and include: Prestige Oceanfront Resort Sooke, Luxury Collection; Prestige Harbourfront Resort Salmon Arm, Luxury Collection; Prestige Treasure Cove Resort Prince George, Elite Collection; Prestige Lakeside Resort Nelson, Elite Collection; Prestige Beach House Kelowna, Crafted Collection; Prestige Radium Hot Springs Resort, Crafted Collection; Prestige Cranbrook Rocky Mountain Resort, Crafted Collection; Prestige Kamloops Hotel, Crafted Collection; and Prestige Mountain Resort Rossland, Crafted Collection.

Palisociety said it has migrated its 11 unique hotels and residences to Tripleseat Hotels. The expanded partnership includes Palihouse, Palihotel and ARRIVE by Palisociety. The Tripleseat platform focuses on the following: simplifying the group booking process; improving operational efficiency and team communications; and tracking sales, insights, and growth. With roots in hospitality, the platform was built to be a unified, easy-to-use platform with an inherent focus on the user and customer experience.

The Peabody Hotel in Roanoke, Texas had a sixth amendment made to the contract with the City Council during a closed session on September 29. The most recent change gives the developer until January 1, 2023, to start construction on the project, which would be located next to Roanoke City Hall on Peabody Way. The project was announced in 2017. The city agreed to issue up to $30 million in bonds to help fund the development of the Peabody Hotel and Convention Center. The city would pay for the convention center a portion of the parking garage and related infrastructure improvements which will be repaid using hotel occupancy taxes. The developer will fund the hotel portion of the project. The 266-room hotel and conference center, with its eight-story tower, will sport approximately 43,000 square feet of meeting space with around 255-garage spaces, a restaurant, a spa and health club as well as a 10,000 square foot ballroom. The project is estimated to cost a total of $144 million. Like the Tennessee location, the Roanoke Peabody Hotel will feature the Peabody Ducks.

Minute Suites celebrated its grand opening for its first location in Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Located near Gate C14, the location has 5 suites, a bathroom and a shower, open 24 hours daily. Minute Suites now has thirteen operations locations across ten U.S. airports. 

Hodges Ward Elliott arranged the sale of the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Stockbridge Atlanta I-75, a 112-key, five-story hospitality asset located in Stockbridge, GA. HWE brokered the sale of the property on behalf of the seller. The Holiday Inn & Suites Stockbridge offers a restaurant, cocktail lounge, heated indoor pool, business center, fitness center and ample parking.

HVS Brokerage & Advisory announced the sale of the 74-key Lulu Silver City, located in Silver City, New Mexico. The hotel was sold via an online auction on Ten-X. It was purchased by Nanak Hotel LLC from Lulu Silver City LLC.

In the Q3 2022 Latin America Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics, analysts report the total construction pipeline stands at 548 projects/90,728 rooms. At the end of the third quarter, projects currently under construction stand at 230 projects/44,837 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 165 projects/24,648 rooms and those in the early planning stage stand at 144 projects/21,243 rooms. Mexico has the most projects in the pipeline at Q3 with 206 projects/33,761 rooms, followed by Brazil with 92 projects/15,420 rooms. Next is Peru with 28 projects/3,610 rooms, then the Dominican Republic with 27 projects/6,262 rooms, and Argentina stands at 18 projects/1,956 rooms. Cities in Latin America with the largest project counts in the pipeline include Mexico City, Mexico with 24 projects/3,168 rooms; Guadalajara, Mexico with 21 projects/2,595 rooms; Cancun, Mexico with 20 projects/8,590 rooms; Lima, Peru with 17 projects/2,508 rooms; and Sao Paulo, Brazil with 12 projects/2,609 rooms. Hotel franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines in Latin America at the Q3 close are Hilton Worldwide with 104 projects/14,792 rooms, Marriott International with 103 projects/17,471 rooms, Accor with 75 projects/9,528 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group with 58 projects/6,629 rooms. The top brands in the pipeline are Accor’s ibis brands with 53 projects/6,577 rooms, Hilton Garden Inn with 24 projects/3,162 rooms, Hampton by Hilton with 23 projects/2,737 rooms, and Hilton’s Curio brand with 14 projects/1,285 rooms. These are followed by IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 13 projects/1,528 rooms and Hyatt’s AMR Collection with 12 projects/4,978 rooms. At the close of the third quarter of 2022, Latin America opened 55 new hotels with 9,013 rooms. The LE forecast for the remainder of the year shows another 25 new hotels with 3,868 rooms scheduled to open, for a total of 80 hotels/12,881 rooms to open by year-end 2022. In 2023, LE’s forecast for new openings in Latin America is expected to rise to 95 new hotels with 17,146 rooms and again in 2024, to 101 new hotels with 15,986 rooms.

JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group arranged $40 million in construction financing for the development of Graduate Auburn, a 177-key hotel in Auburn, Alabama. JLL worked on behalf of the sponsor, Adventurous Journeys Capital Partners, in securing the five-year, floating-rate loan with Southern States Bank. Upon completion, the hotel will offer approximately 10,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space and two food and beverage outlets. Graduate Auburn will join a collection of 35 other Graduate Hotels and will be the brand’s seventh location in the SEC conference. 

Personnel Moves

Aimbridge Hospitality announced Patrick Volz as its Chief Operating Officer, Global Operations. In this newly created position, Volz will oversee hotel finance, as well as owner relations, brand partnerships and transitions, while leading Aimbridge Food & Beverage. Most recently, Volz served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone Real Estate Hotels & Resorts.

Extended Stay America announced the addition of three industry veterans to its Executive Leadership Team in Executive Vice President roles. Elizabeth Uber will join the company as Chief Operating Officer, effective mid-December. She will be responsible for all company Operations and Asset Management functions. Uber previously served as VP of Asset Management at BRE Hotels & Resorts. Mike Moore comes to Extended Stay America as Chief Human Resources Officer, overseeing all aspects of human capital including compensation, systems and programs. Moore joins the company from G6 Hospitality, where he served as CHRO. John Laplante, Extended Stay America’s new Chief Information Officer, also joins the company from G6 Hospitality, where he served as CIO. 

Europe Highlight

Bloomberg published an article suggesting Fosun International Ltd. is exploring the potential to sell much of the company, seeking capital to repay debt. Bloomberg said they told advisors its domestic food and beverage business is available for potential investors or buyers, and is considering strategic options for its investment in electric vehicle battery maker JEVE. In the property sector they are have reportedly been exploring a potential transaction involving The Bund Finance Center in Shanghai. Bloomberg said Fosun is also considering strategic options for French luxury resort chain Club Med SAS and could seek a value of about $1.5 billion for the business in a transaction. Fosun Tourism Group denied they are considering strategic options for Club Med. A company spokesperson said they have no intention of selling Club Med. Last month Fosun reported Club Med revenue rose 145% year on year in the first nine months of the year. That was up 96% from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.