U.S. Rates Are Higher But Not Back to 2019

The DJIA jumped 398 points while Nasdaq was up 150, the S&P 500 rose 54 points and the 10-year treasury yield was down .07 to 3.76%. So much for a calm, short week. Lodging stocks were modestly higher.

Due to the upcoming Thanksgiving Day Holiday, the next Daily Lodging Report - North America will be Sunday, November 27. Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate.

Airbnb saw its rating cut at Baird to Neutral from Outperform. Baird lowered their price target to $100 from $120. Barclays upped its price target on ABNB to $103 from $101 while maintaining their Equal Weight rating.

The U.S hotel industry reported higher performance from the month prior but weakened comparisons with 2019, according to October 2022 data from STR. October 2022 (percentage change from October 2019) is as follows: Occupancy: 67.2% (-2.4%); ADR: $155.63 (+16.8%); and RevPAR: $104.59 (+14.0%). Among the Top 25 Markets, New York City experience the highest occupancy level (84.3%), down 6.8% from the market’s 2019 benchmark. Markets with the lowest occupancy for the month included Minneapolis (60.3%), Houston (62.2%), and St. Louis (62.2%). San Francisco reported the steepest decline in occupancy when compared with 2019 (-19%). Reflecting continued improvement in business travel and groups, the Top 25 Markets showed higher occupancy and ADR than all other markets.

Through Q3 2022, the U.S. hotel industry exceeded 2019 RevPAR levels by 6.4%, based on data from STR. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the recovery narrative continues to be centered around room rates. While occupancy through Q3 2022 was 3.8 points below the same period in 2019, ADR has increased 12.8%. The Fed’s continued increases in their policy rate caused uncertainty in the public markets, affecting lodging demand in Q4. PwC now expects annual occupancy for U.S. hotels this year to increase slightly less than in their May 2022 outlook, increasing to 62.8%. Since July 2021, ADR surpassed comparable 2019 levels in every month but one, January 2022 missed by $0.35. Since March 2022, RevPAR has exceeded comparable 2019 levels. PwC now expects ADR to increase 19.3% for the year, with resultant RevPAR up 30.3%, approximately 108% of pre-pandemic levels, on a nominal basis.

New Castle Hotels & Resorts has been selected to manage nine hotels owned by Widewaters. The management change, effective February 2022, increases New Castle’s portfolio to 28 hotels, comprising more than 4,000 rooms across 11 states and two Canadian Provinces. The Widewaters Portfolio of four full-service and five select-service properties include more than 1,200 rooms, six restaurants, 85,000 square feet of meeting space, a full-service spa and a golf course. The portfolio spans five states including: Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, Fairport, NY; Craftsman Inn & Suites, Fayetteville, NY; Cherry Valley Hotel and Ohio Event Center, BW Premier Collection, Newark, OH; Aviator Hotel & Suites, BW Signature Collection, St. Louis, MO; Hilton Garden Inn, Pittsford, NY; Hampton Inn & Suites, Victor, NY; Hampton Inn, Solon, OH; Hampton Inn, Erie PA; and Hyatt House, Herndon, VA.

Pyramid Global Hospitality announced the company had added two hotels to its portfolio, the 55-room Pine Mountain Ski & Golf Resort in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and the 55-suite Four Seasons Island Resort in Pembine, Wisconsin. The hotels are owned by Storie Co. In addition to providing access to world-class skiing and snowboarding, the all-season Pine Mountain Ski & Golf Resort also is home to TimberStone, an 18-hole championship golf course; 7,500 square feet of meeting space; a restaurant; fitness center, game room; gift shop; indoor pool and hot tub. The historic Four Seasons Island Resort provides a nine-hole golf course; indoor saltwater pool; tennis court; salon and spa; fitness center and Jacuzzi; and multiple dining options.

In Mississippi, developers are making plans to restore and preserve pieces of Biloxi history alongside a new 200 room hotel on the site of the old Tullis Manor. Tullis Gardens would be a luxury ten-story hotel with penthouses and suites along with a rooftop restaurant. The $140 million project includes recreating a piece of Biloxi history lost in Hurricane Katrina, the Tullis-Toledano Manor. The exterior of the new Tullis would be a replica of the antebellum home and will be used for events such as wedding, reunions and parties. The city of Biloxi owns the property and has explored many possible developments over the years. The developers will pay the city $50,000 for the option to develop. Once plans are finalized the city will sell the property for at least $2.25 million.

DreamCatcher Hotels presented site plans for a new eight-story, upscale hotel with 12,000 square feet of meeting and conference space on the Broadmoor Golf Links site. DreamCatcher has been managing the golf course, which is located in Henderson County, North Carolina. The hotel will be named Dream Catcher - Asheville and is set to break ground in the spring. Construction should take around 20 months. The project will include 152 rooms, 7,500 square foot ballroom, three meeting spaces and an almost 3,000 square foot courtyard. The existing clubhouse on the site will be kept, renovated and connected with the hotel structure by an outdoor covered path, and a pool and hot tub. The hotel may partner with a local restaurant if one is interested. 

A developer is looking to restore a former livery stable and boarding house into a self-service mini-hotel in downtown Tarpon Springs, Florida. Tarpon Springs officials gave the two land-use approvals needed to build an eight-room, boutique hotel in the downtown character district of the city. Kokolakis J Contracting, Inc. will restore the former livery stable, built in 1909, and converted into the Scotia Hotel in 1926. The hotel restoration plans call for adding an 11- to 12-space parking lot next to the building. The eight-room hotel will be essentially automated with no on-premises staff. 

The SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western South Bend Notre Dame has opened its doors in South Bend, Indiana. The newly renovated hotel features 85 well-appointed guest rooms, meeting facilities, business center, fitness center and guest laundry facilities.

According to Emporia Director Casey Woods, the city of Emporia, Kansas can have two convention centers if they are placed in the right areas. Will Emporia have two convention centers? That hinges on a potential hotel-convention center in northwest Emporia and longstanding plans for the so-called Breckenridge Hotel and Convention Center downtown, which may be halted if the property sells. Emporia City Commission support for a hotel-convention center in northwest Emporia through industrial revenue bonds came three months after the former Lowther North building, more commonly known now as the Breckenridge Hotel and Convention center, was put on the market. Emporia city commissioners approved a resolution to issue up to $13 million worth of Industrial Revenue Bonds as Fairview Hotels LLC razes the former site of Montana Mike’s and Cracker Barrel restaurants, turning the address into a hotel and convention center, Construction could begin next spring. The plans is for an 80-room hotel with enough convention center space for a least 200 attendees. Bonds would be issued after construction ends.

Personnel Move

PM Hotel Group announced the appointment of Ryan Butler as Corporate Director | Sustainability + Energy. Ryan will lead PM Hotel Group’s strategic sustainability initiatives and be the direct point of contact for internal and external stakeholder collaboration. Prior to joining the company, Ryan worked for JLL.

Europe Developments

According to the Q3 2022 Europe Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics, analysts report that at the close of the third quarter, Europe’s hotel construction pipeline stands at 1,660 projects/258,476 rooms. Projects under construction in Europe stand at 790 projects/126,899 rooms, while projects in the planning to start construction in the next 12 months recorded 408 projects/60,085 rooms. Projects in the early planning stage have 462 projects/71,492 rooms. Hotel conversions in the region stand at an all-time high of 324 hotels/46,977 rooms. Hotel renovations in Europe stand at 150 hotels/22,594 rooms at Q3. Europe’s leading countries with the most projects in the construction pipeline are the United Kingdom with 298 projects/45,173 rooms, Germany with 250 projects/43,523 rooms, France with 148 projects/16,611 rooms, Portugal with 126 projects/15,185 rooms and Turkey with 86 projects/13,532 rooms. The European cities with the largest pipelines at the Q3 close are London with 79 projects/14,139 rooms, Dusseldorf with 44 projects/7,959 rooms, and Istanbul with 40 projects/7,548 rooms, followed by Paris with 34 projects/5,379 rooms and Lisbon with 34 projects/3,923 rooms. Europe’s top hotel companies in the construction pipeline are Accor with 249 projects/33,941 rooms, Marriott International with 197 projects/30,698 rooms, Hilton with 177 projects/26,634 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group with 148 projects/20,071 rooms. The leading brands for these four companies are Accor Hotel’s ibis brands with 88 projects/10,395 rooms, Tribe by Accor with 25 projects/3,815 rooms, and Novotel with 22 projects/3,316 rooms. Marriott International’s top brands at the close of Q3 are Moxy with 46 projects/7,807 rooms, Autograph Collection with 22 projects/2,952 rooms, and Courtyard by Marriott with 19 projects/3,096 rooms. Hilton’s top brands in Europe are led by Hampton by Hilton with 63 projects/9,628 rooms, Hilton Garden Inn with 39 projects/5,992 rooms and Doubletree by Hilton with 23 projects/3,103 rooms. IHG’s top brands include Holiday Inn Express with 58 projects/8,413 rooms, Hotel Indigo with 17 projects/1,782 rooms and Holiday Inn with 16 projects/2,711 rooms. During the third quarter of 2022, Europe opened 94 hotels/13,637 rooms. LE analysts forecast another 98 hotels with 13,041 rooms to open in Q4 for a total year-end total of 391 new hotels/56,373 rooms. The LE forecast for new hotel openings expects 408 new hotels to open accounting for 59,684 rooms in 2023 and 419 hotels/60,246 rooms to open in 2024.

Splendid Hospitality has expanded its portfolio with the new Mercure Dumfries Cargenhold House, due to open December 5, 2022, on the outskirts of Dumfries, in coastal Scotland. The property offers 61 comfortable bedrooms and flexible event space. 

Melia Hotels International continues to grow in one of the key European destinations after adding two new hotel projects in Italy. The company is also supporting the international growth of its INNSiDE by Melia brand, with 48 hotels already operating or in the process of opening in major destinations all over the world. Located in the southeast of Sicily, the INNSiDE Noto will provide 146 rooms and extensive facilities by the sea. The hotel will have a great choice of dining options as well as numerous outdoor areas, including a pool and a beach club with a hammock area. Other facilities include a fully equipped gym and facilities for meeting and events. The INNSiDE Cala Rossa will provide 115 rooms, an Open Living Lounge, a pool, dining spaces and a spa and event rooms. With these two new hotels in Sicily joining the future Melia Taormina and Melia Siracusa, both of which are scheduled to open in 2024, Melia Hotels International now has 11 hotels either in operations or in the process of opening in Italy.