Hyatt Place

The stock market experienced a decrease, with the Dow Jones Hotel & Lodging REITs Index down 2.3%. There were several hotel acquisitions, renovations, and new developments announced. There were also announcements of management changes, upgrades, and technology acquisitions in the hospitality industry.

Blackstone announced the final close of its Blackstone Real Estate Partners X fund with $30.4 billion of total capital commitments, the largest real estate or private equity drawdown fund ever raised. Truist lowered their target price on Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, saying they have concerns over 2024 San Francisco conventions along with rising hotel-level costs. Celebrating its five-year anniversary, the Hard Rock Hotel Dayton Beach in Florida debuted a multimillion renovation including refreshed guestrooms and youth club and revamped memorabilia.

DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 all rose on Friday, and lodging stocks saw gains as well. New properties were acquired or announced in Montana, Atlanta, Ohio, Texas, Colorado, and Madrid. Multiple hotels were sold, and Blackstone secured a €680 million loan for Hotel Investment Partners.

Truist said they have seen no noticeable changes to overall corporate booking and pricing trends in the first 10 days following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank . On March 20, Membership Collective Group commenced trading on the NYSE under its new name and ticker, Soho House & Co Inc. / SHCO. In a joint venture, NewcrestImage and Hospitality Capital Partners have acquired 16 hotels with a total of 2,155 rooms for $137.3 million from Service Properties Trust .

Wells Fargo changed price targets on a bunch of hotel names in their coverage. In November 2022, total non-US resident international visitor volume to the United States increased 61.3% compared to November 2021 According to the Q4 2022 Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report for Canada by Lodging Econometrics, Canada’s total construction pipeline stands at 267 projects/35,758 rooms.

Gordon Haskett downgraded Airbnb to Underperform from Hold. They lowered their price target to $87 from $94. The firm also cut their rating on Booking.com to Hold from Buy. STR reported US lodging data for the week ended 1/21. RevPAR was up 26.2% year over year while up 5.6% versus 2019. The DJIA  rose 9.88 points, or little change. Nasdaq fell 0.2%; S&P 500 was barely changed. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.461%.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the country has decided to resume outbound group travel to selected countries including Sri Lanka early next month. The Philippines Dept. of Tourism said it is aiming to attract 4.8 million foreign visitors in 2023, almost double the 2.6 million in 2022. The initial goal in 2022 was 1.7 million arrivals. Sri Lanka Tourism is looking at attracting 1.5 million tourist arrivals for 2023. They are optimistic about achieving revenue of US$2.8 billion from tourism for this year.

Lodging stocks were higher. SLNA topped the list with a 10% gain followed by AHT and VCSA, both up 6%. We start today’s newsletter on a sad note as many of you probably heard that Bruce White , the founder and chairman of White Lodging , passed away at the age of 70. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust gave a January operations update and include an update on 4Q preliminary results. Remember they roiled the Lodging REIT stocks when they preannounced weaker than expected 4Q results.

Thailand rescinded its entry policy which requires visitors to show proof of a Covid-19 vaccination, citing sufficient immunization levels in China and the rest of the world. Vietnamnet reported thousands of people lined up at the Mong Cai border gates this past weekend to cross into China. The main requirements to cross were removed on December 31. The first Marriott International property to open on the North side of Phu Quoc in Vietnam has launched.

The DJIA rose 133 points while Nasdaq was up 72, the S&P 500 was up 29 points and the 10 year treasury yield was down .08 to 3.71%. Canada’s hotel performance came in lower than the month prior but showed improved comparisons to 2019, according to STR ‘s November 2022 data. Kolter Urban is planning to build a Ritz-Carlton Hotel Residences in Sarasota Bay, Florida .