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Hilton kicked off earnings season with solid results. You could not get much better than Hilton’s with a solid beat. Travel + Leisure beat expectations, bought back $102 million worth of stock and gave out more in dividends than expected. The stock went down. Sonder has become the first of the SPACs that are either penny stocks or close to it, to receive a deficiency notice from their trading exchange.

Craig-Hallum initiated coverage of LuxUrban Hotels with a Buy rating and a $10 price target. A New York hotel union reached a deal with hotel owners and operators, boosting the wages of hospitality workers by $7.50 an hour, the largest increase in the union’s 100-year history . Beginning this month, Waldorf Astoria Orlando in Florida will undergo a comprehensive, multi-phase re-imagination expected to debut in December 2023.

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.

The  DJIA gained about 1%, or about 270 points, while  Nasdaq  rallied 2.4%. The  S&P 500  added about 1.7%, erasing an earlier decline of 0.7%, and the  10-year treasury yield  climbed to 3.58%. It's been a wild week. Baird upgraded their rating on Choice Hotels International to Outperform. They believe their earnings outlook is improving for 2023-2024. IHG Hotels & Resorts continues to demonstrate the strength of its Holiday Inn brand family in Southern Europe

In a day that was everything that was expected, the financial indexes and individual stocks were whipsawed. B.Riley lowered their price target on Ashford Hospitality Trust to $6.50 from $9. They maintained their Neutral rating. Jon Bortz , chairman of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has been on a bit of an insider buying spree the past few weeks. He has purchased a total of 64,000 shares between 2/28 and 3/9 at prices ranging from $14.30 to $14.67.

If you are wondering about who in the sector has exposure to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank , Sonder Holdings confessed to having $2 million in an operating cash account and approximately $20 million in deposit accounts with SIVB. Marriott International, Inc. received approval from Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission for the acquisition of the City Express brand portfolio from Hoteles City Express, S.A.B. de C.V. According to a new report from HVS , hotel operators need to learn to manage the entire building they operate and start thinking of performance in terms of the total revenue or profit per available square meter.

BofA Securities initiated coverage on Marriott Vacations with a Neutral rating and a $180 price target. The Wall Street Journal published an article on how hotel companies are stepping up efforts to lure competitors’ hotels to their own brands. The article referenced Hilton’s new Spark by Hilton brand. We had heard those concerns about upcoming maturities from Service Properties Trust when we were positive about their resumption of the previous dividend, giving them an 11% yield at the time.

Lodging stocks were higher with the only big mover of note once again being AHT, up another 6%. Baird gave their 2023 Hotel REIT outlook saying they are taking a more balanced approach in early 2023 as macroeconomic risks and growing expense pressures keep them selective. STR announced U.S. lodging data for the week ended January 7th. Year over year RevPAR was up 21.8% on easy comps due to holiday/school timing and the Omicron outbreak last year.

EF Hutton initiated coverage on Selina Hospitality with a Buy rating and $6.50 price target. STR reported US lodging data for the week ended 12/24. RevPAR was down -0.2% year over year while down -7.6% versus the same week in 2019. Bluegreen Vacation Holdings said they had a total of 3,040,882 shares of Class A Common Stock tendered in their cash tender offer to purchase up to 4.5 million common shares at $25 per share.

Chatham Lodging Trust announced its board of trustees reinstated their common dividend, announcing a fourth-quarter common share dividend of $0.07 per common share. Park Hotels & Resorts announced a $0.25 per share fourth-quarter cash dividend. $0.12 per share of that represents the fourth quarter payment based on 2022 results. Lodging stocks were modestly higher. The only big mover of note was MCG , up 8%.