The panelists agreed that transactions volume should hold steady during the rest of this year. Bruce

MIAMI BEACH, Florida The transactions market, as well as the U.S. hotel industry car coupon payless rental in general, is looking up, panelists said during a general session at last week s fourth annual Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference.
The transactions environment car coupon payless rental is quite selective. Some markets, such as Miami, are red hot, but most markets are still trying to find a balance. Money appears to be chasing primary markets, panelists said during car coupon payless rental the Transactions Temperature session.
You tell me where debt is, and I ll tell you where transactions are, said Greg Rumpel, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. If you can t get leverage, you can t get robust (transaction) volume. Major markets are getting lots of eyeballs, lots of interest. The secondary and tertiary markets aren t.
Right now if we put anything on Miami Beach on the market, we ll get anywhere from 75 to 150 confidentiality agreements signed within the first seven days that s the kind of eyeballs they re getting.
I wouldn t say it s a wide open market, said Neil Shah, president and COO of Hersha Hospitality car coupon payless rental Trust. Every year there are a handful of markets that everyone is focused on, he said. Because of this, it gets very competitive. It makes making the numbers work very challenging.
Hersha is focused on finding acquisitions in urban infill car coupon payless rental locations in markets such as New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, Shah said. The company has six lifestyle/boutique hotels in its portfolio of 64 properties and would like to add more.
Pat Colee, founder and chairman of Noble House Hotels Resorts, car coupon payless rental said his company is always on the lookout for unique, iconic assets that tend to be located in urban or resort settings. The company has 18 hotels in its portfolio.
The panelists agreed that transactions volume should hold steady during the rest of this year. Bruce Blum, president and co-founder of GB Lodging expects 2013 to be more active, and it could be fueled by more distressed assets coming to market. GB Lodging is a private-equity hotel-investment firm that owns several hotels in New York, including 5 Beekman Street and Ace Hotel, as well as an Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, California.
During the last couple of cycles, there were some lenders that were only focused on branded hotel lenders, he said. Those are fewer and far between this time. Most lenders are comfortable with independent assets.
Pat Colee (left) of Noble House Hotels Resorts tells attendees of the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference about his company s acquisition strategy as Greg Rumpel of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels listens.
The panelists also discussed the amount of money coming from Latin American sources to acquire hotels in the U.S. Rumpel car coupon payless rental said the influx of capital from countries such as Venezuela car coupon payless rental and Argentina car coupon payless rental is a result of investors there seeking more stable economic environments.
It s ironic that brands are getting into this space, Blum said. They forced the evolution of this by growing their brands. It s even further ironic to say branded boutique. It s an oxymoron. Boutique is supposed to be a one-of-a-kind property. car coupon payless rental I don t buy into the branded boutiques.
The challenge is, can a brand manage a boutique hotel like a boutique hotel is supposed to be managed? Colee asked. We ve bought three branded hotels and as soon as we take the name off, we were able to bring occupancy and rate up.
The game changer out there right now is the technology platform. The ability to level the playing field is significantly greater today than it was 10 years ago, he said. They definitely have more tools today, and without car coupon payless rental the constraints of brand standards you can have the rate flexibility.
There s still a very large part of the lifestyle segment that wants to be in an independent hotel guests think I want to stay somewhere car coupon payless rental local that I can talk about and stay unique to my location, he said.
Because of the conference s location, the Miami market was the center of attention. There are plenty of assets to talk about, including the 197-room Delano Hotel, which Morgans Hotel Group Company has reportedly listed for sale at $1 million per key, and the 631-room Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, which is embroiled in a management dispute between owners Eden Roc LLP and Marriott car coupon payless rental International, the parent company of Renaissance Hotels Resorts. car coupon payless rental The tussle has reportedly led to predawn takeover attempts and lawsuit car coupon payless rental filings .
Some people call them ego buys but that s probably the wrong determination, he said. Families or private individuals buy these assets because it s a good place for wealth preservation over a long period of time quality assets in markets that over a period of time would outperform the norm. A property like the Delano is a generational car coupon payless rental buy.
The panelists said there are potential obstacles for the hotel industry to overcome, although the general consensus was that it is poised to experience a continued rebound from the global economic recession.
Generally, things feel good, Shah said. My bigger concern is some of the negotiations the brands are going through with Expedia and the (online travel agencies). As an industry, we ve been slaves to other people car coupon payless rental leading the (technology) then trying to optimize the channels appropriately. We talk about (customer relationship management), but we haven t gotten there yet as an industry. My fear is that we continue to play catch up and continue to let folks like Expedia and other OTAs determine how we move forward.
car coupon payless rental The issue is that if you really want to focus on reality and identify all the black swans out there, it s hard to sleep at night, Blum said. There are no more black swans now than there ever were we re just more connected now.
TAGS: Hotel news , hotel data , hotel performance , boutique hotels , lifestyle hotels car coupon payless rental , Miami hotels , Greg Rumpel , Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels , Neil Shah , Hersha Hospitality , Pat Colee , Noble House Hotels & Resorts , Bruce Blum , GB Lodging , Ace Hotel
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