We routinely read and share articles from our hotel motel consultant peers that clients and colleagues find of interest. This week the talk is about the continuing rise in U.S. hotel operating performance in the first two quarters of 2011 and turning distress into success. Here are excerpts from that commentary and some of our input too: According to the data at STR: “The U.S. hotel industry reported increases in all three key performance metrics for second-quarter 2010 in year-over-year measurements. The industry’s occupancy increased 4.5 percent to 63.4 percent, average daily rate rose 3.5 percent to US$101.44, and revenue per available room was up 8.1 percent to US$64.28.” Probably the single take away here if you are a hospitality consultant is the significant rise in RevPAR. Clearly, this is the time to acquire hotels before the increased income drives the valuations higher. The sentiment from our hotel motel consultant peers at the Midwest Lodging Summit was that distressed hotels might not be messes but successes. Of course, the take away we zeroed in on reads “Time to pay the piper: Brands have helped some hotel operators avoid serious distressed problems by providing relief from royalty fees. But those days are long gone, panelists said.” Hotel management companies can also consult our prior newsletters on similar subjects. Summing it up from our hotel motel consultant peers, industry managers and investors, it is looking to be a very good 2011 compared to the last three years. Or, if you see it differently from what is happening at your hotels or client circumstances, please share it here for our readers.
